Herd Time Trial Series

 A series of eight short time trials on seven different worlds. How could I resist? However, Herd wanted a simple (dumb idea) points race. That will not work over six different time zones. So I am keeping the results myself.

I rode the first race a little bit slow, probably 30 seconds too slow for me. Week 2 and 3 were good efforts although I am still fighting for my spot. I went from 15th place to ninth and now sit in 5th by one second. "I'll get you BetteMidler!" It's a four way battle for fourth and tenth places. A few top twenty gals did not race all three events. You gotta do them all to count in this series. See you soon.

Week 3 Totals:                     Week 5                             Week 8

1 Lois Brewer         64:56         Irish         111:49           Irish  185:09

2 Tennile Irish         65:05        Brewer      112:07          Macrae 194:43

3 Angela Macrae     67:15        Kryder      118:13          KC        197:57

4 Katie C                 68:58        Macrae      119:02          Meskova  198:29

5 Zee Kryder           68:59        Katie         119:17          Akerblum  201:57

6 E. Akerblum         69:06        Meskova   120:42          Chalfont    202:04

7 F Vidler                 69:12        Leung       123:04          Leung      203:19

8 Zuzka Muskova     70:53        Quapp      123:26          Carden     204:56

9 Kate Lascelles       71:15        Akerblum  123:52          Scharf     206:43

10 Clare Spencer      72:11        Chalfont    124:09

11 Georgia Chalfont 72:20        Carden      124:58

12 Vicky Leung         72:23       Scharf       125:36

13 Susan Scharf        72:41

Week 4 saw three dropouts and one poor performance (moving from 6th to 10th). I put in the third best time and moved from fifth to fourth, More importantly, I am only 16 seconds off the third spot instead of nearly two minutes. There's a great battle for first place with Irish at 88:09 and Brewer at 89:26. Irish has a 314 ftp.

Week 5 had me pushing hard on those hills of Yorkshire for the third best time among quite a few in the 25-26 minute range. Irish beat Brewer by one second and it seemed the two dueled and sprinted for the line ahead of me (lol by over a minute) I moved into third place but victory is out of reach. I will still compete for the podium spot. But the big dream of winning is definitely over. 

Week 6 Myself and two others, Brewer and Quapp, bailed out on the series. I needed to take a day off and while I hate to quit. It just wasn't there and I didn't want to ride a survival race. There were other factors too. Oh well, just a race.

Week 8 Congratulations to the survivors. It was quite long. I did the eigth race and only lost a few seconds to my rivals but I was noticeably slower than average. Just a bit tired and undertrained. Time to tackle the Tour du Bore and fight for my second local legend, the very hard Libby Hill. 

Zwift World Championships

 The E-Sports finals will be in February 2022, a 50 km course. While it's a dream for all of us on Zwift, I just have to accept that I can not race a full 50 km. I am best at the 16 km mark or even shorter. Yes, I probably could qualify in a short 2 laps of London course or three laps of Watopia, But, overall, I can not make the full course. So I have decided to focus on the Tour of Britannia time trial race. I will probably be drawn to the world's qualifier anyways. I will do some of the Tri Academy workouts when I finish my planned week off after peaking for the Academy finals. I am more in time trial mode than that off and on race mode. But I am sad that I am a sprinter pure and simple and not a long endurance racer. 

I have some great Zwift memories. But, I still want more after proving that I can train and peak close to my previous best. I hit over 700 points this year. I tied my best ten seconds. I just need more short races to prove my finishing moves are world class. (It's the 48 km between the first and the last km that I am terrible at, lol.) Not many of us are still sprinting strong at 48 but I just can not retire just yet. I have the heart of a 35 year old. I still can beat the guys in some races. I still am a national champion. I still hold the Zwift time trial title. I still have that fire burning. Give me a race that suits me and I will be there. Look out gals (and guys), I am not finished yet.

Edit note: Back in the saddle and I did two workouts with sprints to take the Legend status on France Pave Sprint. Now, how high do I want to go? Maybe I will try the overall leader. I won't go slow. Was encouraged by a private email from Zwift that said I took the sprint title in this year's Academy. I had to say that was surprising and amazing. It gave me a huge boost emotionally. (Edit: I had the highest wattage on Titan's reverse but came in 7th overall.)

Tour Of BRitannia REsults

1. (at a record 4.9 w/kg and 300 ftp) Ria Mobbs 16:45

Zee Kryder                                                            17:47

Anne Nevin                                                           17:55

Good effort with just an impossible time to beat. Best of the rest, so they say.

