Author: Jason

Cervélo Gravel Rush Series – Week 2

Gravel Rush checkpoint

Today’s workout was part of the Cervélo Gravel Rush Series. Week 2, in fact. I did the week 1 ride last Thursday. Week 1 was the Road to Ruins Route (18.4 miles, 905 ft. elevation climb). It was a tiring ride. Not to mention the fact that even though these are “rides” and not races, everyone treats them as races, even Zwift.

They list your position in the group, which of course brings out the competitive side of all these type A people (I include myself in there). As you can see, I am as slow as molasses. This is the last lap and I’m about to finish in the image above.

During week 1 we rode the gravel bike Cervélo Áspero and on Week two we rode it again, but on the Jungle Route (13.3 miles, 542 ft. elevation climb).

Cervélo Áspero Gravel Bike

Week 3 will be the Road to Ruins route again, but on the Cervélo R5, a road bike. That ride will be 18.4 miles and 905 ft. elevation climb, just like week 1. Then on week 4 we get to choose what we want to ride and that will be Road to Ruins again.

I’m doing this series for the kit, I like to collect the kit in the game, but mostly for the chance to win a real Cervélo Áspero bike. Everyone who finishes al four events (each week) will be entered to win this sweet gravel ride. It’s a beautiful bike!

Cervélo Áspero

Two more weeks to go. Today after finishing week 2 I got the kit. Now, I just need to get the bike! I love that Zwift is doing these series and running sweepstakes for the bikes. But you have to earn it. See you on the virtual trail! Ride on!

VeganCuts Box | December 2019

VeganCuts Box | December 2019
VeganCuts Box | December 2019
The girls and I look into this month’s vegancuts box

Winner! Hippeas Nacho Hippeas – I love these and so does Emily (6). They are like Cheetos but made from beans and of course vegan cheese.

Winner! Theo Dark Chocolate Sea Salt Bar – The girls and I shared this for dinner tonight. It was fantastic. I’ve seen this in our local Mother’s Market and will be getting more of them. So good!

Nugo Dark Chocolate Mocha Protein Bar – This was really good! You can taste all the chocolate for sure and the crunchy bits in the center taste like oreo. Very good and chocolatey. I would eat again!

Elma farms Poshi Marinated Artichokes – Even though my wife loves artichokes, she was not interested in these. They were donated to my in-laws, but I haven’t heard if anyone has enjoyed them yet.

Pirq Golden Vanilla Beverage – I enjoyed this very much. I’m not sure I would buy it myselff, but it wasn’t bad. I enjoy Orgain vegan drinks better though.

Pyure Organic Harmless Hunny – We didn’t try this and gave it away to a friend.

Navitas Organics Greens Essential Blend – Made this just the way that is outlined on the packaging, 8 ounces of almond milk and 1/2 a banana. Its okay, not too chalky, but came out a bit brown and thats, not a lovely color to drink. The taste needs some work, but it is healthy so there is that.

Beanitos Sea Salt Black Bean Chips – These were just okay. A good amount of salt, but don’t taste like regular tortilla chips.

Kibo Mediterranean Herb Chickpea Chips – Not sure I liked the Mediterranean herbs on the chips, but the chips themselves were okay. You can taste they are made with chickpeas so if that bothers you these are not for you.

Winner! Bobo’s Chocolate Chip Oat Bites – These are fantastic. I’ve been a big fan of Bobo’s ever since discovering them late last year. Many stores (Sprouts, Whole Foods, Mother’s Market) carry their products and I love all of them.

Humming Hemp Spicy Hemp Hearts – I had no idea how to incorporate these into something else, so like the artichokes, they went to the in-laws house.

Ellyndale Organics Keto Coconut Infusions Organic Coconut Oil Packets Non-Dairy Butter Flavor – This name is far too long for a product!

1st Meetup in Zwift

Today I tried my first meetup in Zwift. Here is a how-to from Zwift Insider if you want to try it out too. A couple of things I learned, if your friends are late even 1 second after start time, they will miss the ride. Also, I did our ride on a route that I had not yet gotten a badge for to see if I could do the ride and get credit for the route. The answer there is no. The route you choose on the meetup, you will not get a badge for. For visual learners here is a great how-to from the Lama:

Tour of Watopia | Stage 4 – Shorter Ride

Map and overview of today’s ride

Stage 4 of Watopia started yesterday. This ride is the shorter one at 18 miles. Some good elevation here that helped me towards my tron bike. My progress towards that bike has been and continues to be very slow. I’m just not a climber. According to the simple trendline added here, it looks like June or July before I get the tron bike.

