Zwift, my journey, ...
 

Zwift, my journey, my weight and my fitness.

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If I zwift using a power tap wheel and ant+ dongle from gamin, I assume it won’t adjust resistance etc for hills and drafting as a smart turbo does, how will that work for races etc?

hill - change to a harder gear to simulate the resistance

drafting - too subtle for me; I've never felt it drop (I'm not very good at drafting though so maybe I lack feel)

Zwift doesn't really care how you do it, it just sees your power output.  People on non-smart trainers stereotypically put out less up the hills because the resitance doesn't rise but than more down them.  Makes racing a little bit different, I suppose, but still easily doable


 
Posted : 06/09/2018 9:15 am
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Stage 2 on Tour of Innsbruck today and its up the same hill as stage 1. I have tired legs so i think i will go very slowly up hill and then i am going to go full gas on the downhill to see what top speed i can generate.


 
Posted : 06/09/2018 9:22 am
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I'm in the process of starting the 5-2 and endurance/distance stuff, but less in the way of racing. So i think i'll jump on the tour about 11.30 as i'm picking up the new full suss for my lad before that. Won't be going hard in the slightest though, 200w max/average.


 
Posted : 06/09/2018 9:30 am
 qtip
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I'm sure this has been answered before somewhere in this thread, but there's no way I'm searching 233 pages, so apologies, but ....

What race series would you guys recommend?

I've only done a couple of Zwift Academy Races so far, and finished towards the bottom end of Group B.  ZwiftPower seems to think I should be racing Group C based on my stats, but my FTP is around 3.4 W/kg so I reckon Group B is right.  I was probably a bit fatigued when doing those races (they were done mainly to complete the Academy, rather than treating them like proper races), so dropping to Group C would probably be sandbagging somewhat - plus, I'm not really bothered about where I finish as I'll just be using Zwift races as part of my 'training'.

Ideally looking for races that start around 8pm on weekdays.

Also, just wondering how much people treat these like real races.  Do you make sure you're rested beforehand, do you fuel properly, etc.?  I'm focussing on weight loss at the moment and am training daily, so I'm coming into everything a bit tired and in calorie deficit.


 
Posted : 06/09/2018 10:51 am
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My usage is very dependant on how our two girls have gone to bed so I can't make plans to compete in a whole series. For me its whats on when I'm free. I don't fuel as if it where a real live race and a lot of the time don't even warm up (time can be that tight I get into the game 1 or 2 minutes before the start!). When in them though I treat like a real race and try my hardest to win. Mostly I seem to end up in KISS or WBR races as those are what start around 8pm. I quite like climbs so favour those over flat races given a choice. If your looking at 8pm races I may see you around (must remember to add STW to my game name).


 
Posted : 06/09/2018 11:38 am
 qtip
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I have the same issue: kids in bed, dinner made & eaten - run around flinging kit on trying to make the start time.

I've added STW to my Zwift name (Mark QT) - I'll maybe see you disappearing off into the distance sometime soon!


 
Posted : 06/09/2018 12:52 pm
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I'm doing thw 12:00 tour now


 
Posted : 06/09/2018 12:59 pm
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Qtip (and others) consider joining the WKG league races. The winter league is due to start early October. Its a weekly race usually in the evening (BST). Think it will be around 12 races for the next one and they include TT, Flat, Hilly and the infamous one11 (111km) Each Cat gets regulars so you compete against riders you are used to each week and build up friendly rivalry. The races are live streamed and Vlogged as well.

Until the winter league starts we have a Wednesday Mini Crit which is basically 2 laps of the flattest courses which is fast and furious and a Monday hilly race up the biggest hill on which ever world is scheduled.

The racing is competitive but not obsessional like the CVR etc and with good banter. People tend to race these no matter how they feel just to keep in touch and keep some points coming in.

Here's a Vlog sample, bit long as it's the One11 but you can jump around just to see. You see Jesper Anker and Tim Fairford etc in here.

Take a look at the WKG facebook group and join.

For more serious racing at a higher level you have the CRIT Racing league, CVR World cup, WBR Wahooligan league (all Cats have their own competition). If you do a Tuesday/Thursday night KISS race (8pm BST) then add another 10%  it will give you an idea of standard. One of the hardest races at the moment is the Aussie Crit race on a Tuesday morning. For these you have to feel good, be well rested to stand any chance of a good result.


