The Zwift Effect. What is it? What does it mean? It can best be described as being sucked into ride intensity not if your choice or desire 😂. It is hrs to ride constructively in Zwift. Every ride can become race. You could call it lack of will power but once in the bunch whilst participating in a group ride it just isn’t fun to be spat out the back and ride alone. So every effort I made to stay in the bunch. I suppose I could just ride a structured workout alone but seemingly I’d rather ride in the group dynamics.
Today I started a group ride with the friendly Haute Route gang. The aim was a steady ride - not slow but not hard either. Nit sure how it happened but I lost contact with the bunch after just 8 min. I was watching my HR and didn’t want to bust my Z3. I put in a dig to get back in the group but remained tantalisingly adrift; just 2 seconds behind. I was busting 4.2W/Kg, whereas the bunch were cruising at round 3.0. The bunch goes far faster than the single rider. Darn it 🤬. I wasn’t going to make it back. So I eased off. And messaged the group leader that I was adrift be to crack on without me. But then one of the group leaders eased off and waited for me to pace me back. I couldn’t refuse the wheel after he’d come back for me. So I removed any thought of an easy ride and took the wheel. This was going to hurt. My pacer (Jeff) surged on at 5.0. I tucked in around 4.3. And so it went in for about another 10 mins until we made it back. Jeff was a power monster and I had hung on pretty much at max effort.
Happy enough though and I felt strong. Must have been my new Le Col jersey. A great brand. Not cheap but very Cool and top quality.
I’m working my way through the Zwift Academy plan at the moment. More on this next post.
I’m still building the running back after the hip injury. It seems to be mending but every now and then it aches. I’ll continue to build the Z2 runs for another month. I even managed an hour continuous last Saturday. There’s hope for 2021 racing yet.
