The Zwift Everest Challenge

Byrichard
Reading Time: 3 minutes

This summer I climbed over 8848 metres in a single month and now I have just completed the Zwift Everest challenge as well. This challenge, on Zwift, is much easier than in the real world because you are not carrying water, the weight of your bike, dealing with keeping yourself balanced on your bike or traffic. 

Using a Fluid Trainer.

I don’t use a smart trainer. I use an Elite Qubo Fluid trainer and to climb I use information on speed to decide how hard to work. If I feel lazy I can pedal at 100 watts for a long period of time to get to the top but that isn’t in my nature. I like to push myself. I push until I get tired and then I recover, and then I push again. I also loe to sprint to the end and try to beat my previous time. Yesterday I rode up at a relatively lazy pace. When I got to within 1.5 kilometres of the top I really put out a lot of energy and when I reached the summit I was spent. 

I put out an average power of 291 watts for an effort of 2 minutes 29 with a peak at 612 watts and a cadence of between 100 and 121 pedal strokes a minute. It might seem strange to put out such a lot of energy on a bike indoors but the feeling of accomplishment is the same as if you had done it in the real world. 

I like climbing challenges because I live in a mountaineous landscape therefore reaching long ride distances is more challenging. It’s not that I don’t have the ability to ride for four or five hours but that if I ride four to five hours I travel one hundred kilometres because I have to climb cols if I want an interesting GPS track. 

Stamina and technique

Stamina and technique do improve as you get used to climbing. You might be in the easiest gear going just above “stalling” speed but you endure up that hill until you get to the top. On Zwift you ride your bike in the physical world but a top of the range frame and wheels in the virtual realm. This means that you’re achieving times that you could never reach in the physical world with your current bike setup. 

With a dumb trainer like mine, in contrast to a smart trainer with force feedback, you only see that you’re climbing because A) your speed decreases and B)The gradient indicator tells you that you’re on a hill. With a smart trainer it does get harder and you may want to switch to an easier gear Some people even add a gradient machine at the front to tilt the bike. 

With what I describe above there are two things that you do not get with virtual climbing. The first of these is a sensation of altitude as the air gets thinner and colder and secondly you do not get that fantastic ride down. On an indoor trainer whether you’re going up or down you still need to keep pedalling. In the real world when you’re going downhill you rest and recover unless you’re one of the top descenders of the Tour De France or other cycling races. 

Conclusion

I haven’t tried a smart trainer so my experiences and opinions on virtual climbing are based on theory rather than practice. I have used recumbent bikes but they give you a power to achieve rather than a sensation of climbing. Virtual climbing, as I have experienced it, is easier than climbing in the real world because if you go to slowly you don’t fall, and you don’t have the sudden very steep gradients that you sometimes experience in the physical world. Most indoor trainers are blocked at 12 percent if my memory serves me well. In the real world they can reach 23 percent or more. 

Similar Posts

Zwift events, a social ride and a race

Zwift events, a social ride and a race

Byrichard

Today I participated in two Zwift events, a social ride and a race. The social ride was one hour of pedalling at a comfortable pace trying to keep to the same speed as the group. Rather than trying to be as fast as the group I was trying to pace myself to be within the peloton rather than riding off. 


Social rides are amusing because you start on the peer and wait for the counter to get down to zero and when it does you go from being on a home trainer in the real world cycling on a home trainer in the virtual world to cycling on the roads of Watopia. Social rides are interesting because you have people from Australia, England, Denmark and many other countries, so long as they are in a timezone where it would be reasonable to cycle at such a time of day. 


It’s the first time that I get out of bed, look at the schedule for Zwift events and feel excited about doing something virtual like riding a bike. Keep in mind that today I could have burned diesel by heading to St Triphon to climb with people I know. I felt no motivation to drive that far so I was happy to stay home. 


Don’t be fooled into thinking that riding a bike on Zwift is riding an apartment bike because it isn’t. It’s similar to riding a bike in the real world, with real hills, virtual drafting, virtual fellow drivers, no cars and more. What is real is the conviviality, the desire to share a few phrases, the cheering and the desire to ride as a group. 



During the ride we did sprint twice and on the first sprint I beat my personal record and on the second go I had less energy remaining. During the first sprint I put out up to 934 watts in theory. That’s enough energy for me to rest on the handle bars for a little bit before catching my breath and continuing. 


