This year changed a lot of things. A major one of those things was the Black Lives Matter movement. It brought to the forefront hundreds of years of oppression. I’m no expert on this movement and as a privileged, white, heterosexual, male, I can’t begin to understand the struggle of African-Americans in this country. Having said that, not trying is failing. Reading a book doesn’t change anything. It doesn’t make a huge difference. I’m trying to learn and see things from another person’s eyes.
Ibram’s book does that. I encourage you to listen to this 6 minute NPR story about this book:
I learned that I have a lot left to learn. That is the best I can do to try to describe what I got out of this book. It is well-written and to the point. What I wanted to do with this is learn a little bit from a side of the discussion that I don’t often hear from. I don’t know a lot of people of color. I’m not sure exactly why this is, but I’m learning more with books like this.
Our country has improved, but in no way is it near where we can be, where we should be. For me, getting there starts by learning more about why we are here and what that is like for those I don’t discuss these issues with. I hope to learn more about race in 2021 and I plan to continue reading books that challenge me like this.
Today was race day. It was my first race in Crit City. I did the Bell Lap. It was fairly flat but had short hills up to 9% incline, that you had to power up when you are already pushing as hard as you can. A very difficult route!
Overview
I entered division D, which is 1-2.4 w/kg. My average according to Zwift Power was 2.2. So pretty good, but it only got me 28th.
Zwift ResultsReally good average power for me
I think I pushed pretty hard, at least for me. I ended up increasing my FTP to 171, not necessarily what I wanted to do because now I have to keep up with that during workouts!
6th place out of 9 Zwifter on Zwift Power.
In the Zwift Power results, you can see a few sandbaggers or folks that should probably be in a division C race. If we take out those who had power over 2.4, I would have finished second!
Sandbagging describes someone who underperforms (usually deliberately) in an event.
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.
