Two years to the day that I first rode on Zwift I’m only a few thousand feet of climbing away from unlocking the TRON BIKE /”Zwift Concept Z1″. Join me live as I climb the slopes of Alpe Du Zwift to unlock the bike.
While I’m riding we can discuss how we all did in 2023 with our fitness and what we are planning for 2024.
If you want to join the Life Maximus Club on Zwift, here’s the link: https://www.zwift.com/clubs/a260f11a-f691-4849-94c1-ae07f7825526/home
Yin Yoga book: https://amzn.to/3RH0Wct
Thanks for watching! Feel free to leave a comment so I know you stopped by. Also, don’t forget to Like and Share this video to help others discover this channel.
⌚Time Stamps⌚
0:10 My 2 year Zwift anniversary is today
3:25 Buying a fast climbing frame from the Zwift Drop Shop
7:00 Road to Sky route selection and Everest Challenge requirements
9:00 Starting to ride and my history on Zwift
11:00 Focusing on my marginal decade and why cycling/Zwift is a great choice for aerobic conditioning
13:45 Importance of strength and mobility in addition to aerobic
17:25 Improving my Zwift experience with the Zwift Hub One and Zwift Play controllers
21:15 Starting up Alpe Du Zwift
25:40 My secret weapon “sports drink”
28:25 Aerobic fitness and why Zwift is a good choice
32:30 My jersey from the Three State Three Mountain Century
38:30 How the Zwift Hub virtual shifting works
42:40 The importance of improving yourself rather than comparing yourself to others
47:20 Why I stopped outdoor road cycling…for now
52:25 My streaming setup and maybe do more live streams?
54:10 My PR dreams are shot!?
1:00:30 Rucking benefits
1:04:10 Running and importance of pre-hab/mobility and recovery
1:09:00 Useful resources posted in description (Yin Yoga benefits)
1:14:00 Zwift Hub One and Zwift- A good indoor cycling combo
1:20:30 Join the Life Maximus club on Zwift! Link below
1:28:50 TRON Bike unlocked!!! and the Wheel Spin (will I get the wheels?)
1:32:20 Spooling up my MASSIVE SPRINT!!!
1:33:10 Deep thoughts with Mark- Why are there helmets in Zwift?………….
1:34:00 Final thoughts on benefits of Zwift and thanks for watching!!
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Zwift: https://www.zwift.com/athlete/80659b30-3b5e-4787-9224-8dc7a3494257
Athlinks: https://www.athlinks.com/athletes/331757075
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👟👟Xero Shoes:👟👟
Xero Shoes: https://bit.ly/3dOQTle
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💪💪My Workout Equipment💪💪
Concept2 Model D Rowing Machine: https://amzn.to/3VqfMVg
Elite Suito Smart Trainer: https://amzn.to/3OSm1Pg
Yes4All 3 in 1 Soft Plyometric Box: https://amzn.to/3gSyB4A
ProForm Treadmill: https://amzn.to/3VKgX1S
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📖Suggested Reading📖
Outlive: The Science and Art of Longevity: https://amzn.to/3obvb08
A Guide to the Good Life-The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy: https://amzn.to/3vdhkVI
The Power Of Habit: https://amzn.to/348anJF
The Undoing Project: https://amzn.to/3veSl4b
Run Less, Run Faster: https://amzn.to/3hO1ltw
Runner’s World Train Smart, Run Forever: https://amzn.to/2RGGsWb
The Obesity Code: https://amzn.to/3yICjlw
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Hey everybody Welcome to the uh live stream uh of unlocking the Tron bike on zwift now this is something uh that I have been uh looking forward to doing for two years at this point it was two years ago tonight the 28th of December uh
2021 that I um first did my first ride on zwift I took my old um Kurt kinetic fluid trainer for those of you that remember those I got purchased that back in I think 2000 and um took that hooked up a uh hooked it up to uh to zift uh
Put a wahoo Cadence Sensor on the bike and uh and did like I think three miles and uh since then I’ve been writing zift fairly consistently over the last couple years more so here in the last few months than uh the previous months before that but I just realized last
Week as I was doing my um ramp test uh which the video posted uh a couple days ago so check that out it’s most recent video posted I just realized that I’m really really close to uh to getting that uh that Tron bike and wouldn’t it
Be cool to do a live stream of me uh getting the Tron bike while climbing up one of the most iconic climbs in real life as well as in zwift uh which is uh the Alp Duz which in zwift it’s called Alp do zwift uh it’s about a
3,400 ft of climbing and uh it’s kind of a classic climb uh like I said in the real world and in uh in zwift so uh I’m going to do that here uh for all hour and half or whatever it might take me uh including the whole route uh so uh as
We’re going I should be able to talk I’m not going to go for a super fast PR I think I can get a PR on uh on this climb because the last time I really pushed it up this climb was a couple years ago so
I think I’m a little fitter now I’ve got a little bit better sense of pacing on zift so that’s going to be the goal um and along the way just have a conversation if there’s anybody uh in the chat that wants to to pop up any
Messages or or chat maybe ask me some questions if not I’m just going to talk and what I’ll talk about is uh kind of what’s been going on in 2023 we’re just a few days away from uh 2024 and so you know kind of what went
Good what went bad what 2023 ended up like and what am I looking forward to in 2024 from a uh help Health span uh perspective what am I looking to do to improve to get better what would I like to uh fix compared to what happened in
2023 that type of thing also talk a little bit about training philosophy and that type of stuff so I’m going to get going on this and uh get this going but before I jump into doing the ride um for those of you that are on zift you know
That you earn drops basically drop of sweat for um for every kilometer that you do that type of thing and you can spend those drops in the drop shop and I just realized that I’ve got a in in game my um my frame is okay I’ve got a pretty good
Um uh set of wheels I’ve got a really fast set of wheels that I managed to purchase uh last year before they raised the level requirement now it’s level 40 I think at the time it was level 20 but they bumped it up to level 40 so I’ve
Got a really fast set of wheels but the frame I have could be a little lighter for climbing uphill so I’m going to go for those of you that are familiar before we uh get going here I’m going to go into the um drop shop and you can see
