That was the text I got this morning at 7:20am from Kevin (ex-pilot), letting me know what conditions were like on Skylin so he wasn’t going to be out there to ride with me. And I’m thinking this isn’t a day I feel like being out there in the muck, alone, especially if it’s just super-icky and not in some way epic, something you’d actually get cred for doing. Like the old days where I’d really be looking forward to riding in a big nasty storm with wind and rain and falling trees.

It was more fun when I was doing stupid stuff, but my Raynauds (my circulation issue that makes my hands lose all their blood if it’s even slightly cold) has become worse over the last few years, and I don’t know how waterproof the electric heated gloves are. Of course, that wouldn’t have mattered this morning, because it wasn’t raining, just mucky from the coastal marine layer.

I thought, briefly, about going out on the flats, doing a ride through Portola Valley, but that didn’t seem like it would be very fun and it would be difficult to time it right, getting in as much distance as possible and still getting back in time to take a shower and head to work.

So, back on the trainer. The good thing about the trainer is that you can’t really stand up on it for very long (it feels really un-natural) so you’re forced to stay in the saddle, something I probably need to do more of. The bad thing is that, still, I come up way short on average power. Today 156 average weighted power, 154 average, vs about 180 average weighted power on a normal ride on the road.

It’s funny… you wonder how you’re going to make it to the end, even before you get going. And the first two miles go by really fast!!! And then… it’s just drone on… and on… and on. You play games, looking at the miles ridden vs miles to go, kicking off the first third, then looking for miles ridden = miles to go (halfway there!), and next, getting to the top of the big climb. It tortures you, showing how long it took last time, and even gives you a “ghost” pacer (which is yourself the last time you rode it). Could not keep up with the ghost this time! Hate that! You give a bit of thought to putting in an heroic effort to try and catch the ghost, thinking once you pull that off, maybe you can keep up. Or maybe, like the pros do, just fly past! Yeah, fat chance. On the 34 minute climb today, the ghost finished about a minute ahead of me. No, maybe in my dreams. Just looked… the ghost was FIVE MINUTES ahead of me for the “Epic KOM” segment. And that was just three weeks ago that I was five minutes faster.

So you’re at the top, and it’s mostly downhill from there. You can rest, right? Wrong. Because soft-pedaling on the descent counts against your average power output! So you’re pushing almost as many (ok, few) watts heading down as you do going up. It gets worse. You don’t even go faster if you tuck in to become more aero.

One good thing- I do drink a lot more (as I should) on a trainer than in the real world. One bad thing- because you don’t want those average watts to fall too much, you resist cooling down at the end. That’s something Zwift and Strava ought to change; there should be a way you can designate the last three minutes of a ride as not counting against your averages.

Hopefully my last Zwift ride for a while.