Gah, starting to get into the races a bit more now and making improvements but completely hashed up my sprint tonight. Tried going from 400m and couldn't hold on to it till the finish.
Hoping this translates to some real world improvements this year. Normally I'd be hibernating this time of year and playing catch up all summer.
Just did my first group ride, quite good, no idea what the etiquette was though but did get a bumble bee costume to ride in 🙂
oh and does anybody know what the little green magnifying glass means on Zwiftpower?
Think it means you are looking to be recruited by a team, although not actually sure what being in a team does for you.
Whoop, green jersey and A win in CVR 10pm.
Was entered in B but what does it matter. Last two laps were way too slow for the whippets, my heart rate was down to 160 with about 5k to go and my glutes were barely warm. I think my HR went up more just from thinking about the sprint!
I knew I had the beating of the Bs if I could be near the front at the top of the hill so decided to mark the fastest As and had a good run at them before the line and did them all 😀
Greeeeeeeeeeen
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You sandbagging in B cat now or have you got a new turbo? 🙂
CVR B so it's based on my points ranking or something equally arcane, I really don't understand it all but I'm not getting dqd for doing 4.x w/kg in B cos that's where they told me to be.
There's some proper quick lads up the hills but none of them have got guns heh
Incredible stuff Scaled.... You're our new hero 🙂 Well done buddy.
Wow, just.....wow
🙂
Scaled knocking it out of the park, that is now the best result of the year, you put some big names to the sword there. Great riding. I bet that was a great race to watch with so many in the sprint finish.
Race is up here:
I don't think they like B's beating A's in the sprint 😛
Nice work Scaled! Timed to perfection 😎😎
I just finished a 3-lap Volcano Flat, entered Group B for the first time and didn't finish last! :o)
Settled down into a group of about 12 after letting the proper racers go and this eventually whittled down to 4 by the last lap. A couple of lighter riders tried to get away on the couple of short 4-5% climbs on the last lap but I managed to reel them in on the subsequent descent where my extra weight helped.
I had a drafting power-up which I used when the pace went up in the last mile and lit the after-burners with about 100m to go and won the 4-man sprint LOL!
At just over an hour a great workout mainly at sweetspot with a few FTP+ manic bits thrown in for good measure.
Forza, excellent result sir. So will you be sticking with the B’s from now on? We seem to have quite a lot of B racers now.
Thanks for the encouragement blader1611 but I've subsequently been filtered out presumably because I'm on ZPower. I really can't understand their reason for penalising ZPower users because I am on a Kinetic Rock and Roll trainer which has a known power curve extensively tested I understand by Zwift back in the day before a lot of the Smart trainers came along. I use an HRM and have my Strava account linked to Zwift Power so don't know what else I can do.
There is no way I can alter the power output of the trainer but I could of course cheat in any number of ways if I wanted to just like anyone else on Zwift even with the most expensive power meter or Smart trainer. Putting out 2.59 W/kg to finish 25th out of 27 unfiltered riders in Group B is hardly Lance Armstrong levels of skulduggery though is it? :o)
I only treat the races as a good training regime really, probably like a lot of people. Racing against other human beings even in the virtual world is very motivating and a bit of a laugh.
I think the groupings in the races make no sense really. I was actually 43rd out of 59 on time alone so I think that's the result I'm going to go by in future. After all, that's the way they do it in the real World.
Well I learnt a valuable lesson last night. My ant+ dongle started playing up and when I looked at the extension cable the end was rusted up!
Obviously I had managed to sweat all over it which was a real surprise as I thought I had it a decent distance from me. Luckily the cable seems to have taken the brunt of the sweat and the ant + still works.
So I need to get a longer cable and/or make sure the end is covered up.
Was going to go on tonight but my Mac refuse to see the Speed & Cadence sensors, can only assume the ANT+ dongle is fubar
forzafkawi, you need one of these. Works a treat on my road machine. https://www.evanscycles.com/kinetic-inride-pod-EV254035?esvt=59460-GOUKE4720188&esvq=&esvadt=999999-0-1312634-1&esvcrea=223311366161&esvplace=&esvd=m&esvtg=pla-309125110497&esvo=EV254035-NA-NA&esvaid=50080&gclid=CjwKCAiA5OrTBRBlEiwAXXhT6GxubwxlPKISk48j3n-kFpeEhoAMen2-eT8HyxkYwaHCJnZe-XnRcxoCo_4QAvD_BwE
I've got one of those jambo but if I used it I would consider it cheating. In extensive testing of the Rock and Roll (using the Kinetic Fit app) I found it gave readings of 270W at 20 mph (32 kph) whereas the published power curve suggests the trainer should only be putting out 250W at that speed. This is after careful spindown calibration following a decent warm up.