 
Posted : 06/09/2018 2:41 pm
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Ooooof that was a bit hilly for me ! Ouch.  Hills are not my friend.


 
Posted : 06/09/2018 2:54 pm
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111km on a turbo, I’ve not built myself mentally up to that and probably won’t!! But fair play if you can/do!

Been playing around with my saddle height as since changing saddles it hasn’t felt right. Confirmed with the age old heel on pedal method and measuring saddle thickness. Needless to say I’ve ended up moving the saddle up 13-15mm. What better way to test this setup quickly works than a 25 min ramp test.

FTP history

28th July - 280

19th August - 293 (saddle changed between tests)

6th September - 311 = 4.2w/kg

Very happy with that, now to just shift those few kgs and I’ll be back to a mid hitting A racer 🙂


 
Posted : 07/09/2018 8:02 am
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Good job Nath. Strange how little changes have such effects.


 
Posted : 07/09/2018 8:14 am
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Nice Nath... I have no idea how you hit 311 at a low weight lol. I'm struggling at the moment for performance. I'd be lucky to see 270w i think, with my best being just on 300. But that's been on a TT race, not a dedicated FTP/Ramp test... I don't have the mindset for one of them.

I'm thinking a rest day today, yesterdays tour of Zwift was harder than i'd planned with a long climb in it..  I seem to have averaged 263w up it from looking at Strava, lower than i expected actually.  But my average HR was 170+ which is about 97% of my max lol... For an easy day... that's a bit much 🙂


 
Posted : 07/09/2018 8:18 am
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Thanks guys, hard thing now is to lose the 4kg and gain power!

I don’t think “easy day” is in your vocabulary sir 😆

Ramp test is very good as it only takes 20-30 mins and you can get on with cycling after it - very quick recovery compared to the traditional 20 min test.


 
Posted : 07/09/2018 3:27 pm
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Ok picked up my  second hand Tacx flow today. Cost me £90 on eBay including a turbo tyre so a bargain. Has hardly been used.

Took a while to get it set up, update firmware, fit bike etc but got that all sorted and set off on Zwift. Did about 30 minutes and was sitting about 1.4 to 2 w/kg. Didn’t feel the resistance change a massive amount but was having to work harder to maintain speed. Started up the epic mountain and at times was only managing 2mph so I guess that is the game managing the gradient for you.

Will look at doing an ftp test tomorrow night to give me a baseline to work from and go from there. Currently 116 kg so any weight loss is going to help!


 
Posted : 08/09/2018 10:01 pm
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Robbo - nice one, a great starter turbo which takes a few rides to get used to the gradient changes.

Nathb - i said you would be back pretty quick, i guess i can say bye bye to you being in the B class. My current ftp is 318w but i am 80kg but i might be able to ride with you for a while or until you drop the watt bomb. I am hoping the change to a kickr in a month or two might improve my race results as i wont have to deal with delays or limited watts.


 
Posted : 09/09/2018 12:15 pm
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Can you really notice the gradient changes? I didn’t really need to change down gear which is what I would have expected to have to do. I almost ran out of gears.


 
Posted : 09/09/2018 5:43 pm
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Can you really notice the gradient changes? I didn’t really need to change down gear which is what I would have expected to have to do. I almost ran out of gears.

You certainly can with a Kickr. For some reason mine went into dumb mode yesterday, partway through a session. I knew something was wrong as soon as I hit a climb over about 2˚ - ended up stopping and starting a new session, which fixed it.

If you have a controllable trainer and can't feel the gradients as increased resistance maybe worth checking you have the difficulty slider in the settings panel switched on. I think standard is 50% but you can up the difficulty to make gradients feel more realistic. If it's off you're essentially running a non-controllable trainer, ie it'll read your power output and control your avatar speed accordingly, but without increasing the resistance you feel, so you won't have to change gear to cope etc.


 
Posted : 09/09/2018 6:09 pm
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Been looking around for a turbo to start zwifting and came across this  https://www.probikekit.co.uk/turbo-trainers-bicycle-rollers/cycleops-hammer-smart-trainer/11574291.html . Was looking at the kickr but this is quite a saving


 
Posted : 09/09/2018 6:16 pm
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Robbo - you should definately feel the resistance change, if you cant feel the difference then there is something wrong with your trainer. Try the bike in biggest gear with steady cadence and go from 0 gradient to anything above 6 and see if it gets tougher, i think you notice it more in a big gear. If you are a big fella then may be it will feel slightly less but you should still feel it. You could try turning your pedals by hand as you should def feel it then


 
Posted : 09/09/2018 7:02 pm
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Grim168 - wahoo is releasing a cheaper version at the end of this month called the kickr core, should retail at £699.


