A Better Start and a Fundraiser!
2026 certainly began with a better vibe than it's predecessors! After a pretty consistent winter of training (barring the usual cold and a bit of a tweaked back) - I decided to try out some Zwift Racing.
I'd somewhat ignorantly turned my nose up at this a bit in the past, but I can see why this sport is so popular in Nordic countries now. This winter has been harsh, especially the latter stages now over the first two months of the year. While I have a gravel bike, with ice tires, I'm not skilled on uneven ground and due to my eye issue I don't have the best depth of field to be able to navigate snowy and icy surfaces particularly well. So how do I get sharp over the coldest winter months without the additional volume of commuting? Enter, the Swedish Cycling E-Cycling Cup.
I missed the first race so the rest of the cup (10 races in total over 6 "events") was a race to grab as much points as I could before the end. The races were a mix of first over the line scratch events, criteriums and a time trial. The terrain chosen was relatively varied so as not to favour any one particular type of rider. I knew I'd not do well in the "hillier" events or the longer "RR" style events so my strategy for those was to just hang on as long as I could and when dropped, use it for training. The crits and the timetrial are of course where I'd do better and so I optimised heavily for pushing hard on these.
My strategy paid off, as the Cup went on I was learning a lot about how to race virtually - something I'd only tried once or twice before and basically had no clue what I was doing. By the time the timetrial came around I'd managed to get myself a "podium" in my category (CatD - the fourth of four categories, oh what memories). By the last event, a series of three "tiny races" or criteriums I'd managed to bag a few podiums and was feeling rather pleased with myself.
The points system that Swedish Cycling employed did not make too much sense to me, I'm not known for my math, and it was changed after the first couple of races and so I chose to basically ignore it entirely and optimise race by race and just have fun. The Cup itself was truly made by Nathan and the Leadout ESports team - what an awesome way to platform this emerging sport! The ladies I'd "met" were all super nice, and wow Swedish E-Cyclist ladies are STRONG. It's been really lovely to connect a bit more with the community and get some new Strava buddies!
As is tradition, racing had my FTP go up - it's something I've always found that racing gives me a lot of benefit. Something about the competitive side of things keeping me honest I guess. Hopefully by next winter I can pop into the next category but regardless, I'm rather pleased with the overall reported standing of 2nd in my category for the cup overall, even after missing a race.
So what now!? No race season here for a couple of months but that's fine because now I'm training to join PainFreePower
I'd never normally say yes to these things BUT Sam, my strength coach, and I have got a bit of a bet on. Sam is working his way to squatting first 600lb (272kg) with an ultimate goal of 300kg - which is just mind boggling. In honour of that, I've offered to ride 300km and in a joint effort we're raising money for an amazing charity, Many Tears.
I asked Sam to pick out a charity for this massive effort and I am absolutely over the moon we're raising money for our four legged friends. Anyone who knows me knows that I love animals (a lot more than humans, let's be real here), so I could not think of better motivation to go for this ginormous task.
So if you're reading this, here's the GoFundMe for our gargantuan effort! Please drop anything you can, it's a really good cause and you get to spend the next few months watching and listening to me have an absolutely horrible time spending far too long in the saddle.
Apparently some people do this for fun. Either way, I'm looking forward to riding my bicycle outdoors.
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