State Change

[ornoth_cycling]

This past weekend would have been the PMTCC’s 3-State century.

Due to the ongoing pandemic, they’ve postponed it to September 13th, which I still think is optimistic. And even if they will be able to hold it, that is also the date for the Epic Tour up in Toronto, which would have priority for me (again, in the unlikely event that any of this happens at all).

So between a needed workout and the high likelihood that I won’t ride the make-up date, I set out to replicate last year’s 3-State century on this year’s original date.

It’s really the only big ride I do with PMTCC: the Pittsburgh Major Taylor Cycling Club, named in honor of Major Taylor, a record-holding national- and world-champion professional cyclist who was only the second Black man to ever become a world champion in any sport. Missing the chance to share the 3-State event with PMTCC riders this year, I wanted to take the opportunity to do this ride to express my appreciation for all the accomplished Black, female, Asian, Jewish, and LGB cyclists I have shared the road with.

Three days before the ride, I discovered that one of the snaps on my heart rate monitor strap had fallen apart. The next day I epoxyed it together and ordered a replacement. Thankfully, it held together fine on the day, because HRMs—like nearly all indoor athletic equipment—have been backlogged due to their popularity during the Covid-19 lockdowns.

As usual, I consulted my Zenturizer to see what routes on the Zwift indoor cycling platform most closely matched the distance and climbing of last year’s 3-State route. The answer was: 14½ laps of the NYC Central Park route called “Astoria Line 8”.

So Sunday morning I gathered my snack foods around my indoor trainer and set out, starting out pretty easy in order to pace myself for the long day ahead of me.

As usual, riding an indoor trainer during the summer was hot, humid, very sweaty, and uncomfortable. And doing 14 laps of a single seven-mile course only exacerbated my boredom. There wasn’t any chatter on Discord, and no one else seemed to be going long, as I never saw anyone who had racked up more than 40 miles.

But the hours—and more importantly, the laps—ticked along. As fatigue built up, I backed off the power and limped home over the final two laps, just missing breaking six hours moving time for the full ride.

The Zenturizer did its job particularly well this time. Last year’s IRL ride racked up 104.13 miles and 6,667 feet of climbing, and I finished the Zwift ride at 104.43 miles and 6,736 feet.

Despite how closely those numbers match, there was one huge difference between the courses… specifically their elevation profiles. Nearly all of the climbing in the 2019 IRL ride came courtesy of eight big climbs of around 400 feet each. In contrast, the Central Park course is a loop full of small but constant rolling ups and downs, none of them over 100 feet, but combining to accrue 465 feet of climbing every lap. That made the indoor ride more even, with fewer horrible climbs, but also fewer places where you could truly take it easy and recover your strength.

In other news, I’ve been out for a half dozen IRL rides this month, half of them over two hours’ duration. Zwift is about to host a virtual Tour de France with pro riders, as well as a virtual Etape du Tour and releasing new “worlds” of Paris and France, which will keep me riding the trainer at least until I’ve completed all nine new routes at least once. I’ll hopefully receive my replacement HRM in the near future.

And I continue to fundraise for my upcoming virtual Pan-Mass Challenge ride. I’ve surpassed my basic fundraising goal of $1,000, which means I should receive the official 2020 PMC cycling jersey sometime in July. If you can donate to this very worthy charity, I would love your support for my 15th year in this amazing event. Thanks!