PR on AdZ on Saturday....annoyingly I still didnt break the hour.
After Richmond I could hardly walk but felt really quite fresh after Saturdays effort, clearly I wasnt pushing hard enough.
Hi All, I'm a 'previous' STW forum member from many years ago... I've been a Zwift user for 2 years now so I thought I'd come and say hi.
Anyone doing the Cape Epic training program on Zwift? I thought I'd do it as it's billed as a mountain bike 'specific' thing. 6.30pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
I'm a KRT member but I'll add stw to my name as well while riding the workout.
See you out on course!
HEllo.... wasn't aware of that... I'll go look it up 🙂
Stage 7.. flippin' horrible!
30k TT in the 3R ultimate league last night. A lot of the regular riders seem to avoid these so a good opportunity to pick up a decent points score (league is best 5 of 7). Nice and 'flat' on road to ruins 😜. Went quite well though I can't help thinking I could have gone a little harder at points. Started strongly then had a bit of a slump during the second half of the jungle loop. Pushed hard over the pass back out of the jungle then hung on for the last 5k. Equalled my best 95% again at 4.3 w/kg. No real high power bits so legs feel good this morning.
I must have a go at a TT, I hate the thought of them though. I find it difficult to time the effort right.
4.3wkg? Ouch
Must weigh about the same as a 12 year old girl!
Yeap 4.3wkg (managed 4.4 for 20mins as well). The winnera are well over 5 wkg though (ex pro in second).
TT is definitely different. Very little time to rest, even down hill is pushing. Strangely last night I was using uphill as a sort of rest by climbing at a higher power but lower cadence out of the saddle. Using the muscles in a different way for a short period helped with the next spinning section. I'd planned to try for 4.2 -4.3 average so had worked out the wattage to aim for and tried to keep it steady. I think I'm actually better at these sort of efforts than the push then coast of normal races. Looking at the extend stats today looks like I did leave a bit spare, peak and average HR was not that high.
https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=137173 (I'm 30th).
Must weigh about the same as a 12 year old girl!
77kg at the moment but aiming for 75kg average (I tend to float up and down by around 2kg). The drop from low 80s to this has made a big difference to running speed.
Did anybody watch the Kiss Super league? There was some serious wattage on display, quite frightening how long and hard these guys can ride. I barely saw a wattage i could maintain for more than a minute. Conor Dunne avg over 500w for the first 11 mins of the race, that is crazy. Ian Bibby won the race with a near 1000w sprint at the top of the volcano climb. That is incredible considering the entire race was a slug fest with multiple attacks. I think it was 2 laps of volcano flat and then round to the volcano climb,total about 41km.
Yeah, I saw that (well, skimmed it on youtube)
I reckon by the end of the series the pros and their teams will have sussed it and things may go differently - the zwifters had about half a w/kg less than the pros over the race, and far less than some of them. Once they sort the tactics and the "double" draft I think it might be scary; my money's on breakaways going off at ridiculous wattage, driven by entire teams creating a gap and then just holding it a bit like crosswind racing.
Another 100km tonight - laps of NYC. First hour on the rollers at 3.5 W/kg steady, second on KICKR at about the same, then last 40 minutes back on the rollers using a pyramid - so 3 W/kg then progressive 4.4 W/kg for 1,2,3,4,3,2,1 minutes with same recovery. Sadly the bike failed to drop down into the biggest gear on the way down the pyramid so I stopped after the 4 minutes. Must look odd if riding in a group, one minute a rider is cruisng and the next bam!. Anyway the rollers (3.5" Kreitlers, no fan or flywheel) are fine to 340 Watts on Zwift now that Favero updated the Uno firmawre to provide single sided power. Also my iPad connected from road bike to Kickr bike, but not back again. Saved the two hour ride. Then disconnected bluetooth and then it found it again. Oh well, I already have one 100 km ride.
Must practice getting out of the saddle on the rollers a lot more!
