I said hi to you weeksy, before I charged off the front of the group lol

blimey, might turn out to be an interesting summer, and I’m blaming zwift/weeksy:

Went out on the roads for once. Filthy muddy and covered in flinty gravel so glad I was on the winter bike with the tough tyres and mudguards.

Bagged a properish road KoM 😯 – the only other ones I have are a fairly steep downhill that I’ve done hundreds of times and some that noboody else really rides

For all that I do like zwift, Roll on dry, warm days. On and off road

LOL Don’t blame me 🙂

I didn’t turn us all into Lawnmower man 🙂 We seem to have evolved into it like the LizardFish things 🙂

Ridgeway ride this morning for lunch 🙂

I was hoping conditions would be better than they were, but i soon found that not only was the outwards ride to Wantage still fairly muddy at times, but it was also into a stronger headwind than i thought. didn’t affect the ride in any way other than me wanting to see how quick/slow the T130 was on the RR’s. It was nice to be out though and i looped down from Wantage and back to Lockinge, met up with a guy who was part of the racing team that organises the Abingdon races, so spent 5 mins having a chat about racing, he was in the team kit, so wasn’t hard to work out.

We split at a road junction and i realised we were right next to a climb i know well, Betterton to Ridgeway or as Crust affectionately knows it “The bloody horrible climb”…. I gave it a decent crack as i know when i set my best time it was Aug/Sept 2014 and i was pretty fit in my own personal context, it was an XC race event where i had a good result, so i also know i’d worked hard on it.

Previous best 9mins 30 Sept 2014
Other time, July 2015, 11min 07
Todays time 8 mins 53s

I’m well happy with that. It’s still behind a couple of the local lads, but they’ve always climbed well compared to me… So i’m happy.

Overall the T130 was very very good. I really can’t see any reason the Parkwood will be used outside again. The T130 just does it all really well, very comfortable too.

Intended to do the TT on Zwift toninght, but didn’t make and ended up doing the ZTR race on the London loop course at 18:30 instead. Somehow managed to be with the leaders going up Box Hill but let a small group of 4 or 5 get away near the top, the bunch I was is in slowly decreased in size until the end, I got dropped going up the escalators on the third and final lap. Finished 8th in the A cats and knocked 30 seconds off my Box Hill time, annoying just 5 seconds off top spot in the STW list.

Brilliant work that!

I dream of ‘annoying’ efforts like that! Chapeau b1gf00t.
I was happy enough with mid table obscurity in the Bs. Happy also that it was only two laps for us.

Did the ODZ race this morning,its a really good ride and everyone actually stayed together in the 2 warm up laps. I also managed to get bronze trophy in Cat C by blowing out of every orifice i have. I was still sweating half an hour after the race but well pleased with placing as there was a big group all sprinting for the line.

Fairly gentle one for me today. Only a 160w average, i didn’t have the HR monitor on as Mrs Weeksy needed it, but i’d be shocked if it went over 120bpm

Great stuff Blader, well done matey… Congrats 🙂

Anyone have any idea on the climb on Fig8 at Watopia ? more roughly how many minutes i guess…

which one, it does the KoM climb and and the reverse.

KoM takes me about 3 mins, reverse about 5 mins.

cheers. i thought that was Hilly route. Just trying to work out how hard to push it

trying spd-sl’s and shoes on the HT today

i think it does the hilly route and flat route twice.

http://zwiftblog.com/figure-8/

went OK, got killed on teh back climb. Person i was riding with was a lady and 51kg LOL

I just won Cat C on the MGCC ride this morning although it was a relatively small field. Early indications show i might be almost ready to move in to Cat B. This new smart trainer seems to be improving my fitness no end and i still have a chest infection (nearly a month now!). I much prefer the races which have a discord channel, a little light banter while racing does make you forget the pain. Anyway i shall keep plugging away.

Brilliant bladder.!

I’m not ready to move up. Especially when on the parkwood. You can feel the difference massively on the flats sections as well as the climbs. On the Isaac I think I’m not a million miles away from moving up. But still not quite.

Today I was 15th out of 23 finishers and quite a few dqs to add on. For a hilly route that’s not bad for me.

Not Zwifted in ages as I’ve been managing to sneak in the odd hour at lunchtime when I’m WFH and have been riding outside. I’m leaving shortly for a corporate thing at the Olympic velodrome and suspect I’ll soon find out if all the Zwifting has increased my power output as I suspect I’m going to need it!

Weeksy – i am trying to fathom this up turn in form and have a few theories. I am guessing with the weather being mild more people are out riding thus smaller fields in zwift. Option b is i am now after a couple of weeks more used to the smart trainer and thus Smoother at riding all the lumps and bumps. Option C is i am now just more used to trying/pushing harder which was never the case with a dumb trainer. Option D is that the courses have been flatter of late and may be that just suits me although i dont personally have a preference. Option E it just might be one of them weeks where inexplicably everything just goes your way.
Its food for thought.

