Zwift for All

I have to admit I do like Zwift in the winter months, I can't bothered to get there in the dark and wet, feeling freezing cold and miserable. Maybe it's an age thing but give me the heat anytime and any place!

The marvellous thing about Zwift is you can do your training rides indoors, in the warmth and comfort of your own home and get just as much out of it as if your riding outside. Don't get me wrong indoor training is great, but it doesn't beat the feeling of a hot summers days, out and about on the bike. But I get the same buzz from Zwift as I do from the outdoors.

I tend to do about 20 miles per session, 4 sessions per week and one 30 miler cycle outside over each weekend, weather permitting. I'll be honest, I haven't tried the workouts or the club rides as I'm a bit of a loner when it comes to cycling. However in saying that I'm about to take part in a club ride around London, so I'll let you know how I get on.

In saying my last statement, I love the hill climbing of Zwift and enjoy the completion of riding against or with other riders from all over the world. There is some satisfaction in your 60s when you know your ahead of some youngster and your piling on the power at 400 watts up a nice 15% gradient!

From the training I've very much got in to the cadence and rpm together with my heart rate and wattage, something which before Zwift I had no knowledge about.

I'm not a full blown trainee addict, because at 61 I feel I've seen and done it, but I do like to keep a reasonable pace and wattage and am in interested in improving my FTP which at the moment is around 260, but then I am 89 kilos and need to lose some weight!

I used to do my indoor cycling training on a simple Tacx, I can't believe that I used to sit on a bike for an hour or so listening to music happily pedalling away. Then I went on standard rollers, same thing just listening to the music. Now I can happily go for a couple of hours watching my large TV setup in front of me, seeing me pedal away with others in the UK, Austria, Canada or even Yorkshire and the fictitious land of Watopia!

 

The other marvellous thing about Zwift is the app called Companion which lets you chat with your fellow cyclists. You can give them "ride ons" and encourage them, or just follow and chat, all good fun. Believe me, when your pedalling away on a 20% gradient, it helps when you get some thumbs up from a fellow rider!