3R Volcano Flat yesterday morning, tried to hang onto the A group as long as possible, got dropped at the end of Lap 1 coming out the volcano, left in a group of 3 for best part of a lap and a half, big group was 1 minute 50s behind and they got caught with 5.8km to go, tried to hang onto that group splintered a bit, left in a group of 5, won the sprint to the line for bottom pack mediocrity 11/13 in B with the next 4 riders 10 seconds up, just couldn't hold on,
powers down and HR is still up, guess ive got no base, not got the time for any big (or any) outdoor rides at the minute seen my FTP creep back over 300, but its very quickly fallen away,
Due to surgery i've been off the bike a fair bit.... which is depressing... I'm planning on jumping on the 12:05 6 laps CCW to try and recapture some form..... I'm just hoping not to finish last !
2 STWers currently going head to head in B and next to eachother on the road it seems.... was chekcing for an event and noticed them both riding...
https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=138941
Looks like they finished on exactly the same time ! Nice.
Cheers for the ride on Weeksy! Was Blader1611 and me, decent little group of 4 got joined by another group of 5ish, rode really well as a bunch then a good honest sprint at the end, I got Blader by a nose, and hit 204bpm in the process, and he was only on a recovery ride while I buried myself, so not sure it counts!
Must get fit again, ouch! 191bpm average.
191 average ! Jeeez boy that's bloody bonkers, but you've always seen high HRs from what i recall... .but that's a BIG number that. Sadly i only watched it via the Web page, would have been cool to see it in full flow.
Yep, always been on the high side! I did average 198 once for a crit in real life - the Guildford Town Centre race.
That was good to be with a fellow stw member,very rarely happens. It was meant to be a recovery ride as i have raced everyday this week on all the hilly courses and my thighs were feeling it. I Realised once we had gone through the aquarium and turned left that this wasnt the flat route i was expecting so i dropped off the front group and was going to just pootle up the hill. I then glimpsed stw on a name so decided to speed back up again to find out who it was and after a brief conversation it was njee. So we rode together and it was a nice comfortable tempo although he did tell me his hr and i nearly fell off my bike (196bpm!!!). I was keeping mine at about 155 so a nice steady tempo. We rode in a nice group so we just sucked on wheels but had no idea of the course. I tried a sprint at the end but i got the finish line place all wrong and njee cruised past with the aero. I am still not sure where that finish line was! Well done njee on the race and well done for keeping your heart in your chest. Most of that race was at a nice comfortable tempo but certainly not the recovery ride i had planned.
Speaking of heart rate, I just realised last night that clicking on riders names around you on the rider list, you can look and see their current watts and heart rate. I had great fun in the kiss race last night upping the pace and watching others heart rates to see who was on the limit. I guess that balances out being able to watch body language of other riders in real life.
Only down side was that one Spanish rider in the group I was in was sitting with a heart rate 20bpm under mine. Predictably enough he disappeared up the road and nobody in the wee bunch I was in could hold on to him.
I'll have great fun with that feature.
Was that in the companion app or game proper?
In the game, on my iPad.
Yeah but then you get freaks like me who can ride along chatting at 190!
I’d never ridden the jungle either, I actually quite liked it, draggy climb, steady descent. Job done. Long way to get there though.
That hr was eye popping when you told me, i thought it might have been a typo. It is a nice course but you are right in that its a bit of a climb to get there. I hadnt realised we were towards the front of the B group, i let a lot of people go ahead when i realised it wasnt the flat route. I guess there were quite a few who were not ZP registered.
Yeah I didn’t notice, I dropped out of the lead group on that zig-zag climb at the bottom of the Epic KOM, never really pay attention to which categories people are, just race who’s there!
bleugh! that was horrendous, did the 21:05 Road to Ruins 2 lap, smidge over 59km, was never in my head to "race" it, just to get a longer ride in, first 5km, in with the lead pack, then we hit the climb to the Jungle, get dropped, in with a small group of 5/6 down into the jungle, get dropped on the climb back out, this point i decide to just ride the rest, i don't think id have done a ride as long if i was just free riding, but i don't like to quit a race, makes sense i guess, ride 30 odd km more or less solo, get passed occasionally,
had a gel on standby as didn't have any carby drinks to hand, some random thing the mrs picked up years ago, had March 2015 as a date on, been in the box of gels for years, was either that or Apple so it won the choice BUT i opened it and the overpowering stench of red bull emanated out its foil wrapper, chucked it to one side, was definitely running on fumes for the last 10km easy, power was abysmal, was pedalling squares, couldn't even hold 200w, awful
Did the Tour De Zwift Stage 8 race earlier.
