Zwift, my journey, my weight and my fitness.

I was in that race Weeksy

Good result there Weeksy!

eemy - Member
I was in that race Weeksy

Oooh so you were! Sorry I missed you,as I said, only joined with 20s to start and it was full on. Never saw you !

Edit, 1 min 3 behind you, got to be pleased with that.

The 1-lappers are usually quite good fun. Hard work though.

WBR flat race at 7:35pm, really enjoyed the course last time.

Although there’s a huge amount of pressure on me to finish 1st since I’m currrently the only one in my cat lol

Weeksy - good going and big numbers too, i shall open the trophy cabinet for you.

If i get chance i will try a single lapper tomorrow morning but saving my self for my first ride on the road to ruin in the EVR race, never been to the new place and heard its a bit of a brute.

A question about the workouts
I’m doing the 4 week FTP booster and each week has 7 workouts. I’m not going to be able to get on everyday so do I carry over the workouts to the next week and treat it more as an 6-8 week course or skip those days? I assume it’s stretch the course to include all the workouts but in reality I have no idea.

Great result Weeksy.

12 points on the rankings.

However we're out celebrating tonight so I've eaten a small animal or 3 and a slab of cheesecake!

Meh, swift had a fit on my laptop so despite dashing out to the garage with 5 mins to spare it crashed and wouldn't restart.

In for the KISS race at 8, at least I've had a warm up. Entered in the As though so this will hurt.

Pretty sad that zwift aren't creating new instances for races anyway

Still surprises me that people are willing to pay a monthly sub for something that imo is still a long way from a finished product (when compared to other games)

Muggo- I did read a good description from the creator of that workout and the impression I got is that it's more of a one off hit than a sustainable boost.
I'm pretty sure it seemed like Zwift commissioned it as a headline grabbing wonder tool for fast results and 'Wow! Thanks Zwift!' type Kudos. He pretty much admits that you should jump into a race soon after before your results fade.

So I'd definitely err on the side of caution and add in enough R+R days to make your legs snappy for the harder workouts.

I think there's a reason that most Base phases and indeed Zwifts original FTP builder are 12 weeks.

@Fifeandy- Zwift racing is still in its infancy from their end. It really isn't many months ago that races were groups of guys meeting at the Start line before somebody shouted 'GOGOGO!' and Zwift publicly declared the had zero interest in racing.

Eric Minn actually just announced in this months Zwiftcast that once the numbers are right this winter, Event and Race organisers will get the full suite of courses open to them.
Yay! More Richmond races 8)

@zilog, there simply isn't a polished product yet. I can see they need a revenue stream to develop further as they would never attract a multi-million $ development budget up front like a big console title would.

But it just seems [u]so[/u] far from finished to me. Fair enough the pvp/racing side may not have been the initial focus or idea behind the product, but if not, it has to stand on the strength of its open world, which in my opinion is missing several full size climbs and about 1000km worth of riding environment.

I guess its kinda like the garmin thread. We all give garmin money for mediocre devices with garbage firmware/software because there's no alternative.

Great result Weeksy!

I am looking at doing a one lapper tonight. Should be fun in a "going to flog myself to death" sort of way.

Event and Race organisers will get the full suite of courses open to them.
Yay! More Richmond races

I have raced Richmond twice and nearly thrown up both times - oh joy 😀 😕

@zilog, there simply isn't a polished product yet. I can see they need a revenue stream to develop further as they would never attract a multi-million $ development budget up front like a big console title would.

But it just seems so far from finished to me. Fair enough the pvp/racing side may not have been the initial focus or idea behind the product, but if not, it has to stand on the strength of its open world, which in my opinion is missing several full size climbs and about 1000km worth of riding environment.

I guess its kinda like the garmin thread. We all give garmin money for mediocre devices with garbage firmware/software because there's no alternative.

It's £8 a month. That's all. For what we pay, it's an absolute bargain.

The mountain and Pretzel are proper long climbing, it's a good 2 hours+ even for faster guys.

You could even just loop the pretzel if you're that into climbs.

Zwift are going to build a long climb just to satisfy the wierdos that want a long climb and won't shut up about it 😆

As you go slower, the graphics are less impressive and there's no sensation of movement. I just don't get it? If you want to simulate an hour climb, just ride at Threshold in a big gear at 65rpm for an hour??

Zwift also want a rich detailed environment and that takes time. 1000km of bland desert would be pointless?

