Author: christietracy

Zwift Academy Semi-Final Workout #7 Recap – Over/Unders. . . AND THAT’S A WRAP!

You see that look on my face right there? That is the look of accomplishment, success, confidence, and RELIEF!!

I think I was about 1 minute or so into my cool down after completing the last hard effort of my final Zwift Academy workout, and had so many thoughts & emotions swirling through my head…

“Holy Crap, I DID IT. I FRIGGIN NAILED THAT WORKOUT. HECK YEAH!!!”

“Wow, that’s it! The SemiFinals are over, and I successfully completed every single workout … yay!!”

“That hurt, but dang it, I did it! Why was I sooo scared of this one?!?”

“OMG OFFSEASON!!! YAAASSSS!!! “😁(Or at least a little break before training camp? 😂🤣)

“Oh man, the 21st is a week away… that’s a loooonnngg time… better find something to keep my mind occupied this week so I don’t lose my mind! 🙃”

#ReflectionsOfAZwiftAcademySemiFinalist #OMG#ISurvived #ThatWasFun #Grateful

World’s best Cheering Squad!
Aaaannnndddd… that’s a wrap!!

Up with the roosters at 5:15am to knock out the final Zwift Academy SemiFinal Workout: Over/Unders (OOMPH!)

I had quite the cheering squad this morning, as my hubby AND my dogs got up early as well to help push me through this final tough session .

I want to send out a HUGE thank you to everyone involved with putting together & running this year’s Zwift Academy: Zwift, CANYON//SRAM Racing TrainSharp Cycling Wahoo Fitness Today’s Plan Rapha, and the AMAZING Group of supportive & inspiring women in the Zwift Academy FB Group…. It was such a great experience, and no matter the outcome as far as Finals go, I’m coming out of it a stronger, more well-rounded Rider with more confidence & an amazing support group!

Now let the waiting game begin! 😬 #HowWillIMakeItThroughThisWeek?#ZwiftAcademy #SemiFinals #NICETOP

Zwift on Tour at Mellow Johnny’s in Austin, TX

QOM Challenge at Mellow Johnny’s during the Austin, TX Zwift on Tour Event
Chicken Dinner!
I got to meet THE Rachel Ruby Zambrano at last! 🙂

Zwift On Tour at Mellow Johnny’s in Austin was so much fun tonight! I got to meet some of the really awesome Zwift Staff, some local Zwifters that I’d been riding & chatting with online, but hadn’t met IRL yet, and had the chance to catch up w some friends that I hadn’t seen in a while!

The Wahoo Fitness Demo stations were really cool and Dave Towle even twisted my arm to compete in the KOM / QOM competition 😜

Now off to bed! My last SemiFinal Workout is going down at 6am tomorrow 😳

QOM Challenge!

Zwift Academy Semi-Final Workout #6 (Outside!) – Low Cadence Hill Reapeats

Temporary Tattoos & Tanlines 🙂
RECOVERY at CryoWellness! 
Zwift Academy SemiFinal Road Ride 3 is in the books!
Started the day out with some Premium Fuel for my engine (Curried Coconut Butternut Squash Soup made with Bone Broth + Kale + Poached eggs), planned my route, & then drove over to the starting point. It’s a little weird for me to be doing my weekend rides so late in the day, but because Friday’s SF Road Ride had to be done after work, I’ve done my Sat & Sunday workouts in the afternoons to allow as much recovery as possible in between 😁.
The forecast called for a 20% chance of rain all day, & it started drizzling just as I parked my car… it didn’t rain hard… just enough to coat the streets in a slick sheen & bring all of the oil to the surface… lol… oh well. I have never minded riding in the rain, and today’s workout didn’t call for anything high torque like sprints that may cause wheel slippage, so I just made a mental note to be a bit cautious on the descents.

