Cycling

Races Complete! Finishing ZA Strong

8:02 am Unknown 0 Comments



My winter escape is almost here and I’m eagerly preparing to take my bike to enjoy some sunshine in between the upcoming work conference. 
One of these steps was to try complete any races or group rides (variables in the ZA) around my current work days. 
There was some intent to get up early on Saturday to do one then, but sleep won that round! When I checked the upcoming schedule I noticed the races were starting this week! Yay!

RACE #1
As per most Zwift racing, the pace was on from the start gate. Within the first 5 minutes a good group of 5 was formed. It was great to see local racer M.Taylor on the start line as we haven’t ridden together since my last real live race on New Year’s Day! 



By the time we were halfway through the course the hill on Innsbruck had taken its toll and we were down to 4!



I tried a mad attack at the top third of the climb to break the group up. The tactic worked, till the second hill and my body couldn’t pull off what my mind thought it could. This did split the group with me in 3rd place, but I had dug a hole that I struggled to recover from. The reality in the trainer room was not pretty - desperately wishing my fan was just slightly tilted on an angle more toward my body and my towel sopping up all the drips. 



I tried to bridge to 3rd place on the last hill and got close. Indoor km goal met for the week was a nice touch as the ladies in front of me slowly pulled away. I held on for 4th overall. It was only later that I realised that one lady was in A-Grade so I made it to 3rd in B-Grade! Yay!



RACE #2
I didn’t think I would get a ride in last night, however when I checked the app at 6:30pm it said there was a 7pm race. Previous experience shows that doing back to back races is a bad idea. Shane was setting up for a live-stream coffee and chat ride so I thought I’d sneak into the trainer room and tick over the race with low expectations. 

The pre-race kms were not neutral and we had the top 3 for B-Grade in the split within the first 5-10mins. I love a flat course. This one was familiar from all the eCrit races last year. 
The aim of this was to stay focused in the bunch, not do too much, don’t get dropped off the back on the hill and finish strong. 


With 3km to go I interrupted Shane’s ride to ask advice. I was in top 3 spot and the hill was coming up. Do I use my Truck powerup on the hill or in a bunch sprint? After deliberating with the internet audience, I was already on the hill and my closest competition was passing me. I made the decision to use the powerup just as Shane said not to use it! I made it over the top just hanging off the back of the bunch. It was pulling apart slowly and I had to dig a little to come back up to the other two in the mix of A-graders. 
The final sprint went from 300m to go and I lifted then punched it. A.Hailstone was dropped and came up parallel. I pushed a little more and we crossed the line at the same time!! 2nd in B-Grade was a great outcome.


I think being 70% complete the next ride should unlock another reward. My guess is the final one will be a jersey, so I predict this one to be gloves. We will have to wait to see!! 5 more sessions to go. Happy riding!




Cycling

Glass half full? 50% ZA

10:10 am Unknown 0 Comments



As predicted the weather here has been abysmal with temps in the negative. My paincave setup was in the garage and it was too cold for me! I was doing sessions without the fan and a thick jersey till the core temp went up then taking off the long sleeve and finishing off without the fan as the air movement was just too much for me.  
The next month should warm up a bit - I hope!


I won an Instagram competition for my pic of the Innsbruck course! That was nice surprise to receive and goooooood motivation for continuing on with me Zwift Academy rides. 

I had a bit of a technical meltdown on workout 6 this week with the iPad not connecting correctly with the Kickr17. As the earlier intervals/warmup was so low on power I didn’t notice it failing to hold the watts. I tried turning erg mode on screen off/on (don’t get me started on the button labelling of that in the UI - it confuses me every time!) then I stopped pedaling 2x for erg mode to try catch up and re-enable. That failed a few more intervals. It was only turning the Kickr off/on at the wall that kicked it in for the end of the workout. I think I will go back and re visit this one workout later in the Academy period. 



Workout 7 I was looking forward to a new style of session after the last 2 were quite similar. This one had more of a big block interval and I was pretty confident.   There were a lot of riders on course. Here is a shot of one of the men’s bunches coming for me during warmup! 



This session I was using the Tacx Neo and the power was great except for 2x dropouts in the cooldown. I was not feeling the best, but pushed through. The first 8mins was great of the “free ride” self selected interval, then I almost literally “hit the wall” and tried my best not to drop the last 2 minutes. The average was just over what I thought I could hold for the 10minutes. 


Now with 50% complete we have new sunglasses that are the Oakley Flight Jacket. Not the style I personally would wear- but good to see another exclusive item unlocked. 

Looking forward to the races this week. I have 1 booked in for early this week before I fly out later in the week for sunny Bali!




Cycling

Rapha Women’s 100 Training Rides

7:55 am Unknown 0 Comments



Women from around the world have pledged to cycle together on 15/09/18 for this years Rapha Women’s 100 Ride. 

