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Hey Kirky!
SOrry about that...
I went on to finish the French route (as i needed the badge).. took me back up the climb again, as the route finish was atop the KOM!
I’d changed the route for the second one as discussed...but maybe cos it was near the original time, Zwift got confused? I pushed the time back from the original one too...
I’d finished the route in France, then joined in NY... and it was just me!
THought your PC had gone kaput... and I left with about a minute to go before the ride started! I couldn’t be bothered with the route solo!
You must have been in a parallel world meetup!!
DrP
Just done the stage 2 tour of Watopia this morning. As per usual my intention was to have a steady tempo ride but I made progress through the group and eventually lead approaching the Epic Kom so things got interesting. I didn’t go balls out on the epic as I knew I had the radio mast climb to look forward to. However I was in a nice group which encouraged me to PB the climb. I thought that I took the radio mast slowly as I also lost a few places sliding down to 15th however I managed to also PB that.
I caught the wheel of a couple of riders on the descent and we gradually caught a few others each time swelling our group size. finished in 8th averaging 297 watts I’ve the 1.05hr. Somehow I managed to get a slight FTP increase up-to 319w from 317 which was most likely due to a 334w average up the epic climb.
New PBS, 2 minutes decrease on the epic.
50 secs radio tower climb.
Mighty 1 sec better on Titans
I quite like muir and the mountain, but would be better without the mast climb.
Not quite the loosener I had planned ahead of tonight’s spin and sprint but hopefully have something left.
Catch you later if you can make it.
@DrP any thoughts/plans for Sunday hills this weekend. My wife is working the weekend so I’m in doors ride wise.
I was thinking of ticking off everything Bagel, it sounds like a pretty tough hours worth of riding.
https://zwiftinsider.com/route/everything-bagel/
Still need some of shorter routes like mighty metropolitan, knickerbocker forward, lady Liberty but they maybe too short and the multi meet seems a bit tricky.
I knocked off four of the New York routed this morning 5 or 6 times up the glass KOM over the rides. High line is misleading route, seems short on paper but had a long lead in that takes you up the KOM auto start from the down hill and finish after you have climbed it for the 2nd time.
Only have everything bagel, mighty metropolitan and grand central left from NY I’ve made a meet up for everything bagel to help me along as it isn’t a world tomorrow. I don’t expect many if any takers. If my legs feel okay I may do the other two as I don’t have any plans for the day.
Cheers for the invite all being well will be riding outside tomorrow.
I did everything bagel a couple of weeks ago, not really in a rush to revisit it, soz 😆
Edit, it wasn't actually that bad...
Thanks for the invite but I'm gonna be looking after my daughter while my Wife meets some friends for a socially distanced brekkie.
I struggle with the NY routes. Not really my cup of tea.
Just seen your invite John, sorry won't be making it as I've just done the longer Tour route, legs haven't got bagel in them as well 😉
Enjoy the glass bridges!
I got a bit fed up of the glass bridges yesterday, 6 times up to the KOM.
There was no takers and the world wasn’t being used and was deserted, so once it was apparent there were no late joiners I dropped out.
Instead I completed both the Lutscher routes while Innsbruck was in use. After yesterday I started to feel a bit jaded the 4th time up the mountain but got there in the end.
Only 3 NY a routes left to complete all route badges.
Well new laptop = Ultra Graphics
Theres definitely a notable improvement.
Anyone use a gaming monitor for Zwift? Kinda thinking of leaving a monitor in place and just plugging the laptop in when needed.
Hi Shaun
I use a dedicated monitor for Zwift, I leave it in place and just plug the laptop into it, it works well. I also have Ultra graphics, it's great on a bigger screen.
Next stage is a tv mounted on the wall....
Anyone use a gaming monitor for Zwift? Kinda thinking of leaving a monitor in place and just plugging the laptop in when needed.
That's what I do... it's not specific gaming monitor, but nice 24 inch 4k LG thing.
It's nice having a separate full screen for zwift, and the lappy running spotify/stream stuff etc..
DrP
EDIT - that of course should say lappy SCREEN running the other bits.
Rejoice! Finally got my hands on an axle for my Tacx after 6 months of having one on order with Garmin. Sigma had one in stock when I randomly checked on Wednesday. Ordered and arrived today. Fitted and ready to go. I have a 1 month free trail for Zwift. I'm starting with almost no fitness these days, what can I jump into for 60-90 minutes at a steady pace?
Hopefully this is the beginning of getting my fitness back.
Finally got my hands on an axle for my Tacx after 6 months of having one on order with Garmin...I’m starting with almost no fitness these days, what can I jump into for 60-90 minutes at a steady pace?
Does your Tacx turbo (or your bike) have a power meter and does the Tacx have two-way interactive so that it can do ERG workouts (where generally on a road bike you select the 34T chainring and middle sprocket of cassette, start the workout and the turbo adjusts resistance to match the power required for the interval)?