I contacted Kinetic Support about it but they weren't really much help. They confirmed the inRide module I had was a v2 but should be accurate to +/- 3% which I personally don't think it is. They also confirmed my spindown calibration figures were valid as well. Maybe other inRide modules might be more accurate but their power figure is only calculated anyway so I don't see why Zwift or ZwiftPower should accept that as accurate.
Maybe you'd like to comment if you have any further information.
Forza, regardless of zpower or not that was still a great effort, you still had to turn the pedals quickly.
Thanks once again blader1611.
Apologies if I'm boring anyone with this but this will be my last post on the matter in case any other Kinetic trainer users out there are interested. I've just discovered the Kinetic Fluid Resistance Power Formula on the Kurt Kinetic website:
P = (5.24482 * S) + (0.19168 * S^3) where S is the speed
At 20 mph P = (5.24482 * 20) + (0.19168 * 20^3) = 258W
Therefore the stated accuracy range should be 250W-266W so maybe the upper range is not too far from the 270W I have (consistently) found in testing at 20 mph.
On Zwift my ZPower reading is around 250W when the bike is travelling at 20mph according to my Garmin and the Kinetic Fit app when on a 0% gradient. Zwift speeds are usually a little higher which seeems to be normal I gather.
I have also just seen part of DCRainmaker's 2012 review of the inRide module which has a screen shot of the Kinetic Fit app showing 268W at 19.8mph.
There also seem to be a lot of people having trouble with the inRide module dropping out during a ride (see the Amazon user reviews especially). I don't have an iPhone and linking the inRide via my Android tablet to Zwift all seems a bit of a faff but I will get round to it one day and see how it pans out.
Until then I'll stick with the Ant+ dongle and speed and cadence sensor which so far have been 100% reliable in my Zwifting experience.
I’ve never looked into it that much. Works consistently with the iPhone zwift mobile link app, gives me much the same numbers as the tacx flow I had for a while did.
Maybe I should just use the inRide then jambo for an instant 8% boost in power! :o)
I thought the idea was that the inride should be more accurate as it’s measuring the flywheel speed, not the wheel speed?
Yes, that is true. I'm going to try an link the inRide module to Zwift tomorrow and see how I get on.
I'm scared to face you out there now ! Funnily enough, i just bought a Kawasaki this morning too 🙂
Rest day here i think, woke up a bit heavy in the legs. I've got 210kms in the legs from the first week of Feb, so arguably a little excessive, only Friday of last week was a day of rest... So today is the chosen day it seems.
I look forward to the reports from you lot though... Keep going !
Spotted a 19:05 ride I fancied. Got dressed, set up the garage for a sweatfest (hot and humid here today). Zwift decided to update and then will not go past the log in screen.
Re-installed and now got another 20 min download to do. I can feel the sub being pulled if this carries on.
Spotted a 19:05 ride I fancied. Got dressed, set up the garage for a sweatfest (hot and humid here today). Zwift decided to update and then will not go past the log in screen.
Re-installed and now got another 20 min download to do. I can feel the sub being pulled if this carries on.
That's why I moved to the ios version when I could. I only used it twice a week last year and it felt like it took twenty mins at least to get going every time when using my laptop. Now its a case of phone on, tv on, good to go!
jambo,
I managed to get the Kinetic inRide module paired up this morning (after calibration) and at 20mph (on the Garmin) Zwift was reading 258W - bang on the money! I guess I'm going to be using this from now on ;o)
Thanks.
Just did the BikeRadar race.... My first ever race
My God!!!!
That was hard, not seen a HR like that since I did my last XC race...
Anyway did alright but I just got bumped from CAT D to CAT B which I've no idea how that works.
It means you are twice as good as you think you are - well done! :o)
I think maybe a flat course seems to favour fat lads with a bit of power that once upon a time had some fitness... 🙂
But yeah I was well pleased to finish with a A & Bs and the only other D to finish ahead of me had no HR data ....hmmmmm suspicious
Strangely though because I'm using zPower I now want to get a Smart turbo so that people I've never met and never will meet don't think I'm being dishonest...