In the upper right hand corner there I’ve got 3,978 185 drops to spend well I’m going to pick a frame that um I just got to the level that required me to allowed me to do this uh few maybe a week or so ago and the frame uh based off of testing that
Uh zift Insider has done the frame that they think is the fastest um frame out there for climbing outside of uh a specialized frame is one by Scott and it’s here in the frame shop and oh I go to use the mouse to get this
Here um it’s going to be the this one here there it is it’s the Scott and I think it’s the addict RC so you see they’re highlighted in blue it’s the addict RC and that is there we go that is um the lightest second lightest frame out there that I can well
It’s the lightest frame I can purchase at this point for client it’s not the most ERA but it’s the lightest and based on the testing they’ve done this should give me 17 second advantage on the climb so for what it’s uh for what it’s worth
Uh I’ve got the drops to spend I’m going to go ahead and purchase this bad boy only 660,000 drops but we’re going to hit the Go Button there and that is uh that’s going to be mine I’m going to confirm bang so there my balance goes down I can build back my
Um I can build back my uh my account uh by uh doing some more miles on zift which I fully plan to do um so let’s go ahead and get that done uh let’s go and make sure I’ve got everything I’ve got everything picked properly so now I can go to the frame
Do that addict RC the wheels on there the DT Swiss um are the second fastest or third fastest wheel so uh for that for what that’s worth that should uh that should get me uh where I need to go okay so let’s go ahead and get out of this
And let’s get back to uh to the fun here and go back and pick the course that we’re going to do today and the course is of course the road to the sky um it is uh 11 and 11.1 miles it’s about a 3 Mile lead in uh and then the climb
Itself s of ‘s wift is uh I think 8 Miles uh and the total gain you see there is um 34 3,454 ft and I think I have um 3,345 ft or so to go before I reached the achievement of getting the Tron bike
Which I will show you once we uh once we get started here what that is so I’m going to go ahead and start this ride and loading watopia okay so now there we are getting ready to start the ride let me go back and I’m going to
Show you the challenge because this is one of one of the things that you have to elect when you start zift if you wanted to get this climbing challenge uh which is the one I call they called it’s called the Everest Challenge and you’ve got to climb 50,000
Meters so that equates to 64,0 42 ft and when you get that you get the Tron bike so if anybody’s not familiar with with the Tron bike are those glowy bikes that you see uh riding around on zwift and I’ve been plugging away uh I enjoy
Climbing and that type of thing so it’s I don’t I don’t haven’t accumulated to score as fast as some people but yeah I consistently worked on trying to gain altitude as I was riding so uh it’s 16442 I’ve done 16728 so you add 3,400 ft uh I’ll be you know I should be
Unlocking the Tron bike uh somewhere in the last kilometer or so of Al so let’s go and get this thing going because I’m going to be on the I’m going to be on the road a while here um so uh if anybody you want to leave some comments
Feel free to do that and we are off there we go pedaling along and as we get going um a couple of things uh like I said I started um I started zift on December 28th 2021 so two years ago today I started zift and since then
I’ve I’ve used it off and on um more consistently in the winter um in 2022 I spent um a fair amount of time running uh 2022 was also the year I got my first I guess major injury I had an hip abduct hip abductor strain so inside here on
The right right hip uh kind of muscle goes from hip down in um kind of a persistent strain that I think was due to um probably just not warming up enough and uh running aggravated it so took some time off for rehab and that type of thing and that’s started doing
So quite a bit and that healed and then I ran um trained for the peach tree in July of 2022 did a pretty good time there and ran through again uh and then picked up zift again in the fall 22 into the first part of 2023 uh
Started uh getting away from zift got back into training for running and now I’m back in the fall and I’m really enjoying it as I focus more on um really focusing on the longevity aspect training for that centenarian the calong or the marginal decade whatever it is I’ve come to the
Conclusion that that’s going to be my goal I’ll I’ll compete if I can run and train for you know 10ks and that type of stuff I will but my main goal is to really focus on uh three components um of aerobic capacity so doing those zone two
Building that that wide pyramid base and and then building a high pyramid by doing V2 Max so there last couple videos I’ve done about increasing my uh BO2 Max has been the goal there so really focusing on that and to do a good amount of zone two work one of the
Best here we go one of the best tools to do that is something like a bike so whether you can be outside on a consistent Road or inside on a trainer using something like zwift or something is a great way to do it for a couple of reasons one it’s virtually zero impact
Right you’re not pounding your joints like you are with running and weightbearing exercise like running I think is important but to do a few hours of that a week uh especially as we get older it’s it can invite more injuries than doing something like cycling so uh
Indoor cycling and uh rowing I’ve got the rowing machine over here the side concept two rower there’s going to be my primary a obic uh Base building uh modes um I think using zift is going to be the primary one rowing secondary and then kind to kind of do those V2 Max those
High-intensity workouts uh you can do it definitely on a bike very easily uh you do some very tough workouts in zift and anywhere else uh to do that but running can be used for that as well so I’ll mix it up a little bit but I really see uh indoor
Cycling or rowing to be my primary aerobic um uh mode I guess going forward and then added to that regular strength training uh and Mobility training so Mobility is different than strength Mobility is kind of range of motion of uh of the body the hips the knees the ankles shoulders uh joint