The fact it takes my Turbo time and makes a good stab at converting it into a representative ride on a Strava is probably worth the money alone. That it does so in a fun, interactive and competitive way is a bonus and when you're not grinding up a stupid climb, it does trick you into thinking you are moving 😆

Nice result there weeksy!!

Think I chose the only non zwiftpower race available this evening, wasn’t up for the KISS race and missed all the decent ones before (damn work). 16km TT / FTP test lol

[img] [/img]

I did the KISS race in the end but the results didn't pop up at the end so no idea how I did, which is annoying, especially as we caught a bunch of Cs just as we crossed the line.

Entered as a B in the end and averaged 3.97W/KG, not sure if that was for the race or if that included my cooldown as well. I'm still a bit confused as to the shape of some of the B racers, they were all going as fast as me for less W/KG, results seem to be taking ages to get up on to zwiftpower. Proper tough race though, wasn't till the last 2 laps that I started enjoying it.

Scaled, if you look at my earlier race you'll see how much below the guys round me I finished,
I was at 3.2w/kg, the other fellas were 4.3!
Of course this tells us they're likely lighter than me but it shows you don't need to put the big numbers up necessarily.

I spent less than 30s of the ride on the front and that was only because my rider was hanging to one side on his lane.

Scaled- you're showing as DQ I believe because you are an A as I predicted 😉

Your category is your ftp/kg so 95% of your absolute best case scenario, collapse at the end 20minute effort. Then, enforcement is 95% of your best 20mins in the race so they are already being generous.

W/kg is irrelevant for comparing your race result to those around you- I'm generally 0.5-1.0 w/kg lower than those around me cus I'm a relative fatty. Luckily in the flat races it's Watts that do the damage 🙂

Anyway, congrats on being an A 🙂

Exactly CH, just look at the disparity on my screen shot above. Flat course TT bikes, no PUs = no hiding. W/kg in isolation I should have finished 2/3 minutes ahead by my calculations 😆

Welcome to A scaled 8)

(Glenn Knight runs KISS and Zwiftpower so he got Zwift to turn the results screen off for his races to force you to click on ZP )

With a good aero position, I think the 360w guy should have nailed you Nath 😆

I think there were a few riders from this parish in that race with Scaled.

@weeksy.
I disagree with both points. I see £8/m as terrible value, its a similar cost to an MMO subscription that would give you 20x the content and much better graphics.

And the mountain really isn't a mountain at all, 500m vertical is 30mins tops for any half decent climber (assuming VAM works in zwift as it does irl)
1000m vertical is a proper mountain. 1500m vertical with alternative ways off every 250m vertical would be ideal.

Like i say, captive audience as cycling is niche compared to the wider gaming audience and we don't have other cycling based games to choose from.

@crosshair
Some of us do have a sensation of movement when climbing 😉
And its the only time we get to see anything as the rest of the time the view is blocked by the behemoth in front thats currently acting as a wind break!

Unless my math is well off (363/3.8) he’s circa 95kg CH!

I think I’d be safe?!

Gyms are £50/month around here so happy with £8 a month - certainly get more use out of it than I would the gym...

go on then, what should I be spending my money on that does the same thing yet is way more polished?!

You want Death Zone, a hyper-realistic, dystopian cycle commuting virtual world where riders dice wth bad-tempered commuters on poorly maintained roads in foul weather. Power-ups include momentary enhanced visibility, traffic light head-start bonus and the rare '9-Life Cat' which means you can survive encounters with articulated lorries and drunk drivers. Like real life only repeatable. And the killer goats. Oh yeah... Best of all, bespoke simulator hardware means you feel every impact smack bang in your pain cave... 😉

He might be tall and lean 😆

That's the thing though isn't it, without knowing a real CdA, it's actually a pretty poor guess?

Anyway- another great result to the trophh room Nath 🙂

Like i say, captive audience as cycling is niche compared to the wider gaming audience and we don't have other cycling based games to choose from.

You're comparing apples with pears though. If the audience for a virtual cycling game was as large as for general nerd fodder, there'd be more dosh to spend on the platform. It's a bit like slagging off a small wine merchant for not having the same level of choice as a massive hypermarket.

RGT has full scale climbs, I've done Formentor and Ventoux and to be honest I wouldn't be in a hurry to do them again, despite liking climbing in real life.

Long grinding climbs just don't work that well on a turbo imo, you need interaction to get anything out of it and given the lack of Zwift racing on the climbs they do have, racing on RGT is going to be a lonely experience unless they reduce the climbing. The graphics don't make that much difference despite RGT being more photorealistic than Zwifts cartoony feel.