When I ride in the real world it’s usually alone and I race against myself but when it’s on Zwift I have a choice between virtual social rides, virtual races, training, or just a “as the wind takes me” option. Of course there is no wind, I mean that you ride for the pleasure of riding. 


A Race up a Volcano



The second ride of the morning, about 15 minutes after the first ride finished was a 15km race up the side of the volcano on the Watopia map. I thought that with my abilities I should select group D. I pedalled during the countdown to keep warm and a few seconds before the race started I pedalled at a higher cadence to compensate for the lag that I experience with my current setup. I started well but I tired more quickly than most. While I was trying to maintain 200 or more watts they were racing off into the distance. I found myself in 110th or lower positions but I continued pedalling. I tried to maintain between 180 watts and 220 watts. I kept looking at the riders beside me and most were category C riders.


Keeping up


I worked hard to keep the power up and at moments when I felt that I needed to rest I changed gear, changed my cadence, but tried to keep the cadence up. Usually my cadence is about 85 when I’m riding alone but in this race, as I tried to keep up it reached an average of 105 strokes per minute. Over the duration of the race I was generating about 2.61 watts per kilo. 


I didn’t know what to expect from the other racers so my goal was simply not to be dropped into last position. After that and as I got closer to the end my goal was to be within the top one hundred so although my body wanted me to slow down I kept working at it. I was pushing at over 200 watts for 14:45 in this race. 


I spent hours and days training on Zwift before I felt ready to try a race. I trained for multiple sessions and those sessions got me used to pushing beyond my comfort levels for minutes at a time and it paid off in this race. If I continue training I can aim for better positioning. Today I was in 6th place in D category out of over 40 riders and 99th out of 180+ riders. So half of the racers have trained more than me. I can continue training and see where I come up next time. 


What I like about the race, that I don’t have except for sprints is information on how far it is to the end of the race. If I know for how many more kilometres I have to make an effort then psychologically I can push harder. This was just a short race at 15km and I would struggle on a longer race and I would struggle on the flat. 


I want to participate in more races and I need to choose which training course to attempt next. It’s nice to race virtual cyclists rather than real cars, e-bikes or people on lighter bikes than the one I ride in the physical world. In the virtual world today I was riding a trek emonda. This might be geeky but it’s pushing me to be fitter so fewer people can object. 

From Nyon to Vesancy
|

From Nyon to Vesancy

Byrichard

In 2015, I was exploring on a mountain bike when I found a road above La Rippe that was closed to traffic, so I decided to explore it. I managed to cycle a certain distance before I met a rockfall blocking the road, so I had to turn back. I then tried again in 2018 and I got quite close to the top but decided to give up and turn around. Within the last three weeks or so I have attempted the ride again, and this time I have made it up not once, but twice.


The first time I attempted it this year, it was exploration. I used Komoot to set the destination point, and then I started cycling up. This ride is a challenge because it starts steep, and it stays steep almost the whole way up. I read a comment that once you get to 1200 meters it gets easier. That’s almost at the top of the climb.





It is easier to do this type of climb if you look at distance remaining, rather than altitude. It is the type of ride that you do one kilometre at a time. Every kilometre is earned. One nice aspect of this ride is that you have more wildlife. You hear rustling in the leaves, and you hear things scuttling around. I saw at least one Chamois, one snake and quite a few hikers. Hikers do not count as wildlife. You see some people walking upwards, and others walking downwards.


I like to find routes that either have very few cars, or no cars. Cars often drive too close and too far. The further we are from cars, the safer we are. It gives us the time to focus our attention on the effort and the challenge, rather than on safety. I wear normal shoes, rather than cycling shoes, for this climb. In a previous attempt I found that I wanted to stop but couldn’t, so I was stuck with continuing to climb until the gradient was gentler. That was not fun.


View of the Alps through the trees
View of the Alps through the trees


On this ride you have a good few of the Lac Léman as well as of the Alps and the Mont Blanc on the right day. When you get to what I consider the top there is nothing to do. I could go further and explore on the french side, but during a pandemic I prefer not to cross borders, especially on foot, with a bike on my back. I could go up on foot, and explore from the other side, and eventually link the two. In theory I can go up from La Rippe, over the top, across to the West of La Dole, rejoin La Cure, cycle to St Cergue and come down the fun road. We’ll see next summer.

