Zwift, my journey, my weight and my fitness.

kind of saw that coming sorry! I guess it’s hard to benchmark if you don’t race road bikes outside too?

No need to apologise mate, in just about every post I said i was doubting the numbers so suspected it was coming too!

I'm really struggling for time at the moment, having to do the nursery run has stopped my extended commutes (other than the one where we go down the canal for a mile so he can see the boats and the geese). I had all my kit, inc. laptop, water bottle and cycling kit laid out by the front door ready to hit the garage at 0530 so I could get an hour in but nope, 2 of the 3 kids were up and about by 0545. By the time it gets to 8ish when the kids are in bed again i'm bloody knackered.

On the plus side, I did finally get out on the mountain bike 😀

Feel your pain with children cutting into bike time. That's the reason I'm using zwift at all and even then I've missed lots of rides I wanted to do when they didn't go to bed quietly. Joys of young children! Good thing the monsters are also entertaining :D.

After 8pm is Daddy time in the garage for me. It makes the PRL100 workouts that last 2hrs really late.

I managed to exceed my target weight of 90kg (I'm 192cm tall), unfortunately it was not achieved by hard work or dieting. Food Poisoning is not a pleasant way to lose 4kg in 2 days. For the rest of the week my body was using it's reserves for fuel. Dropped down to 88.5kg and a week and a half later I am back to 90kg, and trying to maintain this.

For the first time in 20 years I can fit comfortably into 34 inch waist jeans.

Just realised that the workout plan I was following (PRL100 one where they work out the timings) finishes 1 week after the event. That's clever, that is. Back to the workouts that I select myself, which are harder anyway.

Had a ride with weeksy on zwift so just for a bit of fun we had a sprint to the finish line. It was a pretty close contest but what struck me was that even in top gear and spinning very very fast (not sure you could spin much faster) it only registered a max output of 885w. How is it possible to have a 1200w+ sprint? Only way i can see it happening is either using bigger gears (i run a compact) or my set up is wholly inaccurate when giving it some berries (this is a distinct possibility).

Weeksy - thanks for sprint sessions,not much in those. I didnt manage the race as i lost all network so thank goodness i did those sprints with you. In a fit of anger i deleted our ride but have managed to recover it and load it in to strava. I managed 885w max, what did you do?

it only registered a max output of 885w. How is it possible to have a 1200w+ sprint?

Trainers have a maximum power output, a Kickr will record up to 2000 watts, a Kickr Snap will allow up to 1500 watts, a Tacx Satori tops out at 950 watts, so it may be that your trainer simply won't register above a certain level.

In sprint 1 where i led you out, you were showing 11.3w/kg  when you passed me.

In sprint 2 I was hitting 743w. That's about my limit. I was maxed out in gears at 112rpm.

My trainer has a limit of 800w so is my 885w just a guess by the trainer or zwift. Could this be an excuse to upgrade my tacx, i think it might. I am clearly a powerful fat middle aged man who can go beyond smart tech, thats seems like a new opening statement for my CV.

weeksy - my cadence was showing as 130 but i think once i go berserk it becomes very inaccurate.

Did 6 lap race on classique course today and managed to stay with the A group all the way to the end but it was tough. I finished at the back of the bunch sprint but managed to avg 28.1mph and 285w avg. The figures that really stood out were for Horseguards hill in which i had to go up it at over 500w for every lap just to stay in touch, I even had to do a pr (avg 539w) on lap 5 just to stay in the bunch, it was a very quick A group today.

Usual story today, 1 lap London greater hilly.

Cruised along in bunch of B and Cs for the first 20 min which is flat, rarely seeing more than 155bpm.

12 in our group as we hit Leith Hill. I was sitting in 2nd but due to weight that was destined to fail. Stayed with them for about 3 min and then fell off. My personal challenge was to stay ahead of 1 rider in the group, I managed 2. Closest guy crested 7s behind me and next guy 32s. Neither could close that on the way down and I cruised to the line for 15/40. Lots of PRs on the climb by a decent margin, so happy with that. Worked hard but was never going to suit me with that layout.

