Zwift, my journey, my weight and my fitness.

Was a good race that Ewan,

I was in the lead B/C group for the first lap but then dropped back into a small group a minute back, we were never going to catch the front group and even after a couple of laps we had a minute on those behind so it became a bit of cat and mouse, no-one was in a particular hurry.

It was my forth race on three days so didn't have a lot in the tank, four laps was probably one lap too far.

So how to the new ZP rankings work? great idea, adds another level of competitiveness, but can't find any details anywhere.

What's your name on Zwift Harry (I'm E.Panter)? I don't know which group I managed to hang with for the first 20 minutes. When I got blown out the back I was about 1.5 minutes in front of the next group I think, managed to hold them off and overtake a couple of others who got dropped - was a bit nervy not riding with anyone else but seeing the group behind me get ever closer! Had to man up for the last k...

I just got the ZwiftPower result for the 16:05 WBR 1-lap race I completed today. 9th out of 27 in Group C at 2.9W/kg normalised 240W which was not bad and close to my Zwift tested FTP of 247W. I think I might be able to do a little better though.

I went too hard at the start (as usual), overcooked it and found it hard to recover at the 230-240W I'd made my mind up to try and hold. I got in a group of about 6 or 7 Cs & Ds for most of the race but had no sprint at the end. I did have hard, hilly ride on the road last night though.

One question for more experienced Zwifters regarding drafting. Do the power numbers which are shown in your box on the left reflect the actual power you are putting out or are they adjusted down to take account of the draft? E.G. If it shows 200W is that the actual figure you are producing in the draft or are you actually only having to put out 160W?

The watts shown are exactly as you are producing them (well, a 1 or 3 second average depending on what setting you are using).
The draft merely affects your avatars speed. Likewise, only the inclines alter the resistance you feel- drafting doesn't have the ability to adjust that either.

So if you are seeking to maintain the speed of the bunch (say 25mph), as you approach from behind at say 300w/26mph your Avatar will suddenly attach themselves to the riders in front and it's here you can waste power. Depending on the speed difference, you can even roll right off for a second and then carry on at the new wattage- say 240w.
If you don't, you can end up riding at the solo power still (300w in our example) but not making enough watts to break the draft and move on to the next rider in front.
IYSWIM 🙂

It used to be rubbish! There was a 'sticky draft' era where riders would break away at crazy speed and slam right into the draft of a random guy going 18mph!! Luckily they've smoothed it out since then.

Thanks for that clarification crosshair. I guess if I was actually holding say 240W and in the draft then those in front should theoretically be producing nearer 300W, is that correct?

I used First Person view in this race and actually found it a little easier to hold the draft position rather than yo-yoing so much.

What's your name on Zwift Harry (I'm E.Panter)?

S.Ram (No relation to the popular component manufacturer).

seeing the group behind me get ever closer! Had to man up for the last k...

Can't say we were giving much of a chase, no-one was willing to put in a shift (Certainly not me).

Looking forward to the next one, not tonight though, Curry house is calling.

Forza- In theory yes... but in practice no. It seems to give you draft right up to the point you pass someone, so the 4 wide group on the front are alternating so quickly that nobody ever hits the wind. Once the initial surge has finished, the bunch never seems to decelerate regardless of the lack of fresh watts on the front.

For some reason I've been demoted to 17th (from 9th) in Zwift Power and some of the stats have gone. Is that normal?

EDIT: Sorry I wasn't logged in to Zwift Power. All back to normal now.

I had a go at a race this evening. WBR flat thingy. Was fun - got in a decent sized group and we basically stayed together the whole way. I was nowhere near strong enough to drop them, but could stay on OK. Wasn't sure where the finish line was so didn't really sprint at the end. I didn't really have a clue whether the people in my bunch were in my category - many hadn't altered their names. Could some of them not even have been in the race?

One question: there was a distinct lag between me pushing on and my guy reacting. I'm using a pedal power meter, and probably have some smoothing switched on - does that affect the reactivity or just the displayed power?

There's a symbol to the left of their name which tells you which group they're in.

On the mobile link thingy or PC screen? (My screen is a bit too small / far away!)

It's in the list of riders nearby you in the panel on the RH side of the PC screen.

OK cool, thanks. I guess I need better eyes or a longer cable then!

Well after my strange experience the other night, when I became some turbo-charged demon, I returned to reality yesterday. Average power was back to human levels - it was fun while it lasted though!