The 40 minute warmup was great, & then I started into my 5x 5 min seated hill climbs at 50-60 rpm. I’ve never really trained low cadence seated climbing before, so I wasn’t sure what my body would think of it, but turns out it REALLY liked it! The hill I chose (Big View) is super steep, but like most Austin climbs, it climbs for a short period, then levels out for a bit, then kicks up again. I knew this going in & feel like I managed it really well! After the first Kick, I just shifted into my big ring & maintained a steady cadence & power output until the next kick, where I shifted back into my small ring. The climbing felt comfortable, and, dare I say it?… Easy! Who knew ? Low cadence FTW!
My 5th climb was supposed to be max effort, but maintening the same 50-60rpm cadence. I was a little over ambitious at the start & WAY over geared, sending my cadence plummeting to 40 😳… Kickr spiral of death IRL! I gradually shifted down until my cadence was in the appropriate range, which took about a minute, and then continued to hammer my way up the hill. Despite my little goof-up, I still managed to snag the QOM from my good friend & the best climber in Austin, hands down, so SUPER STOKED on that! (It’s the little things… lol).
After my max effort climb, I recovered 5 min, and then held a comfortable 185-190W through the first 50 min of my hour long warm down, dropping it to an easy spin for the final 10 min to clear the lactic acid from my legs.
I finished with a huge grin on my face & feeling good about my effort!

Went straight from there to a CryoTherapy & Normatech Compression Therapy Session from my amazing sponsor CryoWellness… gotta get these Gams ready for my last workout on Tue (Over/Unders)! 😜

Zwift Academy Semi-Final Workout #5 (Outside!) Recap – 5 min max effort + sprints post 2 hour Tempo

Fail to Plan or Plan to Fail! Good think I’m a Type A Planner! 

Yesterday’s SF workout consisted of a warmup followed by 2 x 1 minute all out efforts with a strict 7 minutes recovery after each, Then 2.5 hours of Z2, pushing into Z3 on hills, followed immediately by 5 min max effort. Then a 20 min warm down, & finishing w 3 x all-out 15 sec sprints on the minute.
I LOVED this workout!! It both gave me the opportunity to showcase my strengths, AND forced me to work on my weakness… at the very end of the ride… ouchie! Ha!
My WU period was ~18 min bc it took me this long to get out of town & onto the farm roads. My 2x 1 minute efforts felt great! The 1st was up a slight hill, & I put out my 2nd best 1 min effort ever at 460W. (I would have been shocked to PR at this point given the level of fatigue from last w/e’s race that I’m currently training through, so was STOKED w this result!). My 2nd 1 min effort was slightly lower, but on flat terrain, & I was also pleased with it!
I started into the 2.5 hour block conservatively at ~170W, & gradually built to 185W over the first 10 minutes. I settled in & held a steady 185W for the next hour (pushing a bit harder into hills). After an hour, I upped it to ~190W and held this over the final hour+ through the end of the block.
Straight into the 5 min Max Effort, & it felt really great! I held a fairly steady 270-275 W for the duration, and feel that this was a good level, as I finished the 5 min completely & totally spent ☺️.
At the end of my 20 min warm down, I was in a less than ideal spot for the sprints (20+ mph winds out on the open farm roads all day had slowed my pace a bit from my projection), but I made the best of it! I totally messed up the 1st one… I launched strong and felt great, but when my Garmin started beeping the 5 second countdown to mark the end of the interval, my sprint fogged brain interpreted the first beep as the end of the interval & I shut it down at 10 seconds…. CRAP! Oh well, regroup & on to the next! The other two sprints were ok…. my #s weren’t stellar, but they WERE really good, & an improvement for me, so I was happy with them 😁. One step closer to bringing those fast twitch muscles out of hiding!! 🤣.
I finished the ZA portion of my ride at a gas station with an Icee, and then spun easy for another ~25 minutes back to my car.
This was my favorite TrainSharp Cycling workout yet! Hill repeats on deck for today 

😜

Planning/Prepping for a Zwift Academy Semi-Final Outdoor Workout . . . Type A Much?

Type A much? 🤣

In all seriousness though, a LOT of thought and preparation goes into making sure that the Outdoor Semi-Final workouts go off as close to prescribed as possible . . here’s just a little glimpse!

Here’s a quick glimpse into what goes into planning my Outdoor SemiFinal workouts 😜

Not included in the video is checking my tires thoroughly, planning & packing my nutrition (including PWO), programming the workout into my Garmin Connect so that it will auto-lap off my intervals & provide direction, mapping & downloading the route to my Garmin, & setting up a playlist where the timing will play high tempo/energy songs during any hard efforts… Type A Much?!?! Naaahhhh… #planforsuccess

Zwift Academy Semi-Final Workout #4 Recap – OUTSIDE! 15 Min Test. . w TX Cobbles!

