They predicted rain for today. It was mostly sprinkling this morning. So, as I planned, I hopped on Zwift. Unfortunately, I had a mechanical from the start. For some reason, the rear derailleur didn't want to shift. So, I had to trouble-shoot the problem. Eventually, I narrowed it down to the cable. I had a spare and was able to install it. That fixed the problem, but more than 30 minutes had passed. Nevertheless, I hopped on Zwift and got on with business. I chose the Mountain Route. It took about 10 minutes to reach the base of the major climb. I had my Halo Replays going. I wasn't sure what sort of time I was going to post. My Halo Replay was leading for the first half or so. I had in mind that I wanted to try and keep him in sight. He didn't pull more than 10 to 15 seconds ahead. So, I started to put in a bit more wattage to see how close I could get. Eventually, I was on his heels. So, I decided to try and post a PR. By this point I was doing more than 3 W/kg. I kept the high tempo going. When I reached the tunnel, I knew I was on par. I used one of my power ups on the quick descent nearing the end of the climb. I kept the power down going through the finish. I posted a PR and placed around 7th or so. From there, I headed up the bonus climb. I started moderate. I think my quads were complaining the last time I did this ride, so I wasn't sure what to expect. Turns out that they behaved. I think I posted a PR, not 100% sure. The overall placing was good, too. After that, I headed back down the mountain. With about 10 minutes to go, I noticed I was doing good time for the lap. So, I put in an extra effort to post a PR. I pushed through the sprint segment, just holding high tempo, but not exactly sprinting. I crossed the finish line and posted a 90 PR. After crossing the finish line, I took a few moments to recover. I let the HR return to 112 BPM and then hopped off.

Concentration was good. I had a few things to think about. I was eager to get this ride under my belt. I was in the zone most of the time and the morale felt better when I figured out the problem with the shifting. Balance and form was good. Nutrition was good. I fed a banana, some grapes and a Clif Bar before hopping on. That held me over. Ailments were minimal. Some hand soreness when digging out of the saddle. After fixing the mechanical, the bike and trainer behaved perfectly. Other notes, I think there were about 3000 riders when I hopped on, including a Kiwi.