Wasn't fit enough nor had the mental capacity to do 3x up box hill. I broke on the second one as I got a stitch 🙁 Ended up with an Italian chap and now stitch free we ended up picking off A's that had blown up.
Ended up 15th, haven't decided if I'm happy with that or not to be honest:
https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=123086
Also adding into the mix I'm playing around with seat height as my leg muscles are really tight as my saddle was too low...
Going to try an incorporate a zwift race into the weekly training plan now so should see more of me (sorry!) 🙂
I skipped the Brass Monkeys today so rode the Vixen multi zone group workout in Surrey Hills instead, then after added an attempt up Fox Hill of which I smashed my PB by 50 secs. I do find a Smart Turbo & the Elastic a bit odd, but it did allow me to stay above 200w at the front and not drop into recovery which was good.
Getting really comfortable knowing my Zone/HR now and Zwift is a great opportunity to try it out.
Trying to rediscover fitness after 8 years of inconsistency (kids came along). January has been the first month in as long as I can remember where I've managed about three rides a week.
Did a short race tonight (1 lap of 3R Greater London) and averaged 2.6 w/kg - coming in 2nd (at least of those registered on ZP, and it was a tiny field so hardy impressive).
I'm a good way from feeling like I'd want to move from D to C, how does ZP calculate your cat?
By your power. 0-2.49w/it over a 20 mine average for example is So, 2.50-3.19 is C, 3.20-3.99 is B and 4+ is A.
Cat calc is listed in the front page of ZwiftPower. It's basically AVG of best 3 races in last 30 or 90 days (depending on how much you've done). If I'm looking at the right profile that's 2.6, 2.6 and 2.3 for you putting you right on the bubble of C. Suspect your next race will rank you up.
Simple as that. I thought it was something to do with ZPoints or something else. Thanks 🙂
I hope not Nixie. Although the effort looks poor I’m burying myself 😉
Doesn't look poor. Given you've just started back I'd expect a fairly quick ramp up. Ranking up isn't that scary. Just try and hang in there and you'll find you can hang in for a bit longer each time. When your in the draft the required effort is less.
Did the 3R London Flat Race yesterday morning. Was a good race with a decent turnout (200 plus riders). I set of pretty well and for the first 30 mins or so I held my own at the front of the D's and mixing with some C's but I lost out on the hills the other side of the river and coming back up from the tube. Still I am close to reaching my maximums again so showing some improvement after a December dip!
You can def see after about 45 mins my power dropped of to just below 200 but my body isn't used to longer rides so that is something to work on.
https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=140253
Going to do the 8pm KISS race tonight which includes a bit of climbing so wont suit me but all good training and ultimately the goal is just to lose some weight!
Nice work Robbo... i do find you can end up struggling after a certain time/distance on Zwift more because it's relentless, on the road/trails you have more time where you cruise downhill, whereas on Zwift it's no respite, it's power power power... then you go up and need MORE power, you'd think on the downs you'd get 20-30s rest, but no, the power stays, you just go faster.
I did a Greater London Flat race yestrday.
https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=140268
Went off slightly hard but decided to sit with a couple of guys which then morphed into a nice little pack, only 9-10 of us, but enough to drag us along at a decent lick... We did split later on as we left the underpass and the 3% incline after, but i had a great little race overall with a good sprint finish to end it.
I still get stunned at the power people kick out on the inclines, as soon as it goes up, it's 5w/kg, bam ! My problem is that at 90kg, that's 460w ! which is a LOT of juice to be putting into the legs ! So i really struggle there and need a little recovery, it seems to affect them a LOT less as they don't seem to need to recover in the same way.
Not sure why our winner is still in the list of C with 3.4w/kg... Irritates me slightly, but i won't lose sleep over it.
@weeksy, that winner has no ZP profile so really strange. Think you can safely count that a s a silver :D.
