If you know me as a cyclist at all, you know that climbing is so not my thing.
I could insert lots of pictures of me walking my bike up hills. But I won’t.
Tonight was the last race in a Zwift series in which I’d been participating. Race series like to mix it up so no one kind of cyclist is favoured. Some weeks are hilly, some weeks are flat, and some are mountainous. You probably guess where this is going.
I’ll ride flat. Whee! I’ll even ride hilly. But I tend to give a pass to routes described as mountainous. Tonight’s route was even called The Mountain Route. It’s 29.5 km but with 682 m of climbing. Ouch.
There was a lot of chatter in our team about who was and who wasn’t going to do the race. I tried the “I’m washing my hair that night” line but I was encouraged to give it a go. We’d cheer each other on on Discord. It would “fun” they said.
In the end, I tricked myself into it, telling myself I could quit if it took me more than an hour and a half.
And I was heartened by encouraging words from teammates during the ride. Sarah also cheered me on and brought me cookies as I got to the last climb up to the radio tower.
I did it and I finished and I think I came third in D category. Well, I think I came third. I can’t say for sure because Zwiftpower is down. Zwiftpower is the race results site for Zwift races.
It was, for me, a long steady effort. It was also proof that I can climb even if it’s not my favorite thing. Sometime over the next few days I’m going to check out some of my in real life climbs and see how they compare.
Oh, I got some new Zwift badges. I got the 100 km an hour Daredevil badge for descending the Epic KOM. And in the warm up before I got the badge for exceeding 700 watts in the sprint which I couldn’t resist.
I will sleep well tonight even with all of my now usual pandemic fretting and worrying.
Night all!
I’m glad I got way out of my comfort zone and did a challenging thing.
Here’s a few more race photos:
Nice one! That last section up to the Radio Tower is pretty brutal, especially when racing it!
Wow, 700 watts? I ride a lot and my red zone is somewhere in the mid-200s. I might be able to get to 400 going all-out – maybe. Congratulations on such an incredible effort, and on your completion of the Zwift Academy! It is lots of fun watching your Zwift messages. I am tempted (but not ready) to look at it more closely, but am a Californian so generally just stick to outdoors rides. It sure looks like a great way to go once one has to use the indoors system.
For 15 seconds only! I can sprint but I can’t sustain anything like that.