Uh-Oh More Zwift

 June, and my career at UPS, is starting to wind down.  I continue to be out of work on disability and am unsure of any potential return to work date.  What is more frustrating is the lack of ability to engage in the activities I like to do, mainly running.  Again, enter Zwift.

As I wrote about in my previous post, I broke out the old bike, dumb trainer, and old sensors about a month ago and signed up for a Zwift account.  My doctor gave me the okay to do cycling as exercise, and I have been going at it almost daily.  My workouts at this point consist mainly of free rides around the various worlds, riding around and discovering the terrain while trying to get in a solid workout of sixty to ninety minutes.  Things like earning badges, moving up levels (I am up to level 13 in a little over a month, woohoo!!!), and receiving "Ride Ons" from fellow Zwifters is very encouraging and strangely motivating.  I am guessing that if you are unfamiliar with Zwift, the last sentence probably did not make too much sense; let me try to explain in a little more detail.

A badge is a sort of virtual tchotchke you are given when you complete a given course or achieved a certain milestone.  About two-thirds of them are given out for completing courses; the remaining ones are given for accomplishing various cycling feats or certain Zwift aspects.  For instance, when you take a screenshot or make a U-turn for the first time, you are given a badge.  The cycling ones are fairly self-explanatory and not overly surprising, such as riding at a certain speed, riding a certain distance, or climbing a certain number of meters.  The badges range from very easy (completing a workout) to barely obtainable (climbing the highest mountain in Zwift 100 times), giving each Zwifter something to shoot for regardless of their ability or experience.

Levels are somewhat tricky to fully explain, but I will try to give it a shot.  When you set everything up and start riding, you will see a small, orange, horizontal bar slowly moving from left to right.  This is the level bar.  You advance it by spending time in the saddle and moving and earning Experience Points, otherwise known as XPs.  The main source of XPs is completing a course or a random "power-up," a sort of prize you receive when passing a checkpoint.  There are 50 levels.  It should be noted that the levels operate on a logarithmic scale, each getting more difficult as you move up.  Advancing levels earn all kinds of things; you get to ride on certain courses, which are more challenging, you get to dress your avatar in all kinds of new swag, and you can "purchase" new wheels and frames that Zwift's algorithm takes into account during your ride.

Ride Ons are friendly, spirited tokens of encouragement or admiration given to other riders for any reason; usually, it is an acknowledgment for something a rider has done well or a show of support for a rider who appears to be struggling.  However, they could be given as a greeting to someone you know or given totally at random for no reason at all.  Zwift tries its best to be a social platform, in addition, to be a training tool.  Even though you are in your basement all alone, you can receive a ride on and suddenly realize that you are not alone; those avatars on your screen represent real people.

Given my relative ignorance.........errr............complete ignorance about cycling, I am more of a student of Zwift than I am a teacher.  Maybe I am not the most qualified individual to be explaining the basics of Zwift.

But it is fun.  Ride on.

Zwift, more injuries, and the question of signing up for the Peachtree 10K

 June 7th has arrived, and with it comes more questions about my running career in general and my participation in the AJC Peachtree Road Race in particular.  But first, let me back it up a month.

May 7th sees my back go out to a point where it is difficult to walk the next day.  I will spare my loyal readers the political aspects of whether the injury is work-related, but since there was no real point of injury, I can not in good faith report it as workman's comp.  In the days and weeks that follow, I make some progress, but it is still painful to walk any distance.

Enter Zwift.  For those not familiar with this program, Zwift is a virtual training program that allows users to cycle in a virtual world while using a bike equipped with a trainer and some basic tracking equipment.  I acquired the basics when I was injured previously but never really set anything up with a virtual trainer and pretty much forgot everything was there once I healed enough to start running again—time to take inventory and see if indoor cycling can work.

I locate my daughter's ten-year-old bike in the garage, and to my surprise, all of the sensors seemed to work just fine.  I found the cheap dumb trainer that I used for the last attempt at indoor cycling, set everything up, and was biking in place in no time.  My first few runs were simultaneously recorded in Garmin, which features the ant+ platform, and Wahoo, which is set up with Bluetooth technology.  I was somewhat astonished to find that everything was not only working but working well.  Both platforms were recording the data in real-time and seemed to read the same distances and speed.  Throw in a little Netflix, and I am good to go.

After about a week, I was wondering if signing up for Zwift might be a logical step.  The cycling was not aggravating my back at all, so I took the plunge and signed up for the free trial.  First things first, syncing my equipment.  If you are a serious cyclist, you can buy all kinds of sophisticated equipment to monitor your ride; however, my Wahoo sensors seem to do the trick and are synced rather quickly.  After setting up my avatar, I am ready to roll.  Your first ride on Zwift starts with a tutorial about the ride and its metrics, the social aspects and interacting etiquette with other "Zwifters," and various challenges you will encounter.

Zwift offers such features as rides with varying degrees of terrane, multiple recording of various metrics (it should be noted that Zwift can estimate your wattage if you do not have a trainer or a dedicated power meter) on your ride, races that not only give you different challenges but group you with Zwifters roughly compatible with your ability, group rides, pacers, and even structured workouts similar to what you get on a Peloton without the trainer.  The routes are virtually in various cities around the world, such as London and New York. Still, the main setting is in a fictional land called Watopia, complete with small villages, volcanos, snowy mountains, and jungle trails.

My first week on Zwift is mostly spent on free rides exploring Watopia; however, I cycled in Richmond and the Makuri Islands, the latter being another fictional land based on Japanese culture.  I did do a workout that was challenging for multiple reasons, but mostly due to duration.  I also participated in a 10-mile race; I finished in a respectable mid-table position.  What surprised me the most was my Strava score, which was higher than any running week that I had recorded.  The perfect segway in my status for the Peachtree 10K?  You bet!

I did end up signing up for the Peachtree 10K.   While I have no idea how I will feel on July 4th weekend, I decided to take the chance.  The registration, while noting you could run on the 3rd, the 4th, or virtually, gave no choice or option as to which one you could pick.  That really is not my biggest concern.  I have to admit I feel better today, and I hope that the training that I am doing for Zwift will help me in the race.  Keep your fingers crossed.

See you in Watopia.