rmgvtec – Member

Im just trying to learn to pace myself, my last race was the first time I hadnt been significantly dropped – average hr was 7bpm lower than my max and was a mess all day long from it.
In my opinion it’s a learning process and just working out what I can and can’t do at the moment

If you can pull over 3.2w/kg on the flat you can do it up hills too. You’re definitely a B. Pacing better will only make you perform better, maybe not in a pure w/kg but in a race where you are able to recover from the intial effort and have more left for the end. If you haven’t done a normal race with far less people in it with a bit of hiding and assuming you get in the right group from the start you’ll be comfortably in the top half of B with that kind of output. You’ll still be screwed afterwards ;0)

Finally I’ve been put in a division that’s not Rookie on CV rankings. Wouldn’t take a lot to get into the top 100 of Div 4 whatever that would actually mean!

Taking a break from Zwift racing to follow a Trainer Road program based against my actual outside racing goal. Might substitute a race in now and again once I’ve settled into it. Struggled on Sundays session after a hard 2 hour MTB ride.

Sounds like i did something wrong with the signing up then. Must have clicked something on the iPad, originally signed up on mobile link.

Gonna give the PACK event a go tonight and see if that works.

PretzHell, not so much

It’s all in your head! Watopia Pretzel is my favourite route at the minute.

Fastest C finished in 33:17 with an average 2.4w/kg??? Does weight have that much of an advantage? He was 10kg less than me.

no, but drafting in a fast pack has a huge effect.

@scaled – I maybe didn’t word that so correctly. The limiting of wattage was mainly to make sure I would finish. 280w is just shy of my ftp. Nothing to do with sandbagging, as I’m not racing. It’s the first time I’ve ridden these courses, so not sure of the correct pacing as yet and going relatively cautiously.

@jambo – I’ll have to get the hang of drafting as he was 10 minutes ahead of third. 😀

Fastest C finished in 33:17 with an average 2.4w/kg??? Does weight have that much of an advantage? He was 10kg less than me.

Lol. I was there doing intervals at 3.8w/kg and there was a guy drafting me showing 2.1w/kg – it was quite disheartening.

Lol. I was there doing intervals at 3.8w/kg and there was a guy drafting me showing 2.1w/kg – it was quite disheartening.

But that means you can draft someone at 4.5 🙂

My fastest laps of the Volcano CCW have been at what would be 4w/kg if i were solo, but i was in a bunch of B/C’s and flying along putting out only 2.7w/kg. It works both ways.

weeksy – Member

If i’m reading your posts correct you entered the type of race that’s ‘open’ cat. Which it then filters you into the correct actual Cat itself at the end based upon your power (or possible your CVR ranking). You then finished 2mins 25s behind the Cat winner, hence the 2.25.

As to why you’re unfiltered, i’m not sure.

Ah, that makes sense- thanks weeksy.

This morning I see I’m in the results, seems like it was just updating.

I can see how addictive this is going to be 🙂

codybrennan – Member
This morning I see I’m in the results, seems like it was just updating.

That’s quite common… we sometimes need to give it an hour or 3 before the full results are in place

I couldn’t stand the tension 🙂 thanks though, will keep that in mind for future things.

Its put me in as I think a Cat D, with a time of 46:49, 95%= 3.2w/kg, Avg power of 246W/3.4W/kg.

I have no real idea whether any of that is any good or not (I’m a month shy of 50, 73kgs in weight, 5′ 8″), but I do feel faster, so I’ll be happy to use these as base numbers to go on with.

Ambition wise is really just to get into a solid Cat C position I think, keep the fitness up over winter and into spring, and get a bit better placed in the CX races I’ve been doing.

3.4 W/Kg is firmly in B.

jam bo – Member

3.4 W/Kg is firmly in B.

Really? There’s no way I’m that quick. I’ll investigate, and do a bit more testing to see that I’m recording this all correctly. Cheers jam bo

3.4 W/Kg is firmly in B.

This.

B is 3.2-4W/KG average.

I’m on the border between B and A but always enter A, DQ’s really, really suck and in a race you always seem to be able to dig a little deeper than you think 😀

Really? There’s no way I’m that quick. I’ll investigate, and do a bit more testing to see that I’m recording this all correctly.

As you are reasonably light at 73kg and near the bottom end of a category you’ll need to hone your Zwift racing skills! It’ll be tough as you’ll be racing against people who are 80+ kg and near 4 w/kg so FTP of 320+ watts which is a lot more power than you. So you’ll find it hard on the flats unless you’re good at hiding as others will have a lot more power (probably near threshold just to stay in their draft.) And you’ll find it hard on the hills as you’re at the bottom end of w/kg scale. Good luck 😀

mrblobby – Member
So you’ll find it hard on the flats

I already am, now that you come to mention it- cheers for the advice 🙂

TBH, my ambitions are fairly modest. I’m well over the hill now, and this is primarily intended to maintain fitness for me. Anything else is a bonus.

I’d not rated myself performance wise but I’m thinking I might give a race a go shortly and see what happens based on the above. To those of you with experience doing them – do the longer ones tend to be a bit less committed due to the time they run for, or is it the case that pace stays high regardless, you just have to suffer for longer?

do the longer ones tend to be a bit less committed due to the time they run for, or is it the case that pace stays high regardless, you just have to suffer for longer?