Like i say, captive audience as cycling is niche compared to the wider gaming audience and we don't have other cycling based games to choose from

Cycling based game LOL... You're on the wind up fella.

SLightly interesting one from yesterdays race regarding the drafting effects currently.

I last did the 1 lapper in mid-June and won, i completed it in 17:10. Yesterday, completed it in 16:03.

Wasn't a massive group of us, but they were powerful/fast lads for sure. I also put out 330w for 20 mins power in June and only 311w yesterday for the 20 mins power.

Not sure how much it tells us other than "Get out fast and get in a quick group..." but it does show that even with less power, if you get the right group of riders with you, you can go quicker.

Did a WBR 1 lapper and it was brutal. Small field and I was 4th in B out of 5. I'd have got second in C (ended up being 3.12w/kg)! The A's got DQ'd.

Started in a group and dropped after 4 k. Then rode with one other for the rest of the ride. I was struggling to hang on and was shattered by the finish. I absolutely went for it at the finish and was sure I had pipped the other rider on the line but Zwift claimed otherwise.

On the bright side I did a PB for the Watopia Flat lap by over half a minute.

Has anyone has issues with getting power ups? I did a warm up hoping to get one and got nothing. That is the fourth time out of five over the last three rides I have done where it has happened. The power ups come up but it stops on the blank option each time.

The other funny thing was the ride was advertised as London but when I logged on it was Watopia.

Weeksy, I did the one lapper race 2 weeks ago and did 17:20. I was in a reasonable group for most of that. Today I did 16:08 and was only in a group for the first 4k.

Edit: Just realised the race two weeks ago was London.

PUs are like fruit machines, that's just the breaks were thrown, sometimes you get one, sometimes you don't...

I always find that when i REALLY want a particular PU as i'm dying, i either get nothing, or a sodding useless one !

Luckily though yesterday i got a feather, just when i really needed a feather actually 🙂

I'm a magnet for "+10 pts"

What's +10 points? I don't think I've had that.

Jk I think your "blank" is probably +10, unless you're in a race that's configured not to give PUs (is that a thing?)

You end up with no pu but gain 10 points towards your next level

that's rubbish lol. I'm on 25... the last thing i need when i'm dying is 10 more virtual points !

Ah ok I hadn't noticed I'd got 10 points for those.

What I really need is the red cross symbol ones. Usually I'm knackered when I get a power up in a race and I assume that PU gets a nurse to come around and make you feel better? 😀

So Weeksy gets the hump at Zwift being called a game and then spends several posts chatting about power ups and virtual points 😆

Eric Minn hinted that they are working on more equipment options and better ways of 'spending' your XP points so those of us on level >25 may get some reward!

I think Zwift should explore the gamification options a bit more. The Big Wheeler bikes were pretty funny. Some of their team used to work on Road Rash after all 😆

Weeksy, all the posts from the serious racers about the draft getting silly relate to changes made in August, so it's quite possible that explains the difference in lap times?

So Weeksy gets the hump at Zwift being called a game

I thought you knew me better than that... I'm far from getting the hump. But it's SO not a 'game'. A game implies to me that it's all just fun and not really training/working/pushing.... Whereas we know that even with the gaming aspects of things, it's still proper hard graft.
But, i'm a long way from getting worked up about it.

I think laptimes often just comes down to luck. I latched on yesterday with 3 guys who barely dropped below 4. But i was happily sitting at 220w at times and cruising in their wake 🙂 The guy behind us was putting out way more watts than me... but couldn't close, he got to within 14s at one stage but then died a faded.

Well you don't train on there 😆 You can't bare to look at it if you're not battling a bunch of Avatars for position in a virtual race with virtual power ups 🙂
Think of the stick you gave me when I first started!

But yes, I know you're not literally cross about it 🙂

Nathan Guerrea is probably the loudest voice for more gamification- the Zwift team seem to be going more down the structured training / live spin class route.

One interesting comment from Eric Minn in the podcast was that (despite CVR's best efforts and the eCrit series from Zwift themselves) he doesn't see Zwift as Esports yet "because there's no skill in it!" 😮

Think of the stick you gave me when I first started!

I do at times... I was the great cynic of Zwifting, both as a training activity and as something to pass time on... I think we can safely say i've converted my opinion as to it's benefits etc. I'm sometimes shocked at myself... but the results are simple to see.