  

I finally got to knock out my 1st Outdoor Zwift Academy Semifinal workout tonight! I’ve been looking forward to this since Nov 1st when they were announced 😁. Lots of careful planning went into preparing for this one, and it still didn’t go quite perfectly, but I’m super happy with the results, all things considered 😜.

Of course I couldn’t resist wearing my Rapha Canyon/SRAM Racing Kit, bc I’m convinced that looking & feeling #sopro gives me at least an extra 2 Watts!

I tried to time it so that I’d finish my 15 minute “test” interval before dark, but didn’t get out of work quite early enough, so full dark hit just as I started it. The world’s best hubby/crew chief offered to SAG for me, & I was SO THANKFUL to have him behind me when I hit the unexpected mile of “TX Cobbles” over the final several minutes of my TT effort in the dark! He managed to play paparazzi too, & snapped a few pics during my ride .

I have another 2 Outdoor SemiFinal workouts lined up for Sat & Sun, and if they’re half as fun as this one, I’m in for a treat! 😁

Zwift Academy Semi-Final Workout #3 Recap – VO2 Intermittent

I completed my 3rd ZA SF Kickr workout, VO2 Intermittent, Wednesday evening … OOMPH this one was another doozy!
The workout consisted of a WU, 5 min recovery, and then 5 min at just under FTP, immediately into 10x 15sec seated sprints/25sec rest, followed immediately by another 5 min at just under FTP. This was then repeated 2 more times, with 5 minutes of recovery in between.
I rolled into that first interval feeling great, but by the time I hit the seated sprints, my legs were already feeling quite heavy! I gave the sprints everything I had (OUCH!), and then settled back in for the 5 min post-sprint Threshold Interval… hung on for dear life & completed it successfully, but Dear God it nearly killed me! 🤣
It’s workouts like these that make me so very thankful that my body recovers quickly during rest intervals… I was feeling pretty good again by the time the 2nd & 3rd Interval started, but by the end of each sprint section, I was 1/2 second away from passing out & falling off my bike again!
As I’ve said before, sprinting is a weakness of mine that I’m working hard to improve upon… so a workout like this was about as far from my “wheelhouse “ as it gets, & despite my BEST efforts, I didn’t hit the RXd sprint # a single time, BUT I did a really good job with the pre AND post sprint Threshold Intervals (thank you engine! 🚂), and finished the workout feeling accomplished & like I’m one step closer to waking up those fast-twitch muscle fibers that I know are there SOMEWHERE! 😜
Thursday was a much needed rest day, & I have my first SemiFinal Outdoor workout on deck for tonight after work. I have to admit, I’m really looking forward to this one (15 min Test) 😁