I'm sure someone, somewhere is running an e-bike on Zwift. Maybe with a concealed motor. Have you checked inside your seat-tube recently? 🙂

Following on from an earlier post...

Any thoughts on how this will work as a very low cost way to try zwift

My non resistance rollers (though they seem to be plenty hard work..)

IPhone 7 running the zwift app, connected to a Bluetooth speed /cadence sensor on the bike

Set the app to undefined turbo (ie not undefined rollers) which seems to give me sensible speed for effort (eg similar to what I'd do on the road) - undefined rollers had me going at 4mph..

Pedal!

If that works then I will probably get an iPhone to hdmi cable so I can run it on a bigger screen

I've also noticed that I can run as various named (but not smart) turbos which also seem to give sensible speeds but will then not be limited to 400w ( though my legs might be...)

Thoughts?

Thanks 🙂

where do you live, nemesis - anywhere near Salisbury/Southampton ?

No, more Bristol way. Why?

I'm having minor surgery on Monday & will be off my trainer for at least a week so could've loaned it to you for comparison. Bit far for you to travel though, I assume

Thanks for the extremely kind offer but yes probably a bit far. I'm happy enough trying out my Heath Robinson method for now. So far it seems to work acceptably

I'm not used to riding rollers but I shudder to think about staying upright while watching my avatar on a screen, taking corners & such 😯

(I once jumped for a header while running in a gym & watching a football match)

Lol. I think I'll be ok with that. I know plenty of people who manage with smart rollers on it.

I think it would end up being frustrating Nemesis.
I may be wrong but even if it aligned nicely at one speed/power combo, it wouldn't necessarily match on the rest of the power curve.

It will certainly get you going but it wouldn't really get you racing or training with much consistency- which are the two biggest draws for most folks.

I imagine most people would agree that a smart trainer turns it from moving wallpaper into an immersive experience and worth every penny.

Just trying out Zwift on the trial and I am impressed so far. Will be signing up after Xmas when I am officially allowed the trainer 😆 (Tacx Vortex Smart). Means I can keep fitness levels up after changing jobs and not being able to commute on the bike at the moment.

Tried my first race last night (WBR 1 Flat Lap of London) as a C. My FTP test showed me as 294W and at 90kg I should have a w/kg of 3.2. The other Cs I was following on the warm up lap were putting out way in excess of that (3.5 - 4). Is that normal? Is the warm up lap part of the race, because it certainly felt like it?
Needless to say I was blown before the race started, so dropped out.
I'd like to get into the racing, but could do with some advice on how to start. Is it just a case of riding strictly to my own pace, or MTFU and go for it?

Decided to swap over to one of the training workouts (Wk3 FTP Builder), which went very well.

How can I find out the other STW users on Zwift? Would be nice to throw a few ride-ons to people I recognise on here. I'm P. Hunter

Warm up is part of the race. C races always have some rogues in the putting out too high a power etc. In theory, they're DQd in final results.

If you do a search on STW within Zwift, you'll find some of us.

Racing is a skill you improve at with time and practicing. You'll work out when to hold, when to pin it, when to slow and wait for bunch behind.

I seem to have broken my hand yesterday when on the way back from our 4th pub and 6 pints in. It was slippy! Had a high side and it's very delicate now! Oops!

Tried my first race last night (WBR 1 Flat Lap of London) as a C. My FTP test showed me as 294W and at 90kg I should have a w/kg of 3.2. The other Cs I was following on the warm up lap were putting out way in excess of that (3.5 - 4). Is that normal? Is the warm up lap part of the race, because it certainly felt like it?

Somehow I've ended up classified in A. Possibly my obsession with attacking short koms. I'm a poor B at best. Taken the edge off my racing!

Just going off W/kg I should be a low B, but for a first race I thought I’d be conservative. Didn’t even see the Bs.

Racing is a skill you improve at with time and practicing. You'll work out when to hold, when to pin it, when to slow and wait for bunch behind.

Is the warm up lap part of the race, because it certainly felt like it?

You only make that mistake once...

Weeksy - i assume the beers numbed the effect of pain when it happened. At least you can zwift one handed but sprinting might be an issue, you may have to learn the art of the long attack!

I'm only a middling group C racer (3.0 W/kg) and am finding it hard to hold the pace after the balls-out start. As I seem to be trying to recover from that for the rest of the race I have no sprint in me at the end either.

I think I'm going to try a more measured start in future races and at least sprint at the end to see how that goes.