Previously this has been held earlier in Winter when the memory of warm days and long training kms are still fresh in the memory and the legs. 

This year it’s been a struggle for me to get out, with the weekend morning bunch rides cancelled in Ballarat due to weather. So I have been doing a few more indoor rides and planning when I can get out for organised rides and the options around the area for different courses. It’s definitely a motivation to try do more event based rides. 


Last month was the first organised Rapha Womens 100 Training rides for the Melbourne cycling club. I was tasked with leading the intermediate group for a 100km ride along Beach Road. On the morning it was quite windy and fewer riders showed up than registered, so we consolidated groups, shortened the course and rolled with the tempo of the fast bunch. 

It has been a long while since I’ve been out that way! Though it was easy to remember the rolling terrain and corners from frequent rides in a time gone by. 



This month we did a cut down variation of the planned W100 Melbourne course. There were 2 bunches on offer this time and we headed out of the city construction detours to the north. 

As per this time of the year it was a bracing and brisk fresh breeze that smacked us along the bike paths out of Melbourne. Those that came along brought a sense of adventure as I followed my Garmin 1030 with the extra mapping detail. 



It was also good to see a few friendly faces. The most FAQ was how is Ballarat/country life? As I don’t have a social life anyway, it’s just a longer commute to work and a shorter ride out to the countryside to ride! Also my heating bill is higher and I ride inside more over winter. 



The new registeration site is up now for the day. So those that have pledged to ride 100kms can sign up to join me or one of the groups for September. With a focus on participation rather than difficulty, it will be good to see how the final course goes on the day. There will also be a 65km option for those wanting to participate, but cannot make the full distance. Come join us.  Also the coffee is pretty good!




Cycling

ZA 25% complete

4:46 pm Unknown 0 Comments




This weekend it was wet and windy out so I set myself up for a double session. First up was a Zwift Academy group ride for an hour and then a group workout for session “3. Under Ones”. 

It was nice to join a team ride with ladies ready to pedal the same watts. The peloton soon split to multiple groups on the road. 



Somehow I had escaped off the front of the group while typing messages to the group on my phone. After a few minutes I realised they were not coming back to me so I waited up for the group. At that time there were a lot of smaller groups so it was hard to tell when the main group would come through. 

All in all it was a good warm up. As best practice I saved the workout and quit the game to restart for the workout session. It needs to do this to create a new file and register as a separate workout. Something I hope to see Zwift fix from a UI perspective. 

Also when I went into the device connections in the companion app the Todays Plan link had disconnected again. I will need to raise a support ticket for that as I have tried on web and via the companion app and it will not stay connected. 



The other interesting functionality was the erg mode disabled on this ride and made for a flaky workout. I managed to salvage some of it once I realised, but I could not get it to re-enable. Some of the sectors could have stayed on erg to make it easier to pass. 

It was good to see a few familiar names online doing the same rides as me too. A big motivation! Thanks! 
Another motivation was the freebie unlocked item of the new ZA socks. Now I will be looking virtually sharp!






Cycling

ZA structure and setup

12:30 pm Unknown 0 Comments


In the lead up to Zwift Academy (ZA) this year I tested out the Zwift Fondo training plan.  This was a good start and way to get into a structured workouts at my own time and pace. 

For ZA in 2018 we will need to complete 16 events during an 8-week period to graduate.

- 10 structured workouts

- 4 group rides

- 2 races

The dates are from August 6th to September 30th. The Top 10 graduates will advance to the semifinals, taking place in Oct 15th - Oct 28th. Then the Top 3 advance to the finals, held in mid-November.

Progress can be tracked on the Zwift website to make sure everything is accounted for. 

It should be pretty easy to do 2-3 sessions a week indoors now that it’s deep winter here in Australia. The cool part about workouts this year is that while you can still do all 10 solo, if you want to do it with others around you for morale and motivation, the group workouts count too!! Zwift have already started scheduling the first ones. 

I’ve setup my own Zwift station indoors as it’s way too cold to be in the garage/outside for sessions now. 

There have been a tonne of questions posted up and answered in the Facebook group with lots of interactions to help each other. It’s a great community. 


Cycling

2018 Zwift Academy - the beginning

10:37 pm Unknown 0 Comments




The Zwift Academy starts this August as a great training block to get me moving again this winter. 
I need all the motivation I can get with a lack of cycling, I’m in need of some weight loss and healthy diet. 
This will be perfect for the upcoming adventures I have planned:
- Creswick Gravel Grinder 110km
Rapha Womens 100km and training rides
- Sufferfest Knighthood approx 10-12hrs riding
- Bali cycling holiday
Gears n Beers 130km gravel fondo
- Rapha transfer ride 160 + 180km
- Mt Arapilies Cycling event 130km
- Victorian Masters Road Race in Ballarat
- Ride Daylesford 146km

It’s going to be a solid few months so I will need to be in top performing condition on and off the bike. 
Let’s get moving!!