“I can’t even enjoy a blade of grass unless I know there’s a subway handy, or a record store or some other sign that people do not totally regret life.” Frank O’hara – Meditations in an Emergency.
I’m now in my fourth week of Sheltering In Place in San Francisco. I don’t know the difference between Saturday and Tuesday, nor between my daytime and nighttime pajamas. I can’t remember a time when I didn’t have to conserve toilet paper, nor the last time I was close enough to feel the breath of another human being other than my wife. But I do know that at 7:30 AM every morning, I’ll get on my bike – perched on an electronic trainer – launch Zwift on my AppleTV, and disappear into a virtual world ruled by my power, cadence, and heart-rate monitors, decorated with 3D graphics that rival what I used to see at all night raves. I ride alongside my brother-in-law in Boston, my friends from NY, and new friends from around the world, literally. I experience the feel of the road, the camaraderie of drafting within a group that is perfectly matched to my riding speed, and the thrill of sprinting for a PR. I do interval training, group rides, and compete in races. After anywhere from 30 to 180 minutes, I feel complete — I’ve seen my friends, chatted a bit, exhausted my energy, and sweat buckets, all from the physical distance and comfort and safety of my own private pain-cave!
Welcome to Zwift in the Age of COVID19, where 20,000 adult cyclists simultaneously descend into a virtual online environment, finally understanding what 13 year-olds immersed in social media and video games have understood all along: that online social activity makes you more civically minded, exposes you to more diversity, instills feelings of confidence and inclusion, and makes you feel like you have people who will support you through tough times.
The Age of COVID19 is teaching us that the way we exercise benefits from technology-assisted remote socialization as much as the way we work or shop. We are creating new verbs in all aspects of our life – we slack and zoom at work, we facetime with our remote families, and now we zwift to stay fit with our friends!
This is no surprise to me: I grew up in New York City working out in dark, sweaty, smelly gyms and studios, and learned to focus in that darkness away from the distractions of wind, rain, bugs, and potholes. But purists may insist that their adventures need to take place in the great-outdoors, with the feel of the road, the wind in their face, and the smell of the wildflowers. Ha!! The Age of COVID19 confirms to me that these beliefs will go the way of ‘I need to feel the newspaper between my fingers’ and ‘I need to try clothes on before I buy them’: they’ll be seen as quaint bouts of nostalgia, reminiscent of times before advances in virtual-living converged with the health and safety requirements of the new world order.