Four laps of Watopia hilly for me last night. First lap was painful. Got stuck in a gap and had to work really hard to catch the bunch ahead. This took till the volcano and hurt lots. Took till most of lap two to recover. Lap three on the hill before the bridge sprint I went hard till after the bridge and split the group up a bit. Tried the same on four but didn't work again. Five us us left at the sprint which too my surprise (given we had picked up an A) I won. Third B again but a long way down on the first two who stayed with the leading A group. Did a fifth lap after to push me over 50k.

Going to rest till Thursday now. Wife is away so may try a long stint (2 hrs) or one of the mega loops. Think I'll bust 300k this month!

Did the WBR Road To Sky Climbing Race the other day. It was brutal! Not only is it the Alp Du Zwift but you’ve got to get there too, via the Epic KOM! Had I known the profile beforehand I might have had second thoughts....

I’m too fat for the win here at 72kg, the winner being 56kg?! Anyway I’m happy with the result from essentially a 68 minute threshold test...

https://www.strava.com/activities/1643704624

All a bit meaningless without Zwiftpower though!!

Well done guys 🙂

Yeah the lack of ZP does make it all a bit 'meh'. I'm still trying just as hard, but it's nice to read the results and have a look at who etc and see if you can see what you need to push to the next level.  I'm hoping they get it sorted soon... but i'm not optimistic.

Yeah its a shame about ZP particularly as i seem to be in a rich vein of form.

Just did the 2 lap london loop race and managed a new PR for Box Hill of 6:33.8, that beats my best by 14s. Not sure where that puts me on the stw list but it still had me 17s behind the main A group, those guys are just too fast although i bet they dont weigh 80kg.

Really hope ZP is back soon!

Have signed on for the 8pm three loops tomorrow (assuming the terror sleeper goes down promotly)!

I finally got off my arse and got out to the garage instead of drinking beer and watching football. Pre baby i was a good couple of hundred km ahead of my annual goal, i'm not 350 behind.

Did the EVR race and entered as a B as I've still no real idea about my data. I spent quite a lot of time on the front before we hit box hill (schoolboy error) and the faster A's just went flying off and had about 30 seconds on the me, then 5 secs back to the next A, I let off the gas on the descent and waited for him, then the rest of the group. We never saw the lead A's again but it was a decent enough ride. I'd saved enough (and a feather) for the second climb of box hill but kept it until the escalator, dropped it there and basically sprinted up it as if it was the finishing line. By the time i'd run out of gas I had about 8 seconds on the chasing pack and they let me go to play cat and mouse. Cruised home for lead B but 4.2w/kg

I cruised round for a bit, checked the events and thought i'd have a go at 'The Chop' as an A. What a mistake that was 😀 Maybe nicely warmed up with fresh legs I could have given it a go. Looks like a good fun format though, maybe next week 😀

The really good news is that I seem to be getting the hang of using my gears inside. Leaves me just over 4.3 w/kg

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Nice work.

What's 'the chop'?

They have staggered starts so the D group sets off first, then C,B then A.

Each group is trying to stay away from the group in front and not get caught by the one behind.

With 2x laps of box hill at race pace I just couldn't hang on for more than about 20 mins but it was fun while it lasted.

Did the WBR 6 Laps Classique Flat Race last night. Legs felt really good even without a warmup. Decided the race was mine for the taking so I pretty much controlled it, kept the pace high for the first 2/3s and just sat with people up the incline as is normal on that course. Then I let a guy get away and then would bridge to him knocking a couple of people of each time, then I opened up the legs attacking in random places all over the place. Soon enough I’d whittled the group down from 15 or so to 3 and pretty sure they were hurting 😆 Finally I launched an attack from behind at the the top end of The Mall and no one could latch on 🙂

Havent gone into a race feeling that fresh or arrogant for a while haha.

https://www.strava.com/activities/1651518668

Oh man, i'm envious when i read reports like that... I tried a few times in the last few races in the same way.. but within my smaller B/C group, but i'm usually the one who pays the price in the end when we get a kicker and i get blown out the back. Damn the 89kg weight !

Must admit, ZP being down isn't helping as it's very easy to bail now

Not zwifted or raced for a good few months now! Really sucks that ZP has succumbed to what looks like a GDPR balls up/apathy from Zwift with no real road map for getting it back... have CVR somehow managed to work around this or is their racing league borked too?

