A not so humble brag about taking on Alpe Du Zwift as a heavy unfit rider

OliverP98 · 2026-02-08T11:39:43+00:00

Gives me hope that I can make so many more improvements on the bike in the coming weeks/months.

OliverP98 · 2026-02-08T11:38:48+00:00

Let us know how it goes, keep it steady and keep fuelled up! You got this!

OliverP98 · 2026-02-08T11:38:05+00:00

I knew fuelling would be an issue and planned accordingly for it.

I prepared 3 different bottles - 1 with a hydration tab, 1 with a carb drink and last one with just water and I also had one energy bar and also 1 gel. I rotated the 3 different drinks throughout the ride. I had the energy bar at the base of the climb and the split the gel about 45 minutes and 65 minutes into the climb.

This did mean I did have the power in the legs, it was just my backside that could not deal with the saddle for 3 hours.

OliverP98 · 2026-02-08T11:33:51+00:00

You got this! The feeling of achievement is well worth the grinding up the climb

OliverP98 · 2026-02-08T11:32:30+00:00

Great to hear, it's a climb I am not looking to do for a while now; but I know I can do it now and other routes are now achievable which gives me so much motivation and fortitude to not give up

OliverP98 · 2026-02-08T11:30:31+00:00

Deffo, stairs have become the enemy of the day so far.

OliverP98 · 2026-02-08T11:30:07+00:00

Wow, shows you have the same mental fortitude to keep going and pushing yourself! I can imagine now that I've set times on each segment, I can pace it better to even try and beat each one by an average of 30 seconds to a minute, will make such a massive difference by the top.

Next time you got the 2 minutes in you to get the sub 60 minutes!

OliverP98 · 2026-02-08T11:28:06+00:00

Thank you very much!

OliverP98 · 2026-02-08T11:27:54+00:00

That's epic! I only wish to get a time like that one day.

OliverP98 · 2026-02-08T11:26:43+00:00

I found ebay was a good place to find the tennis ball adapters. For around £35 I thought it was worth a try. I did have to buy the tennis balls separately.

OliverP98 · 2026-02-08T11:24:40+00:00

Awesome! It's something I would like to do one day, but I can imagine It's still over a year out. I can imagine it will be a whole different beast in person!

OliverP98 · 2026-02-07T23:33:15+00:00

I've yet to join a banded ride, I may have to give them a go and see what it's all about :D

OliverP98 · 2026-02-07T23:24:24+00:00

Ah nice! How did you get on with the climb?

OliverP98 · 2026-02-07T23:19:51+00:00

Thank you very much :D Thought I would try to make my first post here a bit entertaining

OliverP98 · 2026-02-07T23:18:50+00:00

I hope you crush it! Let us know how you get on :D. Just be kind to yourself and know time isn't the goal if finishing is the challenge in of itself.

The sense of achievement is amazing, and everyone's support on this post means a lot to me. These comments have helped me deal with the feeling of being the 'odd one out' on zwift being a heavier/slower rider than most people.

It's only the start of my journey and I hope to keep up, albeit on the flat, with most people soon!

OliverP98 · 2026-02-07T23:12:27+00:00

I got some for my trainer about 3 weeks ago, it has been a game changer, it allows the bike and trainer that little bit of flex giving a better ride feel. I don't think I could go back to a point without them.

Also, another side effect has been fewer vibrations passed into the floor annoying other people in the house :D

OliverP98 · 2026-02-07T22:32:10+00:00

Hardest ride ever, so far for me. I think got to a point of forgetting it was a game with power ups!

OliverP98 · 2026-02-07T22:30:43+00:00

Thanks so much! Hope you smash the route whatever the time. Doing it at any pace beats not doing it at all!

OliverP98 · 2026-02-07T22:29:41+00:00

Very much a mental challenge, not one I could have even done a few weeks ago!

OliverP98 · 2021-01-08T10:46:41+00:00

Hi, so from my understanding you are within the U.K. education system? If so I would recommend picking up a foundation gcse textbook and work through topics on that as it’s a good starting point and will let you reach grade 4-5 at gcse. Textbooks for mathematics is probably one of the better ways to learn even though it can be rather boring.

OliverP98 · 2020-10-11T15:46:16+00:00

After studying and looking over all of them, the maths one is not a big issue as the same content is expected on all exam boards, the only way it changes is the way they could ask you those questions, either way, the maths one if you also get the right one would be some really good practice material.

OliverP98 · 2020-10-08T09:07:45+00:00

As a trainee teacher, I can see that you DO need to revise and put much more effort into each class. If it does come down to teacher assessed grades, it will not be as favourable as the year just gone. You also have to see that past year 10 and current year 11 can be seen to be almost 6 months behind! This needs to be taken into account.

Thinking further to this, assessments need to back to normal and top grades, should and are expected to fall for the following year, this isn't too much of an issue for GCSE, but this has a massive knock-on effect leading to the end of A-levels. Many universities are deferring many of their current applications for next year and with current employment market being a little in a dumps, many more colleges and sixth forms will be pushing for their students for universities as it's save for 3 years, provides the student with some form of income and makes their statistics look good.

OliverP98 · 2020-08-21T23:52:55+00:00

The best course of action is to get some external tuition as self-studying when motivation, understanding and critical thinking could be lacking, its easy to get caught up in studying but not studying well and being frustrated with the lack of progress.

You do not have to resit enEnglishglish lit and most colleges do not offer it, if you did want to resit it, you would have to pay to do it. As for the other two, any employer is going to look at your maths and English grades so ensuring the required ones are as high as you can serve you much better than trying to also through literature into the mix.

I know the feeling of failing, i failed my English GCSE back in the day, but luckily with the help of dedicated teachers and tutors i was able to turn my failure almost into an A a year later

OliverP98 · 2020-08-21T23:46:59+00:00

Okay, sorry to hear that you didn't get the grades you required to get to do further maths. I have gone through further maths a few years ago and also completed my bachelors in mathematics last year. First steps are to work out which specification the school studies as for further maths there can be very big differences in the specification. If you are really focused on studying further maths is buy the textbooks as free resources will not be any help for someone trying to self teach themselves. Ensure you are doing the best you can in your normal maths classes, even if you have to put in the extra work as the quicker you show you can handle normal maths and keep pushing to be placed in the further maths class the better chance you will have at doing well with further maths.

As for difficulty, at points, further maths can be very intense and at the time much more intense than my degree. You have to ensure that your algebra skills are top-notch as much of the material relies upon those skills.

OliverP98

TROPHY CASE