It’s by no means a large figure but considering you haven’t ridden since summer and were you that fit beforehand it’s not terrible either.

But assuming you’ve not done much on a turbo in recent times and if you spend some reasonable amount of time on the turbo getting used to it and putting some effort in you’ll probably see a decent increase in that in 3-4 weeks. Plus if you were to continue and endeavour to increase that figure you’ll probably see decent gains reasonably quickly.

In 3 and a bit months I’ve put on about 35 watts but I put some of that down to getting used to the experience of riding more on a turbo. I was at about my fittest I’ve ever been before I started it so less easy gains IMO. Done far more time on a bike in winter than ever before though as it was easy to jump on and do an hour.

Turning your fan off is not necessarily a good idea unless you’re training to ride in intense heat :0)

Zwift has automatic ftp calculations?  How do I switch that on?

It’s auto . If you exceed your previous 20 min power, it tells you.

Therefore, you’re not as fit as you were lol.

Just did a WBR race and apart from the top 8 A cat racers everybody else is showing as DNF on Zwift power?

Whats that all about then?

Therefore, you’re not as fit as you were lol.

i haven’t done a 20 min interval yet. I have though a session with two of them on Thursday.

I can see you 5th in Group C Tiger in the filtered list. 32 in filtered, 64 unfiltered.

Yep, all appeared now, must have been a glitch / catching up

Just bought an Elite Dorito trainer so that £630 invested, figured that’s £50 a month gym membership for the next 12 months……..

Just bought an Elite Dorito</span>

Freudian slip there? 😀

I just finished the BikeRadar race this morning, 5 laps round the London Classique course. I was holding steady in the second group but the short 5% climb on Horseguards stressed me on every lap and it was like an over-under workout with my heart rate hovering just above or below my FTHR.

I had a feather power up on the last lap but couldn’t hold the group going off the front on the climb and finished 34 seconds down on the C group winner by the finish. A good workout though.

Just did the MGCC race, 2 x London loop and it was just annoying me all the way round for every reason possible. I have a new wahoo tickr and it was faultless so its nice to finally know what my heart is doing. Final results not showing yet just the provisional ones but i reckon i got 4th. I ended up pulling everyone up box hill on the first lap as not one single person wanted to be at the front so i used a feather about 2/3rds the way up and hit 400w for the rest of the hill and pulled out a 10s lead on everyone. I was feeling really strong but box hill was only done in 7:32 so had some left in the tank. Went on the descent and a zpower user started hitting 4w/kg down the hill so he dragged everyone back to me just after the ramp. Next lap and yet again there was a real reluctance from anyone to go in front, at one stage we were only doing 180w on the flat! Next box hill and zpower user went ahead and it was a real struggle to keep up,he then faded and the light guys started turning the screw. We all held on crossed the top together but it was tiring. Anyway we went through the ramp section and with 0.9 miles to go a couple of guys just hit 6w/kg all the way to the line, no way i could live with that. In hindsight i should have punished them more on the first box hill and kept the pace up going through london instead of easing off to let them take the lead for once.

Sounds like a good race in all honesty 🙂

Just watching the CVR live stream, the ‘play offs’ sound crazy, they’re head to heads between 2 racers, but you can bring as many team mates to the race as you like and all you need to do is finish ahead of the other guy.

I don’t have high hopes for tonight, greater london loop is a bit of a nightmare for me, i’ll probably be able to hang on up the first part of the climb to the banner, then get dropped at the steep kicker, if not on the first lap, then definitely on the second.  13 min climb workout last night and moving my working from home days about hasn’t helped, even gentle commuting seems to take something out of my legs.

Did the Bike Radar group ride thinking it would be a nice easy way to burn a few calories but the ride had no leader and no control so turned out to be 50 mins flat out in the red line.

Nearly saw pancake again this evening. Did the WBR Greater London Flat and nowhere to recover at all. Had a good group all the way round and managed to put in a reasonable finish.

Thinking I should be moving up to B but liking the feeling of getting good results in C rather, than being bottom end of B. Maybe I’ll give it a few more weeks to drop some more weight and gain a bit more fitness.

meh, won the B CVR zone F but got murdered on the first climb up box hill. I don’t know how they do it that fast ,I really don’t.

