In the past six weeks, I’ve done 9 power tests and 8 workouts for Zwift Academy, 4 Zwift Racing League races, 4 MyWhoosh races, 2 Zwift Grand Prix, and 1 ZADA test.
Somehow, I also had two long-weekend trips which included zero training, and my fitness is better than ever.
My main goal for the month of September was to take a run at Zwift Academy, the yearly program that has one men’s and one women’s contract on offer for Alpecin-Deceuninck and Canyon // SRAM, respectively.
I’d never even tried Zwift Academy before because, 1) the workouts and power tests looked really hard and, 2) I didn’t think I even had a chance. But this year was different because I knew that my power numbers were good – good enough to make it to the Zwift Academy finals? I’ll find out soon.
As the power analysis guy, I know what it takes to compete at the WorldTour level. Secondly, I know what it takes to make the Zwift Academy finals. Of course, there are so many other factors at play including age, race experience, bike handling skills, and my strong suit: personality. To make it to the finals would mean going to Alpecin-Deceuninck’s team training camp and basically getting a try-out.
Inspired by the prospect of going from Zwift to WorldTour – wouldn’t that be quite the story – I gave it my all during the four-week Zwift Academy which included six workouts plus two Pro Contender workouts. We’ll skip over the boring details and summarize the Pro Contender workouts as five power tests in two rides.
First, I completed the 4-minute and 12-minute power tests, in which I crushed my PRs.
4-minute: 7.5w/kg
12-minute: 6.4w/kg
A week later, I went after the 30-second, 1-minute, and 2-minute power tests. I scored a PR, tied my PR, and limped to the finish of those tests, in that order.
30-second: 14w/kg
1-minute: 10.9w/kg
2-minute: 7.8w/kg
Zwift Academy also included a Baseline and Finish Line ride, which was basically three power tests in one ride. While these rides were technically focused on segment times, they ended up being 1-minute, 20-second, and 6-minute power tests for me. Here are my results:
[Baseline Ride // Finish Line Ride]
1-minute: 10.8w/kg // 11.1w/kg
20-second: 14.5w/kg // 14.7w/kg
6-minute: 6.7 // 6.8w/kg
You’re probably tired of hearing about power tests by now, so imagine how tired I was of actually doing them. Needless to say, I won’t be doing any power tests for a while.
Other highlights of the month included two long weekends after which I was nervous to return to training. I’ve messed this up in the past, taking too much time off and then struggling to regain my fitness in the following weeks. I like to think that I’ve learned from my mistakes, and it seems like I structured my training a lot better this time.
During both trips, I left town on Friday evening and returned to training on Tuesday or Wednesday. My plan for each period was to run a slight overload heading into the weekend, allowing me to actually recover in my first ~2 days off. I did some light exercise (walking, hiking, volleyball, beach cruise) during those weekends, and I think that staying active also prevented me from losing too much fitness.
However, I pushed it too far with beach volleyball one weekend, and I ended up with a sore knee that is still bothering me four weeks later. I have the pain and injury under control, but I still need to adjust my position or training soon to allow my knee to fully heal.
Now for the September race highlights.
First up was the beginning of the Zwift Racing League – Season 1. Our NeXT pb Enshored roster is split up between three different divisions (i.e. time zones), so we never have the full Grand Prix squad together. Nevertheless, the ZRL is always fun and super hard since most of the races are savage points races.
It just so happens that my division (12:30pm CST) includes the majority of the Wahoo Le Col Zwift GP team who lead the standings after two rounds. I’ll get to that in a minute.
But before the Zwift GP, the first round of the ZRL took place on Climber’s Gambit, and I was really looking forward to this race. It’s incredibly rare that a Zwift race finishes on a climb, let alone the Epic KOM Reverse. It’s one of the hardest climbs in Zwift with average gradients of around 9%.
I finished 2nd on the day, doing a PR (at the time) of 6.1w/kg for over 13 minutes.
The following week, I really struggled in the sprint-heavy ZRL on Park Perimeter Loop, but coming up on Friday was the first round of the Zwift Grand Prix. Formerly called the Zwift Premier League, this is the highest level of racing on Zwift, including extremely strict verification protocols and worldwide live streams. I was so nervous during the warm-up, I could barely keep my heart rate below 150bpm.
My race consisted of a 3.8km hill climb, which basically translated to a 4-minute max effort. I set a massive PR (7.3w/kg for 4min 10sec) but only finished 6th out of 12 riders in my round. I was happy with my performance but disappointed in my result.
That’s one of the most confusing places to be as an athlete – when you did the best you could and performed better than you ever have before, yet the result is below your expectations. In those moments, I am simultaneously happy and sad, it just depends on which part you’re thinking about.
Since it’s October 17th, I should tell you what happened in the first two weeks of October.
After finishing Zwift Academy, I readied myself for the second round of the Zwift GP. I wrote a full race recap for The Zommuniqué which you can find here. Long story short, I earned my best-ever individual result at the highest level of Zwift racing by making it to the final round and finishing 5th 🙂
In the second week of October, I took a break from high-intensity training, mostly. I raced just once during the week, and with that extra bit of freshness in my legs, I whacked out a 6-minute PR of 6.9w/kg. Always remember the importance of rest and recovery.
I have a lot to look forward to in the next couple of weeks, including the results of Zwift Academy and the next round of the Zwift Grand Prix. Coach Alex Coh has been helping me stay on track, healthy and injury-free, which is especially challenging during heavy blocks of racing.
We’re not that far away from the UCI eSports World’s Qualifier either, and the start of the Echelon Racing League on Wahoo x RGT. Here’s everything that’s coming up before Thanksgiving:
___
Zwift Grand Prix – Round 3: October 21st
Zwift Racing League – Season 2: begins November 7th
UCI eSports World’s Qualifiers: November 13th
Zwift Grand Prix – Round 4: November 18th
Echelon Racing League – Round 1: November 19th
Wow – terrific power results – keep going!