LOL Tiger, that's a massive jump D>B ! Nice work !
Tiger6791 if you're STW MagnetoDog on Zwift then that's even more impressive! (Apologies if not)
Yep, that'll be me.
Well that's me a massive Zwift convert. Just done my first beginners group ride and in astonished how quick the km's tick by - far more realistic than I thought it would be and made me push just that little harder than I would have done on my own.
I've a long long way to go but I have finally found something that makes the training just about bearable.
Think I'll stay off the racing for now though - don't want to over to out and do myself a mischief.
DannyB, the magic of swift racing is that you shart in the comfort of your own garage
@scaredy - (un)fortunately sharting is a physical impossibility for me.
I have however entered my first race on Saturday to see how it goes.
Dannyb i guarantee if you pushed a little in the group ride you will push a lot harder in a race, there is also a very strong chance you may become addicted to racing. What generally happens is in your first race your inexperience at zwift style racing will end up with you thinking you could do better next time and then this happens in every single race and thus the addiction is born 😀
Today is the fat boys day 🙂
Richmond.... We all know the fat strong fellas go better on the Richmond flat course than anywhere else !
There's a couple of interesting races on the flat layout, so waiting to see how the numbers for 10:30am ZHR race, only 19 in there up to now and A or C cats only.
The other is the 13:30 which is 1 lap more, Bikeradar race, all Cats.... which currently has 54 entrants... Looking better... Can i hang in until then !
I'll have a fiver on you doing both, weeksy !
I really should try a race! I've got one week of the 10-12wk FTP builder left. Once that's out the way, I'll have a few days rest, do a new FTP test & then perhaps look to enter a race.
I've lost a few pounds, so need to update my profile for max performance!
LOL you know something, i actually thought about it.... After a rest day though yesterday, as always my legs feel worse again lol. I'm not convinced i can cope with 1 race, let alone 2 !
I’ll have a few days rest, do a new FTP test
There race I did last night (my first) put my Zwift FTP by 30watts and I only did the test last week. Somehow I pushed myself harder so well worth doing !!!
I could do with a Bikeradar race to get in the competition so might join in that 13:30 one. Only issue is i'm at the physios at 11, in my head it's all going to be nice heat laps and ultrasound. In reality i'm going to be taking a load of painkillers before hand and then they're going to mash my muscles into a pump.
Thought I'd do that 13.30 BikeRadar race too, so we've potentially got a little STW contingent!
Double post
I could do with a Bikeradar race to get in the competition so might join in that 13:30 one. Only issue is i’m at the physios at 11, in my head it’s all going to be nice heat laps and ultrasound. In reality i’m going to be taking a load of painkillers before hand and then they’re going to mash my muscles into a pump.
Now there's a race report I can't wait to read.
Ah excellent boys.... I'll wait then 🙂
See you out there...
I just did the 08:45 BikeRadar Mission Race which was 5 laps of Richmond flat. I entered group B and was using the inRide module on my Kinetic Rock and Roll trainer for the first time to give actual calculated power reading. I couldn't hold the usual fast group off the front but managed to settle into a decent sized group of about 15 riders and was rolling along really well for 3 laps. Then halfway round the 3rd lap I accidentally touched my keyboard and brought up a Windows menu which obscured half the screen. I leant over to cancel it with the mouse and by the time I completed that (a matter of seconds) I had dropped off the back of the group.
I redlined to get back on but was knackered by the time I got near and couldn't sustain it so was forced to drop back. I ITT'd to the finish and still got a half-decent result but finished a good two minutes behind the group I was in. A good demonstration of the time and power drafting a group can save you as if I needed it!
Also, is it just me or does anyone else find the 1% cobbled section hard going? :o)
Good luck to the rest of you in the later BikeRadar race!
Awwwww crap, i hate it when outside factors influence your final position etc... It can be very frustrating. I imagine it happens in the real world too when riders get punctures/mechs/crashes etc in real life Crits.
I must say I've only raced Richmond once and I hated it, far too flat, and I was a lot fitter then! How long is the "Richmond Flat Roads" lap? Do I assume it's just the Richmond Flat 3 mile lap?
