polarized training init 😉

Sheeesh, that went OK. Went off hard and stayed on the pace.

Group of 30-35 of us in the lead bunch after the warm up 4km…. Onto the next full lap, i felt great, HR over the line was 162 and over 3w/kg average around then, over the next 3 km it held together, then ramped up, a bit, a bit, a bit, into the last km i was hanging in there in the lead bunch, HR was 170 by now, with 600m to go it all got a bit excitable and people kicked on.. I didn’t have much in the sprint but still picked off some, lost to some, but overall it was 10th in B and i think 20th overall.

[url=https://flic.kr/p/23pqdS8]20thoverall[/url] by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

Good going that Weeksy. i think the only race i did was with you back in October, were you a C then?

Yeah i was but crosshair shamed me into moving up

I got on the back of a bunch of Cs earlier and it made me realise how rubbish I am at this! Still I seemed to beat a lot of people on the ‘hilly’bits of Richmond. Be good to see the other world. This whole flat thing is a very odd experience!

I’ve upgraded my drafting skills from ‘non existent’ to ‘rubbish’ 🙂

I love Richmond in that context, it suits my power/weight/riding massively. I can hold wheels, kick when i need and really enjoy the racing on it… I’d be happy if they put it in a LOT more. I know it doesn’t suit many…. but me… i’m more than happy on Richmond days.

Today got me 9 points on CVR, which is about all someone at my level can expect for a low entry field. So i’m happy enough with that… I am kicking myself for not having more of a try at the end though !

I learnt a valuable lesson today and that is dont go in to the menu in a race as regardless of whether you are still pedalling or not you actually stop moving! I put out massive power for the first 2 mins just to hang on to the A group and realised my cadence sensor had not paired so quickly went to the menu to pair it, back to the race and i was on my own and the group 10s ahead. So it was a rubbish race and i ended up miles behind for that 1 mistake.

Inspired by todays racers and I missed a ride last night found a 1 lapper to do.
Bigger effort than normal to hold the front group from the start and stayed with the front group until a km to go when I couldn’t hold onto the increase in pace at the front. Beat those left around me in the sprint.
Currently sat 4th in B waiting for a possible upgrade to the podium as 3rd pace currently doesn’t have HR weight or Strava listed
Scratch that upgraded to 3rd :0)
I appear to be reasonably good at 1 lappers and being a draft dodger as my w/kg is a chunk lower than all those around me.

I’ve just set up my new Elite Novo Smart, paired it with Zwift, got the HR & cadence sensors paired, and did a lap of the UCI 2015 course. I could feel changes in resistance so it looks like I’m all set. Zwift tells me my FTP is 244. I felt pretty wobbly getting off the bike, perhaps two glasses of red were not ideal preparation…

I guess my question is what do I do now?

Work out what your w/kg is and do a race :0)

Or do a proper FTP test once rested but they are horrible so just get in the right category. Depending on your weight you’ll likely be a B or a C.

Also back to Watopia map tomorrow so go and explore the main map.

Work out what your w/kg is and do a race :0)

Or do a proper FTP test once rested but they are horrible so just get in the right category. Depending on your weight you’ll likely be a B or a C.

Also back to Watopia map tomorrow so go and explore the main map.

Thanks. Is it just FTP divided by my weight? If so I’m 2.98 w/kg. So I just join a race in the appropriate category?

Probably won’t get back to it until next week as I have a club ride on Sunday morning.

Well done Tom, my new 1 lap super rival!

Thanks. Is it just FTP divided by my weight? If so I’m 2.98 w/kg. So I just join a race in the appropriate category?

Yep. I’d start in C and see how you get on.

And don’t fall for the warm up lap…

Yep. I’d start in C and see how you get on.

And don’t fall for the warm up lap…

Great, thanks. I’ll report back…

Yes top end of C. As it’s probably not your true FTP you might find you get upgraded as you’ll probably work harder in a race and not have wine beforehand…

But todays warm up lap was a 300+ watt affair. Perfect for going into the full lap warmed up.

Yes top end of C. As it’s probably not your true FTP you might find you get upgraded as you’ll probably work harder in a race and not have wine beforehand…

I did a ramp test a few years back, I think it was about 270, but I was fitter then. Something to aim for anyway.

Just seen as I was in the same race as tomlevell (I was in catC), where once again like my only other race yesterday (also a one lap affair), I was far too slow off the starting blocks and then in nomansland during a large chunk of the race… I have lots of room for tactics improvement! 😆

Pleased with my sprint finish though, 7.3W/Kg for 15secs.

CatC was supposed to be sub 3.1W/Kg average, which going off the average power column, 10 of the 15 (including me) were above. Would we be excluded from results in a more strict race, or do they look at other stats like the “95% (of 20min)” column?

It’s up to 3.2w/kg so I could have snuck in as a C.
It’s the 95% column which is equivalentish of a 20min FTP test.

Yes had to pull 400watts for 40 seconds to stick with the front group at the start and probably from a further 5 seconds beforehand.

I had nothing like that left at the end but enough to crawl past a couple of people who must have been in real trouble. In fact it was worse than my opening effort but that did the job it was supposed to do.

Just joining this thread as I have taken out a subscription earlier this month and am just finding my way about. FTP tests put me around 240 and with current wieght I am running about 2.6-2.7 so have entered a couple of races in Cat C around London. Found them really tough and was runnning at 90%+ HR for most of the races and was past 100% (of what I thought my Max HR was) for the last 500 metres and the sprint finish (186 bpm – I am 51!). Anyway, I have finished 3rd or equal 3rd in both races in Cat C so happy with that. However, I am in the STW Fat club and have already dropped 2 kgs since start of year. So what happens in Zwift if I update my weight? Do I go faster or slower?