RE the power on inclines I've found that if you do an almost full on sprint on the ramp out of the underground you can open a 5-15s gap quite easily. Even given that you then have to recover its normally possible to hold that for the last few km to the finish.
RE the power on inclines I’ve found that if you do an almost full on sprint on the ramp out of the underground you can open a 5-15s gap quite easily. Even given that you then have to recover its normally possible to hold that for the last few km to the finish
LOL maybe for you ! I'm dying trying to hang on usually on the underpass or Horseguards on the final lap.
Easy is perhaps the wrong choice of words. It's basically down to me not having a remotely competitive sprint so I use what I can muster earlier. Going there is way further out than most are comfortable with and I can normally hold a high enough power level afterwards to make it work and stay out of sprint range. Admittedly I'm using this at the back of the category. There is no way I could make it stick at the pointy end and if I've managed to hang on anywhere near the pointy end I'm too knackered to try it. It works especially well if you've got a feather.
My last 2 C races were 3.3 and 3.4 (won that one) then got upgraded after a TT at 3.4. I wasn't budging out of C until ZP had forced me. Prior to that they were all 3.0 and 3.1.
Funny what a bit of structured training does ;0)
Structured training, wash your mouth out with soap 😉
https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=140767
Stupidly hard race. Died several times out there and nearly puked trying to hold off the chasers. Can't type and more lol
Thought I’d try a short CatC for fun. It wasn’t.
Thanks for the thumb on the top of Bh, weeksy 🙂
Did the KISS start your engines race tonight. Was a really good race. Started of well and kept in the front group until about 10 mins and then dropped back a bit as couldnt maintain that pace. Was sitting at about 8-10 I think until the bottom of box hill. Dropped about another 6 places on Box Hill but didnt drop back as quickly as a normally do. I was then able to catch a guy about 5 seconds in front down the hill and had a 5 second lead going up the hill in the underground. Tried @nixie tip to sprint it and ended up catching the guy in front. Rode with him until about the last 200 yards and beat him in a sprint so was actually a really fun race. Zwiftpower shows my best 5 minute time as 2.6 w/kg so overall a pretty good race.
Zwiftpower shows me as 4th out of 11 but I would think it was more about 20th out of 50 or so on the actual road.
https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=140807
Been using the fitness and freshness app on Strava and it shows me as being the fittest I have ever been. Im not doing any commutes this week. They are moving the cycle shelters at work and constantly riding short distances in the cold didnt seem to be making any progress. Fingers crossed I get my new mtb before Sunday so that I can blast around Cannock!
Nice one Robbo 😁. Glad it worked for you.
Not sure about the footwear but he's showing willing!
Thats Tom Pidcock and i claim five pounds.
Well that was frustrating to say the least. Thought I would give myself a beasting on a TT around the jungle circuit, since the last time I did that I had an FTP boost 🙂 This time I was playing with the big boys in Cat B though. Crazy pace out of the pens and through the aquarium, but managed to hold on to the front runners very near until the hill began. Was able to not lose too much up to the pass and was probably in 3-4th going into the jungle. There than followed a game of cat and mouse with 5 of us taking and loosing position for the first lap, with no-one having a clear advantage. So all to play for on the final lap. Going up the long drag to the swing bridge, one rider got a few seconds ahead and me and another were side by side as we approached the bridge. Then for no reason at all, I found myself pedalling on the spot as people came past! Byt he time the damn thing got me moving again the rider I had been alongside had 26 seconds on me and another 3 riders had passed me 🙁 I kind of lost heart then for a bit until another rider caught me and we raced it out to he finish. I recken he was cheating though as he out-sprinted me with 13W/kg at the end and didn't register on ZP. So I finished 6th in B, but only 20 seconds behind the rider who had 26 seconds on me at the top. 3rd was only 5 seconds ahead so I am left to wonder what might have been if only I had a reliable internet!
Thanks for the RIDE ON Weeksy 🙂 Appreciated
They still got me ranked to race in the A riders ... so tough trying to stay up the sharp end.
Did the 18.55 Gladiators Race tonight; I had updated my weight to add the 1.8kg I’ve put on the last couple weeks!!
I dropped off back of the front A group about 10km in - and had to TT solo to stay away from chasing B cat riders ... just about held them off with 20 seconds to spare.