 
Posted : 09/09/2018 7:07 pm
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Cheers blader,  for that money I could get the climbing attachment as well.  Was looking at the kickr in the first place


 
Posted : 09/09/2018 9:08 pm
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Think I had it on manual mode. With erg on I think it will work. Can use the Zwift companion to easily switch between the two modes.

FTP completed tonight. 211 W. Puts me at 1.8 w/kg so firmly in the middle of cat d. Guess I should be able to try some races now. Mrs is out on Tuesday so might try one then.


 
Posted : 09/09/2018 9:39 pm
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The Kickr Core looks ace. Basically it's pretty much the same spec as the current full-on version, but as with the latest Kickr proper, has a silent belt drive. The older ones have quite a high-pitched hum to them. Hard to find discounted, but Wiggle stock them and if you have, or know someone with a Platinum discount and are prepared to wait for one of their 17% off weeks, you can get it, erm, 17% off list price, which would make it £580. Or normal 12% off, £615.

Come back and tell us how you get on if you go for the Climb thing as well.


 
Posted : 09/09/2018 10:03 pm
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@blader1611 Thanks! I'm sure you could easily keep up with me @leeroybrown didn't have an issue 😆


 
Posted : 09/09/2018 11:27 pm
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Robbo, just to confirm that the flow has a significant change depending on gradient - defo noticeable.

Things to check - erg mode off, trainer difficulty - the 'harder' you have it, the greater the difference between flat and climbing. I typically have it as hard as it'll go as that feels more like real life to me (it's not actually harder as it works out power the same either way but the resistance will be higher for a given gradient up to around 7%)

And also confirmed this morning that the Flow will go over 800w. Despite feeling crap, I did a mini sprint at 888w, peak 901

Oh and also got green and polka jerseys but I was cheating by world hacking into innsbruck 🙂


 
Posted : 10/09/2018 8:27 am
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I left it on manual for the FTP test last night so might have another go later on tonight and see what happens. Will try playing around with the trainer difficulty setting as that might help. I could adjust the incline on the FTP test but it either seemed to be manual or ERG. It was recommended not to use ERG for the FTP test.

Not sure if my wheel/tyre is having an affect as well. I am using my only bike on there so until I get a spare wheel I am using my commuting tyres which are Schwalbe g-one speeds (38c tyre). I cant go above 70 psi on them so wondering if that affects the results.

My heart rate hit 174bpm so am I am working hard in any case just that the numbers might be skewed!


 
Posted : 10/09/2018 9:13 am
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I don't think the wheel would affect it - the resistance will go from pretty much freewheeling to grinding up a climb. I expect that for the training it's keeping it constant and iirc there are people who've found that erg can stay on even when the setting is off (ie a bug in zwift).

Just try riding (rather than a workout plan), set the difficulty to max and ensure that erg is off and you'll very quickly know if it's working


 
Posted : 10/09/2018 9:23 am
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Will perhaps give that a go tonight then.

Looking for some shorter races to try out this week. What is best under or around an hour? Going to be Cat D.


 
Posted : 10/09/2018 9:35 am
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There's usually an 8pm First/Second base race on Mondays which is in theory either C or D only.... which will give you a half decent chance of getting a good race... Sure there'll be some ridiculous 4w/kg riders in it... always is.... but you should get many comparable riders too.


