Zwift from the perspective of a C rider

[Chris Stratton]

As many of you know, though a solidly "C" rider I did a ton of outdoor
base miles last summer - club rides, informal rides, and long solo
adventures - and although often left with sore legs enjoyed a huge
benefit to general health from that. Admittedly I was someone who'd
roll my eyes and look past the indoor zwift rides showing up on
friends' Strava feeds.

Alas, by late October that regular outdoor habit was unsustainable,
and after four successive weeks of pushing through centuries with
defiantly after dark finishes I abruptly and all but completely
stopped riding - my weekly mileage crashed from 100-200 to maybe 6-10
miles on my grocery shopping bike.

Realizing I had to do something to prevent a complete health crash, I
started looking into smart trainers to try Zwift. I was on the verge
of buying a refurbished Kickr Core right before Christmas when they
took down that option before I could do so, I started looking at used
ones. Finally two days after Christmas new ones went on sale, and a
phone call discovered that Joe's Garage just up in Haydenville had one
they'd sell me at the sale price. If I'd had a compatible phone, the
new Zwift Hub would have been even cheaper.

The main problem with indoor riding is sticking with it, but a
combination of options in the "game" itself and the fairly full
schedule of club activities which Michael Bello and Jonathan O'Keeffe
have organized are a huge help with that.

Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday each feature an organized
club ride. Part of this is the possibility of riding together in
zwift itself (where the benefit of drafting vs riding alone is very,
very, very much a thing), but part of it is the separate club chat via
discord - even if you loose contact with other club members on the
course or are doing another ride entirely, that conversation is a
great way to pass the time and a great distraction from sitting there
spinning and sweating indoors. Another aspect of what's fun is that
there's an opportunity to interact in the chat with stronger club
members I wouldn't normally yet get to ride with in person.

Thursday's club activity consists of participating in a more broadly
organized "race" on zwift - and wow was that fun! I'm not sure I'll
ever have the nerve to do it in real life, but on the trainer and
game, there's literally nothing to loose. Last week most club members
were in the B and C divisions, but until I get back to summer fitness
(and back down to the denominator of summer weight) I qualify for the
D, which provided a great opportunity. More experienced club members
on the chat provided great advice - already be pushing high power in
the seconds before the start in order to fly out of the gate, hang out
at the back of the first bunch to save energy by drafting, learn to
use the powerup game gimmicks (admittedly not there yet) and then
stand up and give it one's all at the end. Between great advice and a
small field, I unreasonably lucked out and was able to come in fourth.
While that was pretty much a fluke I was completely hooked and entered
3 more races on Friday, making up for the lack of club chat by putting
on a playlist of driving 80's rock. Haven't yet duplicated that
initial placement, or even its time on that route (I'll blame riding
too much), but it's sure being fun!. And it would be great to have
other entries is "D" category so we could work out some team strategy
and maybe even break away together (so far, what I've seen is one very
cohesive pack and only sprinting in the last quarter mile)

Shopping list:

Smart trainer - kickr, kickr core, zwift hub, etc along with a spare
cassette of the same speed count as your road wheel. Zwift can be
tried with a classic wheel-on trainer and a bluetooth or ANT+ speed
sensor, but you don't get a true sense of what you're achieving
without a power meter or smart trainer that measures your power output
while also adjusting difficulty to simulate the climbs.

Windows PC, Apple TV, ipad or similar to run Zwift - faster is better,
but you can turn the resolution down and survive with something
minimal

Heart rate monitor - complements the power meter in showing how hard
you are actually working to achieve that power. Required for races as
an anti-cheating check. They're pretty much all the same and
cross-compatible in protocol regardless of brand, I got a generic $25
one. Can also use it on outdoor rides of course.

Headset for discord chat - bluetooth is a possibility but I found that
made the connection with my trainer flaky, so I'm using a $12 wired
one from walmart

Sweat band, towels, and lots and lots of bottles - I have a folding
table set up next to the bike and it's just absurd what I'll go
through on a half hour ride at my ftp.

Fan aimed at you, preferably on a remote outlet switch so you can turn
it on only after you heat up and have stripped off initial extra
layers

Last winter I made a resolution to ride an average of ten miles a day,
and I did manage to stick with that, alternately ahead and behind,
until the weather got nice and it became easy. But in the first week
of this year, between a heavy zwift schedule and a pair of ventures
out on warmer afternoons, in theory I just jumped right back up to my
typical summer mileage. There are definitely differences - zwift
gets my heart rate up and the rides are short and intense but I
recover quickly, while outdoors I go longer and slower and come back
feeling it in my legs well into the next day. But either one
counteracts that horrible winter sedentary feeling with the sense that
I've done something.

So I think I finally know how I'm going to survive until March/April

Hoping to perhaps see some more club members' faces in the coming
weeks - in the zwift game itself, on the discord chat - and of
course, now and then outside too when we get a nicer day!

Chris