Weeksy, you sure you have the saddle height set correctly?

nathb – Member

Weeksy, you sure you have the saddle height set correctly?

Open to debate of course but i think so.. But it’s a very fine art when it comes to road bikes. I think/believe it was all from me moving my seat forwards, rather than the saddle height.. I could easily be wrong with that of course, but that’s my thoughts/feelings. Of course, not forgetting the overtraining and the higher watts than i thought on the ‘easy’ days. On the days i was thinking i was training at 180w i was up over 230 maybe even 250 if we accept the watts of the power meters i’ve had on.

There’s no world in where i live currently i can spend £200 on a bike fitting, so i’ve got the settings where i think/read/youtube them to be.

So where do the BRS TT races actually time from? Looking at the results, the time seems to be from the start gate where-as on screen it showed ‘warm-up’ all the way until the mall when it started lap 1/2.

I think the time starts from the gate and the whole ‘warm up’ is just because you are not yet on the London Classique lap.

Yeah the warm up lap is part of the race, hence why everyone bolts it.

ah well, lesson learnt.

lol, did you wonder why everyone else was screaming past while you were warming up? 🙂

No one riding?

you mean the EVR weeksy ?

I’m too late so just going for a ride. I assume you’re NOT riding ?

I just meant generally mate. I’m still a no. Wed maybe.

No one riding?

Rest day for me. 10km run tomorrow then probably the club run on Sunday, so no Zwift until Monday for me.

looked like a nice evening in London – I got quite disoriented. Luckily it then started to piss down and all was well in zwiftworld again 🙂

@weeksy, not sure if it has been mentioned, but 3 things to check for with calf injury.

1) Try to avoid heel dropping too far when forced to put the power down on a climb
2) Make sure you aren’t ‘ankling’ excessively
3) Make sure cleat is set front/back such that widest part of the foot is over the pedal axle (some interwebbing will even find advocates for moving cleats as far back as the midsole.

fifeandy – Member

@weeksy, not sure if it has been mentioned, but 3 things to check for with calf injury.

1) Try to avoid heel dropping too far when forced to put the power down on a climb
2) Make sure you aren’t ‘ankling’ excessively
3) Make sure cleat is set front/back such that widest part of the foot is over the pedal axle (some interwebbing will even find advocates for moving cleats as far back as the midsole.

Understood.

I’m planning on my first ride in a week tomorrow…. I’m thinking, nice and gentle,maybe 170-180w for a 45 mins ride… should be enough to not really kill me, but give me some calories and a gentle re-introduction.

Now you have the Kickr, I wouldn’t worry so much about targeting watts. Use perceived effort and HR too- with variable resistance on- you should find sticking to one number a bit trickier…..

.Now you have the Kickr, I wouldn’t worry so much about targeting watts. Use perceived effort and HR too- with variable resistance on- you should find sticking to one number a bit trickier…..

In my 2km test that certainly seemed to be the case yes, it was up down everywhere. I was thinking for tomorrow I may set as dumb so I can regulate effort and power easier

Just wondering….does anyone bother with energy drinks and/or gels during Zwift sessions?
I’ve used them occasionally (maybe 3 times?) though I just stuck with plain water today and I faded quite badly. Mind you, that’s probably because I recently got ‘promoted’ to Cat B so was riding against much fitter riders..

@mark depends on length and intensity of the session and how long since last meal.

Assuming an intense session (what turbos are best at), if you are only doing an hour and ate in the previous 2-3hrs you should be fine with only water/electrolytes, but if going longer, or starting with partially drained tank then best to fuel up.

I can only cope with a maximum of about an hour on the turbo so no need for energy drinks or gels, however I do drop a Hydro Nectar tablet into my water bottle – although as much because I prefer the taste to plain water as anything else.

Can’t have got the tension set right as the steeper bit after Box Hill had the trainer tyre slipping a bit. Coming out of the underground at the end was really slow, as soon as the gradient hit 15% I could barely move without the tyre slipping.

You’ll need to go through the whole faff of recalibrating it too, otherwise the power readings will be wonky. Could always run the tyre at 120psi, which is what I do with my Tacx Vortex.

I do the calibration at the end of a session when it’s warm – that way it’ll under read as it warms up but 10 mins in will give accurate measurements, as opposed to the other way round.

Whooop new PB on box hill this morning.

Well, the Wahoo Kickr Snap is a complete game changer compared to the dumb trainer, it’s a whole different world and experience. Now bear in mind, due to the injury i’d set myself a baseline HR of 105bpm tops….