 
Posted : 10/09/2018 9:45 am
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I did three laps of Greater London flat last night. There was one other rider flagged as STW which I think was @Scaled? The pace seemed brutal on this one but that might just have been because I tried to stay with the A's. Seemed that attacks started during the run in and continued from there. I got my timing right for most of them and managed to stay in the draft though it became clear quickly I was going to get dropped, just a matter of when. I started setting mini targets for myself, stay with them till 25k, then 20k and 15k. The continual attacks were knocking the B numbers down though till just three of use remained with the A's. I finally fell off the back around 14k with one other B and an A. The attack started out of the underpass uphill. I used my aero powerup to stay with the group but as this wore out and the pace stayed high I couldn't hold on any longer. Most of the last lap became a game of cat and mouse, the A clearly wasn't going to help and the rest of the B pack was about 2 minutes back. I was debating an early attack when the other B decided the same at around 3k to run. I clung to his wheel and he gave up only to try again half a k later. Same result. After this we cruised till the sprint. He got a slight jump on me with 300m to go. I tried damn hard and caught him on the line (getting my highest ever power output at 1118W at one point!). Unfortunately I couldn't tell who was first and this being a KISS race there was no leader board :(. They are also not on ZP annoyingly. ZP gives me silver but I think that was really a bronze, quite a gap to the B gold though (C. Jehu who I'm sure I had some good races with before).

https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=85464


 
Posted : 10/09/2018 11:21 am
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Top race report 🙂 Thanks for that.   Yes, he's Scaled.

I may do the 8.05pm 2nd base race tonight on the Classique. But depends on a few other factors with the wifes car, meaning i may have to cycle 19 miles home later.


 
Posted : 10/09/2018 11:27 am
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Just been looking and might do the Kiss race tonight at 8 (first base). Have registered with Zwiftpower etc so I assume there is nothing else I need to do. About 13 miles so wont be too long and nice and flat for a first attempt!

Do you still have to put Kiss(D) after your username in order for it to be counted? There doesn't seem to be a user friendly guide to entering these things!


 
Posted : 10/09/2018 12:30 pm
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Nah, i don't believe so...

But no harm in doing so. Have you fully done your bits on Zwiftpower ? GDPR stuff a few months ago.

Hardly anyone seems to have, so the number of people on the full results are usually VERY low.


 
Posted : 10/09/2018 12:38 pm
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Yeh I went through it last night. You had to get your zwift user number then it generated a 4 digit number that you put after your surname and then it updated again. Was a bit of a faff but think I got it sorted.

Confused about what distance the race is though - again doesn't seem very clear. The zwift events page here says 4 laps of the London classique https://zwift.com/events/view/85702. The London Classique zwift route says it is 3.3 miles long. https://zwiftinsider.com/classique/ so 4 laps is 21.1km.

Zwiftpower says it is 27km long.


 
Posted : 10/09/2018 12:54 pm
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I did three laps of Greater London flat last night. There was one other rider flagged as STW which I think was @Scaled?

Yeah, that was me mate. What a nightmare I had last night! Had that lovely 'everyone else disappears for a bit' so dropped the aero PU that i had and just tried to hammer it as hard as I could in the hope that I was still with the bunch if/when they reappeared. Yeah, that didn't work so well. LIke you said, the pace was pretty high but I was comfortable enough, just not out on my own for that long.

I was even behind the B group at that point but managed to TT on to the back of that and started to take a few seconds out of the A group. Then there was a bang on the garage door. Daughter out of bed, outside aaaaaaaagh.

My wife is on a Zwift trial at the moment and was doing the womens KISS race at the same time, seeing as I wasn't in the running I hopped off and went to sort her out. Ended up with two proper sandbagging cat C's 😀 😀 Stayed with them for a good while before they both disconnected.

I've raced the last 3 nights, after a week in Croatia of beer and still not on top form post food poisoning a few weeks ago. I'm pretty happy with the 4.4w/kg that i'm doing at the moment. Only issue is that there's not a great deal of weight I can drop to get that up. It's going to be a hard winter ready for the strathpuffer in Jan


 
Posted : 10/09/2018 12:55 pm
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Rob, you have the pre-circuit. Basically a short section that leads onto the full lap.

On some layouts these are 400m in length, on some they're 6km in length, on the Classique they're certainly 4-5km....

However these ARE part of the actual race. Even though it says 'warm up' on the bar.... they're just not actual laps.. but they certainly count towards your position/race..


 
Posted : 10/09/2018 1:01 pm
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Cheers will give it a go and see what happens then! Looking forward to it. Especially as they have closed our work changing rooms for maintenance and I cant commute in for a couple of days


 
Posted : 10/09/2018 1:04 pm
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@robbo1234biking, have you link strava to ZP and also gone into your zwift profile and allowed data to be shared with ZP?

@scaled, that sucks, hate it when the connection drops out. I did have one a while back where I was so un-smooth that I pulled the turbo's power cable out as it migrated across the room. Took a while to realise why my output had dropped to zero!


