Ohhhh baby… things started to get spicy in this, my third week of daily Zwift racing. As I write this I am in the middle of week 4 and my biggest takeaway is that doing something like this amplifies everything you do wrong. I have found that nutrition, fueling before rides, hydration, and sleep are all critical. It’s like throwing a magnifying glass on everything you do. Luckily I only ate 7 brownies during Christmas dinner.
Thank you to everyone who has commented on Strava, the last article, and in-game. I cannot tell you how nice it is when someone says hi before or during a race.
If you missed the last articles you can check out part 1 here and part 2 here.
You can also follow my progress on Strava. I will link to the races in the title of the day.
Day 15 – 12/16/21 – Oh My Crit Double Race 2/2
My kids decided to bring a cold home this week. Not on the 4th day so I could bail without having written an article, not on the 27th day so I could gut through a couple of races and call it good. Smack dab in the middle.
If you don’t have kids and want to know what it is like… this is it.
Race was boring – Four laps of London Classique, which is quickly becoming my favorite course for this challenge since I can sit in so much. Decent sprint at the end in what is always a tough field.
Finishing Place: 14th out of 35
Day 16 – 12/17/21 – SZ AW Party by SZR
Tried my hand at the Neokyo Crit Course again after the L39ION race last week. Was around a 100 person field which I thought would be fun and SZR always runs a good race series.
Well news to everyone (including the organizers I am sure) – we started all categories at the same time… so a 350 person start! I immediately lost whoever the top B’s were once we mixed in. So I just found a good group and raced. Ended up in a nice little A/B pack of about 20 and it was a fun race… until the end.
Due to some buginess, Zwift had updated some Neokyo Crit Course races to use total distance instead of laps, but this one still used laps. I noticed that the lap counter and lap bars were different – ie the lap bar would be on the next lap before the lap counter would switch. When we got to the last lap we all sprinted to what we thought was the finish when the count down went to zero. Then the race just kept going. So there were zero meters remaining for a while, then it jumped back up to like 90 meters and we finished at the banner. But at that point we had all sprinted and were not sure if the race had finished or not so everyone was soft pedaling.
Zero meters to go? 
48 meters to go…
From the screenshots above I apparently moved up, but I don’t remember that. I guess my takeaway would be to not stop racing until the results come up.
Finishing Place: 34th out of 88
Day 17 – 12/18/21 – WTRL Racing
My cold was pretty terrible at this point, so I was looking for an easy one and got it. Four laps of Sleepless City. Basically I just sat in the whole time. There were a couple of surges but it is almost impossible to drop people on these flat Neoyko courses.
Had a great sprint (timing wise) and finished really well. For those of us without a top notch sprint, our ability to time things correctly and get in the right place is just so important. You can make up for a lot of sins if I had a 14 w/kg sprint, but with a meger 7.4 you’d better be placed right.
Finishing Place: 6th out of 37
Day 18 – 12/19/21 – ZHQ Futureworks Crit City Race – Anti-Sandbagging
This was the worst day for the cold. Plus we spent all day yesterday in Chicago doing Christmas stuff, so I was really worried about it.
Not a ton to say about this race – I felt fine! Pretty tame, then sprinted to the line. Was very happy with my placing.
There were SO MANY burritos during this race! I got mad and yelled at people…maybe this challenge is making me a little salty?
This definitely highlights how I put too much stock into things that are (somewhat) out of my control: colds, tired legs, and everything else. Sometimes it’s nice to just show up and race with no expectations.
Finishing Place: 5th out of 14
Day 19 – 12/20/21 – 3R 50km London Greater London Flat
If I waited any longer I was gonna have to race up the Alpe at 10pm, so I got in this mixed category race that, despite the name, was 64 km long.
Also this was the highest quality field I have ever raced in. Just an absolute monster of a field. The course (Greater London Flat) is pretty easy except for a few rollers. Lap 1 was OK, I made it with the front group of A’s and B’s (and a C…).
Then they decided to attack on lap two. And I held on again!
And again on laps 3, 4 and 5! I took a screenshot before the hills on every lap because I thought it was my last time hanging on.
I literally don’t know how I got to the sprint with this crew feeling as tired as I was. I got murdered in the sprint like always with A’s, but very happy with this race. My legs were shaking afterward.
Here is the tale of the sprint in two pictures:
Finishing Place: 4th out of 15
Day 20 – 12/21/21 – EMU Japan Race
Race less than 12 hours after an all out 1 hour and 30 minute race? In a famously difficult race where people push?
Sign me up!
Made it to the sprint with the front group and then lost by 8 seconds over the final 45 seconds. My 15 second, 30 second and 1 minute power are the exact same for this race – that shows you where my sprint legs were at today.
This was a super bad idea.
Also Charlie Issendorf (Zwift’s Race Director) was in the race, and I couldn’t resist asking if he wanted to come on a No Breakaways show (I’m sorry Charlie!)
Finishing Place: 30rd out of 59
Day 21 – 12/22/21 – Chase Race with Autocat
New Jersey Day! I loved the new green kits with the B on them. It made it much easier to remember who you were passing as a B (and I would assume who is passing you as a C or D).
This is turning into my go-to race of the challenge. Was a very strong group again today. I just sat in and did no work and somehow managed a 9.1 w/kg sprint.
I’m getting really tired. But also feel good? Confusing times in the pain cave.
Finishing Place: 11th out of 65
Weekly Wrap
I gotta be honest… I am really tired. But I enjoyed the racing a lot. I’m very surprised at how well my body has been reacting to the workload, although I feel my top end is basically gone at this point. Looking forward to the rest of the challenge, and then the rest at the end of the challenge (I’m patting myself on the back for that little turn-of-phrase).
Week 3 Stats
- Average Finishing Place – 14.9
- Finishing Percentile – 32.1%
- Kilometers Raced – 223 km
- Time Raced – 300 minutes
- Average W/kg – 3.3 W/kg
Thanks for reading and see you next week!
wpDiscuz