You’d think they’d be less intense/easier wouldn’t you… but not really.

Admittedly, if i do a WBR 10km race, i’ll finish on 295-300w If i do a 30km i’ll put in 275-280w, if it’s a 42km, i’m more list 260w.

Sure, it’s 40w… Or heck, it’s only 40w…. LOL… Depends how you look at things.

It’s not the whole story though, it’s the kicks in power, especially late on, it’s the surges with 3-4km to go and people just wham up the power..

Not sure that helps.

Depends on the group you end up in. Going off hard get’s you in a better group which makes it harder for the entire race. I found I got dropped if setting off too enthusiastically and dropping back to the group behind on lap 2 of 4. Going off at a more sensible pace, still quite hard, got me into the right group which I probably would fall back to. BUT if I can get my recovery in with the harder group and hold on I’ll do a lot better…
3 lap races of about 45 minutes suit me best. 1 lap was fun too but. All are flipping hard if you want to make it so.

3 lap races of about 45 minutes suit me best.

very much this. I did do quite well in my last race which was about 1hr5 but it was bloody hard work & I could only keep up the pace because I really reigned myself in at the start!

Was tempted to do the CVR race today but looking at the races that’ve run already today, I’ll be very much at the bottom of the pack plus it’s a relatively long race (probably 1hr20+ for me).

Doesn’t seem like there’s been that much interest… the Zone A race this morning only had 19 riders (male & female!) There are a lot more registered for the Zone E one but I reckon the length of the races is putting people off. Anyone raced any or multiple ones so far?

Distance and the fact it would be mostly solo has put me off them. At least in a ABCD race you generally know you’ll have other riders around you to play with and battle. HOwever due to the way the format of these is, i could end up being the only guy at 3w/kg and destroyed within the first 2 mins…. Then the rest solo.

Hadn’t noticed the staggered start. Not that it’d make any difference (for me)… although it seems to imply regular zwift w/kg categories on the Zwift events app listing, pretty sure you’re supposed to race in the category you were assigned when you signed up (which would be D for me)… I’d be right at the back either way looking at past race results!

Apologies to zwift,it seems it is my network that has been causing me issues for the past few days. I was leading the mgcc race this morning when the familiar sideways movement started and then boom everyone gone,internet came back up within 30s but zwift wouldnt reconnect back to the race, i was going great again. It seems to be dropping wifi on a regular basis but LAN is unaffected.
I ended up going for a pootle and then tried to break my pr for box hill (6:47) but it seems pulling no less than 4.5w/kg all the way up is just not fast enough,ended up doing it in 7:08. I was too focused on cadence and should have just concentrated on burying myself.

Blader, until we swapped ISP, I had to run an Ethernet cable for racing or I’d more than likely get a drop out. Not had one for a long time touch wood!!

I do zwift on ipad so hardwiring isnt an option for me. I will just change out the router as its never been an issue before, just a shame its happened twice when i have been going great.
I now have just under 10,000ft of climbing left to get the Tron bike so hopefully end of next week for completion.

I don’t have wi-fi where I Zwift so I use 4g (connect iPad to mobile hotspot on my phone). Only downside of this approach is that you can’t use the Mobile Link app on the phone to control anything. Might be worth trying assuming you have a 4g signal.

have you got power in there ?

powerline network plugs, one with wifi ?

Is that at me? No internet anywhere in the building (that I can access) unfortunately. Did get me thinking though if there’s a way of sharing the connection from my main building. I wonder if anything here would actually work reliably considering they are very low cost options. I have line of site from my main building (although at an acute angle), distance 100m or so https://www.broadbandbuyer.com/store/wifi-links/wifi-building-links/

https://community.zwift.com/preview/4236

leith hill is a go…

Yes, was at you, zilog
how do you power your turbo? (or is it one of those self-powered ones). If plugged in, is it not on the same supply as your house ?

I live in a flat so space/noise means I Zwift at work… there are some empty offices in the mezzanine above the warehouse so I have commandeered one as my pain cave. So there’s power but no internet (or heating lol). It’s in a different building on an industrial estate about 100m away from the main office.

😯

(that is all)

https://community.zwift.com/preview/4236

leith hill is a go…

Rode it this morning. It’s a hill. I set myself a max of 150hr to keep me in fat burn zone, so was slow up it.

Me too. Rode it from the box hill side (you turn right for Leith hill instead of left for box hill). The start is more of a gradual climb with some 5 to 7% gradients thrown in. When you get to the KOM section it rapidly turns into 9-12% right to the top. That section is shorter than the box hill KOM though. My time was about 90 seconds faster than my box hill pb without killing myself.

Kiss C for me tonight. Jumping on shortly for a warmup.

**** I hate racing box hill. Too fat…

CVR A at 10:00 getting pre race jitters 😀

New Strava segment on Leith; “Zwift Velodrome:Coming Soon”. Should make for some fun racing if they put that in!!

You may get to enter an STW pursuit team 😀