Mobility uh flexibility and then strength so things like resistance training uh bench press overhead press uh curls uh chinups pull-ups uh deadlifts fat bar deadlifts uh squats Bulgarian split squats all kinds of things that work the major muscle groups uh so the glutes the clads the chest the shoulders the back
Do that on a consistent basis right now I’m doing two uh two to three days a week of that um in addition to doing aerobic three to five days a week and then along the Along on those days is uh doing uh Mobility balance training and also uh pliability flexibility so
Things like like yoga that type of thing to stay flexible tie all that together and that’s a pretty complete uh pretty complete program which that’s my goal I’m 59 now uh I’d like to make it another at least 30 years get me get me to my
90s that’s going and I want to be active as far into far into life as possible so that’s why I’m doing doing this and that’s why uh I’ve got uh wife Maximus channel uh to kind of just share that uh with everybody out there hopefully provide some resources uh some
Motivation um those type of things to help you uh in your own Journey wherever wherever you are in life and whatever your goals are anything I can do to to kind of help or motivate or share with you what’s working or not working for me
Is uh is the goal so I’m going to turn on my fan here things are getting a little warm uh I think the mic does a pretty good job of blocking so you shouldn’t hear uh you’re watching and the fan is noise go and drop a uh drop a comment
Let me know but uh one thing about riding indoors is got to make your own wind you’re not running not moving so you got to generate your own air flow and that can be one of the things that can really impact the uh the quality of your
Workout you want to make sure you’re getting enough air moving over your body to keep you cool so uh got to use that fan um but here we are this is the leadin portion uh to out the to climb itself uh this is the route to the road
To the sky route I think the lead in is about 3 and a half miles we’re going through the jungle in watopia and Y there we go uh couple of things that I’ve done in the last couple months that have really improved or up my enjoyment of
Zift uh first thing is that just uh two months ago zwift um released an upgrade to their um I think it was a zwift hub was their trainer that they released last year which was not their own it was uh co-branded with uh uh jet jet black I
Think was the manufacturer so a smart trainer an entry level smart trainer and I didn’t pay too much attention to it at the time cuz I already had a smart trainer that I bought a couple years ago I still have it but this year they came
Out with the zift Hub one and basically the same trainer but they’ve upgraded the firmware um to allow for virtual shifting and uh the main thing about that is you don’t have to put an actual set on the rear of the trainer it just
Has one gear one Cog in the back and you just took your bike up to that um less wear and tear on the drivetrain of your bike less shifting mechanical shifting instead you use buttons that change the shifting virtually they call it virtual shifting and it’s basically just modulating the resistance that the
Trainer’s providing and the big advantage to that uh is if you have more than one person in the household that wants to use zift oh we’re leaving jungle now getting close to the Alp here um but the big advantage and the reason I purchased it
Is uh just the last month or so uh my wife had expressed interest in wanting to do zift as well and uh I think well can do that I just have to switch bikes on the uh regular trainer that we had and change the cassettes and kind of a pain well the
Zift Hub one eliminates that takes all about two minutes I just unhook the quick release take my bike off put her bike on hook it up and we are good to go so uh fantastic upgrade uh a little pricey not bad I mean for smart trainers
At the low end it was 5 99 bucks I think But it includes one year of Swift and here’s the start of Alta Swift speaking of all right so uh so something to think about um it includes one year of zift membership in that price so that’s a
Pretty good pretty good deal uh the other thing that I purchased we’re going up the first section here I’m going to ease into it a little bit um other thing I purchased was the wift play and you can’t see it but they are basically video game controllers that
Attach to the bike and with it I can do all the virtual shifting for uh this W tub I can also do neat things like ride on bomb and anybody that’s around me that I hav’t given a ride on too will automatically give ride on too but also
Allows you to navigate the the game from your bike mostly so you don’t have to use a mouse or anything like that those are the two things all right so we’re in the meat just starting to climb uh 21 switchbacks and each one as it ticks off you go through each
One uh drop down the upper right corner of the screen there you see that 12% that’s the current incline the trainer adjusts so lot more effort I’m going to try to keep my power somewhere average power for the climb somewhere between 175 and 200 we’ll see I don’t want this to be
Totally blow up ride but I like to do pretty good on it so let’s see there’s a ride on so I just push a button on this with play controller and that guy hadn’t given a ride on two before it gives him one just kind of a
Little way to go buddy type thing little inter activity uh so back to the ride I am right now you see about 190 Watts heart rate 130 my zone two heart rate is somewhere between 120 and 130 depending on the day uh Power consistent power that equates to that for me is maybe
170 uh 175 maybe something like that so I’m going to try to keep H zone two zone three that guy right on there we go and see what happens my PR for out the Swift is 1 hour 7 minutes and 55 seconds which I did I think the second
Time I wrote up up this was was January 2022 and I’ve done it a couple more times since then but at a slower pace is kind of a part of a workout so we’ll see what I do here today uh I’ve got 7.3 miles to the
Top I don’t have a 90day PR because last time I did out the RO was maybe July or August this year like I said it was part of a workout at that point so it wasn’t a that was more than 90 days ago so that’s why it’s not showing up but my
Alltime PR is 10750 something like that I think I can I’m fit enough to do better than that I really really really push it I think I might still be able to beat it today we’ll see the goal is to get the the Tron bike which if I complete the climb I