Zwift Academy 2021

 Started with a Bang, did the sprint in 10.947 on my second attempt. (11.50 first attempt.) Take notice. I am a sprinter. My Titan's Grove Climb was 1:52, a personal best but not an all out attack. I will try that at some point. Second time hit it at 1:41 a good improvement. There's so much to do at this point. 7 workouts, a time trial up the Alp, 2 social waste of time rides, and are there races? I just want to show off my strengths. The pro workout is a 5 minute max effort. I want to show off my one minute results. I won that category two years ago and last year as well. I just haven't been training for it lately. I have been focused on short races and sprint finishes. In other words, my Alp time will be more like 58 minutes than 49. Edit: Nope 51:29 with an all out beast of a climb for me.) My 20 minute effort was 265 for a race but lately 250 has been the ceiling. But I did do 248 for the entire Alp, a great effort at real FTP. My 20 minute finishing climb up the Epic is coming. Did 22:13, not too bad. I've broken 20 in top shape. Looking for a 21 in a few weeks.

I appreciate the opportunity to show off. I stopped going to the gym since Covid started and I think that has trimmed my power down a bit. Maybe I could regain that if I had some weights. Thanks to Dig Deep coaching for giving me some encouragement despite my low endurance numbers. I would like to show off my long sprint skills by trying the other baseline sprint. But I don't want to confuse the judges either. On we go to workout #1 and another Titans attempt. Thanks for reading, love you all.

I just hit the half way point. Although I've done 3 recovery rides and only got credit for the second one. LOL. Did #3 workout in good form. I will do 4 and 5, then finishing climb before 6. Then it is back to five minute max pro workout and rehit Titan's grove climb. I doubt I can put in another 10 second sprint without a power up as they have been nerfed now. I'm just totally enjoying the Academy but I do miss having races for side by side competition. Looks like no Worlds are scheduled next week. I guess I will retain my 2019 title forever? That was my best ever 40 minute effort. Time Trials require near perfect pacing, especially with two climbs that were in it. Maybe my greatest win despite a lack of depth in the field. I just knew I had to hit it out of the park, so to speak (baseball metiphor). 

I am coming into great form. Look out. Hit 985 watts peak.

Time to conclude or at least graduate. I'm looking forward to the last Titan's climb as I am feeling ready for it now. Today I did a 332 watt five minute effort at 5 w/kg! and added a peak ten second sprint at 882. I still hope to hit that 1000 watt effort even if it is just for one last time. Tuesday will be the reverse kom where I will focus on my 20 minute power, probably hit hard after the first minute of climbing. My legs felt really good after today's workout, the way it should always be, lol.

Today was a finish ride hitting a great ftp effort and climbing the hill in 19:45. Could barely sprint at the end from holding a high level, averaging around 165 166 the first 18 minutes. My fastest was 19:43 so this was me in great form today. I held my wattage up a little past the finish but not that much more to squeeze out. I had expected to do a 21 minute effort, but under 20 is pro level baby. Yeah that felt good. I will redo this ride next week and hit Titan's climb as hard as I can. Sunday will be my first chance to do a graduating recovery ride to finish the Academy. I think I can hit near 1:30 for the climb. Rode the Aethos bike today on the Epic climb. Also hit 988 watts. Will still try to hit that magic number 1000. I think I've done it twice before 1004 or 1012 I think. Thanks for reading and all the ride ons I got in a solo ride today. This was what the Academy is all about, reaching to hit your peak at just the right time. This ride will be remembered. 

Did it! I hit 1019 watts and did a 1:31 on Titan's Grove! Follow that with a good sprint on my final recovery ride and then it is all over. Graduation paint job (sorry ugly work there) in hand. My PI number broke the 700 barrier today as well, which is great for an amateur. My numbers are great all across the board, nearly matching my previous bests. Not bad for a gal closing out her forties. I wish I was turning 28 but there was no Zwift then. I'm glad to have been on the ground floor, engaging in some of the early women's races and being part of its development. My work for Zwift has not been unnoticed. I fondly remember CC, Rachael, Casey, Beth, and some who rose for just short periods of time. Time to officially hand the baton over to the new Zwift generation. I hope there are a few like me that maybe can't win the long races against the top competitors but can be satisfied with their adventures and dominate in some fashion, such as my long sprint. (still standing at over 10 w/kg for 30 seconds.) Thanks Zwift for some fantastic memories.

Late addititon just did a finishing ride up the volcano at a great 7:41 time at 301 watts. Really hit hard from the middle where the flat section starts and just kept it rolling over at the higher pace. It was super tough for the last minute but I managed to survive and even press on during the last thirty seconds or so. Totally spent but worth it. Now what's left? Only thing I am missing is a full out minute. Dare I?

Well, the minute went very so so, just not sharp enough at the start. I did a good time trial on Bologna at 17:30.9. My ten and fifteen numbers were really good. To gather a few more Z points (for racing) I'm going to ride Titan's Forward hill. Then I should break into the top 1000. Lol, I was top 100 before so many riders joined in (and good ones at that). I plan on joining the Zipp sprint ride. All I have left is to do the Tri Academy baseline before my fall break. It has been a long summer. 