Over the course of the ride i averaged 102, so i’m more than happy with that. I did throw a splurge of power in twice, once on the small climb, Horseguards Hill, once also on the Sprint, i set/equally my PRs on both segments even though i wasn’t really pushing it and only hit a max HR on both of 154bpm, considering i average 167 usually it gives an idea of how much i had in the tank.. Of course your HR takes a while to compensate, but i wasn’t really trying hard. On the sprint i put our 676w without really pushing the pedal ‘that’ hard. Which again tells/shows me the difference in output between the Bkool One and the WKSnap.

https://www.strava.com/activities/847052701

It’s also a completely different riding sensation, cadence, effort, gears, all totally different, although i was riding a lot in a single gear i admit today, but that was mostly because it was the Classique which is exceptionally flat overall, so just upping or lowering cadence a bit to keep power and HR in the right places.

The power comes in as you’d expect in the real world though, i had the virtual slider at 50% which at this stage i imagine is where i’ll keep it set, that’s the Zwift default and works fine for me up to now.

Really enjoyed the ride… now it’s into the bath and see how the legs feel tomorrow and whether i’m back to 1 on 1 off for a week, or a couple more days off…

I did a ride round London last night – the half loop, can’t remember the name.
I then joined a 2w/kg group ride…..Het is Koers social ride arranged by a Dutch guy.
It was a bit weird….hardly anyone stuck to the effort level, there were sprints all over the place….not sure it was worth it.

Then about 2 miles from the end I got a bloody puncture…it’s the second time it’s happened on the turbo. Last time I found a large bit of grit in the tyre that I thought had caused the puncture, but either that wasn’t the cause or there’s another bit…
Just bought a new tyre from my local lbs because the rear has seen a lot of abuse….a £50 Michelin Endurance something or another reduced to a tenner!!!

The power comes in as you’d expect in the real world though, i had the virtual slider at 50% which at this stage i imagine is where i’ll keep it set, that’s the Zwift default and works fine for me up to now.

Ive got a smart trainer (Tacx Vortex) and I found the 50% trainer difficulty setting meant I was just spinning and getting nowhere up steeeper hils. I definitely couldn’t punch up short steep climbs. You may want to test again on a course with bigger/steeper hills…

Got a little while yet in the recovery before I go attacking box hill yet. But I’ll take that on advisement.

KISS London at 8 is twice up box hill tonight….

On a Wahoo Kickr Snap most people won’t be spinning up 10% hills at 50%, unless you are very strong and can put out 500W for a few mins!!! I’d suggest the optimal figure varies trainer to trainer and rider to rider.

meta – surely you can spin up a 10% hill if your bike has gears, even at 100% “real”

Thing that’s weird is how hard it is to keep the power up as the gradient lessens – I’m using 100% just now and I always drop 20-25% over the top of a rise, even if I try to anticipae the easing and change up gears

… but then I always end up pushing +20-25% up the hills, so it evens out

You can definitely tell who’s on what sort of trainer during a race or hardish ride

Good point, yes you can, I agree, depends on gears. I have a low of 34/25, but never use it in Zwift. If I upped the realism I guess I’d need to use some easier gears. Anyway the Kickr tops out at 10% of course- and you can tell- but to me it feels very realistic at lower gradients. Main thing is its accurate with the power.

Good point, yes you can, I agree, depends on gears. I have a low of 34/25, but never use it in Zwift.

Same here (I run a smaller cassette on the trainer wheel to minimise the jumps between gears), and so far I think I’ve only used the big ring when on the turbo. Suspect my T2240 can’t emulate all that steep a slope.

holy shitballs that was hard…

holy shitballs that was hard…

What, with all that freewheeling down the hill – you lazy shithouse !!

err, 😉

(nearly signed up for that. Phew)

Only on the first lap as I was in no mans land with a group 30s ahead and another 30s behind.

Lap 2 I was trying to drop a couple of people I’d passed on box hill so pedalled down fox hill for possibly the first time ever.

54th/160ish I think. Which isn’t too bad for an all categories race.

Ah, don’t worry, I haven’t been stravastalking – just assuming you’d do what I always do

Good result !

To be honest I don’t think pedalling down it is much quicker.

yeah that mega-tuck or whatever they call it is pretty fast, esp if you kick off with a “sprint” first

jamo bo, how do you know your 54th?
i entered but couldn’t see my name on the leaderboard at the end

scrap that its on zwift power now,but im not on there yet

25th maybe?

Looks like I was 52nd.

That’s excellent JAmbo 🙂 Well done fella.