Lateralus - Week 1

 

Zwift Big Spin:  I wanted the wheelset but got the Headphones, which are also pretty fun.

I named the AI-generated training plan "Lateralus."  Spiral out, keep going.  

The past few days have been a lot like past returns to Zwift - I'm excited about the game and starting to min/max my physical gains and my time ingame.  I know that I really haven't ridden in almost 2 years and I've backslid a lot - this impatience/frustration is making me want to push harder when I really should be building foundation.

The new frame upgrade system in Zwift made me really think about how to approach it, and while I bought and started upgrading the Canyon Aeroroad 2024 first, I have since shifted to the Zwift Steel frame. With the slider set to blue, it looks like my Bianchi Imola - my ride back when I did Triathlons.  As a 'beginner' frame, it'll grant +5% each to XP and Drops and I'll need a lot of both in the months to come.  

Zwift Swag - ZBS Headphones

Today I kicked over several achievements/bonuses.  I earned level 33, got the Zwift Big Spin Headphones, route badge for Greater London 8.  I also messed up on the strategry of the route, big time.

In full transparency, I had big plans - instead of the AI-recommended "steady, comfortable pace," I selected a custom Pyramid workout that runs a series of 2-3 min segments in Z2 alternating to a "hard" segment that progressively gets harder.  At the halfway point the "hard" iteration ramps back down symmetrically.  I started out, was feeling good, and cranked the bias UP progressively until the early intervals felt 'right.'  'Right' happened to be 125%.  Although the early segments were fine, by the time the "hard" was into Z3 and bumping Z4, I was hurting.  So, I started skipping those segments to keep things in Z2.  But, that happened to be basically at the base of the big climb.  

In hindsight, I could have arranged this workout differently, sandbagged until the hill and THEN pushed (duh) but that's not how I was thinking about it. I also didn't expect to be on the bike almost 75 minutes. 

In any event, I am calling Week 1 of Lateralus complete.  Week 2 will repeat a bit, building foundation, and then things start to get interesting.