 
Posted : 10/09/2018 1:29 pm
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@nixie yep done all those bits so hopefully it should all work.

Will prob log on about 7.45 to do a ten min warm up and make sure it is all good to go then see what happens in the race!


 
Posted : 10/09/2018 1:37 pm
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I'm tempted to jump on your race instead of 2nd base to watch it all unfold and then quit 100m before the line so i'm not included in results 🙂


 
Posted : 10/09/2018 1:39 pm
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You could be nice and tow them round for a bit before leaving :D.


 
Posted : 10/09/2018 2:52 pm
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I think i might jump on that first base ride as well, playing domestique to Mrs S


 
Posted : 10/09/2018 4:15 pm
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Robbo - classique course although classed as flat does have a few rises you have to deal with. The warm up lap actually means you ended up going up 3 decent hills to get to the classique course and then every lap is up horseguards hill which i guarantee will start splintering groups. Weeksy really loves this hill, it his nemesis.


 
Posted : 10/09/2018 5:08 pm
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8pm is a bit late for me and due to being on a 5-2 day it's also a bit tough. So i'm doing a more gentle SZR ride at 6pm. In Cat D so i can just chill a tiny bit too.


 
Posted : 10/09/2018 6:29 pm
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The 7.35pm or 8.10pm for me ... feeling tired already


 
Posted : 10/09/2018 7:49 pm
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Right I am going to give zwift another go tomorrow, how do I find and join a race or ride?


 
Posted : 10/09/2018 8:46 pm
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Swift companion app from Apple/android store.


 
Posted : 10/09/2018 9:09 pm
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Well the first race was a bit of a disaster but still a very good workout for 55 mins or so. Started of well put down lots of power at the beginning and held onto the front. Group for the first 14 minutes I think. Then I dropped off and was sitting about the middle I think when I started getting a strange noise.

My set up is in the lounge as we don’t have anywhere else I can do it and the Mrs doesn’t mind. I use two 9mm MDF boards to stop any damage to the carpet and one had slipped as. The floor is uneven and the rear wheel was rubbing on the mdf board. Took about 2-3 minutes to sort out by which time I was last. Tried to catch the guy in front of me but ended up about 20 seconds short.

Also had a brief pause whilst the cat decided to reenact the scene from the rock where Shaun Connery rolls through the spinning things in the rock as she tried to jump through my spinning pedals.

Good points - my ftp increased from 211 to 217 so I want trying hard enough yesterday. Changed the power read out to instant and found it easier to manage and also was clearly able to feel the gradient increases as well.

Checking zwiftpower has me as 3rd out of three! So not sure what happened to the other 9 or so riders. I think the time I lost would have jumped me into second. Lots of improvement to go but that was a much harder workout than I would have done normally, soaked in sweat by the end!

Now what race for tomorrow...


 
Posted : 10/09/2018 10:34 pm
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Good job. You hooked yet?

The disappearing riders is because not everyone has opened their data to ZP. I actually wish they still appeared in the unfiltered list as anon and a time.


 
Posted : 10/09/2018 11:08 pm
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Turns out I wasn't last then...

https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=85702

Going to give Innsbruck a go tonight. Cat D is 3 laps. Course looks tougher than London so I might bomb on it but might as well give it a go!

My strava activity had 18 others on the course but it is difficult to follow what position the others ended up in.


 
Posted : 11/09/2018 7:38 am
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At the moment you have to ignore the results mostly mate.

Since coming back after GDPR, i've either got gold/silver in my races... however in reality that's far from true.

https://www.zwiftpower.com/profile.php?z=164586

You have to just race the people around you at a given moment. It detracts from the overall experience very slightly, not having that data afterwards ....But what can you do... .you just have to go with it.

The hill in the middle of Innsbruck is fairly harsh, it will split the bunch massively, but overall it's a nice enough course.


 
Posted : 11/09/2018 8:01 am
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Oh yeh I am not too bothered about coming last - I was kind of expecting that so I was pleasantly surprised that I kept up with the front as long as I did. Quite enjoyable considering I am indoors and will def help with weight loss which is the main priority at the moment!

My aims for this year are to lose weight and improve my climbing which are pretty much linked. Anything else is a bonus!


 
Posted : 11/09/2018 8:13 am
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Try and have some rest days guys 😆

Sticking to TR workout plan at the moment, but may dabble in a race on Thursday night - BRT 7:20pm if anyone wants to join.