Zwift Academy Semi-Final Workout #2 Recap – Threshold Pulling Pyramid

Threshold Pulling SemiFinal (Kickr) workout completed last night after a loooonnnggg work day! (Isn’t it awesome how it typically takes a full week to get caught up after taking 2 days off?!? LOL)
I chose to do the Threshold Pulling workout because, while the intervals were at a higher # than the other remaining Kickr workouts, it also incorporated a lot of rest intervals, and I started this workout 72 hours to the minute after falling off my bike in exhaustion post 12 Hour TT, so I knew that my legs would likely “fill up” and want to stop turning over a bit more quickly than usual due to the fact that they weren’t quite 100% recovered yet. At the same time, I know that my legs recover VERY quickly from hard efforts during rest intervals, so I figured I’d have a better shot at hitting/holding the RXd #s in this workout than one of the others that required holding Threshold for a longer period of time between rest intervals.
This workout consisted of a 15 minute warm-up, a 5 minute recovery period, and then into the intervals:
2 x 4 min @ 112% FTP / 4 min Recovery
3 x 3 min @ 112% FTP / 3 min Recovery
4 x 2 min @ 112% FTP / 2 min Recovery
5 x 1 min @ 112% FTP / 1 min Recovery
The intervals were followed by a 10 minute warm-down.
I’ve never done a workout in ERG mode before, but decided to do this one in ERG because I had trouble during the spin-ups in the previous workout, where I had to spin up, and then drop to 76W immediately after. Without ERG on, and with no brakes on the Kickr, it took a good bit of time for the Kickr to spin down to the point that I could pedal at 76W. I wanted to nail the #s in this workout, so I figured I’d give ERG a shot. (Spoiler Alert: Bad Idea!)
A little more info about my Kickr: it’s reading ~14-15W lower than all of my other Power Meters (PT hubs and C1 Crank Meter) – this normally wouldn’t be all that much of a problem, but when using ERG mode, and holding me at 285W, which is 112% of my FTP, it was ACTUALLY holding me at what my body perceived as ~300-305W (~120%), based on the meters that I usually use, and that my FTP was calculated on. . . . couple that with the fact that my legs weren’t fully recovered. . . yeah, I most certainly “got my money’s worth” out of this workout! lol
My legs felt surprisingly good/nimble during the warmup period, and I was feeling very positive about my ability to nail the #s. About 3 seconds before the start of the 1st 4 min interval, I increased my cadence to ~110 to prepare for the resistance to kick in. ERG kicked in, and I continued to spin at 100+ rpm for the duration of the first 4 minute interval, but my legs were screaming at me by the end of it. . and I was 1 interval into 14 – YIKES!
I recovered quickly from the first interval during the 4 min recovery, and then launched into the 2nd 4 minute interval feeling good. Despite my best efforts to keep my cadence 100+ though, it started to drift about half-way through, and 2:20 in, I hit the “breaking point” where ERG mode threw on so much resistance due to my dropping cadence that I began to really struggle to turn the pedals over. I stood up and mashed for the final minute of this interval, and managed to hit my #s, but my cadence had faded over the final minute of the interval from 100+ to ~50RPM. I knew that I’d have to do a better job of keeping it up, because my legs would not be able to continue mashing that big of a gear for all of the remaining intervals.
I faded a bit ~ 2 min into the 1st 3 minute interval when I went to stand and didn’t stand fast enough, so the ERG brought my pedals to a grinding halt and I couldn’t get my cadence back up over 35 RPM for the final 30 seconds. . .can you say OUCH!!? LOL
After that though, I did a good job of hitting all of my #s for the remaining intervals despite a dropping cadence and lots of “mashing” throughout the final 30-60 sec of each of the 3 & 2 minute intervals.
I felt that my legs recovered quickly during each recovery session, even as the recovery period decreased, so that was a relief!
I actually really enjoyed the final 5 x 1 minute intervals! I found that I could easily keep my cadence up over 100RPM for this amount of time, so I never got “bogged down”, and therefore the 1 minute rest periods allowed me plenty of time to recover/prepare for the next one, and I nailed these flawlessly and felt that I could have done more 
Summary: This was a really great workout, and one that I think I would have enjoyed even more, had I taken it on a little more recovered, and out of ERG mode. I earned 7/7 stars, so THAT was a huge relief!
For those of you out there who, like me, don’t have a lot of experience using ERG mode and/or prefer to generate your high power output through spinning at 95+ RPM rather than standing/mashing, I’d recommend turning ERG off during this one 
VO2 Intermittent SemiFinal Workout (Kickr) on deck for tonight after work! 

Zwift Academy Semi-Final Progress Update

 

This pic is of me attempting to stand up after practically falling off my bike after winning the 12 Hour World Time Trial Championship Race…. let’s just say I’m glad that it wasn’t on video!!

As promised, here’s a quick update on my Zwift Academy SemiFinal progress 😁.

The timing of the SemiFinals wasn’t ideal for me due to some previously scheduled racing commitments, but I sure as heck wasn’t going to let that stop me from participating!

I was signed up to Race the 12 Hour World Time Trial Championships on 11/04, which fell right in the middle of the 2 week Academy time frame. The race was in California, so my husband and I drove straight through (19 hours) on Sat 10/28, and rented a house for the week leading up to the race so that I could adjust to the time change, lack of humidity, and temps prior to race day. I work remotely (accounting) for an East Coast Company, so I was able to work my normal hours M-Th, and on PDT, that was 5am – 2pm. This meant early bed times but allowed a few beautiful afternoons for Taper rides & pre-riding the course. I took my Kickr with me, & knocked out the 2×12 min test SemiFinal workout on 11/01 so that I would only have to squeeze 6 in to the 2nd week. I recover very quickly from that type of effort, and felt fully recovered by race morning after taking it easy 11/02-03.

