Recently, team 3R’s Rob Keunen reached out to me with an astounding bit of information: one of his teammates, Catherine Allen, was on track to hit 300,000 kilometers in mid-December. He thought she would be the first woman to do so. Would I be interested in telling Cat’s story?
Of course I would! But first, I reached out to Zwift to find out if Cat would indeed be the first to hit that mammoth 300,000km mark. Zwift confirmed that she would.
It takes a special blend of life circumstances, fitness, and tenacity to attain the kind of results Cat has seen, so I knew chatting with her would be really interesting. Read the interview below, and be sure to join her group ride on December 14 when she hits 300,000km on Zwift!
Tell me about yourself. Where are you from, and what do you spend your time doing when you’re not on the bike?
I am from the UK (born and brought up near Brighton) and have lived in West London since 2011. I have also lived in Paris (as a teenager) and also spent 11 years living in Melbourne, Australia from 2000 to 2011. I work full-time as a Pension Director at a multinational consulting and investments firm, and have worked for the same company for 25 years!
When I am not working or Zwifting I love running, yoga, hanging out with my daughter, spending time with my partner Graham (we live apart so only see each other at weekends), having pizza and prosecco evenings with my girlfriends, seeing my sister and niece, doing puzzles and DIY. I also spend time with my mum who is 80 and lives two floors down from us in our small block of flats.
How did you discover cycling/Zwift?
I discovered cycling when I was living in Australia – I moved out there in 2000 and soon became an avid runner due to the great weather and outdoors lifestyle. I cross-trained a bit on the bike and then slowly got into road biking more and more when I had running injuries. Running is my real true passion, but it’s a cruel sport and I soon realised I needed another love to focus on so that I wasn’t so miserable when sidelined from running! I never dreamed of cycling indoors back then. I did a lot of swimming as well and managed to get up to regular 5km swims.
I discovered Zwift in January 2018 after a persistent running injury left me sidelined. By this time, I had become a solo mum, and going out on my bike was not an option. So, I bought a turbo and started on Fulgaz at the end of 2017 and got bored with it quickly. But a work friend was Zwifting and told me to try it! I remember so clearly the evening I tried my first little Zwift pootling around London. I loved it and I never looked back.
Tell me about your Zwift setup. What sort of trainer do you use, what device do you run Zwift on, what are your favourite pain cave accessories, etc?
I currently use a Stages Bike with Assioma Duo power pedals. The Stages Bike is brilliant, but due to my excessive mileage I have to replace the crank power meter batteries every few weeks. So I tend to just use the power pedals and the bike for resistance. I also have a Wattbike and a KICKR Core so I always have a backup ready, plus the KICKR Core has gone to Spain and Turkey on holiday with me!
I use a MacBook Pro for Zwifting. I have my spare room set up for Zwift – with a lovely view out my pain cave window across to Bushy Park in London – the perks of a penthouse flat. My favourite Pain Cave accessory is a close call between my constant supply of Jelly babies and my litter picker (very useful if you are prone to dropping things). I also love my Vacmaster fan – I have yet to try it on level 3 as level 1 almost blows me off my bike!
I hear you’re also an avid runner. Which came first, riding or running? How do you think the two complement each other?
I love running and it came first! I have loved it since I started running in 2001 in Australia. I have completed 11 marathons, and I even won a marathon in 2007! I still would love to do more. Unfortunately, I am prone to doing too much, and running doesn’t let you do that and plagues you with injuries BUT I seem to be able to do Zwift crazy miles and not get injured. So, I love that I can “sweat out my crazy” on Zwift.
Running makes me a better Zwifter because my cardio system can cope with sustained efforts at a high heart rate – I find my strength lies in long hard efforts like the Alpe and less so in punchy efforts. I am a rubbish sprinter. Zwifting makes me a better runner because my legs aren’t battered by just constantly running, as high-impact sports like running really take it out of you. What I have learned in the last 7 years of trying to combine Zwifting and running is that you have to be really careful building up running mileage because the cardio system is so good from Zwift, but the “running body” takes much longer to adapt, so you feel like you could go out and run a half marathon but you aren’t biomechanically adapted enough so you can get injured so much quicker.
300,000km is a huge achievement. I just checked my Zwift profile, and I’ve been Zwifting since November 2015 – 2+ years longer than you – and I’m just over 88,000km. That’s wild. Explain how you fit that much riding into your life. What does your weekly riding schedule look like?
Monday to Friday I get up at 4am and I am on the bike before 4:30 and I will stay on until 8ish, unless I have to be in the office or need to travel for work or have an appointment. I am a home-based worker, so it allows me to use commute time to Zwift. On Saturdays, I tend to try and do my longest time on the bike (4+ hours) and Sundays I do my shortest ride of 100km. I lead every Wednesday morning 3R Volt or 3R Octane interval training in the hills, and I lead the 100km every other Saturday morning. I have been leading for 3R for over 6 years!
