Zwift: the First Month

I bit the bullet and signed up for Zwift.  I went all in with the Zwift ride, a faux bicycle specifically designed so I never have to attach a real bike to the included Wahoo trainer, and gamified handlebars that let me control the ride separate from the phone app.  My old cycling trainer, a Cateye Cyclometer wind trainer circa 1989 [roughly] was showing its age after a third of a century.  I was considering offering tours, as it may be one of the few things in this world that really got more use than one would expect for value.  I'd estimate it had at least 50000 miles on it, and I went through several bicycles, usually whichever one wasn't good for the road anymore because of weight, a slight bend in the frame, or a cracked joint.  The pinch-style rear wheel holder meant that it could hold together problems that made a bike no longer road worthy.

Some observations after a month:

1. I use it a lot.  Stats below for my first month.
2. Group rides are wonderful and once you figure out that rubberbanding is a system to keep you all together regardless of differences in effort, it's even more fun.  I did my first group ride Thanksgiving week with about 8 other people from the Twin Cities Bike Club.
3. My FTP is 232. That's a fuzzy measurement, but Zwift lets you test and train to improve your base level of fitness and it gave me a real number to drop into my Garmin app so I can see what exertion levels I typically ride [3/4 on a scale of 7, which is above general endurance training, but below training for a race via VO2 max and full on heart improvement].  How Garmin was computing my effort before was WAY off.
4. I'm definitely getting more exercise than the old trainer.  I came out of a ride where I ended up pedaling the last 5-6 miles of a route with two strangers and we kept pushing each other [or at least they kept pushing me] and I came out of the training room wobbly, shaking, and looking like I might have a heart attack laying on the floor.
5. I love being able to mimic climb.
1. however....I think it may be stressing my back because of my uneven legs, both genetic and via being squashed and having pins in one hip.
2. but it's forcing me to deal with exercises and stretching for lower back and uneven legs which I should have been doing anyway.
3. however...the big target is climbing Mount Everest [total climb, not like a singular event] to get a Tron bike.  This seemed do-able until I realized you have to climb an additional 140k feet after the Mount Everest climb.  So more like six Mount Everests.  That might take a while.  Ten months at my current rate, although I'm on a monthly plan, so I'm unlikely to rack up climb during the spring/summer/fall when I'm outside, or when I'm on the fat tire.
6. Despite all that ride, I'm not losing weight.  Probably not surprising.  Older = less impact. I've been setting off some bad habits like beer and ice cream.  And looking at myself in the mirror, I think the first month has been trimming a lot of fat, but adding a lot of heavier muscle [see that 3-4 FTP comment above - I'm above the usual fat burning zone].
7. I don't like the idea that it's basically a dollar and hour to cycle, but I've spent my money on much stupider and less healthy habits like beer and board games and it's primarily for November - February, maybe October-March depending on the weather.
8. My television viewing has been severely impacted.  I used to stream while I pedaled, but now I watch the Zwift terrain and cyclists.  I could always do side by side, but I'm not sure how much attention I could pay to television while I'm really pushing it anyway.
9. It'll be interesting to see if the climbing/riding maps to reality in the spring, particularly if I target some bigger climbs on the Zwift in anticipation of gravel rides or otherwise.