Saturday Morning Zwift Ride Report, 3/12/22

By Michael Bello
Published 03/12/2022; Updated 03/12/2022

As the rain and snow visited Western Mass this morning, it was only fitting that we rode a route on the Makuri Islands called “Chasing the Sun.” This is one of the new routes unveiled last month.

Something was seriously off this morning. Zinj, who is always late, was the first rider in game and on Discord. Of course, he was back to his old ways as we had to remind him to get on his bike as the ride officially started.

We had seven riders (Dusty, Henry, Melissa, Tiffany, Tim, Zinj, and me) for the ride. After three Saturdays away, it was nice to be back riding with the group. Melissa and Tim did a great job filling in as ride leaders while I was away.

I received a cryptic emoji text from Melissa this morning. Initially, I thought it was a threat, but then I figured out that the fire and knife emojis meant that she would be late because she needed to drop her kids off at wilderness camp. She was slightly later than normal for drop off Saturdays. It turned out that one of her kids did not react well to the windy roads heading up through Conway.

Not to be outdone, Tiffany attempted the challenging Climber’s Gambit route this morning. Her power went out approximately a mile before completing the route. As she went to check her circuit breaker, she walked through a special surprise left by her dog! Tiffany was remarkably happy when she joined us considering the events of the morning.

Tim filled us in on his new job. Unfortunately, the vending machine with the two-plus-year-old hard boiled egg in it will be staying at his old firm.

We had a long chat about translating indoor to outdoor riding. We all had slightly different feelings on the issue, but agreed that the fitness translates. Melissa is looking to race outside and we discussed the different options in Western Mass.

This coming week, the conclusion to the hill climb series will be the Alpe du Zwift, while the road race finale will also ascend the mountain! It will be a challenging week. Dusty and Melissa were strategizing on how to tow Charlie and me up the mountain in under 60 minutes.

We rode 30 miles with 1,392 feet of climbing. I was the slowest rider and finished the ride in 1 hour and 50 minutes.

Melissa, Zinj, and I earned the Chasing the Sun route achievement, which doubled our XP points for the route. Despite joining more than 20 minutes late, Melissa somehow earned the route achievement!

Here is the NCC Zwift schedule: