Today ended the first full week of 2023. I rode every day, 3 days on Zwift and four days on the road. A very good start for the year. I am ahead of all of my previous years that I have mileage data for.

Before church this morning while eating breakfast I watched the women’s UCI Cyclocross World Cup Zonhoven, from Belgium. Then after church I watched the men’s UCI Cyclocross World Cup Zonhoven. Lots of sand.

No sand for me. I decided to ride Zwift to wrap up my week of biking. I wanted to ride at least 15 miles and Makuri Islands looking inviting. Opening the Zwift desktop program Makuri Islands wasn’t listed as a free ride world. So I went to the companion app and created a meetup in Makuri Islands on the Wandering Flats route. The route was 16.2 miles including a short lead-in and 476 feet of climbing according to ZwiftInsider.com. Almost all of the climbing was on one hill starting around the 18km point. My actual climbing 492 feet and 16.26 miles long. The climb had a 10% spot but it didn’t last long and my legs got me over the top. My Wahoo Kickr Core upped the resistance but I stayed in the saddle all the way up. This was my third ride on this route.

Because Makuri Islands wasn’t a free ride world there wasn’t many other Zwifters. The nearby Zwifters ranged from 1100 at the start down to 800 at the end of my ride. I rode with a few people for short periods but mostly alone.

While I rode inside I lost my Strava local legend for the VR Drag on Valley Ranch Parkway. But I got this 2nd fastest time on Wandering Flats (58:01). Relative effort for this week shows “steady progress”.