Day Twenty-Two of ORCA in Switzerland – The Company of Cats

Day Twenty-Two of ORCA in Switzerland – The Company of Cats

Byrichard

Today during my walk this afternoon I surprised a cat on some stairs and I moved patiently. It brushed up against me so I started to stroke it. During this pandemic the only living things I have had physical contact with are cats. During a pandemic, if you’re not living with people, you are very limited.


Yesterday I did go out for a bike ride with a group of people, virtually. Before the ride I was feeling really down, and negative. After the ride I was feeling refreshed and relaxed. For the first time in three weeks I was able to do something physical without having to avoid people, worry about routing or anything else. All I had to do was pedal to the limit of my motivation and endurance.


If we went into full lock down then I would treat it as if we were in winter. I’d train hard, on the indoor trainer, so that when we are finally allowed more freedom in the outdoors I’d be fit enough to explore new routes.


The Shopping situation


When I went to the shops they were the emptiest I’ve seen them in a long time. I didn’t even need to queue to get in, although I did have a brief moment of over-exaggerating my steps as I was behind people walking slower than me. Everyone, or almost, walks slower than me, so that’s not a criticism of the people ahead of me. It’s good for you. You can use entirely different muscle groups as you behave in an eccentric manner. Even the self-checkout was empty, just one other person.


Of course in the process I forgot to buy plain rice so now I’m going to have to cook with wild rice today. I think playing the COVID-19 lottery, by going to the shops once a day, is risky enough. Wild rice is meant to be healthier anyway.


A Slow Down In New Cases


According to the figures I see, and articles in the press, it seems that the Pandemic has reached a plateau and we may be able to feel optimistic about the end coming in two or three weeks. Of course we have to be wary. With good weather more people are going out to enjoy the conditions, and the likelihood of another flareup is high if people are not careful.


Having said this I saw a tweet that the Canton De Vaud judiciary is going to start work again today, I saw that a shop selling coffee was open again and that a pet shop was open again too. These could be seen as signs, that more people are optimistic that things are improving.


Societal Change


I see that people are discussing whether society will have changed when this is all over and I believe that it will not have because of two key reasons. The first is that the wealthy, those with the power to effect change, will not have suffered like those that do not have the power to effect change. As a result many things will remain the same.


The second factor is rate of infection. When China was infected every other nation on earth had the opportunity to react, but as we see, after Italy was infected, no societies changed. Switzerland, France, Spain, The United Kingdom and the United States did not change.


It took governments saying “stay home, and self-isolate” for people to take action. To me this is a clear sign that the societal change people idealise is just that, an ideal.


Update: Victorian England was afraid of germs and diseases, which is why they wore white gloves and tried to keep their homes clean. The problem is that the paint they used to cover their walls was poisoning them, as was makeup and other elements of everyday life.


Side Effect



I have seen the headline in French and English that according to some people, the earth is less seismically active than usual. As none of the reputable news services have written about this story I am seeing it as just a curiousity, rather than something serious. It’s more likely that with less traffic, whether cars, trucks or planes, that seismometers, may detect less background noise.


In theory now would be the perfect time to have the LHC running, as there is less background noise.

Linear Bike Rides

Linear Bike Rides

Byrichard

Almost all of my bike rides are loops. The reason for this is that I am a single person, so I usually need to end where I start, either to get home, or to get to the car. This means that if I do a 30km loop it has to return to where it started eventually. 


Over the last two bike rides that I did they were linear. From Haute Morges to Nyon a few days ago, and vice versa today. The beauty of linear rides is that you make the effort unti you’re tired, and then you stop. With circular loops you cycle until you’re tired, and then you need to struggle to find the energy to make it home. With linear walks you don’t need to. 


With today’s linear bike ride I passed by a seaplane event. If I had had more time I would have stopped and watched them take off and land. It’s rare to see seaplanes, despite the Léman being such a great lake for them. It’s a large, often, especially in summer, calm body of water. Ideal for float planes. 


Float plane on the Léman
Float plane on the Léman


Aside from enjoying the pleasure of linear cycling I also cycled with two bags. I had a frame bag for the bike spares, and I had the Columbus saddle bag as well. I needed to have spare shoes and a change of clothes because I thought I might end up in a restaurant. I didn’t, but it’s good. 


I bring this up because riding with a saddle bag, rather than a backpack frees up the back from a certain amount of weight, as well as humidity. I cycled the entire bike ride without that bag ever bothering me, and that’s great. It’s nice to be able to carry more than fits into your back pockets, without worrying about weight distribution, sweat and more. It’s also nice because it didn’t wobble, or affect my balance. I focused on cycling, and my back was unencumbered. 


