I ended up in 57th out 88 racers and all I could think after the race was, “What the fuck was that?” Both in part because of my lackluster placing as well as how the race unfolded. This felt way harder than Monday. 

Let’s look at the numbers

TrainingPeaks gave Monday’s race a training stress score (TSS) of 107 and an Intensity Factor (IF) of 1. Thursday’s race TrainingPeaks gave it a TSS of 98 and an IF of .98. So for all intents and purposes, the data says Thursday’s race wasn’t actually more difficult than Monday’s.

Based on my body, my average heart rate during Monday’s 26.3-mile race was 172 with a max of 182. I averaged 212 watts, hitting 447 watts. Also, when I look at my PW:HR (power to heart rate, aka: aerobic decoupling), it shows 5.96%. According to Joe Friel, “fit endurance athletes experience a decoupling rate of less than 5%.” All aerobic decoupling means is how far away my heart rate drifts from my power output. The more drift, the higher the percent goes. The higher the percentage, the less aerobically fit someone is. So in Monday’s race, I was a little less than “aerobically fit” according to Friel

Thursday’s 27.4-mile race, I averaged a 173 heart rate and maxed out at 186. I averaged 214 watts and my max watts were 523. My PW:HR was 7.32% which I think shows I’m fatigued more than it shows I’m aerobically unfit.

I don’t think the six burnt cookies I ate the night before helped at all. I also drank a glass of wine over the previous nights and typically, I don’t do that. So maybe those contributed to this performance plus the fatigue from Monday’s.

How the race went

Still couldn’t hang on to the front group for long, but I was able to hold on for about 14 minutes which is two minutes longer than Monday. I stayed with them until the second long 3% incline. So, you know, small wins.

I was part of the first group dropped and no one wanted to work. The group behind us finally caught up. I know I took to the front too often to get us to go faster and wore myself out that way. I didn’t know what I should have done. I was stuck between hanging out in the pack and letting the group behind catch us or attacking and trying to catch up to the group that was :14 ahead.

I knew I wasn’t strong enough to solo ride so I stayed in the group that didn’t want to work. 

I think I wasted too much energy trying to stay toward the front of the group instead of being okay at the back of the pack. I was worried someone would attack and I’d be too far back to respond. But let’s be honest, if someone attacked, I don’t know if I could have actually responded anyway. It was hard enough to stay with the group.

Zwift is totally different from IRL races but there are similarities. For instance, if you’re in the front of the group, you’ll expend more enegy than people within the bunch. You know when your avatar is in the draft or not. Your avatar sits up when it’s in the draft. It ducks down when it’s not. Too often I saw my avatar ducking down which means I probably used too much energy.

Finally, I took too long getting to my max watts in the final sprint which likely cost me 16 positions. I was 16 positions behind the chick that outsprinted our group. I was behind her by two seconds. That’s all. I lost 16 positions by two seconds.

This helped me realize that I’m a “ramper.” In other words, I ramp up my speed or watts instead of going from 0 to full sprint. Daniela pointed out that it took me too long to get to my max watts and by then, others had hit theirs and passed me. Now I know what to work on (standing sprint starts).

Thoughts on tomorrow’s race

Sunday’s race is all climbing and like Donny in The Big Lebowski, I’ll be out of my element.

With Zwift, it’s not just your power that influences how fast you go in the game, it’s also your height and weight. I’ve become very away of my weight through these two races when I look at the other women’s height and weight. I’ve seen more women taller than me who weigh less. Which, in Zwift, doesn’t actually work for them but then I see their w/kg and immediately start comparing.

It’s stupid. It’s unhealthy. It’s not useful.

I try to remind myself that my body just likes being 130 pounds. I also like to eat cookies and s’mores and chips and if I really want to drop weight, I need to ditch those things. Also, it takes time to increase your FTP. I can’t wish myself stronger and I have to give myself some slack.

Tomorrow’s course is Quatch Quest which is 28.5 miles with 5,599 feet of elevation gain. It’s going to suck. It’ll suck more than the previous two races because this is the most climbing out of both of them combined plus some.

I’m not a strong climber compared to people who are strong climbers. I know I’m not letting anyone down because no one was counting on me but I still feel this weird tinge of disappointment.

I really hoped to get the team some points so we could qualify for the Invitational League but I know it won’t happen. We are going into tomorrow’s race with zero points and they’re only selecting the top 15 teams. Instead, I’ll focus on getting better at climbing, trying to stay with the main group, and just giving it the ol’ college try. Ain’t nothing else I can do.

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