Should get the bike so I think the number you want to look for is in the upper Center there that heads up unit you see next to the ET you see that blue 330 ft going up we want that to be about 3,300 3400 fet should be where I get the
Uh the Tron bike so that’s the goal see what I can do here plenty of water I also have my secret weapon a Yeti cooler or mug filled with chocolate milk kind interesting I’ve been a endurance athlete Runner I don’t know for 40 years ever since high school and
Over the years Sports Nutrition has changed dramatically now you’ve got drinks for preworkout post workout before you go to bed the night before the workout all this stuff Sports Nutrition has definitely Advanced but I’ll tell you one of the best recovery or in a long run or long effort one of
The best things I found is lowfat chocolate milk uh this is the 1% uh fat lowfat chocolate milk from Publix Supermarkets which is Big here in the Southeast uh but the nice thing about it obviously it’s got got added sugar cuz it’s but it is just straight sugar they
Don’t use uh high fructose corn syrup or anything like that so from a purity of ingredients that’s about as good as you’re going to get for chocolate milk but the nice thing about it is each cup of this chocolate milk has about 70 calories about 30 gram of
Carb uh 8 g of protein and about 3 G of fat and if you look at some of the super super high priced uh Sports Nutrition drinks that are3 four a serving profile almost matches exactly the chocolate milk that’s in here and this cord of chocolate milk is
250 so I’ve got two cups in there so probably drink some during and then the rest uh right after the ride to kind of refuel a little bit but all right heart rate about 130 that’s kind of the kind of the range I like to keep it in that
Range I think I’m definitely more cycling fit now than I was in January 2022 I was probably more aerobically fit in January 2022 because two months prior to that I ran what I’ll call the modern era PR in a half marathon uh which was a Thanksgiving Day Marathon 2021 here in
Atlanta uh think I ran 130 13340 or whatever works whatever 71 a mile works out to for a half marathon I think that might have been aerobic fitness higher than bike Fitness but I’ve been riding quite a bit more so you’re using different muscles riding versus running and takes a lot of
Get the uh get the body used to that but I think I’m kind of in that mode now so we’ll see uh but zift is if you’re looking to do indoor cycling indoor training there’s a lot of apps out there I kind of came up on zift after doing some research back
Then and seem like like ah kind of a video game uh I kind of like that I think that might be engaging for me and it is I mean the end of the day you’re still writing in a cartoon but you know the scenery changes the the quality of the
Ride from a simulation of riding on the road is very very very good uh the smart trainers and the you know software that they use is pretty good and it’s getting better all the time so that’s uh get over the right side of the road the uh the zi play controllers also
Have steering and go left over to the middle line won’t let you go past that I can go right and won’t let me ride off into the cliff but you can steer all right segment 19 not a lot of people near me on Yelp today so scenery wise this isn’t
Anything like what you would see on the real Al W in France or Al the in France but from a road incline elevation and where the grade changes they claim it’s pretty much spot on to the actual road so from a physics standpoint and what it feels like the pedal up now
Thez on a bike they converted that to trying to give it much of a feeling as that in real life to in a cartoon uh so I will gives whift that credit there the scenery is quite a bit different I think it’s kind of a cross between I don’t know Adan Rockies and
The Swiss elps is kind of my my take on it and speaking of mountains I’m wearing a Jersey from a ride that is unfortunately no longer with us uh this three state three Mountain Century that ran for 30 years 25 30 years uh started in starts in Chattanooga it started in
Chattanooga and you rode Tennessee uh Two Mountains in Tennessee I think then you cross over into Alabama right in the northeast corner of Alabama right along Alabama for a while then into Georgia and then finish up back where you started so you do three mountains and three states and
Century ride and that was a fun ride did it for four years I think back in the day from like 2007 to 2012 or something like that well supported ride I think it uh met its fate like a lot of events did as a result of a
Covid-19 shutting it down those kind of events they run in a really thin Sho string of a budget not a lot of room for error and not a lot of money in the bank at the end of the day so to have a year or two where he didn’t have it or
Participation was much lower makes it a real challenge because you’ve got a front a lot of money got to put a lot of money up front for some of the uh Logistics right uh safety so volunteers uh police uh support sheriffs you know uh monitoring traffic traffic control on
Intersections and Roads and got to have insurance for all the liability stuff that’s a challenge it was a fun ride I figured this jersey would be a good way to uh honor a mountainous Sentry ride as I climb up one of the two iconic climbs in
Zwift Help The Help the zift here and the other one they have if you’re not familiar with it is what they call uh ven top and that’s in wh’s French world and it’s actually once again modeled after Mount Von 2 and I’ve done that climb a couple
Times as well so those are the two I guess epic climbs lift probably the biggest elevation gain speaking of another one I think in the far right coming around to it getting this little view up here you’ll see this tower on top of the mountain I think that is the radio tower of
K qk it’s the radio tower clim which is a really steep add-on to the uh epic K clim and sft uh yeah up your upper right hand corner probably getting hidden by let’s see I I can’t see all right let’s get I’m talking too much let me get let me get going
Here what am I on sector 16 I’m on sector 15 now right above my head you see sector stats sector 16 133 188 Watts so if I can maintain that I’m on sector 15 now I think that’ll give me a new alltime PR it won’t be under an hour that’s the
Uh that’s kind of the gold standard uh you’re going do out the zift in an hour or less or under an hour uh has something to put on your cycling in a cartoon resume uh because it generally equates to about 3 watts per kilogram of power
