Finally - QOM Makuri Island World

 Why this one? I choose it for two reasons...It is a short effort under ten minutes and also that the record holder was an obvious fake. I have done a few 'beat the cheat' efforts. There are several efforts that no human could ever beat. I didn't really think this was possible at first. On my first effort I did an 8:23 to a 8:18 effort. I thought that I could just up my effort a bit and take it. But it proved to be very difficult. I did a third attempt with a great climb, super fast. But I was slow towards the end and I saw my pr holo pass me. After that I just let off the gas and cruised across the finish. I had done a stupendous 5 minute trial but a lousy one minute effort to close.

I was amazed.This time, I went out about 5 watts less and did not sprint all out at the top of the climb. Instead, I caught my breath and was ready to go hard for 1:18 at 375 watts. (I wanted to hit 400 but I was a bit afraid to go too early.) 

This was as hard as New York and Richmond. That makes up the Holy Trinity of races.                                  Bridges and Boardwalks at 8:12 Richmond Reverse Hilly at 12:31 and Reverse Grand Central at 10:00

30:43 total. All of them are challenging climby routes. Now, back to Academy training.

Queen of the Downhill

 I have already gotten caught up in past hunts for 60 second power, 20 minute power, most repeated efforts on Richmond and Yorkshire (nobody even cares about local legends on Zwift.) and less we not forget the hunt for ten orange jerseys. Why? I don't really know. Why was I obsessed about each Alp section for two or three months? Why did I train for an all out session on Ventoux? Because I need goals. 

So why in the world would I want to climb twelve stupid red, yellow, and blue mountains when I hate climbing? Answer, to race down as fast as I can. Why do I try to shave off two or three seconds on a downhill of ten minutes? I recently rode on Watopia for a short warmup. I sprinted down the hill, taking the virtual qom on the descent. I have all of the France descents. (not that anyone should care about their best time on a virtual downhill anyway.) I don't want to start on Watopia, so I decided to let someone else have the Watopia crown. (I beat them by 3 seconds) She will never know. And when I looked at her ride, she tried really hard to get her time down. But, the sprinter in me just takes it from the very start. It was the same way I beat LVH in last year's sprint by half a second. She put in a huge sprint. But I had so much speed going into the sprint that I didn't need to hit 12 or 13 w/kg to win. I admit, it took me about seven attempts to beat her. My first attempt put me in second place by only 0.02 if I remember correctly. But I threw everything aside to beat her. Training and racing that same sprint until I got it just right. My time in practice before the Academy was under 22 seconds! But breaking 23 that month was a huge, huge task.

There are three new climbs coming to France and the Madone is rumored to be coming but only in Watopia I'm told. While the Alp and Ventoux are sort of manly macho climbs, the French view the Madone as a weaker climb. I'm not sure if I can explain it. I guess it is just softer, less steep. Ille Gardner ripped the throat out on her ride this year, demolishing the former times. Maybe it is in the name. Maybe it's because it has never been included in the Tour. All of its rides are pure time trial performances. It is a climb for purists, a virgin climb. It is a bit too long for me to perform well. I hated training on Ventoux. But if your coach was an hour specialist on the track, sooner or later you get forced to make a long attempt. Riding an hour at full intensity is so exhausting physically and mentally. 

I love sprint training and racing. It has taken Zwift years to finally start real sprint races. I won two of them! Scotland was by far the hardest because it included two climbs up the Sgurr with three sprints. I won all five that race. I took six or seven sprints in a Richmond race, skipping the first of two climbs to save my strength for the sprints. I wish we had this years ago. I could use a race like that now. But they are very rare.

In between now and the Academy, I will be doing some pointed workouts and probably another attempt on the Makuri route. I will probably do the Madone even though it is 3 km longer than in real life and it will take over an hour. I think both Ventoux and the Tourmelet sit at 62 and 61 minutes for me, and no I will probably never break the hour on either of them. 

