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So yeah, in the wash-up I ended up 2nd after some of the dubious people got bumped up or DSQ. When I get back from sunnier climates I'll give it a proper go.
I have now been promoted to Div 1 on CVR, currently have 1466 points. Does this mean i get to go on an open top bus tour around the city?
Only just spotted this:
https://thomasburns61.wixsite.com/team-worlds-2017
Anyone else joining? It's on Saturday 25th November.
that’s the anti-wheelsucker feature
Please invent this..
Ok I get it now.
My first group ride today - 2:50 on the turbo average pace 31km. Like the way it uses w/kg to keep everyone level. Time went faster than I anticipated and I think this is the first time my head truly “integrated” with the Zwift world, with W/kg bringing realism to climbs etc.
Will be useful for shitty winter days.
FFS.
Anyone know how to get 1/2/5/10/20 min best power efforts not including virtual rides!?!? Driving me mad.
Still on my 7 day Zwift trial, loving it. 2 days left.
Elite direto smart trainer now here and it's so much better than my basic trainer was, and that wasnt bad.
I simply can't wait to get back on it. Every day do far, first few to get my thick head around it but now just riding for 45 mins to an hour at a time, I rarely managed more than 25 minutes on trainer Road.
I've basically told my riding pals not to expect to see me out riding trails until Spring. I'm a Zwifter now.
Lol you'll still find the urge, although this morning's rain kept me away from the trails I admit.
The lure of kom's and top 10s draw large now. Ok, so it's selective segments, but the still exist and can still happen now days.
But the trails are still more fun than Zwift. In the right conditions!
I'm going outside on a recovery ride tomorrow - on a 26er!
How very old fashioned...
2 excellent races over the weekend.
Yesterday was the WKG race over Waptopia flat, 3 lapper. Battles all round and worked like a beast. Got dropped on the dirt after the watery tunnel, but caught another guy and a group of 4 of us carried on to the last hill and roller coaster, I came 4th of 4 in our little sprint for 12th out of 28
Today was 4 laps of London classique with WBR, went off hard, way hard. Was bunched with some Cs, Bs and even A riders, I was doing OK ish, and powered up the hill OK on lap 1, and lap 2. Lap 3 the groups split there as the stronger climbers pulled out a gap. On the last lap we pulled a few riders back but were also caught by 3 others. Ended up in a group of about 6 of us who all went for it in the last 500m, I think I got 3rd in our group and 8th out of 47 in C. Arguably it was closer to 20th before many got bumped to B from C. But 8th is the recorded position.
Enjoyed the racing this weekend for sure.
I noticed in a lot of races there were many people getting bumped. Is this people who are new to zwift or did everyone this weekend wake up in top form and outperformed their usual category?
Dunno mate, I've not looked at their history. Some bloke went past us in D cat, averaging 4.3! He got bumped to A lol. Just checking, he's done 22 races. So you'd think he'd know he's not a Day.
Yesterday was the WKG race over Waptopia flat, 3 lapper
I was in that as well 17th out of 26 B's and only just managed to out sprint the C winner to be the last B not over taken.
I only just scrape into B's so I'm happy with mid table mediocrity.
Well done Jamie, good chunk ahead of me !
I was going great guns in the 4 lap flat race...........until the power cable came out of the turbo. Quite happy on one hand because I thought I had broken it for a minute.
I was tempted to race this evening but sore legs suggested the fire and a glass of wine was a better choice.
If you’re trying to be “balanced”* with your training I’m guessing 2 races per week is sensible?
*Weeksy need not reply with what he’d do 🙂
I guess it depends on how you race. For many Cat A's, they are only sitting at Sweetspot in the bunch so a race is more like an interval session. They also generally have slightly higher weekly volume so can do more races for a given percentage of their weekly workload.
For me, if I'm going to race then it's full on Anaerobic efforts up every climb, and Threshold in the bunch so I have to do so sparingly to feel fresh enough to give my best.