Now that I know that it feels comfortable I could consider cycling further, and trying to do something that is more adventurous, than cycling in loops. 

A Return to Cycling

A Return to Cycling

Byrichard

For three years I did not cycle. For one year it was because I broke my arm while cycling, The second year it was because we were in the first wave of this never-ending pandemic so I preferred not to stray too far from home. The third year it was because the pandemic was still not over, but it felt as if we had a chance. This year is different. This year we know that the Swiss government doesn’t care either way. For the Swiss the pandemic is over, whether that is true, or false.


A dry landscape view during a bike ride between France and Switzerland


In light of this we could continue to self-isolate and to avoid doing anything away from home but cycling is one of the rare things that we can do that doesn’t A) Require a car and B) Doesn’t require being indoors with others. For both of these reasons cycling is a good sport to practice when Covid denialism is government policy.


For this bike ride I intentionally went into France, to explore a little. Usually I forget the passport or other documents but not this time. It feels good to explore the old places, once more. Despite the never-ending pandemic, at least solitary cycling can range further afield.


My mental health would do a lot better if I knew that various European countries were working towards Covid-Zero, but as has become the tradition now, European countries are pretending the pandemic is over, so that there is another Autumn and Winter wave. This has become the new normal. The new normal is not moral. There is little we can do about this as private individuals except self-isolate.


Over the last day or two I have taken a break from JavaScript to look at Ruby. It feels like a very different type of language so it’s good to see how things work in another programming language. So far I am struggling with transposing the knowledge with some things, but others are clear. I decided to write the JS equivalent name in my notes, to help with comparing the two. I might continue in this line for the weekend, and resume my regular studying on Monday.

In Favour of Electric Bikes

In Favour of Electric Bikes

Byrichard

I considered getting an electric bike a few years ago. I didn’t for a single reason. When I spoke to a bike seller I asked whether bikes get stolen and I was laughed at for asking the question. I didn’t get an electric bike the next day. If we’re going to spend thousands of francs on an electric bike, to replace a car, or scooter, we don’t want to live in fear of it being stolen.

Experiment With Commuting

I continued to cycle, and walk. I walked up to five and a half million steps a year during the peak of pandemic self-isolation. My walking went down recently, because I have resumed cycling. I quite easily cycle to Geneva and back. I do this journey, not because I have anything to do in Geneva. I do it to prove to myself that the journey is a simple one that takes as long on a bike, as on the train. This is the case. I could get to work by bike, rather than by car or by train. I would have a healthy bike ride in the morning, and another in the evening.

Fit Enough To Ride With E-bikes

E-bikes are fast. They get you to twenty five kilometres an hour with relative ease, and then it’s just a matter of maintaining that speed. If you’re not fit then you’ll face the challenge of keeping up with e-bikes, and riding with them will be unpleasant.

The flipside of this is that electric bikes are enablers. They enable people who haven’t spent 53 hours riding their bikes in the last year, to keep up with those that have. They enable those with one fitness level, to ride along with someone of another.

The Liberating Benefit of E-Bikes

There was a time when I enjoyed going for bike rides but I felt limited by the hills around where I lived. I felt that they got in the way of me going for longer bike rides. It takes a certain amount of training and practice to go up and down hills. This training doesn’t take weeks or months. It takes years. There was a time when I felt that the bike I use didn’t have easy enough gears for climbs. With time and practice I no longer encounter that challenge.

I worked to get the cycling freedom that I now enjoy.

With electric bikes you get the same freedom, without putting in the leg work. (pun intended). With electric bikes non cyclists gain the freedom experienced by cyclists, within minutes rather than weeks, months or years. It enables people of varying levels of cycling proficiency to be equal.

And Finally

When I go for my bike rides I often see groups of people, either cycling together on self-powered bikes, or electric bikes. Electric bikes have democratised the sport. People that would have taken the car to breakfast, or to have coffee, are now enabled to cycle on hilly terrain to explore the landscape, without using a car. Parking a bike is easier than parking a car. Cycling is good for the environment and it gets people to enjoy an easier version of cycling.

For a while I wanted to get my own electric bike. Eventually I reached a level of fitness where an electric bike was no longer of benefit. I am in favour of electric bikes, as it makes it easier for others to join us on bike rides, despite a difference in fitness.

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.