I tries a one lap race tonight. 10K.
Warmed up for 10 mins, really just wanted to get a bit of peace from the kids. 3,2,1 and off we went. After maybe 30 seconds joined up with either a higher cat or a different race. Followed a cat C and rather than look at the figures just concentrated on holding his wheel. (thanks who ever said about pressing 3 to change the view. Much better) Got to the finish and tried to sprint failing miserably. Looking at the finishing table I was over the W/KG limits for D anyway. No way I could hold that for another lap mind.

So here is my question. Ought I do Cat C for one lap and D for longer races? What is the protocol here?

So here is my question. Ought I do Cat C for one lap and D for longer races? What is the protocol here?

In my limited experience I would say it depends what your FTP actually is. At 3.0 W/kg I'm theoretically middle group C but the longer the race, the harder it is to keep that power output going. The two longer races I have entered I have just about managed to hold 2.5 W/kg. What power you can maintain also depends if you manage to get in a group where you can substantially draft as well.

If you enter as group D though and do manage more than 2.5 W/kg then you should get bumped up to group C results anyway. Other more experienced racers might have a different view though.

I actually just noticed looking at my results, riders whole presumably entered as group D but were bumped up to group C but had a faster time than me were placed lower than me.

Is that how it works then? If you enter in the wrong group for your power output you get promoted to the next but effectively get penalised for that. Is that effectively a disqualification?

Did my first training ride this morning - just a short one but it worked fine - biggest issue being that the iPhone screen is too small as expected. Going to get a cable to allow me to connect to a TV and I reckon that'll be fine for starters.

Going to be having a bash at the KISS race tonight if anyone else is about.

Feel like crap but had a proper rest day yesterday so I'll see how it goes.

Bugger, 8th.

Won the sprint in my group but I just can't get over that first hill with the quick lads.

Probably didn't help that I'm 22kg heavier than one of them. I did put out some good numbers for 1 min/15s power though.

8th is still a bloody good result, nice riding and some big numbered stats too.

I was gong to look at some evening races this week as the wife is away but for the 4th weekend in a row i have developed a new lurgi on top of the existing one. I woke up this morning to discover i had lost my voice and welcomed back the illuminous snot which went missing 5 days ago. If well enough tomorrow i am going to try a very fast race to see if i get an extra power boost from all my snot rockets!

Have race organisers still not got the ability to amend the results on Zwiftpower? Seems to be a lot of races of late with people with higher power avg that than the limits.

I'm in a 'meh' of can't be bothered today for a race. I'll still be in on the pedals, but think it will just be a cruise around and putting some miles in.

Can't face a 4 lapper today, the 1 lapper seems too short to be worthwhile... so i'll just bimble round and pass the time.

edit.
Theres a KISS 6 lap volcano group ride at 10.50am 🙂 C pace, so will jump on that to have some company.

I'm in a 'meh' of can't be bothered today for a race. I'll still be in on the pedals, but think it will just be a cruise around and putting some miles in.

Weeksy I'll be passing close to your door about midday if you fancy joining me for a few miles 🙂

(Btw, is it snowy up your way? I may well head south today instead if it is. I also reserve the right to bottle it when the time comes today go zwifting instead!)

Edit... though [url= http://www.velominati.com/the-rules/#9 ]Rule #9 [/url] 🙂

LOL no chance thanks buddy. Me and you ride in very different worlds of ability.... you'd die of hypothermia by the time we'd done 10 miles.

No problem weeksy, I'll probably avoid heading north anyway as I think the roads are a bit more of a mess. Strong northerly too so probably east west route today.

Ended up on that ride, i thought it was 6 laps of Volcano CCW, but it transpired it was 6 laps of Volcano flat. ooops.

That made the ride 75km and i had no intention of doing that much. The instant chat failed about 10 mins in, so it ended up being a group ride but without any banter/chat sadly. The group started huge and people were gradually shelled out at regular intervals. Pace was pretty high and an average of 220w with a HR of average 138bpm, so i wasn't killing myself, but after a tough ride at the weekend with the locals, my legs were tired.
Just after the hour mark we passed 40km, so i threw my hand in there and bailed on the remaining 50 mins.

All in all, it wasn't a bad ride i guess.. passed the time and gave me some miles.

Ouch weeksy!! Speedy recovery!!

I think I’m done on the cycling front for this year, clocked 7,257 miles of which Zwift is c.30%. Good luck in your racing endeavours folks!

See ya next year 😆

7,567.4km

I'm wondering if it's possible to make a push and hit 8000 for the year.