Still seems to be lots of US guys getting snow so still zwifting.

I think getting used to it though could be a factor.

You riding outside too? If so, hows the stats?

Went out on the mtb on monday but conditions were so bad i couldnt even begin to see if zwifting had had an effect. I walked the bike quite often it was that bad. Havent been out on my road bike since last year due to either riding the mtb instead or the weather has been foul.

Did my first race for a while today WBR 3 lapper of the hilly course

Interesting suggestion from blader up there that fields seem small (25 in total and I was 6th of 13 in B) though granted this was midweek and during the european working day

I just couldn’t hold the lead bunch up the hill; they were 20 sec up at the top 1st time but I was suffering and they pulled out to a minute by the end of the lap with me in a solo TT behind. Took another minute up the hill each time but I kept at least a minute on the bunch behind.

not sure “digging deep” first time up would’ve done it for me, unless something very odd happens to my power:weight 👿

After the shorter zwift FTP test, only managed a measly 131w FTP. Not sure I could have given it any more, HR hit 186bpm after the final minute push!

Not Zwifted for a week or so due to riding outside in the sunshine! And although it’s sunny here today I’m gonna try to squeeze in a race, maybe the Zwift race @ 1 pm. Definitely feeling the benefit in my RL rides.

What weight are you @j4mesj4mes, hard to gauge without that 🙂

I did the 8 week plan pre race day workout last night, it’s a really good leg opener workout – highly recommend.

13 stone or 82kg, nathb

After the shorter zwift FTP test, only managed a measly 131w FTP

13 stone or 82kg

Either you are extraordinarily unfit and the only way is up, or something is quite wrong with your setup. I’m going to assume the latter, as i’ve only ever come across a couple of people that would have had a W/Kg < 2, and in both cases cake consumption meant the weight part of the equation was much bigger than your 82kg

@nathb I was going to have a go at one of the programmes, once I had worked out my ftp to use.

@fifeandy I was almost hoping it was the former, not sure what needs changing setup wise? Tacx t2240, tacx turbo tyre, 26″ hybrid bike (it works?), calibrated in range using the tacx app.

If you were to ride hard outside for an hour, on flat roads with no wind, what sort of average speed would you expect to produce? I’m with fifeandy, that doesn’t sound very likely.

No offence if it’s accurate though!

@gray Difficult to say, as a mtb’r, the trail centres/ride to natural trails haven’t allowed such riding.

I was struggling how to word my response @j4mesj4mes as I’ve not seen an FTP that low.

BUT if you’re using a 26″ tyre that will explain it!! Zwift is setup to use 700c, anything else throws it out.

I could just about stick a 700c rear wheel/tyre on my 26″ MTB, maybe try it?

BUT if you’re using a 26″ tyre that will explain it!!

Not entirely convinced. If anything the smaller wheel will spin faster which would be reported as more power not less. Granted the RR will be higher, but maybe by 10W not by 50+W.

Unless maybe tyre pressure is very low?

@nathb that what I remember but a recent update changed that, as per the comments, different wheel sizes are now supported. https://support.zwift.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/115000330146-Different-Tyres-on-Smart-Trainer

However as mine is a smart trainer, it must auto select this? As when I connect mine no option appears.

@fifeandy tyre pressure is at 100psi (max of the tyre)

Given I don’t have speed sensor other than the turbo, is there a real world test to prove I’m strong enough to be getting higher?

Go for a ride outside. If stuff appears to be moving then you’re fitter than that. ??

Did my first race today, after numerous attempts of trying and always being scuppered by dropping internet, Zwift flakeouts and flat power meter batteries.

Managed 2nd in cat B, by 0.1 seconds, annoyed I didn’t get the win. Was good fun though, will definitely be doing that again!

Go for a ride outside. If stuff appears to be moving then you’re fitter than that. ??

😀

Managed 2nd in cat B, by 0.1 seconds, annoyed I didn’t get the win. Was good fun though, will definitely be doing that again getting forcibly upgraded!

Nah, a few folks got upgraded, I wasn’t one of them! Technically I think I was 4th in B. 3.9w average for me.

ZwiftPower shows my HR in a red box, which presumably means they don’t believe my 195 max 😳

Red box just means highest (and lowest) value in that data field (weight, power,hr) for that event

@j4mesj4mes – the t2240 is fine with 26″ wheels and is directly measuring roller speed, from which it estimates power, not wheel speed (what Nathb says is only true for dumb trainers where you use a separate wheel rotation sensor and then correlate that to power via wheel speed)

BUT… there are two positions for the brake unit to fit on the A frame when assembly the unit. Did you definitely fit it in the holes for 26″ wheels? If not tension will be wrong even if the lines are “calibrated”

they don’t believe my 195 max

Now, I know I’m an old git but I’m not sure I’ve ever had a max that high. Currently can’t get to 170 (169 made me think I was going to explode)