I'm excited for the last Academy in November. I hope the races will be good for a sprinter to win. See ya!

September

Looking forward to the next two months. Zwift will announce the Zwift Academy very soon. It will be my last hurrah, my seventh and final academy ( I believe ). It just feels like the time is right. After a few bad months, I've trained and fought my way back into top condition. No, I'm not going to beat any all time records. I can't even get close to my top one minute, perhaps my best effort ever in the Academy.

In August, I searched through a lot of routes looking to get or regain some QOM's. They have never been too important. But the efforts really boost my power and condition. I fought and fought for my forward Richmond hilly route back in the day. But with the pack dynamic super blobs, a good number of racers put in times even a time trial bike couldn't match. Then there were a good number of 'glitches' where riders were able to do 46 kph steady, even uphills at only 100 watts. Add banded cheat rides on the Alp and you have a sort of wild west theme on Strava segments. Strava refuses to police records for bots, weight doping, and other forms of cheating in virtual cycling. They use to in the beginning, but I think it just got progressively harder to filter results. So Strava is sort of anything goes, even e-bikes are popular now.

I have two Q's on Watopia from the old days, my FloJo efforts with zpower. I regained two of my London laps, one last year and one recently, which was very hard. I trained and captured one in New York (super hard), Richmond (very hard), and added Scotland (hard) and Innsbruck (not as hard as I expected). I may need to do another Innsbruck or two in case some others come to hunt my times. As for my downhill efforts, it started when someone at Zwift said the Alp will have auto braking soon. So I went all out a few times. Then, it just seemed fun to do it on the portals. 

I am going to follow some coaching tips from Nathan Guerra to see if I can sharpen my sprinting. I've mostly worked on one to ten minutes. FTP test is coming too. 

I have two attempts coming up. One is a France route that may be achievable. This is because the pack in the race did not go very hard on the flat section. The climb on the petite however, was first class. I'll have to ride my best the last five minutes. Then we have a 'beat the cheat' effort. This one seems out of reach but I will run some test efforts. I will have to 'bomb' the downhill to strive to get ahead. The time trial bike will have an advantage in this section. My husband crunched the numbers I need for the uphill: 313 for the first part and 461 for the last part. That will be 387 average. In this lap, the dq 'winner' beat the men in the race by 14 seconds. I'll see if I can even get close to this one, over 50 kph. (nope, this one seems impossible. I was 16 seconds too slow. I can't see a way of gaining this much time.)

ADD: I ran the Rebel route on France today. I got the Q by 6 seconds. It was a hard session. It was another case of tt bike versus a pack of riders. In the compare efforts on Strava, we went a bit back and forth. I got the 6 seconds in the last 30 or 40 seconds with a hard charge to the line. One thing to reflect on: I was doing an all out effort for one lap. Maddy had the previous best time in a fondo with 100 km to go. In that perspective, that was one fast effort in a 100 mile event. NP was 260. I had 20 extra watts with a faster bike and ran the same exact speed on the flat sections, and I was pushing harder everytime there was a small incline. This kind of racing is really hard, really challenging, and really rewarding.

Another QOM

 I got a new Q on New York. I was racing against a time of 10:19. The reason I was so persistent is that the record was a 300 watt bot. 300 watts from start to finish, even the downhill with a hr of only 100. I found one of their other rides of 1:40 at 1000 watts, followed by 22 minutes at 360 watts. Hmmm. Obviously a faker. Time for her to go down. I ran a practice effort but I was a bit slow from the start line to the climb. But I was right on the cusp. I can recover a bit on the downhill and be able to sprint the last 30 seconds.

Coffee high and away I went. It was much harder on the climb having gone so fast for the first three minutes. But I held on, chasing my holo and finishing just a tenth of a second behind on the climb. I knew I was close, maybe even ahead, sprinting to the finish. I rushed to Strava and there it was, an even ten minutes. Yes. I was pretty tired out but happy. 