This was a fun ride but a little too similar to the Absa Cape Epic Race that I did just two days ago which was two laps around the jungle. Today was 3 laps. Both on mountain bikes. Today I was forced onto one with the race started which is fine, thats the best bike on this route anyway.

I listened to the Zwiftcast that was recorded on 3/19 on this ride. It was just long enough as I’m a very slow rider.

I love riding behind the waterfall. “Ladies and gentlemen, the backside of water!”

Yesterday’s Workout

I didn’t ride my bike yesterday. For the first time in 8ish days, I didn’t get on the bike. Instead, I did a full-body kettlebell workout followed by some Yoga. and it was awesome!

I usually workout 4 days a week in the gym. While I’m there the coaches always correct our form. My form is terrible and therefore I’m always being corrected. I realized that my coaches haven’t had the chance to correct anyone all week. Let alone the member who needs the most help. So I made this video for my coaches.

At home full-body kettlebell workout

Friday’s Workout

A short but effective workout

Double XP for all Watopia Tour rides or races! This marks the 8th day in a row that I have been on Zwift. I have done stage 3, 3 times: 1 race and 2 group rides. This was one of the easier ones, the ride. But there is a climb up the volcano. Saturday stage 4 starts. Not sure what I will do Saturday as I’ve been Zwifting a lot.

Map of route.

I loved doing this stage 3 times. This was the climbs and the volcano equals about 600 ft climbing each time you do it. So I got about 1,800 ft elevation climb towards the Tron bike challenge.

Thursday’s Workout

Yesterday was a Zwift day. I decided to do a good ride, but a bit of a recovery day, as I’m starting to feel it in my legs. It was the 8th day in a row on Zwift for me. I usually have a lot more breaks, where I’m at the gym.

I wanted to get the Absa Cape Epic Race kit for doing one of the events. I was able to unlock, but after completing the Absa Cape Epic Mission, I wasn’t super excited about getting back on the super slow mountain bike again. That mission was 9,350 ft of climbing. I finished it earlier this month. But for doing it I received 100k drop points, unlocked the Scott Spark RC mountain bike and was entered to win the bike in real life. Worth the pain for sure.

Map of the ride

This was a ride and not a race. It has a very long lead-in and then two laps around the lake.

Pretty good workout!

My next ride will need to be another recovery ride. 🙂

Today’s Workout

Today was a race day for me on Zwift. So, depending on who you listen to Zwift Power or Zwift, you get two different stories about how I finished. I either finished in 100th place out of 132 racers in my division (Zwift) or 20th out of 29 (Zwift Power).

Overview of results from Zwift.com

The race was on Watopia and was the “Whole Lotta Lava” Route. Which as you can see is 7.63 miles and 503ft of elevation gain (there is a lead-in, where you get the extra distance. I stopped immediately after the finish and collapsed on the floor :-).

Map of “Whole Lotta Lava” Route on Watopia

Above is a map of the route. As you can see you start in the city, in the upper right of the image above and race towards the volcano, when you get there you start to circle up at an average of about 3.5% incline. You get to the top and power down all the way.

The red line is heart rate, blue is cadence and white is power, below all that is the grey, which is elevation.

I pushed hard on this race. My average watts were 157, which is a push for me. In places, I pushed very hard, hitting 535 watts.

How did I do, again depends…

Zwift places me in 100th place. It’s a nice round number!

Zwift’s got me in 100th out of 132 riders. But not all the riders are on Zwift Power, which you have to sign up for. That is used as the official standings.

On Zwift Power, I got 20th out of 29. Not great, but a good effort for me. I pushed hard all 36 minutes of the ride.

But wait, there’s more…

Yoga Time!

Yoga is a great way to wind down after a hard race on Zwift or anytime for that matter. Describing Yoga as advanced stretching is probably underselling it, but that’s how I think of it.

Yoga set-up

Yoga is great because it is so easy to set up and you hardly need any equipment at all. Read this older post to see what equipment I use.