NIce. Also envious! Damn those laps were quick!! I'd love to put in some attacks to split things up but for the most part I'm struggling to hang on let alone attack (the ones I tried in the last race cost lots).

Think CVR is also dead!

Nah, CVR is alive and kicking.

They were lucky really in that they were in post season already so all the races were just a heads up race between two people.

Next week is the live CVR final in Vancouver, folks who won their brackets are all flying in and zwiftpower in an arena 😁😁

I saw Blader was racing in the CHOP race in B... so jumped in C.

I then realised it was a handicap race ! We went off before them, they have to catch us.

Stayed in group for all 5 laps, but got dropped on Horseguards and Solo'd to the end. Blader passed me with 300m to go with the lead B group. I was all in and dead by then.... If i thought a bit i possibly could have stayed ahead with a massive push from 1km out, but i honestly thought i had the Bs beaten.. i never.

Good effort and training though 🙂

Next week is the live CVR final in Vancouver, folks who won their brackets are all flying in and zwiftpower in an arena

Good work all.

Just restarting again after a short break, main race of the year at Glentress 7 and a small minor op, and I'm sure my FTP will be down a bit and I'm still in recovery mode so I've put my FTP down on Zwift and am letting it go up as it pleases. Tootling round Zwift at 170 to 200 watts at the moment. Zwift FTP now reading 206 against what I last tested at 272. It'll give me some motivation to work a bit harder when I can but I'm only expecting to be 10 watts or so down anyway,

I'll retest on Trainerroad and use that when doing sessions.

Planning on doing a few races in a few weeks so hopefully ZP will be back.

I didnt realise you were in that race weeksy. We were a very fast B group today, the A group got nowhere near us. I ended up averaging 283w for that race which was only 2 less than yesterday which was riding with the fast A group. The C group must have been quick as well as i dont think we caught all of them.

You caught very few of them mate, they crossed the line about 30s ahead of you mostly. It was only on the last H-G hill that we split from 30 or so in the group. Apparently there's results etc on FB, but as i don't do FB i have no idea about that. The thoughts were that the majority of our group would be DQ'd on power. I was on the edge at 3.0w/kg at the end, so they must have been over mostly that's for sure.

Weeksy - i dont think we gained anything on the last lap as i think we were same distance behind at the end of lap 4. I am not bothered about the results at the minute, i find if i finish with an average that is around my sweetspot then i know i have gone all out. My ftp is 312w so 283w for the Chop is about right. It was nice to be in a large group again,its been a bit sparse of late.

Same as you really. I was just happy to last the 5 laps at pace. I've been a bit weak lately and bailing out of rides that i should arguably be finishing instead, but i've been putting in possibly too many racey type rides to be sustainable. My average was 260w and with an FTP recently of 278w, then i'm right in the 'good damn hard work' zone. As i say, i was a little disappointed to get dropped at the end of lap5, but if it was a ZP race, maybe i'd have managed to stay in.. but i was not going to be any use to the group as i was sitting on the back, not pushing off the front as i did earlier in the event...

Ouch three loops is hard in the second half! Stuck with the pack to Leith hill. This broke things up a bit. Ended up on my own by the top. There was one other B who was also dropped about 30s ahead. Pretty sure they waited for me before Box Hill however I didn't wait for them after the second switch back and put the hammer down. Had 10s by the banner and 20 by the time the road turned down. This stretched to 1 minute by the bottom of the hill by which point they had given up. Cruised to the end.

Strangely KISS races don't seem to show up as races for me at the moment. I don't get a position or leader board at the end. Quite frustrating.

I think I might need to do some training instead of just racing. I added as steady 15km onto the race and practiced spinning at 90rpm for a good amount of that (then had a go at the mall sprint, 13s I think).

Nixie- KISS and ZP are closely related. They got Zwift to switch the leaderboard off a long time ago for their events to force people to check ZP (and of course aim for the higher level of accountability that goes with using it).

If they haven’t switched them back on again you’d hope it means they think a solution is forthcoming sooner rather than later 🤷🏻‍♂️

I don’t follow Zwift news like I used to but it feels like they’ve stagnated this year- everything has ground to a halt. I know the new world is coming soon but it feels there’s a million niggles they should have addressed by now that just roll on forever.