Required to to do that you can see on the lower right I’m about 26 to 28 29 three Watts for me would be about pretty close here 25 or so would be about 3 watts per me I’m at basically 77 kg right now in weight so let’s see anybody is
Okay so I’m in Virtual gear nine on this lift Hub him a bomb uh The zift Hub self autoc calibrates so when you get on and you connect it to the game the first few seconds of I think it’s first 10 seconds of riding it calculates what what your trainer is
Doing and then calibrates uh to give you an accurate power output and then they give you 24 gears so I haven’t had to go below gear three and that was on the top part of the Epic or the radio tower climb uh and I haven’t gone above 18 I think I was
Going down that climb seeing how fast I could pedal and how fast I could go so there’s a broad range of virtual gears which is pretty cool oh there’s a Mountain Goat on the left there on the right looks like some of the mountain goats you see in Colorado they were gone
In the Rockies there F see lots of mountain goats along the road okay sector 15 done 133 197 so seem to be do doing okay here got 1,53 ft climbed one third of the way there to get the Tron bike so it’ll be interesting to
See how close to the Finish Line Of The Climb I unlocked the Tron bike I’m hoping on not think I calculated correctly we’ll find out be a major if I don’t but I could always go partway down the climb and back up to get it but I think I should unlock the Tron
Bike probably within the last few hundred meters of the climb is what I think so we shall see I didn’t want to cut it too close going to give myself about 100 feet or so just in case I miscalculated but I think I’m got a pretty bout in here
Okay after 15 getting close to knocking out 14 around this Turn heart rate 138 200 Watts 14 136 207 Watts so let’s see in about an 8% grade now see if I can maintain closer to 200 than not that should get me a good PR then it means I’ve got to beat that PR right that’s the that’s the
Challenge that’s why I’ve always tried to to keep myself motivated is to just do as best I can and then try to better that and what I found over the years like I said I’ve been running and endurance exercise since 1980 so 43 years at this point going on 44
Uh what I’ve learned over all those years is you can only do what you can do it’s nice to compete against other people but if they’re so far ahead of you or so far behind you you’ll either never be able to catch them or be way
Ahead of them so do the best you can train and try to improve yourself on a consistent basis and if you do that over the long run you’re going to be I think finding yourself inching inching inching up in the rankings however you’re measuring yourself you know
I’m probably more fit now for climbing out to zft than I was 2 months ago doesn’t mean I’m going to catch uh you know Chris FR or Marco pantani of course he was doping quite a bit uh but any of the great and but I am
Closer I smidge than I was before so I’ve gotten better against the best ever but more importantly I guess or more realistically is I’m moving up the ranking of old guys that are riding out the zwift or other endurance uh you know so 50 to 60 year
Olds and in 2024 I’m going to turn 60 so I’ll be in a new age group but you you kind of figure out where you are come up with a plan to improve it improve it as little as you can what any Improvement is Improvement uh and then test yourself
Again however that is you’re riding up out this lift be an actual bike race could be a running race rowing uh hiking walking whatever it is you test yourself from time to time and see where you are measure measure that result against the previous result
And do what you can to improve or as you get later into life there’s going to come a point where what you’re going to be trying to do is to hang on to what you have for as long as possible now 133% grade down to seven gear
So back to 10 and nine go a gear so that’s what I’ve always tried to do especially in the last five years or so up through 40s early 50s you can really I think especially in an Endurance Sports longer endurance so things like longer rides uh 10ks half marathon marathons Ultras dur into
That I think you can objectively improve probably through your early 50s there’s more and more people doing that every day which is cool but sooner or later you’re not going to be setting the world on fire but you can set you can stay on fire as long as possible and that’s
That’s my goal uh I’ll be improving on zft and that type of thing probably for a few more years but that’s CU my focus hasn’t been on this for very long especially in the recent past uh I was doing a lot of Road cycling about 1999 through 200 14 and got away from
It because my mind it was just getting too dangerous especially starting out from our house or close by traffic just increased too much and for me to get a good workout in that’s two to three hours probably uh and to drive to an area where it was better add an extra hour
There before you you know it five or 6 hours are gone that was tough to justify still got some buddies that are riding outside and in the last five six years all of them have either been knocked off the bike or had too close for comfort as
Far as getting brushed uh that type of thing I’m just not I’m not willing to do that car versus bike he even motorcycle versus bike motorcycle or car wins every time guy in bike person on bike loses every time and I’m just not willing to put myself in that
Position right now I’d like to get back into biking but we’re going to need to change our local or available time is going to need to change in order for that to happen until then I can maintain a really high level of Fitness doing lift rowing and running so kind of a
Mix but back when I was cycling 5 6,000 miles a year all almost all of it Outdoors that was pretty fit I was in my you know late 30s uh almost 50 at that point and I was pretty fit uh I could I could keep Pace
With most of the faster group rides uh I was never a racer never had that Punchy ability like you getting like Criterium or that type of thing but I enjoyed I always enjoyed climbing because that was a consistent effort I could just meter out my power on a consistent
Basis and do it so that might be why I enjoy going uphill and Swift kind of kind of like it in real life but every once in a while really give it a hard effort most of the time for me now is a consistent zone two and do at least one
