Zwift, my journey, my weight and my fitness.

😆 I'm hoping to squeeze a weekly race in from November.

Those 1 lap races are an absolute bastard. I was mixing it with the Cat Bs though. 327w average 😳

I saw on the Zwift app you were powering along so dropped you a ride on... 🙂

327w, jeepers, nice.

Gentle one today for me as per Naths article. Z1/2 and cruising on the Parkwood. Will stick a movie on to watch etc.

Thanks Weeksy I could just about see the name through the fountain of sweat pouring over my eyes 😀
Pleased that I managed to keep up with the cat b riders on the climbs near the end of the lap. I always get dropped on those climbs but hung on today. Left the sprint for the line a bit late and couldn’t quite catch a couple of the Bs in front. I left it until 200m. Should have gone at 300.
Finished up 1st in C which probably means -10 points on CVR

I raced in the 8pm KISS Europe last night and omg. Managed to stay with the lead group all the way even though I thought I was going to get dropped several times. Had to dig in really deep at points but stayed with them until the sprint finish but I had little left to give by then.

Came in 10th out of 57 in C cat which I'm pleased with. Just need to drop my weight to where I was last year as I've put on some Kg and it's not helping.

I'd forgotten how much fun Zwift racing is.

Muggo

I think it needs 8> riders in the Cat for CVR points ?

Hedley, Cracking stuff, keep it up.. I think we're getting a decent pack of riders in A, B and C now.

Those 1 lap races are an absolute bastard.

That’s alright then weeksy. Bloody annoying to see minus points when you’ve given it your all.

I find the one lap races are like a HIIT session and hopefully good training based on Nathan’s link as you tend to be well in to zone 4 for the duration. The hardest bit is going hard for 10km and then having to sprint for the line. Going to skip an outdoors ride this afternoon and do another zwift ride as I shudder at the thought of riding on rough terrain with the way my back is atm. Will either do the 3 lap hilly or the 50km sportive ride.

Well i think i have just been in the fastest cat B race ever! The WBR 4 lap flat race had the top 5 in cat B in a bunch finish with the cat A group. The top 5 B riders all were within 3 secs of the overall winner of the race, i was nearly 4 minutes behind B winner and i was 6th. The start and the first lap were madness, relentless pace of which i was barely hanging on and the next lap wasnt much different and thats where i left them so 2 laps to myself with a guy chasing me down. He took 30 secs out of me on lap 3 which meant i was only ahead by 23 secs but i managed to dig in on the last lap and put in a couple of big sprints up the hills and maintained the gap to the line.
How on earth those lead guys did not dq is beyond me, i was pulling nearly 400w in the sandy bit just trying to hold on and close to thst through the tunnels.

Looks like i got 8 points for that today, i was fearing a negative score. I am currently 14th in div 2 with 1462 points and am forecast to be div 1. That will probably be it for me this month as kids are off next week so no cycling for me but looking forward to recharging the batteries.

recharging the batteries

Why am I showing as inactive!?

I raced on the 17th!!

http://www.cycligentrankings.com/vcr/client/racer/98508/2017r10/all/inactive/1/0/0/1/1

Haha, I needed an electric motor in that race this morning scaredypants.

Nathb - you were so slow in your last race you deemed inactive!

I got 4 points for my efforts this morning 🙂

+1 point for 'knocking my pan out' this lunchtime (so to speak).

Look how many races this guy does a day and look at his results 😯

[url= https://www.zwiftpower.com/profile.php?id=5800396 ]Zwift addict[/url]

Why the heck did I think the KISS 50km sportive was going to be reasonably gentle?!
It was bloody hard work.

Muggo the bloke who “won” cat c is actually a cat A rider so dont beat yourself up. No idea why he is in C but he is normally far too rapid for me.

It was a tough ride. I got dropped from my group a few times and had to really put the hammer down to catch back up, but got dropped again about 3km from the finish and after this mornings race and 47km in this one, I just could not go again so just accepted my position as I was around 1.5 mins in front of those behind me and pootled across the line.

Thats pretty impressive given you had already raced, nice riding fella.

Cheers. Looking forward to a night of beer and football then a day off tomorrow before some mtbing Sunday.

Did my second race, 4 lap flat WBR at 1505. Turned on Zwift at 1500, quickly changed my virtual wheels to 808s and updated my name.

On the start line warming up at 1504...

Usual frantic start, then the group split in the gravel. I was in the second group - 7 B's and an A. One guy went off the front, I went with him, we got about 15 seconds but I knew it was doomed so did the minimum. Some slight attrition left only 5 in the group at the end and I managed to come second in the sprint - left it late.

7th out of 18 B's, quite pleased as I'm a lightweight on a flat course.

Ooo, promoted to 5th now. People not wearing HRMs.

Great result beej, always great finding out others arent wearing hrm.

I just did the 19.00 figure8 - not my favourite course (too much climbing) but was the only one tonight with a decent size field

Dropped on 1st climb, as expected 🙄 but was with a bunch of about 8

... 2 of whom were from one team and obviously pulling some tactics, which made all the rest of us ded cagey so it was an odd ride with lots of low power followed by powwah surges

Second time, just before the hill, one of the "team of 2" blazed away never to be seen again (not quite sure how he ended up being dropped initially). I'd held on to a feather throughout an chucked it in up the hill, just to hold my own but amazingly I dropped all but one other rider. Thought I'd then dumped him across the top but he had an aero and caught me on the descent. Tried to dump hime several more times but he obviously had more left than me and I never got more than 10 yards on him. He outsrpinted me for *ahem* ninth place.