 
Posted : 11/09/2018 8:22 am
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Robbo - i gave you a ride on last night or at least i hope it was you. I tried to watch the race last night as i though a few stwers might be riding but i couldnt find people to watch. My zwift name is s featherstone.


 
Posted : 11/09/2018 8:28 am
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Yeah,as per Nath's advice we ended up with a rest day in the Scaled household yesterday.

Surprisingly (for her) Mrs S was quite tired last night and needed a day off...

[img] [/img]


 
Posted : 11/09/2018 10:25 am
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Rest days ? WTF are they ?


 
Posted : 11/09/2018 10:43 am
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Planning on Innsbruck KISS race tonight and the time trial tomorrow night with a rest day on Thursday. The 8pm starts are quite convenient for me. the little guy is in bed by then and the Mrs is pottering around so an hour out is pretty good. Then will prob do an extended loop home from work on Friday actually outside!

blader - I did get a ride on from someone so guess it was you. I put STW after my name to make it identifiable. I am still getting used to the user interface and where the stuff is on the screen. The nearby riders isn't that useful for knowing your position I don't think.


 
Posted : 11/09/2018 10:54 am
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The nearby riders list will change to a proper position list on some events. There are some series that don't have this enabled and you only get the nearby riders.

I may join that KISS race tonight or maybe the Wahooligan one at 7.40 if our terrors are in bed already.


 
Posted : 11/09/2018 12:09 pm
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I rekon the 4pm Tour of Innsbruck has my name on it today.... Sadly i'll end up with a crap overall position due to the hill and being an Open cat race... but should get a few nice battles in there along the way.


 
Posted : 11/09/2018 12:11 pm
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Weeksy i did that race this morning, so many people in it that i lost the front group and had to settle with the next group. Possibly a blessing in disguise though as i think my trainer was playing up as i was having to spin fast in a big gear to really generate the watts on the flat sections, i nearly ran out of gears at one point. I was strong today though and blitzed everyone on the hill on each lap.i even managed a good long sprint and ended up 17th out of 150+


 
Posted : 11/09/2018 5:29 pm
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90th out of 298.

Got up to about 75th but the hill kept splitting us into smaller groups. Couldn't quite hold the group I needed on last hill so that was that. Great race, decent power, tough work!


 
Posted : 11/09/2018 6:12 pm
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Rest day might help you get up the hills quicker @weeksy 😆

BTW planning a day out in the forest near yours with the Hillingdon gang if you want to come and laugh at the lack of MTB skills I have, the shoe will be firmly on the other foot 🙂


 
Posted : 11/09/2018 8:01 pm
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Which one and when Nath?


 
Posted : 11/09/2018 8:29 pm
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@weeksy Swinley? I think it’s called. When I get a MTB sorted which is after one of my bikes sells 😆 Probably next month hopefully 🙂


 
Posted : 12/09/2018 7:43 am
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Cool mate, give us a shout, we'll come play. 🙂

2nd of the 5-2 days today for me.... legs are a bit stiff as you'd expect today.... but it's raining outside so it's not impossible i'll jump on for a gentle one today.... I do gentle sometimes...


 
Posted : 12/09/2018 7:45 am
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Well last nights race went better than the previous attempt. Got my set up better this time and was more comfortable in the race for it. I didn't set off to quickly this time as there were plenty of groups to latch onto. Ended up spending most of the race with another guy although he didn't really want to take his turn on the front much. Every time I would slow down to let him past he would slow down even further!

Every time we went up the hill he would pull away from me but by the top I would catch him up and go away from him a bit on the downhill. On the final lap I couldn't catch him up and ended up 1min 20 down on him.

My average power was up for the whole race though so all in all pretty happy. No idea where I came in the overall standings. only 4 riders registered on Zwift power but there must have been 40 or so on the start line for the D's.

Might do the time trial tonight at 8pm although it will be another 2 laps of the same course.


 
Posted : 12/09/2018 7:55 am
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Sounded like a good race robbo.

i did stage 4 of the Innsbruck tour which was another double hill ride. I decided this was going to be a nice slow and steady ride.......... Yes you guessed it, 50 mins later i finished the race in 13th with an avg 3.8w/kg and 309w. I got suckered in by being at the front of the race, i must grow up and not race everytime i step on the bike 😀


 
Posted : 12/09/2018 12:15 pm
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LOL you're far from alone... i think it's a bloke thing.... It's like i say "right i'll just do a gentle one...." then as soon as i'm warming up i think "legs feel good, what races are there about now..."