Weeksy has given himself a very flat power curve through racing lots- that's why he gets dropped on the short rises 😆
I was going to comment but, meh, f#%* y'all
😆
I was in a 4 lap flat race the other day. Only had zwift for 3 weeks so a newbie. Anyhoo going by the guidelines I can average the 2.5w/kg to 3.1 I've deemed myself a cat C. Anyhoo came in about 3 minutes behind the cat C leader. My results were flagged up as rank up to a B.? Seems a bit strange my FTP is showing as 289 .
Zwift racing can be weird in the context that some riders can 'hide' better than others. When you get dragged along with the right group, finding 3 mins isn't that hard compared to the group that's 3 min behind.
You'll be flagged because in it's opinion your at/around the 3.2w/kg catagory limit.
Got a link to the race ?
At the pointy end of C, it's not that much of a leap to the back of B.
There was a race recetnly i finished mid pack C, but weirdly that was also mid-pace B ! Usually my position of group 2 in C puts me 3-4 from the back end of a 40 group B.
It's based on the performance in that race. If you average over the 3.1w/kg in that race you'll get bumped up to the next category. Your own FTP should probably be just a guide as to what category to enter. After a few races you get a better feel of what you are capable of.
Smart Turbo bought on Saturday. FTP test Wednesday. Race Friday.
Oof.
Worst thing about the FTP test was it was exactly what I estimated it would be from Strava so pointless ;0)
FTP suggests top end of C category.
4 laps of Watopia flat on Friday night. Took the advice of 300+ watts off the start line and was in second group with mostly B's. Doing ok until the rollercoaster run in to the finish and got dropped as didn't know what was coming. Dropped back to 3rd group of mostly C's and a couple of B's. Hung with them and nearly got dropped again in the same place but got back on. Last lap couldn't hold onto the attacks at the end and was running last in the group but caught the 2 B's and beat them to the line.
Interesting. Possibly could have held onto faster group if I knew what was coming. Possibly not this time either.
Not interesting was computer issues with 15 minutes to go when I should have been warming up and having a chat with both children half way through :0) Then cramping badly as I finished as my Glutes aren't strong enough apparently.
4 laps of Watopia flat on Friday night. Took the advice of 300+ watts off the start line and was in second group with mostly B's. Doing ok until the rollercoaster run in to the finish and got dropped as didn't know what was coming. Dropped back to 3rd group of mostly C's and a couple of B's. Hung with them and nearly got dropped again in the same place but got back on. Last lap couldn't hold onto the attacks at the end and was running last in the group but caught the 2 B's and beat them to the line.
Interesting. Possibly could have held onto faster group if I knew what was coming. Possibly not this time either.
Not interesting was computer issues with 15 minutes to go when I should have been warming up and having a chat with both children half way through :0) Then cramping badly as I finished as my Glutes aren't strong enough apparently
Sounds great.
Zwift racing is one of them things, i imagine like FTP tests, the more you do, the better you get. Your body gets tuned to the type of riding, racing, intensity, HRs etc, so you get better as Zwift racing.
Mine seems to know now that i can manage it for the 45-60 mins and then it gets time off... LOL.
Although i do seem close to tweaking muscles at the moment...
I am tempted to knock the racing on the head for a couple of months and, if I can stick with it, do the FTP builder programme. Not this week though 🙂 probably have a crack at one of the 4-lap flats later!
zilog6128 - Member
I am tempted to knock the racing on the head for a couple of months and, if I can stick with it, do the FTP builder programme. Not this week though probably have a crack at one of the 4-lap flats later!
Oh man, CH has got to you with the Triffids !
yeah, it was his comment last week "racing isn't training". 🙂 which is a fair point I think, got to decide though whether the short term loss (of fun) will be balanced by better fitness/more fun both for Zwift racing & outdoor rides.
zilog6128 - Member
yeah, it was his comment last week "racing isn't training". which is a fair point I think, got to decide though whether the short term loss (of fun) will be balanced by better fitness/more fun both for Zwift racing & outdoor rides.
With the way my Zwift performances have plateaued, it is undoubtedly correct IMO, he's right. However, there's no way i'm training in a training context.
I'd rather be an average C than a mid B wanting to kill myself 🙂
I've also (reluctantly) signed up for a structured plan rather than just smashing it for an hour during races.