The only exciting news is that a little bit of world switching is finally going to commence with a Richmond Flat Crit Series... I’ll be up for that if it’s still running in the Autumn.

Flat/crit races are my favourite as they’re the most realistic to the real world IMO.

Im only racing to maintain some fitness & I'm not allowed to race outside until after our wedding in 3 weeks as I’ve gone passed the broken bones healing stage 😆 After the honeymoon I’m planning on getting back on TR, if ZP isn’t back then Zwift may get cancelled...

Half day at work today so hoping to get a race in later, see what’s flat 🙂

Thanks Crosshair, guess that also explains why they have an intro voice over that no one else does.

I quite like the challenge of the hills. Don't really care for real world equivalence as I don't ride road much.

Couple more podiums over the last couple of days.

I think Zwift racing is like the wild west at the moment, I got destroyed by a cat B earlier - he kept throwing attack after attack:

😆

Zwift racing as much as I can to keep my legs in the game over the next few weeks 🙂

CVR worrld cup is live on 

or http://cycleview.tv

There's some hardcore suffering going on today and tomorrow 😀

Stage 1 winner was Lionel Vujasen who averaged 6.2 w/kg (on a calibrated turbo and after being weighed in live) for a 14 minute TT, monster.

Was about to get in the shower last night after a spot of baling but decided I needed to be a bit more sweaty so headed down to the cellar. I haven't been on Zwift since cancelling subs back at end of April but rememdered that youget 25kms free each month anyway so thought I would give it a go. Set it up, got on logged in... WBR 1 lap hilly starting in 5 mins. Hmm, why not?

Well started well enough, flew off the front with a couple of others in Group C and ended up in a 3 horse race up Fox hill. 1 rider got a 12 second lead by the top but I went over 2nd with an American hard on my tail. And so it continued. The other rider refused to take point, and the gap to the lead rider stayed pretty constant at around 12 seconds. If I slowed down then my follower slowed down too. He refused to give me a rest in his draught. Swine 🙂 Anyway, 1 km from the fish he kicks and goes and I just had nothing left to follow him. last I saw he was about 3 seconds behind the leader and gaining on him. I was happy to finish 3rd, 11 seconds down and over a minute ahead of 4th place. But Jeez was it hot. Forgot to take anything to drink so was screaming for the wife to bring me water as it was about 30 degrees in there and I was on the verge of passing out going up the hill!

Ah well, another week and I can do another 25km race

LOL good write up matey 🙂

Looks like ZP etc will be back soon.

There is now an opt in option for sharing on your profile page on the Zwift website under connections.

OOOOh nice 🙂

Yep, saw that on FB this am. Have done the Opt-in thing so now waiting for it to come back on line

I did two laps of greater London loop up Fox hill on Sunday. For the first time managed to stay with the A's for a reasonable stint of the climb (before the inevitable). Spent the rest of Lap one in a reasonable sized group with a mix of an A, Bs and Cs. This held together till the second time up Fox hill when three of us broke away. The A with us started attacking as we cross back over the Thames and by the time they started the fourth of fifth attack at the end of the Mall I was broken! He got away leaving two of us to duke it out from B bronze. I tried to go for it with a feather from the underpass but legs didn't have it and was recaptured rather too quickly. Came down to a sprint which again I didn't have the legs left to really go for it. Wife is away at the moment so for a bit of fun I added a third lap afterwards to give a 60km ride.

Back on it tonight, can't decide between trying two laps of the radio tower climb or a race. Have just discovered that Alp Du Zwift is not the same as the radio tower and now want to have a go at that, shame I'm only level 9 at the moment!

Hopefully the new opt ins mean zwift power will be back soon :D.

Fun volcano flat race today, 4 laps CCW.

Got dragged round with the lead group for the intro lap and lap 1, we were flying along and i set a new best ever lap at 5:39 which was 4s quicker than my best. Until then i was comfortable and we were a group of 15, my HR was sitting nicely at only about 160-162 mostly... but when the crunch came, as always on the hill up to the start/finish, i was lacking, they pulled about 6w/kg and gapped me and 4 others... Damn.