High aerobic capacity specific workout each week so V2 Max threshold that type of thing where the heart rate is going you know in 150s 160s for a little bit okay after 12 finish that 133 189 so moving along little map on the right opposite of me kind of gives a zigzag
And as I complete each sector get a little gold star so coming up on sector 11 I think halfway just about is Sector 10 so we’ll see I don’t know how this equates it’s been so long since I’ve really pushed it to any extent up the AL we’ll see how the the
Time comes out but it’s a definitely an effort okay I’m just looking at the uh live stream on YouTube and you’re about 12 seconds behind what I’m seeing on I use uh I’m using obs the stream mainly because it’s free it doesn’t cost me anything put in the
Basic setup uh I may start doing more live streams I’m GNA have to think about that see how time allows here in 2024 and if I can come up with something uh that seems to work and come up with a actual plan kind of a Content plan let see if I do that
But I’ve used streamyard and whatnot in the past they’re free plans but let you figured out try OBS seems to be working we’ll find out out it looks like it’s working I’ve got a a screen or a window open with the live live stream going and there I am 15 seconds
Behind although you wouldn’t know if you’re watching it live so coming up on on 10 I don’t know it might not be a PR tonight folks it might just be what it is I thought it was 10755 I’m at 34 now I don’t know we’ll see I’m getting that TR bike
1,400 feet to go still can’t not guaranteed though I could just drop dead right here fall off my bike have a major mechanical his RI tub fails computer blows up Anything Could Happen stay tuned getting a little steeper here 11% all right it’s not picking up anymore
I have to move my my guy over and see where I’m at okay try to stand up a little bit Swit it up a little bit get get muscles used doing a little bit more do a little more consistently here all right time for Yeti chocolate milk all
Right be over 2,000 ft of climbing here pretty soon oh there’s somebody up ahead looks like they’re on a Tron bike let’s see it’s blinking use that right on button on this with play kind of a neat thing people pass me going uphill a few more people here here it’s
What is midnight in Europe I figure most of the Riders lifters from Europe are probably asleep at this point I should be picking up people on the East Coast back through the West Coast people finish up the day get their evening workout here okay nine there’s a
Yeti Yep this person’s on the Tron bike look like they’re doing a workout you can tell somebody’s doing a workout because they got that little screen in front of their front of their Avatar he’s got that green screen he’s doing a workout on help his lift so it’s a
Structured ride instead of it’s kind of a free ride that I’m doing here all right not in single digits of sections to go that’s good there 2,000 ft virtual climbing 190 200 Watts 143 not too bad I’m working hard not at the limit but definitely a workout which is going
To have to go easy tomorrow maybe part of the Saturday too do some miles one sft and probably going for a little run or or Rock must be nice here in the Atlanta area that’ll be a good good thing to do after this do a little Ruck in the morning or
Afternoon that’s another activity that I’ve really embraced here this last year 2023 rocking walking with weight on your back a good way to use some strength endurance and build the the hips and glutes and quads just to put a pack on your back and add some weight go for a
Walk good weight bearing exercise and depending where you are in the goting your Fitness a rock you’re walking at a good Pace with a a little bit of weight on your back you might be able to get a very good zone two workout here and my wife uh really enjoys rocking she
Uh started off with 10 pounds in the pack now she’s up to 20 25 pounds after doing for just about a year yeah nine months she started in March and doing a doing a good job he uh on the weekends especially you’ll go out
And do a from a two to five mile walk with a pack on her back all right that’s your eight 2100 feet or above the tree line here in watopia thin air to stand up again but I’m really enjoying rocking I’ve got a a buddy we go out on
Sunday morning and do a rock anywhere from 4 to six miles and we walk uh 3 and a half to four miles an hour depending on the uh on the conversation and in the terrain fortunately around here in our little neck of the woods Ina Metro we’ve got sidewalks almost everywhere so makes
It nice we’re walking running jogging whatever uh you have a dedicated path sidewalks the disadvantage is that all the sidewalks are concrete which when you’re running does you wouldn’t think so but it makes a difference on the pounding your body takes running on asphalt versus concrete but walking not that bad running is
Really can be hard on the body and the joints and I ran for you know 40 years almost with not really any injuries the last couple years gotten a couple injuries from running and it’s just related to a couple of things I’m getting older I just have to
Give the body more time for recovery but also more time warming up getting the body ready for activity and then tending to the body after the activity so I’ve really embraced kind of that prehab function uh or Focus the last couple years really really this last year for sure uh just a
Constant uh build into pretty much every day doing something to increase Mobility on the body so in the days I’m not running or working out per se I try to do some sort of range of motion building activity uh or yoga stretching to keep the especially the lower body the hips
Knees and the ankles keep them as mobile flexible and strong as possible and it’s paying dividends but something I never really thought about or didn’t think about because never had any issues but have to pay attention the earlier the better might have been better off paying attention to
That 10 years ago 15 years ago and two years ago but can’t fix the past but I can change the future and doing that Mobility work is definitely helping uh then adding in specific strengthening exercises through the muscles and tendons and ligaments around those joints something to really focus on you
