I planned ahead today and found a virtual ride with enough time before it started with the things I wanted. It turned out to be a 3 lap ride around Central Park in New York City. I rode around Central Park on a rental bike several years ago but the Zwift ride was very different. The title of this post says social ride but the hill near the end of each lap hit 11% incline where I bogged down to 5 mph each lap. Part of the slowing was to stay behind the orange barrier which marked the front of the ride. When I rode past the barried a message came up telling me to rejoin the group which meant slowing down. A countdown began but I don’t know what would happen if the countdown reach 0 and I was still in front of the orange curtain. I always slowed down and it caught and passed me but then I needed to pick up my speed right away or the group rode away from me.

At times the speed reached 42.5 mph according to Zwift and Strava. The downhills allowed to reach that speed. I started out trying to catch up with the group but on the first small hill I caught the back of the group and moved up to the middle after that. Some parts of the laps the watts fell to around 100 but going uphill I hit 315 watts as my max. I took these screenshots during the ride.

I wonder if Zwift changes the scenery to reflect the time of year. Looking at the screenshots it looks like the trees changed to fall colors. No falling leaves on the road though. In Houston the weather consisted of light rain and 51 degrees which kept me inside Zwifting. That may happen on Saturday depending on how warm it gets. The forecast calls for mid 60’s but if that happens after noon then Zwifting is where I will be. Sunday looks warmer.