I let them guys lead mostly as it was keeping us well ahead of the next bunch and pulling out a small lead... but i was still working hard. With 1.3km to go i hit the Aero i had, mostly because it would have been a waste not to use it... but even though i pulled 15m lead, i knew it wouldn't last.

It was very nice that one of the lads chucked me a message and told me to pin it. "got nothing mate, i'm all out..."

I left them to it and watching their battle unfold in the last 400m to the line and both pulling 600+w i was happy to have done so 🙂

I claimed 11th out of 31, which was 2nd C and a new FTP of 280w... a massive increase of 2w !lol. However thats an FTP increase of 5 w in the last 2 weeks.

Nice work. I failed to get online last night (non sleeping children). Signed onto the chop race at 9 currently but planning to do a bit of cruising around before that.

I did my first retest on Trainerroad last night and am down a massive 4watts so happy with that considering some time off and few easyish weeks too. Now we'll see if I can get my FTP up to that on Zwift during use.

If I can find the time hoping to get my first Zwift race for quite a while on Friday night at Richmond. Ideally a single UCI lap.

The chop race (6 laps volcano) was brutal for me last night, maybe 35 minutes of warm up was a bit much and I spent too long on the front! The A group were way more organised (well at least one of them was handing out the orders)! They split in two with the lead group catching us at the start of lap 5. That fractured the B group as some tried to go with the A's (who made short work of breaking away). I stuck with the main B group and was in the front three in the last 500m but had hardly any sprint in me. Was fun though and time went very quickly, I spent a surprising amount of time watching the map on the companion app to see who we would catch next and where the A group was.

My FTP has not changed for a while now, though my weight has started to drop a bit (1.5 KG, should update my profile for the benefit up the hills :D). Planning to try an epic KOM race as soon as there is one that fits my free time.

22degC is not the ideal indoor temperature for racing.

1 UCI lap and first race for a while.

Only 15 in it. Not too mad at the start but 2 floated off the front by a few seconds so left them to it. Just before the slight incline as you turn onto the cobbles others went after them and a new 1min 10sec ;0) power record to get onto the split. A few bumps in power along the way but generally just a constant effort until Libby hill. As expected all hell broke loose and I couldn't hold the back end of the group so it was a painful solo effort to the end with the next rider a minute back anyway.

8th I think and bottom end of the B bracket as ususal on w/kg.

Zwift FTP bumped to 245w.

Time restricted today due to being my lads 10th birthday and Sportsday at school. So i'm likley to jump on the CHOP race at 9:15am

It's a handicap format and rewards drafting/helping eachother along etc. If nothing else, it will be a decent workout with some like powered Cs. Until we get swamped by the As etc... That said... The C group is the bigger of the groups currently so could potentially suit us.

Joined a random race earlier, 3 laps London Classique. LOTS of riders.

Started off near front of Cs, but a LOT of A/B had wasted us in the initial split/ramps and they were gone ! So we went over the start line on entry in about 84th out of 160... The group we were in was from about 75th to 90th overall.
After the warm up and starting lap 1, the front of our group had claimed some riders and high point was 75th now, but we were flying along well. The first time up Horseguards was OK, i settled in about 4.3w/kg which is 375w or so for the hill and that was all well and good 🙂 It saw in the top couple of places in our group. We were now into the high 60s for placings.... closing on riders well, we ploughed on into lap 2... I just sat in the group trying to sit near the front so as not to miss any moves. We were again picking riders up and the front of group was now 58th or so... Onto lap 3, this is where it usually goes nuts and people hit 4+ and break for it.. But i was feeling OK and sitting in there, again we had picked up riders, some slowing and some stopping...

I had an Aero PU and i thought "If i can just save this... " but as we hit Horseguards for the final time i was tempted to hit the PU, but stayed off it, dropping a couple of places on thee hill as people went 5.5w/kg+ and i was sitting at high 4's... But I got slightly lucky that as it flattened out a guy passed me and was at 4w/kg closing on the 4 guys ahead of me. So i jumped on his wheel and next thing i was on them... With the 6 of us we pulled in the next few riders and as we passed under the 1km kite we were from 50th-65th overall.... I was mid-bunch. 800m to go just after the roundabout i hit 400w and the Aero PU.... BOOM ! i took off like a scalded cat. There was a guy behind me hitting 10w/kg on 400m but the rest we'd gapped and i was 500w or so... power power... I lost out to him for 50th, but finished 51st and ahead of the bunch we were in up to 64th... MORE than happy with that as i very very rarely have anything in the tank or the legs in the last KM and am usually blown away.