Don’t want to be immobile as you’re old that’s kind of a not a good result not a good outcome for anything you can can do to keep mobile and flexible the better so now before pretty much any workout especially I’m going to run where there’s that high impact I’m doing a lot
Of uh activation of the muscles and Joints I’m going to be using and I take my time before I start running so I may spend 5 10 minutes doing some active stretching I leg swings body weight squats range of motion get the get the muscles activated and
Then spend the first five or 10 minutes before I actually run just walking just getting used to the motion and then knes into the run and do the same thing at the end walk at the end and then stretch after afterwards that’s where you can do some of that longer hold stretching yoga
Uh it seems to really really be helping okay let’s get these wats going and yapping 2400 feet heart rate’s still there though 137 38 a solid effort not a Max effort but good solid effort so I’ll post Post in the description to this after I’m done
Couple of links to uh things you may find useful uh one is a book I’ve been reading started reading here just a few weeks ago actually but it’s kind of followup to a an app I found that focuses on kind of uh yoga or stretching it really
Focuses on kind of the deep tissue stuff so ligaments joints tendons uh it’s called think the style yoga is called yin yoga and based on specific poses but designed to hold those poses anywhere from one to three to five minutes some of them even longer and that’s really
Helped so I’ll post a a link to an app called pliability that I use for a couple months and then this book that I found that talk specifically about the type of routine behind that which is Yin Yin Yoga so I’ll post a link to the book down there
All right up into the snow tunnel this reminds me of Trail Ridge Road in the spring those you ever been out in Colorado you go up on Trail Ridge Road above go through est’s Park up into Rocky Mountain National Park you go up in the spring right after they open up
The road most years you see a tunel of snow on either side so kind of what it looks like and California too up in the SI Nevada been in both places in the winter driven in both places in blizzard conditions where I shouldn’t have been driving but I did
Anyway one of the more interesting experiences is for sure but we’re getting up here on the cartoon Alp all right don’t know how much time I got left 15 minutes maybe 2500 feet climbed I should have about 900 ft to go to get the the Tron
Unlocked and maybe a thousand to go to reach the top all right six five more to go now hour and 12 into it into this thing and me talking at the front the rider coming up give a ride on yeah this play has a button on itel Z and if you push that
Button when you’re around riders that you haven’t given a ride on to he gives them a ride on so instead of having to pull up each user independently and do it you can do a ride on bomb there you go yeah mostly us Riders seems like from
The flag Flags people here in the Western Hemisphere all right let’s see two miles to go basically yeah two miles a pitch here if we get into 12 so definitely recommend if you’re thinking of getting your first smart trainer and getting into zwift or trainer Road or
Any of the other virtual cycling apps you want a smart trainer and if you’re going to do on zift I’d highly recommend you look at the zift Hub one is it the most expensive trainer no one of the least expensive and that’s what’s good about it because relatively low cost to
Entry All Things Considered it’s got plenty of features for a regular person that’s wanting to build their Fitness using something like zift works very seamlessly with the game the virtual shifting is instant quieter than a traditional cassette you’re not going up and down the cassette everything stays in one
Place and you buy it and you get one year of Swift membership included now the virtual shifting right now only works on zift for now I bet other platforms will integrate it give that guy a right on Mr swandale all right 1.8 miles let’s
See I think I will get a PR we’ll see I’ve got 11 minutes and 55 seconds to go to do 1.7 miles I don’t know we’ll see legs are getting tired uh I did a short ride today with my wife hooked up the old both trainers The zft Hub one to the computer
And my bike on that trainer to the sft app on my tablet and it works zift is very platform friendly now the computer I have gives much more detailed Graphics you wouldn’t see this level of detail I was streaming this from the tablet but I kind of geeked
Out and bought a a basic machine with a graphics card that works really good with his lift few hundred bucks but I you got to be riding quite a bit but on the tablet you’re you’re in a video game and the graphics are good enough you get all the basic
Information you’re at but anyway I was able to do that and ride with my wife just created a Meetup between the two of us and they have a neat option where you can have the Meetup where everybody stays together so works great for two of us
Because my wife is much shorter than me and our fitness levels are completely different she’s still pretty fit for her age but she couldn’t maintain this level of power for her she’s smaller but we were able to create that ride together I was able to ride at a
Comfortable pace for me which is about 150 to 160 Watts she’s able to ride at a comfortable pace for her which was much lower terms of Watts we stayed together in the game so nice feature all right one and a half miles I’m definitely not going to do it in an
Hour n there’s a whift we got one minute to go 1.4 miles what can I do it in eight minutes huh we’ll see I’m cranking up the power here a little bit heart rate up okay okay so sector three I’ve got a monitor down here I’m watching
Uh sector 4 was the one I last finished 145 heart rate 200 Watts I’m on sector three average of 197 144 and you’re down Vector three is a long one yeah 2900 ft of climbing oh I almost forgot should have said this at the beginning but uh I
Created a club on zift Club is life Maximus so if you’re on zift and you want to join a club i’ love the heaviest part of life Maximus you’re looking at the founding member and only member at this point created the club last night but it’d be
Neat if we can get you know anybody that’s watching this channel it’s on zift to join that club and then you can do chat type of thing so we need some messages in the club chat life Maximus Club on zift if you want to join uh I’d
