It has been awhile, yes. We are into April. In Zwift, the new challenge is to upgrade our bike frames. I am working hard on three frontiers:
Time Trial Cadex....40 hours to hit level 5. Done and dusted.
Aethos Climbing Bike...15,000 meters almost at level 4 after two weeks.
New Dogma Racing Bike 1600 kilometers. (the Venge was a bit slower, so why make it faster. Spent a million.)
I started out at just over 50 million drops. Each level costs more drops. Overall, you will spend 2 million dollars to upgrade a one million dollar bike. Strange. I have managed to earn the drops since upgrading my time trial bike, which I use often. I have 48.5 million today and will spend over half a million tomorrow to upgrade the Dogma (1) and the Aethos (4). I need the full Aethos to try to match some of my older climbs (the Alp again, after I promised I was done racing it. It isn't the effort to go all out. It is the weeks of preparation it takes to be in top condition for that specific effort. Very hard for me. A sprint, I can do with very little prep.) Ventoux too, I suppose. I'm not sure what portals I would attempt. Maybe one or more of the steepest climbs. Madone? When will the Madeline be ready? Maybe the Tower and the Grade (lots of pain and suffering).
I only really want one more Q back in Makuri. But, it is almost impossible. I did manage to get to the top of the climb in record time, but slipped behind schedule on the downhill and finish. I have a plan, actually two, and I don't know which one is better to break the record. Hmmm. It is still very hard also because the disc wheels are slower now. So usually, the 858's are 'faster' though slower than the old disc wheels. Conundrum.
Ventoux has been ridden a few times lately. One, because I need the altitude and the distance. But also (you can thank me for this), I talked them into putting a spinner on Ventoux. The surprise for me was the finish gives big drop rewards instead of xp. I got 25,000 dollars the first ride. With my level 3 Aethos, I have ridden the first half in 29:07. So a repeat of 60 minutes may be possible. It is just so much harder to do 60 than 64 minutes. It isn't the same for someone to go from 94 minutes to 90. It is sixty minutes of a twenty minute level. Mind-blowing. How did I get there the first time? (I think over a dozen runs with time markers every few minutes to keep on schedule.)
I also started a few crit races. I do two laps on my Dogma. Then, one all out lap on the time trial bike. Maybe, I will do the reverse next time around. How much faster is this Cadex now? A minute per hour.
Socks are said to save 12 seconds per hour. That is one second every 5 minutes. Is it worth a whole year of cycling to get them? Probably not. But, eventually, I will get them.
See you soon.