It was my own stupd fault really. I did think later the tactic I should have employed was sprint off the front of the group, fix the problem and then get back on. But in the heat of the moment... Something to consider for the future!
Njee, yes, sounds about right....
1:30 it is!
Although this will be a recovery ride.
I'll chuck out maximum watts out of the blocks to see what happens and then die off gracefully to the back... 🙂
Yup, recvoery ride, that's my excuse too when Njee wipes the floor with me...
urrently on 3rd warm up lap, not got a PU though yet for race start
I tried the evr race at 11 as i am not that familiar with the course plus its hard hanging on on the flat course. Well it hurt a lot trying to hang on on the UCI course too, the first 58 secs was me at 430w trying to stay with the front group and then for a few miles it was 330w. It settled down to a meagre 290w+ just to stay with the group and then the series of hills towards the end of the first lap ripped it all apart. I was flying up all of them sometimes close to 500w and i still got dropped and ended up in the 2nd group of mainly B’s and a few A’s. Thankfully this group was going round at around 250w so i was able to recover as i was pretty tired. We went all the way to the end but i couldnt be bothered to sprint as i thought we were well down the field, it turns out we were the lead B’s and i had coasted over the line to 5th, stupid man i am! I was only 8 secs behind the winner. That is quite a tough course and i am still suffering with the lurgy so pleased with result and averaged 280w for the race.
Good luck with the race guys! I really must get my arse in gear lol, haven't Zwifted for a few weeks now!
They need to sort out of kind of proper spectator mode - you can bodge in by "riding with" someone then quickly clicking on their name to set the camera to follow them... would be great if there was an option though to always display the rider name above them, it's impossible to tell what's going on otherwise really, especially in races like this one where everyone is assigned the same kit!
ARGGHHHHHHH
Lost them on the run up to the line on lap 5.... suddenly i'm 3s down on the STW massive along with a bunch of 20+, then i'm 7s... it's all over... TT'd the last lap, but overtook 1 guy who died more than me.
Nice work Magneto and Njee 🙂
That Magnetised dog aint no D! Saw you go hard off the start so went with you and for about 30 seconds I thought we might actually make that stick 😀
Came in 3rd but not sure about the top 2, they were knocking out 6.5w/kg for a looooong time so i gave up chasing them
Yup, recvoery ride, that’s my excuse too when Njee wipes the floor with me…
As you saw it's not me you have to worry about 🙂
Remind me who K.Barrett is!? 3rd in As I believe, great result! Held the lead bunch until the end of lap 1, then got together with Batman(!) and Magnetodog (the non D!) for a couple of laps until Weeksy's group came up, then held them. Was toast for the sprint, so rolled in. Bloody hard isn't it Richmond, just so flat!? I'm (still) not heavy enough!
Lol @ him being a D. Putting out 3+ everywhere!
You did great njee. Well done
Scaled is our resident superstar!
Your 1st on ZP!
I was on a recovery ride 🙂 plan was a silly start and then fade apart from pride that would have happened.
Part from got my HR to 193! this time, which considering my max is 180 is going some....
Pleased with that it was a 'fun' workout
Magnetodog (the non D!)
I will change that from now but that was only my 2nd ever go so it would have been a bit billy big bolloxes to immediate rank myself a B
I’m (still) not heavy enough!
I am 🙂
No good on hills, not terrible on flat stuff
https://www.strava.com/segments/3915526 (filter by STW Zwifters) 🙂
Well done guys, good to see a few of you in one race. Scaled was actually the winner and now confirmed hero of this parish who now wears a large target on his back for all us fat middle aged guys to aim for, nice work Kai.
Richmond Flat is unforgiving in terms of recovery in the race and also if you slightly drop off a group there is no way back.
Average HR of 190bpm, max of 200. Got me a red box on ZP again! 😀
Tiger I'm giving away 20kg to you! I don't feel so bad now!
Not sure about a target, not even a heat seeking missile can make up that sort of a gap from me to him. I'll still need to dump another 10kg !
Well done Team STW and a win! Yay!
Like zilog6128 says, it would be great if we could watch these races.
Wow tiger, the w/kg was impressive over 1 min but then i saw your weight!
i was really hurting, seeing that i'm giving away 20 odd KG to you might explain why I was suffering, that's some serious power you're putting out!
