I Zwift

Did you ever see this before?

I am almost sure most of the answers to my question are yes..!

Just in case if you have no idea of what it is or not sure about it here is a quick explanation of Zwift in my own words:

Is the most amazing social program for indoor training invented since the rollers were invented who knows when..! 

I would add to that description that each person has their own taste and that if you you don't like it cool..! But remember this..: Before you scratch it off of your list.. TRY IT..!!

Seriously is not like anything else you used before for indoor training... And the community is amazing..! Lots of support from other members that adds a lot more to the whole experience..

I think that is a good reason itself to go and ride indoors right? If that is not enough this is why I discovered Zwift to begin with..

Hospital bed and a cast (plaster for my UK friends) on my leg... I got into an accident last year, actually about a year back now... Due to this accident I had surgery and 3 months of bed time or something like this.. I don't remember exactly..
Thanks to this I had to be off the bike as well for over 6 months.. I remember that the first ride outdoors after the accident was exactly 6 months after it.. How? I am riding with some friends that were missing me for this long.. As we were riding the subject came up and we did some calculations and that was the result..

Now from the pic on the hospital to this one was "only" 2 1/2 months:

That is how long I wasn't allowed to even attempt to step on my leg.. Here I was allowed to put partial weight on it and start spinning without any or much tension on the trainer.. (somewhere in January 2015, Yeah Happy New Year to you too!!)

The first couple of rides were slow and short... And I used the normal sources to stay on the bike and do my recovery as well as i could without falling off the bike because of how bored I was...

Videos, music, movies and TV series and cartoons were involved in this rehab.. But as the time was increasing the level of boring trainer workouts/recovering time was increasing with it..

By this time I always kept using +Strava to keep track of my activities for medical reasons and because like most of the cyclists out there I like to share what I do. (or brag?) anyways I started to see some of my friends riding in the Pacific Ocean... Remember The Zwift island?

And my curiosity kicked in.. Started asking the typical questions.... I think number 1 question was... What are you doing there? Another holiday? Escaping Winter? and that kind of questions.. As the answers came back the curiosity grew with them.. And don't forget I had no other choice but to ride on the trainer, I was looking for anything to keep me motivated..!!

Research started and it seemed easy enough to sign up for it... It was a learning process for both Zwift and me... At the beginning only people with power meters could join so it was hard to receive an invite.. And I bet more than one is going to remember the checking your e-mail for answer more then once in a day..

I was lucky I owned a power meter... And they didn't ask what kind it was (Heart Rate) because at the very beginning they didn't support this one... So when they asked if I had a PM I answer yes and left as that.. A few day later I had my e-mail...

Who remembers this day?

Oh I was so happy..!!! Like a kid with a new toy..! I already had the ANT+ dongle and was waiting to set this up..!

Once everything was set it was time to play..!!! Since that day at the start of February till today I had ups and downs.. Just like a bike ride, but I always come back..

During the Spring and Summer I didn't use it as much but I still used it at least once a week... I even missed it some days... I was looking forward to rainy days.. By the way I have plenty of those here in Belfast, so my riding time never actually decreased because of the weather... Life got in the way as I started working and other thing happened but is always nice to know that you have that option to just walk into your pain cave and get a quality workout without living your house...

Since the start till now I did this much on Zwift:

Not bad for a guy with a broken leg right? And if you look at the whole number for the year..

That is almost half of my total riding was done on the trainer..!!! But the most important part is that thanks to Zwift and my attitude of never giving today I can show you this number and also can tell you that I can walk almost completely normal..(have a little limp, but almost nothing) Doctors said that my recovery was extremely quick..! That my leg movement and strength is great and that they are happy with my results..

Results? A happy husband, happy father and to top it all off A HAPPY CYCLIST..!

So because of this I want to say thanks to Zwift.. You were big part of my recovery..! You kept me going and motivate to keep moving my legs and also to everyone that forms part of the community online.. Special thanks to all of them for the support and always willing to answer a question or share the common wisdom..

Thank you all..!!!

Pablo

The Weekend Report guy