My coach flew in to help crew for me and we chatted strategy the day before the race. I really didn’t know the caliber of my competition, as I couldn’t just stalk their results on USAC or USAT because there was also a Rider from the UK & from Italy. We decided that I’d start out on the fast end of my 12 Hr effort level, while temps were cool, & he would monitor gaps. IF I built a decent gap over 2nd Place, he would step down my power gradually until I was holding the gap steady. The goal here was to do everything necessary to win, but nothing more, because we didn’t want to burn matches unnecessarily that I would need during my Zwift Academy Semi-Final workouts a few days later!

World’s. Best. Coach. 🙂 

You can read my 12 Hr World Time Trial Championship Race report, posted earlier today, here! (spoiler alert. . . I’m a freaking World Champion!! Still can’t believe it!)

The next morning, Nov 5th, we left CA and drove the 19 hours back home to Austin, TX straight through.

We got home at 5:30am Mon morning, and I slept until noon, & then got up and started prioritizing recovery with a foam roll session, CryoTherapy & Normatech Compression at CryoWellness, and a Sports Massage from Austin Massage Company focusing primarily on Myofacial Release & loosening up My IT bands, glutes, hips, & quads.

 

Best Sports Massages in Austin at Austin Massage Company!
(#FilteredAF Photo b/c I looked like death warmed over after that 18 hour drive. . )

Got a good night’s sleep last night, and I’m back to the grind this morning! Working till 4, then planning to knock out my 2nd Kickr SemiFinal Workout: Threshold Pulling! Wish me luck! I’m also planning to do this one using the Kickr in ERG mode (I usually control the power myself through gearing & cadence), so it will be interesting to see how this goes!

2017 12 Hour World Time Trial Champion!

2017 12 Hour Time Trial WORLD CHAMPION!
(Is this real life?!?!)

Race Report Time!

12 Hour World Time Trial Championship Race – Borrego Springs, CA

My husband and I flew to CA and rented a home for the week so that I could continue to work through Thursday, and do my training/taper rides on the race course in the evenings.

My coach flew in to help crew for me and we chatted strategy the day before the race. I really didn’t know the caliber of my competition, as I couldn’t just stalk their results on USAC or USAT bc there was also a Rider from the UK & from Italy. We decided that I’d start out on the fast end of my 12 Hr effort level, while temps were cool, & he would monitor gaps. IF I built a decent gap over 2nd Place, he would step down my power gradually until I was holding the gap steady. The goal here was to do everything necessary to win, but nothing more, because we didn’t want to burn matches unnecessarily that I would need during my ZA Semi-Final workouts a few days later!

Friday afternoon, we got our crew area canopy set up, picked up my packet, went through bike inspections, and attended the pre-race meeting.

Packet Pickup – listening carefully to ALL race day instructions!

 

Discussing Game Plan with Coach 🙂

The race was ridden around an 18 mile loop for the first ~11 hours, & then we were switched to a 4.8 mile loop for the last ~hour. Crystal Spearman, Great Britain, and I were neck & neck for about the first 90 Miles. My coach informed me at the end of lap 6 (108 Miles in), that I had a 7:30 gap built, & instructed me to dial down my power just a little. We continued to step it down ~5W every lap until lap 10, and I held that output steady for laps 10-12.

The wind really started howling around lap 10 (~8 hours/~162 Miles in), and while this definitely made the race more difficult, it worked to my advantage because I am very strong in high winds.

Somewhere mid-race, gritting my teeth a bit as I leaned into that wind!

By the end of lap 13/11 hours/234 Miles in, I had built the gap to 17 minutes, so my coach & I agreed that I would back it down considerably, & use the final hour on the short loops as my warm-down Time.

I finished the race with 248.4 Miles under my wheels, & a huge grin on my face!

Crystal Spearman (Great Britain) finished 2nd, & Anna Mei (Italy) finished 3rd.