First "tactical" race I've ever been in, I think

and a question:

Why is my avatar so stoopid - likes to ride alongside a bunch, right in the wind, rather than tuck in behind anyone ?

How do I make the algorithm tuck me in ?

It's stuck in Nath mode 😆 😀

Nath draft mode engaged 😆

[img] [/img]

Just like ^ that 😀

I'm sure my neighbours are going to report me - shouting "get across the road you ****!" in my garage. Does anyone shout that at nath ?

(think I noticed it more today because I ended up using the overhead view when we were being all cagey, just to see who was putting in a burst)

Resting the legs... 😆

Just done the 40km diamondback TT mission, with a cheeky flying lap of the volcano. I can confirm it was a stupid idea as my backs killing now.... Need to stop track standing at lights dammit..

I only shout it when he attacks and I get dropped 😆

9.05am for WBR? Weather looking awful.

I gave you hand signals to follow my wheel on one of those occasions...

I thought you had cramp in your fingers 😆

Sodding windows update killed laptop when I was in pen. Now too late for race.

So i have the tacx t2240 and obviously i am pretty use to zwift so i know pretty much which gears i normally ride in. I did an update to the tacx on tuesday and then jumped in to a race and knew immediately something had changed. Normally I use the middle 2 gears of the cassette but after the update i am now having to use the last 3 which means i dont have a lot of scope for increasing the pace. I am cruising in the 3rd to last gear then 2nd last to do catch ups or a burst then left with the 12t for sprint. I have contacted tacx and did some tests with them and they reckon the watt output is normal for the task they had me do and that my turbo must have been running wrongly before the update (i actually gave them the wrong reading so i dont believe there answer). I am not some powerhouse of a rider, i am an average middle aged rider so i cant believe that i would need to use the top end of my cassette for zwifting. May be nathb and bigfoot and the cat A types might use the top end but not me, what do you guys use gear wise. Or could this just be the limitation of a machine with a 800w max output. I have actually now exchanged my turbo but not tried the new one yet but it does have different firmware version.

Not sure if this will help blader, but I have a tacx flux with a nine speed cassette. I generally use the 4th to 8th gear, mostly 6,7 and 8 unless it is really hilly when I go lower. This is on the lower front sprocket. I generally only use the bigger one going down a decent hill.

I am not as good as you though.

Do you have the option of adjusting the 'difficulty' slider on your Zwift menu Blader?
Fiddling with that one way or the other can help as it basically gears up or down your efforts.

Nath was spinning out on the downhill sprint finish but by making it less 'realistic', he was able to get more gearing and more watts.

I had some weirdness with the slider recently - did a gentle ride up the mountain and found myself having to up the cadence (and power) in bottom gear or else press really hard at 40rpm or drop the slider to reduce the drag on the steepest bits (so I did the latter)

I then forgot about it and did the next race at 25% or whatever I'd set it to and that was a very different experience. I soon realised why, but initially was odd - much harder to follow efforts up hills unless I changed to harder gears and yet easier to keep the power "on" for the flats as we'd crest a hill.

It might help blader's situation but it will change "stuff" too. ALternatively, maybe change up your chainring (or is it just me that's on a compact? 😳 )

Just done a 1 flat lapper - man, that was fast. I got dropped by the lead group (there were about 8 of us at that point) and couldn't get back on. Those folk have some reactions; by the time I saw the first rider going for it, all the others had lit up and were away after "him". No way could I catch that bunch so I TT'd in for 4km. Managed to hold off the pair behind.

Anyhow, I and multiple others have been upgraded to A 8) (and 🙄 - in a 10km race I don't think 4.2 w/kg is "A" territory, is it ?)

Incidentally, the overall winner, and STILL cat B winner was <ahem>:
A.Goldau ZHR QAT ZHR -467w(yep, MINUS) 87kg 89bpm ZP
😀

Problem is that it doesn't change any setting for short sprint races, but of course it should do.

I'm planning on the 8.05pm kiss race hopefully.

Good luck mate

(meant to say yesterday, on my windows10 settings (in the updates section) you can tell the system the typical time ranges when your computer's busy and it won't restart during that period - might prevent what happened to your last race ?)

regarding power, the two Bs who finished ahead of me are listed at 5.09 and 5.52, (and the winner who's now been revised to minus4 watts (not per kg, just -4watts). No wonder I couldn't hold on 😯

Scaredypants i also run a compact with a dinner plate on the back. Also the one lap races tend to be just flat out, bordering on sprints so there is every chance of busting cat limits and having a high watt avg
i will check the slider setting but problem with that is like others i will forget about it and only realise in the middle of a race when i am turning my lungs out that i should have reset it. I will see what the new turbo is like and if its the same then i will just go with the fact that i am the new chris froome!
.

I'm planning on the 8.05pm kiss race hopefully.

See you there. Green and white kinetic kit

Disaster. Just epic disaster. Went off with the bunch I'd expect, but 1/2 a lap in I couldn't get my HR below 170. Power wasn't too bad but I was just gasping for air and not finding it.

Bailed.