If it does, I'd suggest you do "Ramp Test Lite" unless you are confident you could hold more than 250W for 1min (in which case do "Ramp Test"), where after a warmup the power requirements start at 50W for 1min and increase by 10W every minute (standard Ramp Test starts at 100W and increases by 20W every 1min).
This will give you a ballpark initial FTP to use in other workouts and you can pick any route you fancy, as the resistance you feel while pedalling is independent of the route gradient (the speed your avatar travels at will be affected) in ERG mode.
Typically, either test including warmup and cool down will take approx 30-40mins.
For "freeride" mode, if your Tacx will adjust resistance according to gradient, the bigger Yorkshire loops are a bit of a rollercoaster with longer ups and downs, while something like Sand & Sequoias on Watopia will start you off on the flat used for a lot of TT events and then through the short inclines rollercoaster through Titans Grove.
Thanks for the info. It's a Tacx Flow Smart trainer, and I don't have a power meter.
I'll get it set up this weekend for some benchmark tests.
So.... initial impression are.... it's a bit s#*t. UI is awful. Took about half an hour to connect to my tablet (iPad). Finally connected to my trainer, but wont recognice my HRM. Trawled online and tried everything such as disconnecting the HRM from any other device. It works on everything else apart from Zwift. I'm guessing it must be iPad related then. Anyone had this issue? I have a standard Garmin chest strap HRM which is ANT+. Hoping to try again tonight for my first proper 'ride'.
iPad has no way to connect via ANT+, so that is never going to work!I have a standard Garmin chest strap HRM which is ANT+
Yes, the UI is shite. You get used to it.
Fair enough. I might just use the Tacx app, that picked it up no problem. Not sure why Zwift can't take the HRM from the trainer like the Tacx app.
You don't need HRM to get started. While you've got the free trial, just open up Zwift, choose a world to ride & give it a whirl. You can sort routes by distance or elevation, so it's quite easy to find something suitable.
I'd start in Watopia.
I think you'll need a bluetooth HRM for an ipad. You can get them for around £20 from Amazon or ebay. I've got a Magene one which works really well & is comfortable.
I used to have a Flow Smart until recently. It works well, but cannot replicate every gradient change as it will only replicate up to about 6% I think.
To get round this, you can go into the settings while riding & change the 'trainer difficulty' setting. I think this defaults to 50% so I'd leave it there for the time being.
Thanks stumpy. I'll give that a go tonight. I know the limitations of the Flux, but not overly concerned about that. As I'm recovering from injury and not done much riding for 6 months, I was hoping that using an HRM will give me more accurate track of improving fitness.
Thanks @stumpy01 for the Zwift beacon to wear on Jennride. Unfortunately the helmet mount didn’t fit my helmet but a great idea (I think someone suggested I should wear one on Jennride so they could fine me).
Nice to meet some of the stw Zwift crew as well as I feel like I have been riding with you for the past year
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Not really any help stcolin but I used an iPad for years and it was the easiest set up I can imagine. Everything connected via Bluetooth is a matter of seconds 🤷♂️
Fast boot up, fast connection, only experienced one or two game drop outs, even then that wasnt too bad as I was one the AdZ but still in the game with no one else so grabbed the KoM Jersey. Which is entirely valid.
Still just got a pair of stupid gloves mind you.
Oh and cheers DrP and Oopnorth, monitor added as a birthday suggestion
Now that we are being released I was thinking that maybe we should see about a Sunday hills ride but in real life. It was great to meet up with @robbo1234biking and @slowpuncheur at Jennride and put faces to Zwift avatars and it might be cool to open that up.
So vague plan that was forming in my head was to do a ride for the Sunday hills crew around the Shropshire hills on MTBs picking up some good hills but mixing it up with some of the more fun out of the way trails too. So 30km and 1000m climbing ish.
Would anyone be interested in doing this and then we can see about when might work.
Well done Robbo, Paul and mrhoppy on the Jennride. I did the MTL on Saturday which is less than half the distance and height and certainly wouldn’t have wanted to do it again on the Sunday so hats off to you guys.
Robbo did you train for it exclusively on Zwift, I’m always a little concerned that time spent climbing on zwift or even on the road doesn’t translate perfectly to grinding up mega steep stuff on the MTB.
Any body still zwifting or racing these days, I think I’ve only done one race in the last month and before that just completed the new Mahdi routed. Should have probably suspended the subscription but didn’t get around to it and due to start a new venture and rota from August so may have to ride indoors more than out again.
Kirky - yes pretty much exclusively inside - I did 100km on the road bike and hilly Wednesday night social rides. I went on the MTB once to Cannock this year before the Jennride! That wasnt the plan but the wive's shifts limited the amount I could get out for a decent time. I used a TrainerRoad plan though and used Zwift for entertainment.
