Since buying in August 2019 I put off the spin down ride on my Wahoo Kickr Snap smart trainer until before today’s Zwifting. Maybe I should’ve waited longer. It only took a few minutes to do the spin down. Using the Wahoo Utility app the instructions said to slowly pedal up to 23 mph, stop pedaling and let the trainer spin down to a stop. All went as planned and I finished the spin down with 3 minutes to the start of the ride at 11:55 AM. The ride lasted an hour using the Harrogate course.

The course includes some undulating hills and downhills, of course, but not a lot of flat sections. Not long after starting I noticed my legs felt tired and I could not get above 200 watts like in previous rides, not for long but bursts. The whole ride was like that, particularly riding uphill. Before 8% to 10% climbs challenged me but today I slowed down and seemed to barely get to the top. That was when I began to suspect the spin down on the smart trainer changed the calibration. I don’t have any data except my struggling legs throughout the ride as proof. Watching my position among the group of 635 riders signed up I started out in the mid 200’s, improved to the 190’s and began falling down to the 450’s position but at the end I finished 34th in Group D, in the top 6% of the group. I am not sure how I did that based on what I my legs performed during the ride. My average watts was 96 while the rider in front and rider behind me came in at 159 and 160. I was very efficient, I guess. To confirm this somewhat, Strava gave me three ribbons for fast times. Wednesday I will have a chance to try again with the weather forecast calling for rain and temperature in the 50’s.

Maybe another factor was the length of time of the ride. This is the first hour long Zwift ride since January 27th when I raced stage 4 in the Tour de Zwift.

Screenshots from today’s ride.