Actually signed up for a [url= https://www.todaysplan.com.au/ ]Today's Plan[/url] 6 weeker, which puts custom workouts in your Zwift folder. The FTP builder in Zwift looks good but the sessions seem too long.
ta, will have a look at that!
EDIT: $18 /month !?!
Yeah, although signing up for the freebie will give you full access to a plan + workouts which you can decide to keep even if you don't sing up for the full thing 😉
cunning! 🙂
aiming for KISS second base at 8pm if anyone else is on.
I did the EVR 6 laps of london classique this morning, very weird things going on in that race. I was with the lead group and was going quite nicely but just before Horseman Hill on lap 3 i got a stitch (again) and couldnt power up the hill so i was about 3 secs behind the group so i dropped a watt bomb and i got even further away! That is the power of the group, i was pulling 400w for a long time and just got further away. I then rode with a fellow B and he just dropped off even though the pace was moderate, he was 45 secs behind and then in one lap he tagged on to a group behind and ended up 30 secs ahead of me! They just powered past me pulling a constant 4.6w/kg, i couldnt live with that. On the 5th lap i caught a few of them as it looked like they had some issues, i was then left to beat a group of A and B’s who i had a 30 sec gap on. I turned myself inside out on the final lap and the gap was coming down rapidly but managed to get to the line just 3 secs ahead of them. I took 5th in B but quite a few riders were not in the final results so deffo strange things going on and the rider list is still strange, i was leading the race yet it said i was 21 of 25!
I guess it depends on how you race. For many Cat A's
I think we can rule out just an interval session:-)
I’m more likely to need a sick bucket.
I'm (part of the way 😉 ) with weeksy here; before I did zwift I'd just bimble around outside at pretty gentle pace (esp in winter) with the odd hard effort chucked in. The only exception was about once every fortnight I'd go nightriding with my mate who's a much faster rider, so I got a 2hr near-threshold beating now & again.
Zwift is the hardest I've evere ridden, really mostly because it tells you how hard you're (not) pedalling, and it's made a big difference to my fitness and my weight (and my type2 diabetes 😳 )
... and I genuinely enjoy the "racing" even though I've never raced in real life, or even considered it. I'm not about to go & ruin that by training my pretty little ass off on a plan. Apart from anything else, my time slots to get on the thing are limited and fairly unpredictable
oh, and is that* what zwift looks like on your PCs ? 😯
Mine's and old TV and a shit PC - way less "real" than that
*
[img] 
?imwidth=1400[/img]
Wow that looks loads better than on the iPad!!!
You can do both. Just treat the 4 week ftp builder as a six week plan and do a Zwift race each week folllowed by an easy spin the next day.
So you would do the Monday workout as planned, KISS EU on Tuesday for example, extra recovery ride or day off on Wednesday then the Tuesday ride on Thursday etc etc.
I do think you can race yourself fit too- BUT ONLY IF YOU RACE TO LOSE! As in to blow yourself up. If you only ever race to finish at the line with enough juice for a sprint then where is the improvement coming from???
And if you care about your rankings, racing till you blow isn't as option- thus why racing isn't training 🙂
Unless you are sandbagging, why would you aim to have something left in reserve at the end of a race?
Always aim to blow up just after the finish line in my races 😆
If you ever sprint for the line then you haven't emptied yourself enough to improve your race pace. (Assuming your only intensity each week is racing on Zwift).
Let's say the C group has you at 270w each race. How are you going to generate the ability to ride for the same time at 290w if you never ride at 290w until failure or at least long enough to trigger your body to adapt??
Thanks to the wonder of the internet, I know that Weeksy first read this article on the 15th February 2015 😆
He said it was a good read but I'm not sure he actually did 😆 😀
http://www.cyclingweekly.com/fitness/training/racing-is-not-training-33531
Let's say the C group has you at 270w each race. How are you going to generate the ability to ride for the same time at 290w if you never ride at 290w until failure or at least long enough to trigger your body to adapt??
Try and hang onto the B’s a little bit longer every race...
But it's likely the B's won't push you to (say) 290w either. You'll draft just the same and they'll drop you on a climb-which is a different system within the body (Vo2 Max rather than Threshold).