 
Posted : 12/09/2018 12:23 pm
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Warm up... Is that where you sprint around the house hoping that there is no update to apply and start pedaling 30s before that start?


 
Posted : 12/09/2018 1:30 pm
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Often yes... Although i am getting better at the pre-ride stuff now so often i'm in there 10-15mins in advance.

Sometimes though i seem to knacker myself out before we even start !

There's a nice 16:05 WBR 3 laps classique later... Well, apart from the fact my nemesis is in it too !

https://www.zwiftpower.com/profile.php?z=99093

Richard Dalen.... still can't work out how he's a C... he's a bloody animal !


 
Posted : 12/09/2018 1:38 pm
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:). That's how it went for me last night.

Did the wahooligan nopinz wbr race. I'm hoping to do 5 of the 7 in the league. This is race 3 of the series and my second. Two laps of London loop reverse. Not ideal with no warm up when even without the As the pace is high and you hit fox hill after a couple of km.

Unsuprisingly the hill was the big splitter. The about 25 got away leaving a group of around 15 to follow and the rest of the 90 plus riders strung out behind. By the end of lap one the lead group was 40s up the road but their pace was high and it fractured again the second time up fox hill. The lead 10 in my group caught the first stragglers at the top, another few out of the tunnel and two more just before the mall sprint. The lead pack were long gone.

We stayed together will around 1km with the odd attack, especially up hills. First sprinter went at 600m. I couldn't replicate my power from the other day so could only hang on to finish twentieth. Shame as could have been ninth!

Was a bit worried ZP was going to upgrade me as average power was 4W/kg! Fortunately 95% was only 3.9. After along gap without change my FTP went up by 1 to 315. Shows how hard the pace was on the first climb.

https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=85931


 
Posted : 12/09/2018 2:13 pm
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Ah well, 16:05 to get a kicking from Dalen 🙂


 
Posted : 12/09/2018 4:53 pm
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Good luck. One day you'll get him!


 
Posted : 12/09/2018 5:06 pm
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How did it go Weeksy?

Did the TT. Went pretty well. Focused on ride between 200-240 watts on the flat section with some spikes on the uphill sections. Was about 40 seconds behind after the first lap. Managed to reel him back in on the climb and gapped him by about 5 seconds over the top. He came back at me on the descent but managed to get away again and got 20 seconds on him by the end. I was up on all my numbers including ftp up to 224w.

just commute ride for me tomoz and then again on Friday although might make it a larger commute home on Friday. Rest day on Saturday.

quick question - why does my old ftp still show in Zwiftpower? Do I need to update it or will it eventually pull through a larger ftp from Zwift?


 
Posted : 12/09/2018 10:15 pm
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You have to edit your FTP manually on ZP.


 
Posted : 12/09/2018 11:36 pm
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Never done a TT, from your write up sounds like there is someone to chase?


 
Posted : 12/09/2018 11:38 pm
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I did the 8.30pm race tonight.

It doesn’t show me in the results - although got me listed in the Unlisted riders .. what is Unlisted riders? And why aren’t they/me listed in the results??


 
Posted : 12/09/2018 11:43 pm
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TTs I've done in the past have been mass-start "races" just with no drafting effect

(there was a variation, maybe called pursuits?, which is one-on-one with no drafting on a sort of FA cup knockout basis)


 
Posted : 12/09/2018 11:44 pm
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@nixie - As @scaredypants says it is a mass start so you are on the course at the same time as the other riders but there is no drafting advantage. Makes it easier to measure your effort but still provides the impetus to catch and chase people.

@mooman - Have  you done your full set up on Zwiftpower and linked it to your Zwift account? There is a bit of a long process to follow. I cant find the information but I think when I went to my profile page it was on there. You also have to share data from Zwift to Zwiftpower.


 
Posted : 13/09/2018 7:49 am
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I didn’t a ‘race’ the day before and it showed me in the results - but last night only showed me in the I Unlisted riders; no big deal I guess ... had to have been at least 20 riders actually in the race, but even with another Unlisted rider showing there were only about 10 showing.


 
Posted : 13/09/2018 8:23 am
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