As predicted, it's raining today. Perfect day for an in-door ride. I wanted to do the Alp du Zwift route. I planned on doing half the climb, as I was unsure how much time it would take to make the summit. I got my gear and kit ready and hopped on. The map is called the Mountain Sky route. It goes through a jungle region and then to the climb. About 4 to 5 miles of riding just to get to the base. I made my way to the climb. I'm not sure why, but it feels like I'm pushing more watts than normal. I was doing 200 Watts+ for most of the climb. The climb has no reprieve. It's uphill all the way. I was out of the saddle for the majority of the climb. HR in the 130's for the first half and 140+ in the second. I kept the tempo nice and steady. No heroics. I was well within my limits. I was doing better than most others. Not exactly sure what to make of it... Otherwise, the ride went quick. When I reached 1 hour into the ride, I was on turn 6. I figured why not go to the summit as it was getting interesting. So, I made my way to the summit in good time. Just over 57 minutes for the climb. From that point, I was on cool-down. Soft pedalling for 5 to 10 minutes. I ended up chugging the entire bottle of Accelerade. I was feeling a bit empty on the stomach towards the last 15 minutes.
But never escalated.
Concentration felt good. Few lapses. In the zone. I was sufficiently captivated by the Zwift simulator. Balance and form felt good. Ailments, maybe a hint of lower quad soreness. Gear is working well. Zwift looks great in 4K mode. And the laptop worked like a charm. No lagging. Other notes, there were over 2400 riders on this map, today.