Last A cat rider ... but managed to stay away from chasers, so happy with the effort.
Any day you're an A is a good day imo. I'd like to be a bad B.!
Did TdZ stage 9 today, haven't done any others, but the timing was convenient. I really don't like New York at all, and I swear the perspective is weird, I kept putting a little dig in thinking we were about to go uphill and it would be a descent. Too undulating too.
Managed 192bpm for 57 minutes, so I won that on Zwift Power (small wins), some bugger beat me with a higher maximum though!
I did half of the TDZ today, my heart wasn't in it, i'd done a 50 mins warm up and couldn't be bothered.... was cruising round at a slow pace really.
Do they have the "double draft" I keep reading about? The pace in the groups certainly seemed high, but I found it easy enough to get back on when I got dropped a couple of times.
Yes they're DD. Does keep the pace high.
https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=145250
Big night tonight in Zwift land.
Pro team racing.
Canyon, Dimension Data, Team Wiggins, Tim Cartwright, Kim Little.... All the Superstars..
Streamed Live on the internet i believe... but i'll be watching Liverpool Leicester.
Goods heads up! I hear the last event was pretty exciting so might have to try and watch this. Any idea where it's streamed?
Apparently.
I caught it on Youtbue the day after the last one, i'll likely try the same again.
It was interesting although confusing while riding on Zwift with another screen streaming a race on Zwift.
Interesting as a lot of Pros really didn't know what they were doing and got dropped PDQ. The seasoned Zwift races were all up there though Pro or not.
Not sure I'd call it exciting.
The little hill in Innsbruck should see more getting caught out especially over multiple laps.
Live on Facebook and Youtube and a gaming app. Youtube was working better than Facebook last week.
I did the 3R Road to Ruins last night. Well done to the STW'er who won the B race by the way.
I came second (of two:)) in the race but the winner put out 3.4w/kg average and I was 2.9w/kg. I had thought C's were up to 3.1w/kg so how come the guy isn't upgraded or dq'd? Not bothered about the colour of the cup just not sure on the rules.
Good work. Looking at the rules for the 3R race Zwiftpower category trumps W/KG, so guessing that rider hasn't got the points for B at the mo.
As always Zwiftracing can be all over the place, more on the circuit than in the Zwiftpower App.
I raced on Tues, hanging on to 2 Ds both putting out 3.8w/kg+ on the flat for an hour LOL. I wonder if they know or it just happens by mistake or what... I just ignore the Cats and race whoever i end up next to.
Yup. I had a good race with a lad who isn't on ZP so it's not like that never happened. We were well matched and managed to work together to pass a couple of riders before I saw him off in the sprint. Some serious numbers higher up the leaderboard though. How do people put out 400w for 40 mins?
MrPottato,
that race will likely be live here:
https://www.twitch.tv/zwiftcommunitylive
(I had a look on facebook where it was also streamed but the sound was bloody dreadful (same feeds I think, though twitch started streaming just before the race))
I watched the pro race last week via youtube and it was quite good. It was interesting seeing people get dropped straight from the pen, they must have thought it started off with a parade. Ian Bibby won last weeks race with a finish that i can only dream of. It will be an even better race if some of the riders have learnt the mistakes from last week.
I guess as most real road races, even crits, tend to start quite leisurely it's perhaps not that surprising that some weren't expecting the pace off the bat!
I didn't think many got dropped out of the start? I may well not have been paying attention.
They certainly got shelled on some of the short hills. Connor Dunn doing High Intensity Intervals off the front probably didn't help those without any experience.
They're beasts! 500w last lap average it looked! Sheesh.
Thanks for the links. Watched on Twitch with my lad - he was really getting into it by the end and wanted to start dishing out ride-ons.
I like the concept so interesting to see where they take it. Thinks there's a bit of work to do with the camera angles and graphics to improve things.
I'd love to see the ability outside of the game to click on the rider you want to view etc, I know you can within the game if you can find them. But an easy way to do that would be ace.
Angles, I'd like to see less of the flyby shots and more overheads, but that's being a bit picky.