I got up it in 6:22 which was a PR, our little group of 4 or so went in to that really crappy cat and mouse mode where nobody other than me was prepared to do anything on the front and the group behind us just kept creeping closer and closer.  They caught us just at the bottom of box hill again.  I decided just to ride my own pace up there in the end and dragged most of them with me, a couple of guys went off the front but I knew that we’d catch them on the descent in a group and pretty much everyone free wheeled down towards the underground ramp.

I ended up a couple of seconds in front by the top of the ramp, not where i wanted to be at all with 2k to go. In the end I just decided to jump for the line with 300m left and managed to hold on. A good win for what it was, ^^ nearly saw pancakes again, just a bit gutted that I can’t hang with those guys up the hills. The winner was 58KG!

Potatohead,

It’s always a tricky one. The good thing is though with the way races start, even if you’re a B, you still spend most of the race with the Cs, so there’s people to battle with and fight. At times with split races, 2 minute gaps etc, you never see anyone in that position.

But you do get days and events where you go from a rubbish B, to a great one.. I won a B race last week, i’m usually bottom 5.

Scaled, i have no words for 6:22 lol…. that’s just bonkers as usual. You’ve turned into a proper speed merchant… Are you going to put it to use outdoors too ?

Are you going to put it to use outdoors too ?

LOL fair point…

I’m still in Zwift exile !  Trying to rest the legs for this Crit Race attempt on Sunday…. must admit, even after 2 days of no riding now, they’re still feeling fairly stiff, so even though i was going to do a WBR race today, i’ve decided 1 more days rest… then will race/ride on Thurs, then have Fri and Sat off.. so hopefully be fully rested for Sundays effort.

Scaled that is off the scale! That is seriously fast up box hill, i still cannot fathom how anyone can do that. That is a great victory, extremely well done sir!

can anybody remind me what this “outdoor” thing is that you speak of?

Slight change, i’m going to do the 11:20am WBR 3 lapper of Classique. Then rest Thurs/Fri/Sat.

Will do a nice decent warm-up first and see what we can do on what is arguably my favourite layout.

Yeah, about outside…

I had my garage cleared out one night in late november, the only bike I was left with was on the turbo cos they couldn’t work out how to get the cassette off the turbo and back onto the wheel (the bike was left upside down in the middle of the floor!)

I’m still waiting on a new MTB, got an Orbea Rallon on order but it’s taking aaaaaaages. Part of the reason for getting the turbo was a really poor showing out in Davos at Enduro2, I was coming off an illness and found getting air in at 2500M a bit of a challenge so the plan is to beast myself on the turbo and cross bike. I’ve done a few ~100k off road rides so far this year, which is something new to me and i’ve really enjoyed.

When you say ‘using it outside’ i assume you mean racing? 😀 The only things i’ve got booked in the calendar this year are a new baby in May and the ‘Ard rock in August, I’ll probably crash lol.

Scaled, ive got a Specialized Myka doing nothing if you want to borrow a bike?

<span style=”color: #444444; font-size: 12px;”>I’ve done a few ~100k off road rides so far this year</span>

And on that subject, we really should schedule the next road/gravel ride. Weekends tricky next couple of weeks but could squeeze in an after work/night ride.

Thanks for the offer weeksy, but i’ll manage, I’m having quite a lot of fun doing daft things with my new Crosslight 😀

Today was i guess a classic example of “too hard, too soon, too early”

WBR 3 lap of classique, on first outlap i set my best time ever… on lap 1 was my joint best ever and lap 2 was only 2s slower….  The final lap too about half a lifetime.

I was sitting the lead group until i was dumped on horseguards as usual, 13 of us in the group… they all stuck in 5.5+w/kg on the 2nd full lap and that was me…. boom… gone out the back. I then struggled with both effort, power and motivation. I struggled home for what appears to be 5th of 5 in B lol. but power was 273w which over the distance is pretty good for me…

Rest now until outdoors on Sunday !

The good news is…

14st 6… That’s 18lb dropped since 1st Jan and i’m now at my lowest ever adult weight ….

BOOM !

Go weeksy! That’s a huge achievement mate, well done!