See upcoming 3R events at zwift.com >
I run 3 to 4 times a week at lunchtime, and if not running, I do yoga. I try to make my Zwift as varied as possible, doing group rides across D, C, and B cats, RoboPacers (bot ramps and pyramids are fun), solo badge hunts, tours, intervals, and chilled rides with friends. I focus very much on heart rate training and know that to sustain the high mileage, I need to do a lot of zone 1 riding or I will burn out. Overtraining syndrome is real, and I suffered it many years ago training for a marathon. I don’t want to experience it again. It’s far less about the volume you do but more about managing the intensity of that volume.
Everyone knows that time on the bike can be like medicine. But it can also feel like a chore some days. Do you ever deal with a lack of motivation to ride, and if so, how do you overcome it?
It is quite rare that I am not motivated. I don’t even debate getting on the bike each day. Alarm goes off and I get up. On days where I am tired or not that motivated, I just tell myself “start pedaling and see how you feel,” and I inevitably get into a rhythm. Knowing so many people on Zwift lifts your spirits as well. It’s not long before someone you know says hi after you start riding!
You’re a solo parent to a neurodivergent child, plus you’ve got a full-time job. Would you say your hours on the bike or running help keep you sane in the midst of life challenges, or do they add to the challenge?
“Mummy would be scary if she didn’t Zwift or run.” This is what I told my daughter years ago when she asked why I Zwift and run so much! I adopted my daughter in 2014 as a single parent. As someone who had had the freedom to run and ride as much as I wanted outside, my life changed overnight becoming a solo mum. I knew I needed to keep running for mental well-being, so I ran in my work lunch breaks and bought a treadmill. It helped me cope with adapting to motherhood. That obviously progressed to buying a turbo and finding Zwift.
Time Zwifting, running, and doing yoga massively help me stay sane and face life’s challenges – there have been many and there have been times in the last 10 years of juggling a challenging job and motherhood of an AuDHD child that I have been at a breaking point! If I ever felt they added to my burden I would cut back. I never want to feel like exercise is a burden – it’s been my passion for 25 years. It helps my mental health and my self-esteem and has brought me so many new and special friendships.
Do you ride outside at all?
Since I became a mum, I can count on both hands the number of outdoor rides I have done. Partly because I can’t (can’t leave my daughter alone) and partly because I won’t. She only has me, and she has suffered so much painful loss in her young life I don’t want to put myself at risk on the roads where I live.
I get my fresh air running outside! Zwifting is perfect. Lots of riding but my daughter can chat to me at anytime and my only worry is tripping over a cat in our house with post-Zwift jelly legs!
You’ve ridden every route in game at least once, which is no small achievement. Did this happen through a lot of purposeful, focused effort, or was it more of an “organic” achievement as you put in your weekly miles?
This has been purposeful. I love route badge hunting. As soon as new routes come out I do them all as soon as I can. Then I try and do most of them again to get faster and faster times! Drives me mad when Zwift puts out a new event-only route badge and there are no events! New roads are always exciting days!
Speaking of completing all the routes… you’re the top-ranked female rider on the Zwift Insider Veloviewer Route Hunter Leaderboards. To do this, you have to ride every route in Zwift… and at a good pace. Is that something you specifically targeted? How did you approach it?
I started off by finding out about all the Rebel Routes and the manual navigation, which I loved! So, I was doing those when the Leaderboard came to life, and I saw that I was at the top for females so have been focussing on trying to keep there. It’s pretty close with one other female who is super powerful so she may pip my position one day!
Your ZwiftPower profile says you’ve completed over 2300 races on Zwift. Give me your three top tips for anyone wanting to improve their Zwift race results.
I used to race a lot in the early days of Zwifting but now I mainly do group rides and don’t race much at all. Well, I do like to race in the Tours – which are “not a race” (but we all know they are…) So my Zwift power is a mixture of all types of events! As a lighter rider my preference is to race hilly routes. I can hang on on flat routes but at 52kg I get destroyed in a finish sprint. My three top tips are:
- Find your weakness and train it
- Remember they are hurting too, so hold on
- Your brain will try to convince you can’t, but your legs and lungs have much more to give
You’ve got a special ride coming up on December 14 where you’ll be hitting the 300,000km mark. Can you tell our readers more about that event?
The celebration of me ticking over to 300,000km will be on Saturday 14 December 7am (GMT) in the 3R Endurance Steady Ride. It’s a 100km C ride that I lead every other Saturday, and I would love people to join to celebrate with me even if it’s just for 20 minutes. The pace is around 2.5wkg. Hope to see lots of friends and future friends there!
wpDiscuz