EDIT: I got an invitation to World's! Guess who had the fastest sprint and Titan's Climb? This Gal! I was shocked to be told that I hit the top spot for both segments. Even the sprint was tough, just ten seconds of hitting it hard. Had a rough week when this news came in. I'm very happy with my Academy now. 

Racing for Fun

 I've cut back a bit on training as I was working too much and feeling very tired. I've gotten back into my rhythym lately. I actually won another race, although there were only five of us. I won the sprint pretty handidly. Yeah. I was quite surprised. I also had a women's race win when there were only three of us. I went out hard with the second rider, when the third rider opted out being left behind. It was a tight event for the two of us but I surged up the hill with a good lead. I extended it over the rest of the lap stretching my lead to about a minute. I was exhausted and had hoped to scale back and try to keep the gap at that minute mark. Honestly, I was pretty spent with one more lap to go. Surprise, the other rider dropped out. She may have caught me if she soldiered on but that's why I went harder than I could maintain. Winner.

I missed the first Off the Mapp race but entered the second, third, and fourth. (There will be a make-up for the first stage I may enter). I took third, second, and third again. Bazinga! I was on fire and it seemed like we were all mostly B racers. I couldn't believe how good I had finished. The second stage, I nearly dropped out but I kept pushing to survive. It wore on my sprint. I didn't have an aero for any of these sprints. I tried but failed to win. Still, I did pretty good against some tough guys to beat. Edit: Took a great sprint recently for second place in Crit City. It was a banger for sure.

Looking forward to the Academy. Only, I haven't trained for it. Just a bit too busy and I have lost a bit of speed and endurance the past few months. I haven't retired though. I still plan to defend my Time Trial title from 2019 if Zwift gives us a chance this year. Last year's cancellation in Switzerland left a huge hole in Zwift's plans to parellel the World Championships. Let's see how they do this year. 

Fourth Mixed Win

 My 250th race turned out to be a ring dinger. I picked it because it was a very short race of two laps of Laguardia New York. I hung in with a hard start. Five of us had a gap and extended it while dropping one rider as well. That left four of us to sprint it out and I had an aero power up. I was excited. Determined to start at 250, I hit it hard and popped my power up. I took off and got a gap with an 800 watts burst of max wattage. For me, that is pretty good lately. The pace had been fast but within my zone except for short bursts on the two risers on the course. I was able to catch my breath right before the sprint.

I think knowing it was race # 250 motivated me and helped me fear losing after fighting hard to stay with the leaders. All four mixed wins have come in this year, I think right? Wow, that felt good. I've been a little down that my 45-60 minute power has tailed off lately. Today was just the right level of sprint and the power up (what I needed in my last race lol where I almost won but then finished 6th , all of us within 0.5 seconds at the line)

Thanks for reading and hopefully more races to come.

What's Up Lately?

To give a quick update, I'm currently riding the ten world orange jersey laps, trying to keep my time roughly around the same as last year. With four events done, I'm only 17 seconds behind schedule. However, I have to redo Innsbruck as I had a bad day when trying to time trial the course last week. It made me depressed, even though I hate the course. It is way too long, even just the climb itself is an entire ftp test and then some. But, I'll try it when I'm feeling good and in the mood for a 45 minute ride. In between the time trials, I am doing a few races for the variety of it. 

Down the road? Still looking for WC's in September (and fearful of the 30 km distance in the time trial) I just want to do my best to defend my title. I need an occasional event to gear up for and lately the races have been either missing entirely or scheduled just out of my time table for races. Find something..... 

Makuri so far is pretty but not suited for great challenges yet. Maybe as it expands, it will improve. But for now, it is as weak as New York for me. The temple kom is ridiculous. The only real climb is on dirt which I hate. That leaves the boredom of the flat course for the orange jersey. 

  

All Nine World Courses - One Day

 I got it this time and it is all on Strava. I started with Paris, since it has a lead in about 3 km or so to the start line. Next was Watopia since it takes good speed to get the actual orange jersey. Next, Innsbruck as I had an hour to get to the start in Crit City. Orange. Crit City, quit and time trialed to another jersey. I had to push on Yorkshire since it too was on the daily worlds. finally, New York, then a planned break. 

Rested, showered, and dry bibs, onto London. I felt so refreshed that I went too hard. Thus, when I got to the start of a Bologna race, I felt a bit tired. I was slow on the flat but got some power back up for the climb. Finished the course but missed out on the orange jersey. Richmond was the ninth of all the courses. I hoped to take it a bit slower then finish hard on the climbs. I didn't have too much power on the climbs but took the orange jersey, my eighth of the day. 

How long did the courses take? 3 hours 19 minutes 56.37 seconds (with photos taken of every timed finish.) No drafting just long endurance power (at least what I could muster). So the challenge is up and running now. Are you up to it?