275w weighted average, i'm happy with that. 166bpm average shows that i wasn't exactly on my limit.... I can usually get another 5-6 on top of that in a properly tough one...

I did six laps of Classique on Tuesday evening. Very hot up in our loft conversion even with the big fan going. I was happily sitting with the lead group during the warm up when I had a trainer dropout just before the roundabout. This left me 15-20s down on the main B group. I bust my gut for the next 5 minutes (setting a new best 5 minute power output) and had just got back with them when I had another dropout. This left me in no mans lands. Has to go a bit easier for about half a lap at that point (my HR went to around 180 during the earlier effort!) after that tried to up the power a bit. Ended up collecting a good few B's that couldn't hack the pace at the front resulting in a group of around six. I managed to put in some small attacks that dropped us down to three (2xB and 1 C). Then towards the last 3k the other B went for it. I didn't have the energy left by that point so left them to it. Used my aero power-up from about 400m to drop the C. No idea where I finished overall but was seriously knackered!

Need to work out why the dropouts were occurring though as they were very annoying. I do have a usb extension cable not being used so maybe time to get that out.

Anyone got the new android beta version to work? Mine crashes straight after the zwift splash screen

Not tried it nemesis, where did you get it?

It's in the app store. Search Zwift App.

Graphics card hungry so not many phone can run it apparently.

Mine gets to the ride scree and you can see everything except the road/scenary.

🙂 zwiftpower is back.

Perfect timing ! :Faceplant:

My Snap is going back to Evans and is currently sitting in a box in the garage to be dropped off tomorrow morning. LOL. Tempted to take it out for a race ! But plenty of riders will need to sign something again, change their Zwift preferences etc.. So no rush.

4 flat laps with about 20 starters. Wasn't expecting anything amazing as not been feeling 100% this week. Didn't quite put enough effort off the line in so had to dig a bit harder to get onto the front group.

First proper lap Mr Burton went off the front (who was meant to be in the earlier bigger race but had trainer issues it turned out) who went off the front (strange racing against someone who is about 5 miles away). I sat tight and the group hauled him back at the end of the lap.

I missed a bump in the power and did what I could to get back and Mr B dropped off to offer me a wheel until he realised it was terminal and got back on.

2 and a bit laps now to stay ahead of another B who had dropped off earlier and a couple of Cs he been caught by. Decided I needed 30 seconds by the turn onto the climb on the cobbles which I just managed and was able to sit up with 100m to go. Horrible horrible last lap.

3rd B on the road and a silver in ZP although there are only 5 finishers listed.

https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=70128

FTP up to 250w on Zwift now and don't eat Pizza 45 minutes before a race!

Some good race reports there guys.

I had my first go on zwift for a while and it seems all the mileage i have been doing on yorkshires hills seems to have benefited my zwift racing. Did the tour de Oz and finished 7th out of 201 though its not a race but we all raced it. I avg’d 295w for the race which is great but what i did notice was that i was able to put down long stretches of big pace and not suffer for it. I lost 15s on the climb to the likes of J Kriel and M Yankow due to not knowing the course but i managed to bring them back on the flat with a very big effort which felt far easier than i was expecting. Due to bad pacing by me i had to do the same again about 5 mins later but that hurt a little bit more. It seems zwift helps you ride better outside and riding outside helps you race faster inside, long may this good weather continue.

Great ride Blader. I have been finding the lure of the great (sunny) outdoors too much! Still do at least one a week, when I am looking after my daughter.

Feeling under par, I went for a 'true 2w/kg' training session (around and hour). It was really well organised and everyone stayed in a 'blob'. I struggled on the hills as some 'organising' in the garage by my other half had resulted in my bike being knocked out of the trainer, ending up halfway across the room. 5 minutes before the session, I only had time to put the chain back on and stick it on the trainer (failure to prepare etc.). Every time I put higher pressure the pedals the tyre slipped, so I found myself going backwards on the hills and TTing at close to 300W on the flats to catch the group. Instead of an easy zone 1/2 ride it turned into extended sprint intervals. Fortunately i actually felt better after than I did before I started.