Overall I enjoyed it, it's a bit more real in a weird way as they're people you can see out there day in day out rather than pros who you'll never meet on the roads.
You'd think someone would tell the riders, 750w as the countdown hits 0:00
I've watched a few of the races (for a few minutes) that they stream on Facebook, and it is surprisingly compelling. I watched some of the F1 Esports too, which was also good. Ultimately there's no reason that watching Esports shouldn't be just as compelling as watching 'real' sport, just a different facet of it. Hence it being a $1 billion dollar industry!
Had a really good race last night. Was a bit of a rush as the little guy had football, so got home, got him bathed and the mrs cooked mine and hers tea. Didn't eat tea until 7.20 with the race starting at 8.20 so thought I might end up feeling rough and pulling up after a bit.
First lap didn't feel great but I managed to keep competitive in a group of mainly B's and C's and a couple of D's. I lost a bit of momentum, dropped from that group and was caught by a group of 2 D's and a C. We then had a great battle through the next 2 laps with little attacks. On the last lap we caught another 2 D's and 2 more C's caught us so there was a group of about 8. I managed to hold on through the hills having to put in 400W sprints up some of the little hills to maintain the pace but felt pretty strong. It was my first mass bunch sprint finish. I did run out of steam a bit maybe 50 yards before the line but came in on the same time as 4 other riders.
https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=142700
Good thing was that I felt a lot stronger throughout the race and was able to keep a good pace and close down attacks with little 300-400W bursts when needed so my fitness is definatley improving. I didn't hit any highs on my stats on ZP but it was easily my longest race and I felt strong throughout.
And a little silver trophy for your trouble 🙂 nice one.
Due to snow i think i'll be stuck at home all day... So a longish slowish one or the 10:32am Richmond flat... Hmmmm.
So who's coming racing then in C ? 10:30 race... .A or C only... so hopefully C will be a good battle.
Chapeau to you racers. I'm a fat old knacker who usually pushes out around 200W and can drag my sorry ass up Epic KOM to a rank of 180k out of 203k. Anyway, I'm getting realy sore hips so any advice for stretching, bike setup etc to try and ease it off?
The epic KOM is hard work, to get up it all is a decent achievement (I hurt for 3 days after my first go). No pointers on relieving pain other than to try shifitign around. I think one of the issues can be sitting in the same position for ages. I try to get out of the saddle for short periods regularly.
With last nights IRL ride being snowed off I did the BRT crit race. 5 laps of Grand Central station!!! That is a brutal course. After the 3R race on Tuesday and a 7 mile run pushing my daughter in the buggy on Wednesday my legs weren't in the best shape. I did an longer than normal warm up to try and get them going but they were struggling with the higher power bits for the first lap. I lost the lead A group on the opening trip up the reverse KOM and ended up in no mans land between them and the lead Bs. With double draft enabled this group (or around 10ish) caught me by the end of the descent. We stuck together for most of the remaining laps losing one or two each time we went up the climb. We also manage to collect a fer riders who had dropped off the lead group. By the last climb there were 6 left, this was 4 by half way up and just 3 by the summit. I kept the power on down the hill to prevent the fourth rejoining (they were only 4s back). Despite the tiredness I just managed to out sprint the last two riders to finish in 10th. Was a really good work out though with Elevate giving it a very high stress score and big jump in my fatigue (which I can feel today). Rest day for me today as 100th Parkrun on Saturday and I'm going after a PB.
https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=142687
Why are so few riders in Zwift power lol.
https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=143134
That was an epic race, I should have won. Group of 16 of us on Richmond flat, I got Aeros on the first 2 laps and tried to split the bunch with 450w efforts using it. But only managed to shell a couple each time.
Into the final lap, 2 riders kicked on and held 4.4+ for the lap, we ignored them as they're auto DQ with that power. Final 2km it started getting all cat and mouse, I had a feather and was saving it for the final 300m.
Then 900m out 1 gut went, boom 6w/kg. Sod it, I was in! But the feather and went. Oh, errrrm, no good. Couldn't catch him. Others were 1s behind so j eased slightly, jumped on a wheel at 350w. Holding. Then 300m to go I went 500w but 1 guy had 700 and did me.
Really should have won that.