Lucianotes: Why Do I Choose To Suffer?

When, in the middle of the Zwift Racing League Volcano stage, I was not totally sure if it was the second or the third climb of the race, it was a clear sign oxygen was no longer reaching my brain properly.

If you experience such a situation, the most probable thing is that you are actually in the second climb, and the fact you believed it was the third was pure survival wishful thinking.

So, let’s analyze more in detail the butterfly effect chronology leading to you sweat, curse, and whine while you see the leading pack inevitably distancing you. Oh yes! Oxygen not reaching your brain and you being distanced go usually together. It’s the basics of Murphy’s Law.

But don’t get it wrong. It’s nobody’s fault except yours.

The root question is why. Yes, why? Why did you agree to this while you could be slurping a beer in your sofa, watching with one eye a non-sensical zombie sitcom on TV and checking the gazillionth Youtube video compilation of dogs jumping into swimming pools with the other one?

In my case the why is very simple and summarizes to a single word: Sweden.

Allow me to elaborate a little bit.

Two days after the announcement of the confinement in Madrid I was conversing with a Swedish friend (I don’t know if he still qualifies as such since he is responsible for my suffering), in which I was telling him it was going to be really tough to be behind closed doors for several months.  He answered very spontaneously it would be less mentally damaging for him since he was on Schift (that’s what I understood, Schift).

I did not pay attention, and ignored his comment. After two days, desperate and feeling jailed, I called him back hoping Schift would be some kind of magic pill making things look and feel great.

That’s when he explained Zwift in detail. I went immediately online to check what would be the quickest setup to be able to Zwift.

Buying a smart trainer in April 2020 was the closest thing to an Indiana Jones adventure I’ve ever done. All those going through a similar process would tell you about this time where they had it in the shopping cart but a credit card mistake delayed the payment and then there was no longer available stock. Venomous snakes and acid grenades aside, it was clearly a script for the seventh episode of Indiana Jones saga.

So, the day I received Amanda (my smart trainer and I became so close I had to give her a name) was one of the happiest of my life. The happiness lasted exactly ten minutes and fifty-five seconds. That is the time it took me to calibrate and start my first FTP Ramp Test on Zwift.

From there until now it has been a kind of love/hate relationship with Amanda. The days I feel great and generate a good number of watts she is the best; the days I have the strength of an average snail she is the source of all the problems in my life.

Almost a year down the line I have made dozens of virtual and non-virtual friends on the platform. I have joined a Zwift Club, a Zwift Racing League team, and I am having fun like I haven’t since I was a teenager. I also vEverested three weeks ago! All things I would believe were science fiction a year ago.

Thanks Sweden!