Playing Catch-Up.

The vast majority of features on Zwift don't interest me at all. I've tried workouts. I've tried group rides. I've tried challenges. I've tried races. None of them were remotely fun in the way "real life" events are. The interactions are just completely different. The "tells" another rider shows don't translate to their avatar. It doesn't mean these events aren't valid, but they're not even remotely similar to the real thing.
  
So mainly I just ride around.
  
The game I play a lot is finding a rider ahead of me a given distance riding at a certain pace, and then pedal my brains into mush trying to bridge. Once there, I make myself hang on their wheel for a certain amount of time. After all, what good is expending all that energy when you immediately get dropped. Sometimes the other rider takes offense at me sitting on their wheel and jumps to reopen the gap. I jump too, because counterattacks are part of the game as well. Doing this a few times during a workout really notches up the intensity.
   
The game really isn't as much about them as it is about me. To push myself, I need a wheel to die on. A target up the road to reach so I can "relax" in the draft. Just close the distance and the pain will be over. Of course, it never is, but I lie to myself. A lot.
  
Other people play the same game with me, so it's my turn to try to drop them. I'm not so good at that game, but I give it a shot anyway. I'll try to lose them in groups or in rollers, using whatever advantages I have at hand. Usually I don't have many.
  
All part of the game when I'm trying to ride faster to make the trainer time pass faster.

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