Sod the weight weeksy, i am waiting to read your race report for this morning!!

well done fella, keep it going that is a tremendous effort.

Well done on shedding that timber 👍👍

Still plenty to go yet..

I’d like to see a 13 on the left… Just once…. once in my life…

I saw 13 last year, but I also saw 16 on 31st Dec, I’m hoping Zwift will get me to 12 at some point!

Congrats Weeksy that is a great achievement!

Blader and Scaled those times up box hill are epic. I’d need a Lance Armstrong scale drug intervention to get even close.

I am still doing hill work to try and get stronger for racing. On the weekend I did 65k of the pretzel which at 2 hours and 20 min was my longest time ever on a turbo. It was 26 degrees in the garage and even after going through 4 water bottles I lost 1.5 kilos on that ride. I was soaking wet at the end. The missus said it looked like I’d been swimming.

Before anyone asks it was raining outside.

Awesome effort Weeksy, keep going with whatever you’re doing its working.

Tonight i had my first go racing in over a month as i had a grim cold and seems to have taken a while to find my legs. My pace IRL is miles down so was all fitting. Starting the week I’ve been doing low power cadence work which seems to be doing the job freeing me up a bit. I entered into SZR group B as i figured theres plenty of wheels to hold once i get spat.

Off the line it was clear the first group was too quick so settled into the second one. By the time we got to the start of lap 1 i was thinking of just dropping back and using it as a z2 ride. I then questioned wtf i was thinking and said I’ll keep in until i get properly spat. After 15mins things calmed down and we started reeling people back in as they got dropped but couldn’t be sure how many got away. Something then happened, even though my HR was sat on its rev limiter my legs were starting to feel better and i was thinking where abouts i could kick on the last lap. Turns out i picked the same time as everyone else and it went to a bunch sprint with nothing left. I still managed to finish mid bunch, 24th out of 63 in B. The bit i am most pleased with is that my average power for the full race is 4w above my ftp. It’s got me excited to get back riding again, well done zwift.

Hey that’s great! Rides like that don’t often appear, enjoy them!

Well something needs sorting! I am getting terrible tyre slip at any slope over 6%. Did the 2 lap ZHR Up & Down race today, was going well near the front of the group C crowd and holding station all the way up to the top of Box hill, knocking out high 200s low 300s most of the way. Then there is that little kick after the finish line where it goes up to 9% and the back wheel starts to slip and I cannot get more than 200W of power. A rider who was 10 seconds behind me at the bottom of that little dig went over the top 40 seconds ahead of me! I don’t think it takes 30 seconds to get up it so something very strange happening. And it did exactly the same on the 2nd lap. Other than that I was happy enough and came in 5th in my group (though I suspct I would have been 4th without s slipping wheel.

Any suggestions on how to get more grip would be greatly received. It is a new Michelin slick on an Elite Rampa.

Had my first go on a turbo and on Zwift today. It’s quite impressive and appeals to the former gamer in me.  Just used the iphone today but will get the laptop setup for next time.  I still need to dial the turbo/tyre in a little as I had some slippage up the set of escalators on the London loop. I can certainly feel it in my legs.

I did ZHR race on road to ruins and managed to get GOLD but only by virtue of a small field and 2 dq’s. Not a big bunch of B’s today and it was the slowest start i have ever been in, i dont think i even touched 350w. The big hill seperated everyone apart from just 4 of us who went ahead and hit a steady high pace although one guy continually dropped off and sprinted back to us (i think he was doing sprint intervals which is pretty impressive in a racej, he dq’d on wkg. We were all together with about 2 miles remaining when a french guy who seemed to be struggling pretty much did 5w/kg all the way to the finish and dropped me and sprinter man and also probably caused his dq. That left me with the gold and it transpires my time would have got me runner up in the A group which only had 4 finishers!

Welshfarmer – i take it you have sufficient pressure on the wheel from the roller and your tyres are pumped up to suitable psi. Failing that may be clean the roller as it can get a bit mucky causing less friction. Also check your tyre as if its not turbo specific it may have become worn thus less friction which may only present itself when resistance is largest.

A wins a win Blader 🙂 You can only beat who turns up 🙂