12 Hour World Time Trial Championship Ladies Podium

 

I was literally brought to tears by all of the support and encouragement given by my friends, near and far. There is no way that I would have been able to afford to make this trip if it weren’t for the generosity of the local TX Cycling Community and your participation in my Fundraising Raffle. Thank you to ALL of the local businesses and individuals that contributed swag for the raffle, to CryoWellness for generously throwing the “Send Christie to Worlds” Party for me, and to every single person that bought a raffle ticket, made a donation toward my travel fund, or sent me encouraging messages through FB, Strava, Text, etc. I can’t even put into words how grateful I am, but I *tried* to below. . . (I filmed this about 12 hours into the 19 hour drive back to TX from CA, the day after the race, so excuse the exhausted appearance!):

 

Photo/Video Recap of our time in Borrego Springs! (Pre-Race)

A video/photo summary of our time in Borrego Springs, leading up to the World Time Trial Championship. It was SO breathtakingly beautiful there, and we couldn’t have asked for better weather! We really lucked out with the AirBnb home that we rented – it was spotless, had amazing views from the roof deck, and was right off of the race course! Jake and Buster had to adjust to being treated like dogs for the week though. . SHAME on us! 😈
You mean, I get to race my bike. . for 12 hours. . in THIS?!? YES, PLEASE!
Buster really liked the views at the host house!
No Dogs allowed on the couch at the AirBnb. . . .so Mommy snuggled on the floor w/ them 😉
The view from my remote office this week isn’t too shabby!
Detailing my Speed Machine! No bug left behind. . .
NEW KIT DAY! ( Is this real life?!)
Zwift Academy Semifinal Workout #1 in the books! Despite calibration issues w/ my Kickr, I knocked it out. . and set a few Power Profile Highs in the process! 2 days prior to my World Championship Race. . . Eeeekk! Thank goodness for my BEMER Mat Sponsorship and Air Relax Legs. . time to prioritize RECOVERY!!

The Mountains and Desert Animal Sculptures were absolutely breathtaking!
Borrego Springs View from AirBnb Roof Deck
Buster & Jake are digging the views!
No Dogs on the furniture . . .aka they have to be treated like DOGS! (SHAME!)
We are such horrible dog parents . . . 
Why am I on a TRAINER right now?!?
Post Zwift Academy SF Workout 1 – RECOVERY w/ my BEMER mat & Air Relax Legs 😃
View 1 from the World Time Trial Championship Race Course
View 2 from the Race Course (from the bike)

More BEAUTIFUL Borrego Springs by bike!
Stoke Level is HIGH!! World Time Trial Championship Packet Pickup!
World Time Trial Championship Pit Area
Really cool Borrego Springs Desert Animal Sculptures
MY PEOPLE!! (Coffee.. . .Fudge. . . ICE CREAM!!!)

Zwift Academy Semi-Final Workout #1 Recap (from Cali!) – 2 x 12 min Test

First Semi-Final Workout is in the books, and it was a DOOZY! It started out with a bit of stress, as my Kickr was reading low again, and I had to do a few spindowns to get it properly calibrated, but despite being a tad frazzled, I took a deep breath, centered myself, and jumped on to knock it out on my lunch break 
Today’s workout was the 2 x 12 minute test, and I did mine without ERG mode on also, as I’ve always trained on “dumb” trainers in the past, and didn’t want to throw something new into the mix with so much at stake. Just like Siri, I “failed” the 3 x 30 second spin-up intervals b/c the Kickr flywheel simply wouldn’t slow down enough after 30 secs at 355 to allow me to pedal at 75W, when not in ERG mode. Also like Siri though, I didn’t stress it, as the purpose of that section was simply to prime the legs for the “real” work to come!
The first 12 minute interval, I started out a tad too hard. I felt great, and thought I could hold it, but faded a bit to the end, despite pushing so hard I literally had to ask my hubby to go grab me a trash can. . 🤢 When this interval finished, I remember thinking to myself “how on earth am I going to do that AGAIN in 15 minutes?!?”
I was feeling pretty recovered by the start of the second 12 minute interval though, and I started out more conservatively, and was able to “flat-line” the effort much better than the 1st, which definitely trended down. The second interval was ~20W lower than the first, but that was to be expected.
There is a bit of a discrepancy between my Kickr/Zwift Readings, and my Crank based PM readings, but if I believe my Crank based PM readings (which I KNOW are accurate due to extensive testing), I set a HUGE 12 min Power PR with the 1st interval, and was only 2W off my best 12 min Power with the second, so I’m a happy camper!
I totally second Siri’s suggestion – this is a good one! I’d definitely recommend it – but maybe have a trash can handy “just in case” 🤣