At the risk of looking like I'm trying to flex (& possible just a little flexing), I went out to set a PR Zwift (imperial) century. It'd been a number of years since I'd tried to ride a fast century on Zwift, and I've learned a fair amount about using the game environment to my advantage (use the flattest route - Tempus Fugit, grab a draft anywhere possible, and pacing my effort). I did this ride with a Wahoo Kickr v5 and the Tron bike, might be interesting to use a TT bike, but TT bikes can't draft in Zwift (at least that's what I understand). I'm sure there are plenty of folks that can legit beat my PR (and more that cheat the game for a hollow sense of achievement), I'm only out there to beat my past self. Here are the details of my ride as posted on Strava - I was also super happy to make PRs on my power curve, best power for anything over 90 minutes:
I could shave a few minutes off if I wasn't such a big drinker ... I need a pee break every hour or so
I'm interested to hear from other endurance nuts and their experience with long indoor training rides. Tips and tricks for your fastest endurance ride on Zwift (or other indoor platform).
For reference, I'm an ultra endurance rider, I ride 4 to 6 centuries every year, including
double-centuries and longer. Most of my long rides are gravel events, but once a summer I like to get the road bike out for a fast century. My PR paved century was last summer at 5:15 on mostly paved rail-trails on my Bianchi Infinito. My goal for 2023 is to break the 5 hour mark on an unsupported solo century, route planning is a big part of the challenge (avoiding traffic lights, busy roads/trails, and big climbs) ... my route last summer routed through downtown Minneapolis traffic and a couple draining climbs.