When I checked how many miles I rode last New Year’s Day I also saw how far I rode the next day, 17 Zwift miles. Since I was short 1 mile yesterday I wanted to make up for that with today’s bike ride. I planned to ride outside but after last Thursday’s ride and getting caught in the rain I didn’t want to chance that again today. As I watched the weather a brief light rain fell at home. Checking every so often I saw water dripping from the eves. That meant Zwift riding today. Looking at the upcoming events in the Zwift companion app I saw one group riding the Watopia Volcano Flat route but their pace was above what I ride. So I thought why not do a “free ride” on the route and the same distance. They were doing 3 laps for a total of 23.3 miles. This would put me above the miles for the first 2 days of 2022.

Looking at the weather radar after the ride my decision probably was correct with plenty of rain clumps showing. Water was still dripping from the eves too. Possibly morning rain tomorrow too. Another Zwift ride day.

In the Zwift companion app I saw I wasn’t alone, over 22, 000 Zwifters were online. I started at 11:11 AM. There was a .3 mile lead-in and about 7.6 miles per lap. Climbing was modest at 151 feet per lap but I climbed more, 495 feet total over 23.33 miles. The climbing was spread along the ride with rolling hills, no climb stood out. As I rode I listened to SiriusXM Sixties Gold and then switched to Pandora’s Lauren Daigle Radio.

The first 2 laps I tried to keep my cadence in the 80’s but the last lap I lowered that to the 70’s. Before starting the ride I used the Wahoo Utility app to do the weekly spin down for the Wahoo Kickr Core trainer. This seemed to make a difference in the effort. Before the spin down I was pedaling to warm up but had not started the ride and the effort seemed high. After the spin down it didn’t feel so hard.