Originally Posted by
burnthesheep
That said it was a gravel ride. I don't think Zwift slows us down yet for having a road bike on the "gravelly" portions. They say it's in development.
Also, sweet ride area. Wish we had categorized climbs around here. All I get are the all-out 2 minute hills.
Outdoors you have to really tailor a route well to accumulate good kilojoules or uninterrupted work. Indoors I've done steady state workouts around 900KJ per hour. Outdoors my record is 820/hr last night around town. I caught a lot of green lights, hammered the downhills, and created a route I knew I could hammer.
Only about 6 miles of it was gravel - the rest was tarmac. The first 4 miles was 800 feet of climbing. I couldn't make it to the top without taking multiple breaks back in May, so making it to the top without being exhausted was a major milestone for me. It's pretty tough to avoid categorized climbs around here. If you ride, you climb. That is why I got a trainer and Zwift - to avoid having to start all over again next spring after 4+ month of winter. I really want to maintain all of the hard work I have put in this year, and maybe even get better for next Spring. To be honest, I don't ride for fitness. I ride because I enjoy it and it is a challenge. The fitness is just an added benefit. That is what pushed me toward Zwift instead of signing up for a spin class.
I was under the impression that the trainer didn't need calibration. I did a bit more research and found otherwise. I will be calibrating it tonight to see if that makes a difference.