Widening my Zwift Experience

I started using Zwift after recovering from my first (and so far only) bout of Covid at the outset of the first UK lockdown in spring 2020. At that time I was working from home and I settled into a routine of riding Zwift before and after each working day, with a significant impact on my fitness. I remained a home-worker until I retired in 2023, but I kept using Zwift along with some other virtual platforms after that.

For me, Zwift has generally been a bit of a solitary activity. I did try a couple of meet-ups with work colleagues, and took part in the VTTA Zwift time trial series last January, but really I'm just there on my own in the garage.

All kitted out for a virtual time trial

I had been urging members of my club to give group riding on Zwift a go (as the biggest player in the market, Zwift seems the best choice), and when I began trying to revitalise my bike club I put my money where my mouth is: when the first scheduled club run of 2025 attracted no takers owing to very wet and windy weather I organised a virtual club run. I had previously set up an online version of the club on Zwift, but until now I'd not actually done anything with it.

Our first virtual club run was a mostly silent affair as we hadn't got to grips with Discord! We had four riders (three current members and one former member). We span round the Three Little Sisters route in a bit under 1h30m. I'd chsen to "rubberband" the ride so we could all go at the same pace. Apart from the conversational ineptitude, it was pretty good fun. It seems to me that the Discord Android app has a particularly opaque UI.

The second virtual club run had the same four riders, but this time three of us were using Discord to mediate verbal conversations. It turned out that one of the riders was happier watching Cyclocross on the TV! This ride was two laps of The Magnificent Eight route and took a little over 2h to complete.

This evening sees the return of the VTTA evening Zwift time trial series, running on Tuesday evenings through to March. I am keen to ride these again this year, as last year they seemed to indicate progress in my training. I just need to figure out how to fit them into my Athletica.ai training schedule.