Zwift, my journey, my weight and my fitness.

rmgvtec - Member
Terrace house, upstairs in a room with laminate flooring (insulated underneath) then an offcut of carpet under the trainer. From their description the noise was high pitched rather than a vibration

Tricky one then maybe.

I'd try some thick gym matting, but if it's noise from the tyre, I'm not sure it will help much.

Great stuff Nath, congratulations!

Your race report was a bit lacking though 😀

Looked like a great finish.

My Tacx trainer is really loud. Might be worth an upgrade??

Race report;
Got in from work about 7:45, having just left a few commuting roadies in my dust by overtaking them at 28mph on a nice flat stretch of road. That’ll learn them for jumping lights, in my head at least! This meant I missed the kiss start, mentally exhausted I sat on the racing bike attached to the turbo trainer, calibrated the power meter and booted up Zwift. Anticipation building I selected the next available race, still in my commuting gear.
The music was selected, no other than the Mac radio (fleetwood variety). I was ready....

We set off the normal Zwift way with a group of about 3 As and a few Bs who clearly weren’t Bs. Tried to break them a few times, but the draft effect had them back on my wheel in no time. Gutted, I found myself at the front far too much for my liking if I was to sit in for the sprint, but I was determined to burn off the cookie I had at lunch... Nothing happened until the last little hill before Trafalgar Square, were 3 of us broke away. Then it was just a sprint finish, I ran out of gears (900w @ 120rpm), but just managed to squeeze into first. Really don’t like sprinting much quicker than that on the turbo, I like to kick when sprinting and this would put me on the side of some boxes...

😆

I was determined to burn off the cookie I had at lunch

The music was selected, no other than the Mac radio (fleetwood variety). I was ready....

Mental as well as physical torture, nice 😆

Yeah, a Zwift race is cause for more cookies not penance for eating one 😆

nathb - Member
CH you may bow: [url=King of the STW Zwifters] http://www.cycligentrankings.com/vcr/client/racer/98508/lifetime/all/elite/1/0/0/1/1 [/url]

Congratulations Nathan. You are in there with some stellar names.

Down in the amatuer ranks of division [ahem]5[/ahem] 😳
Despite just how unwell it made me feel, I actually got some virtual ranking points!

Funnily though, i got 1 more point than you for it 😀

Yeah I saw that! Maybe it's an extra point for dressing more flamboyantly 😀

I was going for a gentle spin up watopia mountain after my network dropped out on the GCN group ride and its a lot longer than i realised. I was trying to go slow i promise but it seems nigh on impossible for me to do this. I was quite low down in the gears but spinning nicely around 90rpm and it felt so much easier than box hill, i was maintaining about 310w up there quite easily yet box hill that feels like torture, very odd. I ended up 7th on KOM list for my supposed gentle spin, i need to learn to back off more!

Thanks guys!

As if you don't like Fleetwood!!

In this race: https://zwiftpower.com/race.php?id=14236

Who's Mark (3rd place STWer, just noticed on strava)??

He's on my buddy list, but not sure what his Stw name is

As if you don't like Fleetwood!!

Yey, pretty sure my fitness is starting to show the Zwift effect’ both on the bike and pleasingly with running!

First outdoor ride from Blair Atholl was noticeably improved from the previous outing. And this mornings run was a lot easier than any ‘first run in a while’ effort I can remember.

Dropping way over £1k on Zwift is starting to look like money very well spent.

Quite pleased with this 🙂

Might even risk the scales, not expecting much movement there but now I can reliably train on the bike and xC/Fell running is back on the cards it seems a good point to take a measure.

And has anyone done one of the endurance group rides? I’m eyeing up the 100k on Saturday, I’m just a bit wary it’ll be horrendous!

Is the 2 months free for strava premium users annual or just when you sign up? If annual does it happen automatically?

Thanks pie onster, that answers my question. Its heavy rain here all day Saturday yet I,m scheduled for a 2.5 hr club ride so I might do the “ Team CLS CC -- Vocal ‘n’ Social AM Saturday“.

Theres no instructions for weight and power settings in the event notes, do I need to change anything?

28 scaredy 😆 Can’t stand the modern chart stuff though (99% of it).

Regarding group rides; there’s a 100km one every Sunday at 8:30pm swept by yours truly 🙂

@Kyrton, fwiw and because you’d mentioned something along these line elsewhere. My bike handling was actually better as well. Which I guess is down to increased fitness leading to more focus and confidence.

@Nath. Where’s that event listed, average w/kg, time taken?

Oh wait, what Cat is that listed at?

@Kyrton, fwiw and because you’d mentioned something along these line elsewhere. My bike handling was actually better as well. Which I guess is down to increased fitness leading to more focus and confidence.

Not sure im with you - do you mean with regard to more riding outdoors?

In any case, congrats on the increased fitness!!

I “thought” you’d been advised to do all your training outdoors to keep the handling skills sharp?

I could easily be talking shit 🙂

What's the protocol for racing where I sit firmly on the boundary between classes? I've never raced in zwift before so was considering going for the lower one. That reasonable or if it turns out I'm doing 0.2w/kg over the limit, do I get booted?

That reasonable or if it turns out I'm doing 0.2w/kg over the limit, do I get booted?

Pretty much yup. It's one of them things you just don't know until you put your feet in and get wet.