So glad to see zwiftpower is back!

Matt

I did a race on friday and it was hell on earth. Only 11 of us so i knew sticking with the A group was gonna be impossible. 3 laps of flat route so slightly shorter than normal race, it was full on from the start. There were multiple attacks on every lap as the field mainly made of A’s all started to go at each other. I was hanging on and had to draft an A to get back in at one point. I got dropped on the sprint home as i was cooked and ended up silver in B and 6th overall. I actually finished with an avg 304w for the race which is my highest ever.

Short race up the volcano for me last night. Not a massive field so the one A stuck with the n,c and some d group. Pace was relaxed till the volcano. I put in a few bursts on slight ramps just to test who had what. We were all still together when the climb proper started. Unsurprisingly the A suddenly woke up. I went with them (which I don't think they were expecting). Managed to hang on to them for about 30s before I couldn't sustain the power any longer. By this point there was a comfortable gap behind me so I settled down to holding that. The volcano climb seems to be just the right length for a high power climb for me. Was second over the line however the A isn't on ZP so I get the B and overall gold ;). Now to replicate that in bigger groups.  https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=73087

Excuses first.

Over 20degC still in the room.

Threshold efforts outside yesterday afternoon.

Too early.

No breakfast.

Compute winding me up.

No warm up.

2 laps of London Loop which I've never raced. Couldn't hold the power from the start and got popped out the back of every group and went backwards up the first half of Box Hill. Started picking riders off and then a big effort up the final ramp to get onto a few riders for the descent. Worked until Box again with the group but well down on power. Upped the power and took the front on the first hairpin then again after the second to drop my companions and try to bridge to the next 2. Managed to drop the 3 I was with but couldn't quite make the 30 second gap back. Got to within 10 seconds but I knew I had to recover on the way down. Last couple of km torture maintaing the gap to those behind. Last in B on ZP and didn't even beat the top legitiamte C which is the first for a while.

212 watt average. WTF needed yesterdays tailwind up the hills.

https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=74540

So now I know what kind of sprint I can manage, short and not very powerful!

Good battle with another D around the WBR London classic x 3. They basically sat on my wheel for 2.9 laps while I made tentative moves to try and drop them. The closest I got was about 8-9 metres on the first go up 'horseguards', but I was dragged back over the top.

Last lap I decided I was going to jump first, but was too ambitious and went with about 500 to go! The 5 metre gap didn't last long and I was easily overtaken with about 200 to go, live and learn!

Good to be back racing though. Matt

Three loops.long race last night. I'm starting to really like that route. Started steady with the pack splitting in a/B and C/D quickly. The A/B stuck together for around 10 minutes then the as and a few Bs got a few seconds in the rest. I was slow to respond thinking it would all close up again as there were still As in the back half. Closing the gap was painful, took around 5 minutes of high effort to close the 6-7s. Was worth the effort though as the lead group quickly pulled the gap out. There was one A Vet who put in a few attacks to split it up a bit. I managed to hang in while the other two Bs were dropped. Managed to stay with them till the big hill and which point they sailed off into the sunset (as I expected). I had the best part of two minutes on the trailing group which I managed to increase. The climbing was painful over Leith (I think) hill but not so bad up box hill. I was suffering now the the bridging effort. Good result though, first B in the road and on ZP. Not that far from the last A (1min) as well.

https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=74473

Great ride that Nixie, really close to that last A, next time!

Hanging on to the faster group is something I need to work on, it's really seems to pay dividends, especially on the flatter section like the start of your race.

Matt

Great to see a few back Zwifting.... I'm picking my new Snap up today after a longish debate with Wahoo regarding it's failure.... Happily they've now agreed and it's been in Evans for a few days but i was away this weekend, so collecting the new one today...

Starting to race again on Zwift due to Zwiftpower returning, cooler garage temperatures and too many outdoor TT's being cancelled with roadworks. Aiming for the 13:30 hilly today, and getting ready for Innsbruck on Saturday.

Thanks Matt, shame the while feild didn't finish. From the unfiltered list looks like a lot of people dropped out during the race.