My biggest issue was that my cadence wasnt slow enough at times for my gearing so I need to do some slower cadence blocks next time. There was a lot of walking in any case as a lot wasnt rideable (well maybe by riding gods!) and once my HR was drifting into the 160s I would tend to get off and walk for a bit as although I could have completed the climbs I was always aware there was more to come and didnt want to knacker myself. At that pace my walking speed was similar to riding anyway! 90 miles in though and I was still able to spin away and get up the climbs. The last 6-8 miles were killer though as I got some saddle discomfort so gettting up and down out of the saddle wasnt good! Felt fine on the Saturday so think it was the damp bib shorts the next morning that did the damage.
@mrhoppy I would be up for a social ride but it would depend on my wifes shifts as she works on Sundays so a Saturday would be more feasible for me.
@kirky72. I've mixed and matched a bit more than Robbo but I found that zwift pushed FTP (especially during the race series) so on the climbs I was in a better place ref heart rate and fatigue than if I'd done road and MTB only. Focused workouts (Sweetspot and VO2 max especially) also really helped. Zwift has less constraints so I found doing 2 proper workouts a week was easy and complimented with races/outdoor rides built a really good base. I have a naturally low cadence but a few rides before on the MTB definitely helped for core strength. Workouts with massive changes in target power and frequent, short bursts would be of benefit. Good luck on the new venture!
@Mrhoppy sounds great in principle subject to dates.
Just jumped on Zwift again for what must be the first time in 6 months. I decided to do the FTP lite ramp test just to see what it was prior to starting a training plan.
No idea what the point of the lite version is, went in with an ftp of 270 but the test maxxed out at 250 which translates to an ftp of 190.
I don't think I'd have got anywhere close to the 270 but only having the chance to get 190 max seems a bit pointless?
No idea what the point of the lite version is
zwift says ( https://www.zwift.com/news/22154-how-to-ramp-test-lite?__znl=en-gb)
Ramp Test Lite is for lighter (under 60kg/132lbs) and more novice (<2 w/kg FTP) riders
Must be annoying to go through it without knowing that though...
Cheers @savoyad, to be honest I did see that bit but did it anyway because I thought it was probably just a simplified version not an artificially capped version.
I don't see why they'd do it, if someone who hasn't trained with power but can actually smash out the watts selects this they're selling themselves short.
Ok so I have put out an invite for a sprint and chill session next Tuesday (17th) at 18:30. Might not get many attendees but seen a few more people on Zwift recently and even if you aren’t currently subscribed if you use your free 25km for the month then that will get you through the ride as they don’t Chuck you off until you finish that ride.
Done a loop of makuri and there are two sprint segments per lap. Might get 2.5 laps in so maybe 5 sprints.
Yeah why not.
What layout you got there mate? I'll need to pre ride to see.
Flatland loop. There is a little bit of climbing but only gentle slopes - nothing steep!
I might jump on Robbo, I’m not getting my usual mid week rides in at the moment so unless the weather is too nice not too ride outside I’ll be there.
Likewise the mrs is working and weather looks pants this weekend so if any body fancies a Sunday morning spin let me know.
Ok so I have put out an invite for a sprint and chill session next Tuesday (17th) at 18:30.
I will try and join in. I'll spend a little time prior to the session checking for updates and looking for my cycling clothes.
I'll be there! Always enjoyed these. Not done any Zwifting or anything really bar bimbling and commuting for months now 😬
Aye go on.
https://zwiftinsider.com/route/flatland-loop/
This is the route - rode it this morning. Should be good with the 2 sprint sections. After the first sprint section there is a small hill - we will take it easy the first two times round and then on the last sprint carry on through and race up the hill if people want to. Ill try and let everyone know the sprints are coming up.
Double check you got the invite - I had to resend it as Zwift removed everyone from it, so if you already accepted you might need to re-accept!
Coming back from injury, so will tagalong at the back probably, hope to be there.
oo - just realised its 6:30, and I'm doing this at 5:30 with son Jack - the 'autocat classics', done the last 3 so I'm sticking it out.
https://www.wtrl.racing/zwift-classics/#schedule
If I make it I will defo be limping along at the back.
The autocat series is an attempt to level the playing field against height and weight dopers, so got to give them some support in testing it out.
@robbo1234biking can I get an invite please? Also coming back from injury, but it would be great to get back into it
Thanks
Can’t make this Tuesday doing stage 4 off the MAPP but count me in for future events.
cheers
Neil
I'm in, thanks. I was thinking last week it would be nice to do some of these evening meetups again, and the next day you sent the invite! I'm assuming the Peesbees will be beasting all of us in the sprints again!
@phil56 you should have an invite
Got 10 or 11 in so far.
Should be good. I’ve gone for meet-up only view so we don’t get tangled up with other groups. I’m thinking 4 short sprints and 1 long sprint up a hill!
Just a bump/reminder for tonight!
See you there at 6.30pm (if you want to join us!)