Looking forward to learning from the hardened pros in here as I progress. Probably will carry on until lambing at end of March and then give up for the summer so need to focus. Hope to see some of you out there in VR world

If you drop your weight, in general you’ll go quicker overall IMO. 2kg won’t matter much either way.

Looking at the flat results yesterday for my race you can see my w/k is low compared to them around me, but that’s because my weight is high, what you do notice though is that all our power outputs are very very similar.
But on a course with more inclines, the extra 2kg less will benefit you.

The reason the 65kg riders struggle on flat sections is not because of their weight as such, but because they have a lower power output.

Nope the heavier you are with increasing wattage will mean you be faster according to this…

https://zwiftinsider.com/tests/

I can do under the hour for a tt but boy even the C/D races I struggle to keep and just A/B riders disappear up road. Zwift is highly addictive though and nice to see it taking off, Ive enjoyed reading this particular thread, carry on or is it Ride on ! 😉

Had another go at a group ride. Managed to stay in the main bunch this time. It is quite addictive. Which isn’t the same thing as enjoyable 😉 Like Watopia, few more things to look at especially after I turned the resolution up in the game settings. My 2011 MacBook air can just about support that.

I appear to have ridden 125km since Tuesday. At some point I might have to think about some kind of structure but at the moment I’m going to stick with the group rides. Might try a C but I don’t think I could hang in there for an hour.

TdZ Stage 4 done……. and in the draw for the trainer.

That was fun until I rocked the trainer after the radio tower climb and shook the power cable out. Was in 75th at that point. After faffing to get it running again I was 150th. Grrrr! finished in 143rd (atm).
Power is now right on the C/B (edit cos brain is frazzled) threshold. There were a lot of people above 4w/kg avg in the results for C.

Next plans are Zwift Fondo next Saturday
Think I’ll follow the 12 week FTP builder workout to see how much I can increase it. Would be very happy to be mid B in 3 months.
Another option will be the Ride London Workouts if I win a place in the ballot. Never ridden over 80 miles.

Nope the heavier you are with increasing wattage will mean you be faster according to this…

Interesting data. Funny how Zwift has brought a lot of focus on the w/kg number but that’s not nearly the full story in Zwift (and largely irrelevant for most UK racing too.)

Was surprised to see height making such a difference. I guess in the real world there is a general correlation between aero and height but tall folk who want to be fast do put a lot of work into being aero which wouldn’t be reflected in Zwift. You can set height and weight, maybe if you have some data to back it up you should be able to set your CdA too 🙂

Another option will be the Ride London Workouts if I win a place in the ballot. Never ridden over 80 miles.

It’ll be the easiest 100 miles you ever do.

I could do with losing a few kg, I can hold my own in flatter races but go backwards as soon as it goes up in a sustained climb.

Trek ride at 2.30pm for me today, I was going to take the day off and ride with Crosshair outdoors tomorrow, but it’s looking cold and yukky tomorrow so I’m not playing that game.

3 degrees with no wind and some nice cozy cloud! 😯

I’ll probably wear short sleeves 😆

Indeed, about as good as it gets in Jan tomorrow!

3 hour orienteering race tomorrow on a “real” bike 🙂 Outdoors, in the real weather. Not sure if I can handle it lol

Ah well, let’s see if all the turbo work has paid off?

Oooops, that was harder and quicker than i planned. Just one of them days where your legs work and you fly along. Did 1 lap of the Road t Ruins, was supposed to be Z2 but i had a 155-160 a couple of times on the HRM, ooops.

Bailed after the lap end with another 40 mins on the clock countdown, but i don’t want to push too much.

I wrote a thing: http://pickled-hedgehog.com/?p=4059 – warning some naughty words contained within 🙂

“Lovely” morning on the turbo today, started off with a WBR 4 lap race, averaged 278 Watts with a max of 1023 on the final sprint (which I think I lost!). Then decided I’d follow it with the 1 lap TRI4 race as its only 1 lap. Yeah, 1 21km lap, so that was hard, average power of 235 Watts suggests I wasn’t going quite as hard, sat with a nice little group and hit 855 Watts at the end in the spirit.

So yeah, I’m now shattered. Lovely.

I wrote a thing

yeah, everybody says they could quit if they wanted 😉

Doing another pack ride at 5pm. I feel my family are starting to judge me!

Anyone else not seeing other riders around them today? Did a 1-lap WBR 1 Flat Lap sprint race @1235 and only one of the 55 other riders appeared on my screen.

Getting fed up with Mobile Link app connection issues, which then means I don’t get heartrate data via Bluetooth, going to pull trigger on a Coospo ANT+ and Bluetooth HRM from Amazon.

Doing another pack ride at 5pm. I feel my family are starting to judge me!

They soon get used to it

Today I did my first real world road ride for a few months, riding for 3hrs and with wind was tougher than I remember!

You are going to need a bigger fan in the man cave 🙂

cheers_drive » Today I did my first real world road ride for a few months, riding for 3hrs and with wind was tougher than I remember!

You are going to need a bigger fan in the man cave

Or less sprouts…..

Fewer sprouts 😉

Tried the new London expansion yesterday, whilst you can see the odd bit of Leith Hill they’ve taken inspiration from it didn’t really feel like a digital recreation in the same way as Box Hill. Not convinced I’d recognise it without being told that’s what it was, and I’ve ridden the real climb at least 100 times. Likewise the ‘Richmond Park’ section, didn’t see that at all. Still, all extra roads.

Overtook the Pack that Alex was probably a part of, 616 riders they were saying. Not sure I see the appeal, they were all being told to ride at <2w/kg up the hill, then to wait at the top. Waiting for 600 riders surely takes a very long time, to ride on slowly?