I have my eyes set on a few more possibilities, coming soon.

I had three attempts on Richmond. In the first attempt, I was behind at the climbs but caught up on the flat section. I lost too much time on the last climb despite finishing well. I knew I had to go a bit faster on the flat section and harder on that last climb. On a second effort, I went too slow in the beginning but had a great finish. Now, if I could just do the hard start and the hard finish. (Why didn't I think of that before?) Somehow, my holo didn't start. (When it does start, it is late. I guess it starts at the pen rather than the banner?) 

I went for the reverse climbs route because the record was 12:32, The forward was an unrealistic 11:55. I have a 12:38 on the forward, and that was without the New Cadex frame with a disc wheel. I thought 12:30 was possible in a time trial, if I could average close to 300 watts. I made sure I was going hard on the start, just not so hard that I was spent. I had to stay under 400 watts. (It's only like a minute and I'm dying. Hard to believe some of the men can do 400 watts for an hour.) I was about even with my hard start, maybe 2 or 3 seconds up and I needed 13 seconds better. I felt I could get those seconds if I stayed strong on those flats, at least 20 or 30 watts more than before. I was panicking as I put my head down and tried to hold 300 for the entire hill which is over two minutes. I imagined the finish line at the top of the hill. In reality, it is maybe a minute to the finish. I was now in the big gear and barely able to lift my watts. I did a few power bursts and barely made it to the line. I felt I was just a second or two slower than planned. In the record ride, Liz got up to 60 kph in a pack sprint finish. I got up to 50 and tried to hold it there. I hit 52 but averaged the 50 we said I needed.

What was the result? 12:31....one second faster. On Strava it shows I was up by four seconds at the top of the hill and lost 3 seconds on the run to the line. I guess I was slower than usual because I went so hard for over 11 minutes. I had confidence from my New York effort but this was 2 minutes longer. 

Now I am really ready for the Academy! I need to tune up my short sprint. It has been a few months while I focused on these longer efforts. Hopefully my base is strong and I won't over train in the next few weeks.

What is planned? Sprint work, FTP effort, and a longer route on Innsbruck ( rumored to be this year's start/finish ride )

Edit (September 2023)

So, the Academy is only starting in November. But, that's okay because I had a few days off the bike sick. I'm still in good form but I will need a lot of work to catch back up. I've ridden the Innsbruck UCI reverse a few times and today chalked up a new record on the course. I went hard on the start but flailed a bit on the climb. I just couldn't get the watts up where they should be. I know I should be able to run the mountain in about 20 minutes. I think I once broke 19 minutes. Still, with a fairly good downhill and run to the finish, I managed to be ahead at the finish. I honestly couldn't remember the time I needed to beat. This course is rarely raced and few people will choose this for a time trial. I think the race course is not included either because you don't cross the start line when exiting the pens. So, this one may stick for a little while. On a better day, I can shave off at least a minute. 

All total, I now have two in Watopia, two in London, one in Richmond, one in New York, One in Scotland, and now one in Innsbruck. Eight in total! I've looked at France, Yorkshire, and Makuri. I haven't found any that look achievable. There's a lot of inhuman records. I would really like one in Yorkshire. An expansion for France would be nice. I think I should just be satisfied with what I have. Several of them will stand for a long time, I hope.

Route Attack

What's left to do? Maybe repeat Domancy and Pike before August. 

But instead, I looked at some old routes and rode the London Loop Reverse. I had the second fastest effort for a long time. Let's do it today. I smashed the first half, just absolutely rode like the finish line was at the top of Fox Hill. Then I tried to just not die on the finish. My legs were about to quit. I could not believe the finish time at 22:11. I was one second faster! I'm still in shock. I thought I was too slow to make it. I just couldn't recover fully on the descent. I averaged 160 heart rate for most of the effort. 

