It’s been raining out. A good day to ride indoors. I chose the Watopia Mountain Route. I wasn’t sure how I was going to feel. When I hopped on, the legs felt good to start, so I knew that I could put in a good time. My Halo Replay was going, I was within a few seconds of it for most of the ride. It took about 12 to 15 minutes to reach the base of the climb. Once there, I performed in and out of the saddle efforts. Mostly out of the saddle. In the saddle to recover, hydrate, wipe sweat, etc. I was able to put down about 3 W/kg. Some times more, sometimes bit less. I was on good time, so I kept the tempo going to the summit. I posted a PR. From there it was to the radio tower. I went pretty deep and my right quad was hinting on cramping, so I had to let up for it to recover. I kept the tempo steady and put it in my easy gears while doing in and out of the saddle efforts. I made it to the summit a bit over a minute behind my Halo Replay. From there, it was downhill going back to town. I stretched, hydrated, etc. I noticed that my Halo Replay was withing about 38 seconds or so ahead. I had about 4.5 miles or so to go. I was wondering if I could catch up. After about 2 miles of effort, I wasn’t bringing him back quick enough, so I scrapped that plan. I put in a solid dig through the sprint segment. I think I posted around 23rd or so. From there, headed back to the finish while trying to keep the tempo going. The sprint effort put me into a deficit, so I was having to recover a bit while maintaining my momentum. After crossing the finish, I commenced the cooldown. I slowly brought my HR down. After a bit over 20 miles into the ride, I shut it down till my HR reached 112BPM.

Concentration was good. I was in the zone most of the time. The morale felt pretty good. Patience was in check. Balance and form felt good. Nutrition was good. I fed a Clif Bar before the start of the ride, it held me over plenty. No hunger signs during the ride. I drank most of my sport drink, no water. Ailments were minimal. Some mild hand soreness and the hinting of cramps on my right upper quad that didn’t escalate. Gear worked flawlessly. The last time I rode the trainer, the rear part of the trainer started to shift to one side and I had to stop a few times to straighten it. This time, I put some inner tube pieces that I cut from one with a puncture. I placed it under the rear feet and the trainer did not budge. Note to self, will do that from now on. Other notes, there were about 24,000 riders on Zwift when I hopped on. Most of which were on the Watopia map.