Be interested in doing some in group rides set up group rides uh days and times that work for you best let me know uh obviously there’s probably people from all time zones a lot of time zones they could potentially join the club we’ll see if we can find
Something that works oh here’s a Tron guy again but yeah life Maximus Club on zift you want to join love to have you a member maybe we can do uh schedule zone two rides uh workouts that type of thing it’ be kind of neat something different something to do so
Theoretically this bike and wheel combination that I have in zift I think is actually faster uphill than the Tron bike I’m not sure but I think I’m pretty close but obviously the engine on that Tron bike ahead of me is is faster than me I think he’s doing
32 36 I’m at 27 28 so these all right section sector three was 144 and 196 got one mile to go going to do it in seven minutes I don’t know we’ll see but more importantly SE bike should be coming up here pry soon so yeah there rft life Maximus
Club anybody wants to join can join no matter your ability experience Fitness it doesn’t matter what matters is that you’re working to improve your Fitness that’s the important thing and I’d love to have you as part of that group we can do some rides in Swift and get fit
Together TR to extend the community out Community small community that we have here to uh the world is whift I think that’d be kind of cool yeah I don’t know if it’s going to be a PR or not probably not I guess I spoke too early
Okay I’m going to blame it on all the Talking got to come up with an excuse right but NP under construction this will be a 90day PR I I can come back in uh a month or so push myself see what we get more chocolate milk one more water okay all right right
On I am 10% gr here hopefully I get the Tron bike within sight of the finish I don’t know half a mile I’m up to the last switch back all right few hundred feet to go half a mile all right and then close TR bike there we
Go and that’s it oh okay now a challenge woohoo that’s all I get ah I guess I do get to finish the climb oh at the top of the climb there’s like the wheel of Wheel of Fortune I guess anytime you cross little prize wheel
Spins and most of the time you get it like with some gloves but every once in a while you get the lightweight mingin milin Wheels which are the lightest Wheels you can get on zift you can only get them by winning the prize wheel at the top so this will be my
Fifth time up out Swift I’ve gotten I think gloves every time so hopefully karma is in my favor tonight and I get the wheels I deserve them right merry happy holidays to me Merry Christmas to me don’t give me a lump of coal Swift see if I get the
Wheels few times of a m ago leg are feeling it breing some potassium here tonight that’s for sure myself a banana or an avocado for dinner less than a th ft all right all right prize wheel give me something good now good thing is I’ll get like an
Extra eight miles on the ride without doing anything I just Coast downhill rack up the miles guess the super light my time is that’s my other frame have 17 seconds to it theoretically all right there’s the Finish PR wheel spin ah I got the gloves again but I did get level 30 ah there you go I’m an avid clim it’s for going up zift help to zift five times I think level 30 Tron bike Avid climber award and another pair of gloves which think about
It why are there even gloves and helmets in zwift I’ll leave you with this thought deep thought why are there even gloves and helmets SS lift it’s not like you’re going to fall and hurt yourself you can’t crash why do you need a helmet that’s why I don’t wear a helmet I just
We old school orange headband that’s all I need in a cartoon don’t need any gloves either not going to fall and R rough my hands up so I’m not wearing a helmet Reckless that’s what I am Reckless all right well got the Tron bike uh there’s that level
30 uh I’m just going to keep swifting it’s a great workout uh whether you get a Tron bike or not or lightweight wheels or not sft is a great way to get a good good quality workout in uh good way to build that build that aerobic base with
Zone to and a good way to build out your top end aerobic capacity with those V max workouts smart trainer works great if you’re not on zift think about it I if you got you got the ability to to get a uh a smart trainer and you’re looking for way to
Maybe supplement your outdoor riding you’re riding outside or maybe you want to ride a bike but it’s just too too much traffic and too dangerous to ride outside where you are yeah take your bike and put on a trainer hook up the Swift and join the tens of probably
Hundreds of thousands of people that are on zift uh I think the most that’s ever been on zift is like 43,000 that one time that was during the pandemic uh but most of the time in the winter here uh there see 20 to 30,000 people and zift on the on the evenings
So a lot of people use zift for all kinds of things you can just ride you do uh some social riding you can race very very strong Riders on Z wh so check it out if you’re not on it and if you are
On it or you do get on zift go ahead and join the life Maximus club uh let’s uh see if we can build a little little Community there and uh do some rides and uh share our successes along the way and that’s it for me I’m going to I’m going
To Coast down out the zift here get a cool down and uh get some dinner some food in me relax a little bit get a good night’s sleep recovery is important that’s for sure all right thanks for watching everybody hope you enjoyed this uh what is this hour and 36
Minutes of uh writing in a cartoon and talking but hope you got something out of it um leave some comments down below uh anything you are doing whether you’re on zwift or not where are you on zwift uh any plans or things we never did get
To what happen in 2024 so leave a leave a comment down below kind of what your goals are for 2024 what do you want to work on uh what are some ideas some things you want maybe want to see me do either live streams on uh where we can all participate together
Or or a video on uh leave some ideas down there in the comments below if you like what you’re seeing here give us a thumbs up you know help spread the word about what we’re doing here at life Maximus and uh subscribe become part of the community uh subscribe love to have
You as a part of the community here on YouTube and uh like I said join the life Maximus Club in zwift and we’ll see you there all right till the next one be well