[quote=atlaz ]What's the protocol for racing where I sit firmly on the boundary between classes? I've never raced in zwift before so was considering going for the lower one. That reasonable or if it turns out I'm doing 0.2w/kg over the limit, do I get booted?

only if you sit on the front doing all the work. Sit in, cover any breaks and then sprint for a glorious finish at the end...

The race I did on Tuesday gave me the following on Zwift Power.

Riders are allowed to go over category limits by 0.10w/kg. This race allows you to accumulate 3 marks, after which the rider will be automatically removed from results.

I clearly should have been in Cat C in hindsight. My FTP test has me in Cat D.

If I keep entering Cat D they’ll send me to the naughty step unless I get sneaky

I'll go one level down for the first race then. In reality I would guess my FTP in Zwift if properly tested will move me up to that category anyway, but I just don't want to enter the race and get blown out the back immediately on my first race. I fully expect I'll have no idea what I'm doing and end up having to chase back on a lot.

You'll want to get on the pace with 10s to go mate, around 450-600w if you can, then hold that for the first 30-60s.

Not all races will allow you to go over the category though. Most will just move you up a category in the results, but I've seen results where people have been DQd. I'd say go for the one above and see how long you can hold on for. I started in D and TBF my w/kg probably still has me as a Cat D rider, but on the flat courses I can keep up with the lead Cs for the majority of the race.
Yet to try another hilly race in C, but the one I did when I first moved up from D to C was bloody hard but I didn't finish last so that was an achievement in my book.

I “thought” you’d been advised to do all your training outdoors to keep the handling skills sharp?

That's true yes. However, I have to ride Saturday morning during which heavy rain is predicted from 6am to 3pm. As much as I should be outside, I don't want to suffer that.

Interestingly my coach wants specificity also but also for me to do the right time in the right zones which lends its self to Road/Turbo. I have some "easy" rides next week though as its a rest week which I'll do as MTB - I need to be slithering in Mud.

I figure that particular ride which is advertised as average 2.5wkg but 3.5wkg on the hills will give me the 2.5hrs on the bike and 1hr in zone 6 he's asking for.

Hopefully I won't get bored.

[quote=weeksy ]You'll want to get on the pace with 10s to go mate, around 450-600w if you can, then hold that for the first 30-60s.

I think that's excessive. steady 200W as the clock ticks down and ~350W for 30-40s generally puts me in the front group of the cat C's

What's the protocol for racing where I sit firmly on the boundary between classes?

YMMV but I reckon you've possibly got more to come and you may get bumped out of the lower class once you get racing hard. Then again, you may be able to ride cagey as weeksy suggests and draft your way to a few pots. If you get bumped it's no big deal; take it as a compliment and move up next time

I've got an idea but it's not precise at all. I reckon I'll get bumped up but going to go for the lower of the two to start with and go from there.

Hmm... 4th in my category with some very bizarre power profiles of the guys in front of me. Not that I'm suggesting cheating of course. That said, maybe having a deep tissue massage two hours before the race wasn't the wisest thing to do.

Which racing series is the least... er... doctored?

As an aside, how the buggery do I get into someones draft when they pass me? On the road I'd put a bit of a dig in and obviously you can feather the brakes a touch to avoid overshooting. I spent almost half the race doing turns with a guy when I was really trying to sit on.

Which race was that mate?

WBR 3 Lap Hilly. Was pretty rubbish in terms of numbers after the fast people pissed off. I think I need something with a bigger field. Maybe later in the evening or something.

fields were pretty thin-looking this evening. I nearly went for that race (6.30 or so ?) but was too much of a rush so ended up doing a workout instead 🙄 I hate that hilly route, too though - straight into a hill after the starting sprint is just not right

Drafting has actually got easier believe it or not but you do have to learn it as you don't get a massive clue that you're in like you obviously do in real life (apart from your avatar sitting-up - I certainly don't think zwift makes it feel physically easier via ANT+ or anything like that)

... and well done on the 4th - great start (what's your zwift-name ?)
(keep watching the results; you might get acup yet, if the top 3 results are very dodgy)

WBR 3 Lap Hilly.

I think I saw that early pack come past, I was out on the hilly course knocking out an hour tempo.

Btw, what's the random shower of confetti about?

I spent almost half the race doing turns with a guy when I was really trying to sit o

Debating plan today... Done a few outdoor rides this week which have tired my legs, outdoors seems to affect them differently, i don't know whether it's the longer hills, the cadence, the drag of the dirt etc. I set a KOM, 2nd, 9th yesterday which was pretty cool as the trails are not exactly running quick at the moment.

So whether to jump in a race or not... Hmmm... Maybe... It's a thought anyway.

May try and find a volcano flat.

edit : KISS Pacific Crit at 12.50, volcano CCW, that's the one i think.

Did the 1-lap WBR race this afternoon to try and sneak back some points I lost in the WBR hilly race yesterday. Noticed that the race position on screen looked wrong. At one point I was 15th out of 13 - which may be true, but seems doubtful

At one point I was 15th out of 13

(ah - if you're GM you've been promoted due to [s]awesome throbbin'[/s] high power as they seem to ignore the fact that it's a sprint race)

I know, I was promoted to A which is a bit of a nonsense. On average I am a very content B.......and then C if the race is longer than 45mins.

I had the same yesterday Eemy, i was 32nd out of 18 and yet i finished 5th! I think zwift might be a bit poorly.