Just now, I ran the clock for myself versus V. Whitelaw. Despite my super effort, Vickie was still ahead by 20 seconds at the top of Fox Hill. Wow. She is really good. Going into the finish, she was still up by 13 seconds. But, as a short puncher, I pulled up even at 21:42 and up by one second at 21:52. I just barely held on to finish up by one second. I averaged about 300 watts for the finale of the race. I went from back a second to ahead one second with a 10 second sprint over the top of that last incline. One or two pedal strokes at 550 and that's all I had left to give. I was completely spent and just coasted on the last downhill meters to the finish line.

It all comes down to, I sprinted early at the top of the crest out of the tunnel and she sprinted the last 300 meters. With her speed in the last 100 meters, she almost beats me. It's amazing. I think I would have lost the battle had we raced side by side. Even her holo replay would have defeated me mentally. Of course, I was on a time trial bike and she may well have drafted a good bit. My bike was a good bit slower on the climb but I knew I needed the disc wheel for the last half. 

One thing I almost forgot, she did three laps. I only raced a single all-out lap. She had one more lap to go. It is apples to oranges a bit. In the end, it is all challenging fun. Pure and simple, the game of Zwift. And, lots of sweat. 

Zwift Climb Portal Assaults

 Well, if there is a 'mountain' someone will climb it. I have finished all 8 of the new French assortment. I had the most fun taming the three shortest climbs, Pike, Domancy, and Trebiac. On the Pike I took the Q for a few days but lost it to Bharead (she's definitely in the top ten women racers), On the Domancy I also took the Q but lost it a few days later to Asa Fast (she's a heavy hitter too). On the Trebiac I hit 10:00 flat going all out with great wattage and got the Q back from Asa Fast. I have been switching to my time trial set-up and sprinting the start of the downhill, taking all eight descents. I have the best time overall on two of them. Only today I lost the Domancy by 7 seconds. Do I want to try to get it back? Mmm, probably not.

I have been going great with this added incentive. I have done a short climb followed by a longer climb a few times and built some solid endurance. I'm not sure what comes next. Should be a few workouts. I did an impossible 24 times 300 watts on a one minute on, one minute off. I totally kicked it. I can't believe I held on and finished strong.

Zwift Inaugural Climb Series 2nd Place!

No, I have not become a great climber.

But, I do well in the powerful short efforts.

Top 3 : Race #1 Watopia Hill:

1. Jade Hall      1:58                  1. Benny Axt         1:30

2. Zee Kryder   2:01                2. Dennis Vorhees 1:31

3. Jenn Moroz   2:02                 3. John Kerr          1:32

Top 3: Race #2 Sgurr North Climb 

1. Zee Kryder   3:19                 1. L. Vujasin            2:35

2. H. Tamminen 3:28                 2. M. Melville          2:50

3. J. Moroz         3:32                 3. T. Melville           2:54

Top 3: Race #3 Volcano Climb  

                                                    

1. Jade Hall        7:14                     1 Kirkwood           6:30

2. Lois Brewer   7:28                     2 (dq w/kg)            6:32

3. Z Kryder       7:30                    3 Askew                6:33

Overall looks like Jade at 12:48 and Kryder at 12:50 

Top 3: Race 4 Watopia Epic  (yeah I was good but not great)

1. J. Ek        21:38                            1. C. O'connor       20:01

2. J. Hall      22:22                            2. M. Mezville       20:05 

3. J. Moroz    22:51                          3. K. Poole            20:10

4. Z. Kryder  23:58                         

Overall is now   Hall 35:10 , Moroz 36:20, and Kryder 36:48  (well, I'm trying my best)

Top riders for Race 5 on the Alp

J. Hall            50:33

Z. Kryder      52:22

S. Wilson       53:17

Overall:  (men's tbd)

1. Jade Hall 1:25:43 (what a grand series)

2.  Zee Kryder 1:29:10,

3.  Shirley Wilson 1:31:20