I am fairly new to all of this. I began to take cycling serious in June of this year. I have really enjoyed it and I know I have made significant advancements in my abilities, though I am still always at the back of the pack on climbs. Now that winter is upon us, I am concerned about all of my hard work disappearing over winter. To keep this short, I went out and bought a direct drive trainer and am giving Zwift a chance with the trial period.

Now, on to my findings - Zwift seems significantly tougher than real life. I know this is a good thing, but I have ridden 50 mile rides with up to 800 ft 5% climbs (total of 3,000+ ft over the entire ride) and they don't seem as difficult as Zwift. So far, my longest zwift ride has been 9 miles with 800 feet of elevation over 37 minutes and it kicked my butt. My original plans were to spend 3-4 hours per week riding on the trainer, but I don't know if I can do it. Once again, tough is good, but I would also like to get some endurance.