Hopefully yiuyou be back online soon weeksy.

So Innsbruck is live on Saturday, cool.

Change of approach for me.

Since the restart since GDPR I've dropped back to C and will see what happens with skill points to be upgraded or maybe upgrade myself again if it's becomes silly.

Also planning on trying to race people rather than just clinging onto one of the front groups which basically makes the entire race a high threshold effort but yields good results. Will try and find a group I can influence and sprint against. Generally this will mean losing the C race as someone will always cling onto one of the stronger groups but hopefully it'll mean I get better at competing for when I can actually ride with those groups while having something in reserve.

6 laps of Richmond Flat (think I'm bored of this bit of race route now) and legs still a bit knackered from the weekend so a sensible effort found me a group and after 2 laps my legs came around from lack of warmup. Whenever I found my way to the front I added a little bump in power to add some stress onto the rest and a couple of bigger digs up the little incline to make everyone work hard. Along with similar from a couple of other riders nobody dropped. A couple hit out early at about 800m to go for the sprint and I wrongly assumed we'd get them back in the last 300m but misjudged it and was just tagging onto the back of the leaders by the line. Looking at the riders profiles we were all reasonably matched.

https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=75058

Nice plan Tom, it's always much better when you get interesting racing and not just burying yourself. I'm not sure if i've got any legs for today, but if i do, the 15:05 WBR 3 lap Volcano flat is likely to be getting me out there to ride....  Although it also depends on number of entrants as well as the legs.. I won't be joining if less than 30 setting out.

I am hooked on the WBR chop races. Not sure if it the new Wahoo Kickr or something viral but my ears are popping and I have lost 30 Watts somewhere.

Suspect the former to be the culprit if I am honest. Still, all the gains I made over the last two months might not be as high as I though they should still be comparative to where I was. If you get what I mean.

I'm quite optimistic in that context, i calibrated my Snap and 300w didn't seem that much of a problem... Which is good as it puts me right in the mix for C at the pointy end. Whether i can sustain that for a race distance is VERY much open to debate... but hopefully i won't be far off my 267w i seem to average on many races.

I'm aiming for the 1pm hilly figure 8 today (taking advantage of school holidays).

Right signed up for the 'Gravel' 12 week training program. Sick of being fat (story of my adult life)

Got a chunky race/challenge in October (that isn't a race) that will mean I have to shed the lbs and work on my fitness.

Tried TrainerRoad but have cancelled that as I find that Zwift is a better platform for me so we'll see how these new structured training programs work.

FTP test later today to benchmark

In addition to my last post. Offspring has now claimed my old setup and signed up to the free trial. Doubly irritating as not only is he faster than me anyway he is now going to get a 30 Watt boost from the hardware.

Looking on the bright side, he is unlikely to want to stump up the monthly fee so I will only have to watch him go up the virtual road for a few days.

Interestingly (or not) I was faster for 20 less watts over the first 4 laps of this race than the 4 lap race I did a 4 weeks ago where I clung onto the front group until halfway and then held off 2 chasers. I may not have beaten the 2 who were chasing me then if I'd been with them though but this was certainly more enjoyable/interesting.

Urrrghhh, I feel sick. Sprinted too hard. Second placed B today though I did out sprint the fourth placed A (hence sick). Literally got him on the line. A/B group split into two on the first climb and then the lead group fractured again. I managed to jump from group three to group two on the downhill taking two others with me. We stuck together till the KOM forward climb at which point the A started to pull away. I managed the drop the other Bs and go with the A. Tried to stay on their wheel till the end. I wasn't going to sprint but they didn't go till 250m so I went for it. Nearly gave up but as above just overhauled them on the line. Quite a way behind lead B though who seems to have stuck with the As.

https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=75168

Just signed up for Zwift in an attempt to get some fitness up after injury, loving reading all these posts and looking forward to getting the bike on the tacx tonight for the first time!   Is there a section on Zwift for unfit blokes over 40 looking to increase fitness?

can you pick the track yet on zwift or does it still work on rotation?

Rotation but there is a 'hack' to allow choice on startup. Think choice is there for events now.

Keyboard99

Are you planning to race or just train? There are pleanp of non fast groups and Also training tailored for all levels