Njee - that's me ^^
It is 'cos I is fat! Legs like Wiggins, body like Biggins! (I also suspect my turbo is flattering me, it's set up as per Zwift instructions though but I'd love one of those Kickr Snap things)
Lost 9kg so far this year but my massive aim is to lose another 14kg in the next few months while trying to keep the legs that have been powering a 16 stone chubster around.
Then I want to lap Swinley in around an hour, never beat the hour for a full lap, and maybe get back to XC racing later in the year.
Zwift & STW Chub club to get me there, time to stop being fat and average.
Nice work everyone 👍🏻👍🏻
Almost enough excitement to drag myself out of Zwift Racing retirement 🤣
Hi all, thanks for starting and keeping this thread going; it’s been highly motivational and fun to read. My backstory: I bought a T2240 turbo and joined zwift in December, then started the ftp 10/12 week builder beginning of Jan this year (lots of frustration getting it all configured; a big improvement in accuracy of cadence was switching from using the tacx cadence output, to my Wahoo SC cadence output and in terms of reliable signal, switching from Bluetooth to an ant+ dongle).
In between ftp sessions I’ve been entering events in group D to boost my ftp. Looking at my stats tonight, I’ve clocked 892km and ‘climbed’ 75% of the Everest challenge. I have dropped weight from 83kg to 72kg. I did my first ever ftp test beginning of Jan before starting the ftp builder and scored 171. As of this evening, I’m now up to 225w, with steady increases of around 6w, as judged by zwift, after events. I’ve settled on an ftp session or race every second day where possible.
In the last three A-D events, I’ve noticed a big improvement in fitness, and have progressed from 11th in group D (WBR event - those are so hard!) to fourth in some Danish event and then first in group D of an A-D Richmond event this evening. I was 1 min 36” ahead of second place and the result would’ve placed me top eleven in group C, so it’s time to move up a group.
This thread and zwift has boosted my enthusiasm to get back into xc racing IRL, so might try a Gorrick event soon.
It would be good to try out some zwift events where fellow STWers are also racing. How do you know when there’s another STWer in your event?
If you use the app you can see who's entered any particular event.
You'll either recognise names or more likely see "STW" in a username.
(well done on the fitness/weight !)
Great work doornot! Nice one.
Will we you at the back of B soon!
Doordonut very well done on the ftp increase and the loss of weight, that is some achievement, keep up the good work.
Gentle recovery today. Averaging about 140w tops. Bit dull but Zwift does make it bareable.
Urgh. Did the 100km Audax, 2.5-3.0 w/kg group. I've never had my quads cramp on the turbo before. Got dropped by my group halfway through the last lap when a bunch of people upped the pace to 4w/kg+.
2 x 20 sweet spot session yesterday probably didn't help...
Wow 100km on a turbo 😳
Managed to hold on for a 3rd in B cat WBR 3 lap Hilly Reverse Race ... I lost front group on 2nd lap, solo`d till 2-3 miles from finish ... then got caught by group of 8-10 riders and lost my 2nd place!!
Can`t believe how fast fast time goes on the turbo nowadays!!
Just done my first (short) ftp test. Came in at 156W. I've no idea of if that's good or bad for a 16 stone 41 yo that's not properly exercised since last summer.
Also, really stupid <span style="font-size: 0.8rem;">question time - I assume at 103 kg that makes my W/kg 1.51?</span>
Yep, ~1.5W/Kg, going on that test result.
However, let me bore you with a little story... I tried the short FTP test on Zwift in mid Jan last month, my first ever, result was ~218W but I'd just done something like 8+ consecutive days of training (often up the Zwift big climbs). Since then, Zwift has used its automatic FTP estimates based on 20min rides to boost my FTP to ~238W and then 254W last week (which corresponds with the estimates that Strava Premium and cricklesorg.wordpress.com/ have given me).
Trying to judge what you are capable of when doing FTP tests for the first time isn't easy, by all accounts. Being new to turbo trainers and the intense heat compared to outdoors, making a lesser indoor effort seem quite hard, compounds the issue. I spent a good couple of weeks very confused why my cat3/4 times in Zwift were way down on real ones and why my heart rate was much lower in Zwift, the answer was I had to mentally fight the sauna-esque conditions and sweating buckets compared to outside.
I've since gone a bit extreme and stopped using my ~20" fan when Zwifting, imagining I'm riding on a hot and humid day up the likes of Harvesting Lane and "Bell Hill to the top" near Petersfield.