Zwift, my journey, my weight and my fitness.

No it’s crazy! The fact there’s no average speed pees me off too.

Luckily these days I only have to do what Coach Chad and ERG mode tells me 😆

Would be really nice to have a lap timer function for ad-hoc intervals with customisable stats on the dashboard (e.g. avg lap power, split time, etc.) I can do this on the Garmin... but then I end up with two data files. Am I the only one who thinks this is a PITA?

You may not be the only one 😉 But i'm not one 🙂

London expansion.

cool, have a recovery ride planned tonight ahead of potentially doing my first CVR WC race tomorrow so will check out the new route & climb!

As an aside, has anyone done running on Zwift with a treadmill?! I might keep an eye on eBay for a cheap local commercial treadmill to add to my gym setup, inspired partly by the sub-20 min 5k thread on here but also by learning there's a Wahoo gizmo that will (potentially, at some stage; not a lot of info out there at the moment!) allow Zwift to control the gradient in the same way that it does for bike trainers (and even the speed for workouts, apparently!)

The most annoying race ever this morning. I did a nice long warm up by going up the mountain beforehand and was ready to do battle. Fast out of the gates but in a controlled wattage and all joined up at the front with the A’s and HR still quite low. So we are going at a fast pace but i was nicely towards the front and getting a bit of draft. Just heading to the sprint banner when everyone started going sideways and then everyone disappeared except me so i carried to the hill and sprinted up there at nearly 500w. Everyone suddenly came back on screen and it put me 30secs behind the front group! Now that is impossible as they were only off screen for about 20s and i was pulling nearly 500w for most of that. Zwift had f@cked up my race when i was in with a shot of staying with the A group, i turned the air so blue. It wasnt my set up causing this as i had no network dropout and i have fibre at over 100mb and i was only 10ft from the router. So incredibly annoying and it did it again for a few seconds toward the end of the race. Lets hope the increase in subs goes to stabilising the platform.

EDIT: it also hasnt registered me wearing my hrm so i am not even in the results, i have been filtered!

Damn shame mate. In Zwifts defence i've not had that for a very very long time i must admit. I do see the odd person drop out temporarily but it's quite rare.

Mine today was 90mins at fairly low intensity, although it didn't feel it at times as i plodded up the mountain at 2.2-2.3w/kg. Maybe i need more than just 1 day a week off...
Today was a fasting day, yes, i'm back on the 5-2 again as the weight had snuck up over the past 3 months. This time i'm actively trying a bit more than just that though, so have removed a certain amount of the bad stuff on the 5 eating days, just the Latte here, the Crisps there, replacing them with a banana or indeed nothing, along with a bit of portion control with Mrs Weeksy and less Carbs than usual for a meal.
How that will end up going, i have no idea. However, really the amount of hours/riding i'm putting it tells me i shouldn't have such a weight struggle so really need to improve my overall eating/lifestyle.

weeksy,

As is usual at this time of year there are a number of dieting programs on TV. One that I caught the tail end of was on BBC2 "Tom Kerridge's Lose Weight For Good".

I don't need to lose weight but I still found the recipe's quite interesting and will probably end up trying a few. I especially liked the look of the muffins and the chicken. You can see the first episode on iPlayer:-

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/programmes/b09l5mfr

And the second program is on BBC2 Wednesday 20:00

The recipes are on the BBC website as well.

Yeah we've got that recorded to watch as the wife likes him as a chef, i think she ordered his new book on Amazon last week 🙂

But thank you.

No it’s crazy! The fact there’s no average speed pees me off too.

I suppose Zwift is what it is, and they're always going to focus on the virtual riding experience above, say the demands of people who would like it to be a serious racing environment or training tool. And from my point of view, some of they stuff they choose to put in compared to stuff they leave out is quite puzzling, but I guess they have a plan.

Luckily these days I only have to do what Coach Chad and ERG mode tells me

All you have to do is pedal 😉

Yes! Pedal and win the internal battle against RPE 😆

There are so many discussions on FB about how bad w/kg is for grouping people together for example and the simple addition of average speed would cure it all!
Ride at an intensity, see what that equates to as average speed for a lap and bingo- you now have an objective means to see if someone else’s group ride will suit you!

As you say, they seem to have a roadmap and limited resources to follow it so I’ve given up worrying!

To be honest, if times got hard, Zwift would be the first subscription to go now.

Gave my self a nice easy introduction to Zwift a bit earlier on the 7 day free trial, ~2200 feet to the radio mast and back! 😆

Couldn't get my Bluetooth HRM to link up via the Android app; couldn't see how to adjust the gradient simulation to 85% so the big climb used the full range of my Direto's 14% simulation; stupidly didn't turn the fan on; didn't have fluid to hand...

Yesterday's 2000 feet of hill reps on the Wazoo in ~1hr10mins were far easier in terms of effort than this ~1hr17mins! 😆

I did the Tour de Zwift Stage 2 tonight; had some faffage with the network and nearly missed the start of it, but just got there.

I'm a bit of a novice at Zwift racing, and as I may have mentioned before, sit with about an FTP of 240 (I'm 73kgs).

I'm using an Apple TV4, and while I could find the event well enough, I couldn't seem to select anything other than "A" for my category. There's maybe something obvious that I missed, but A was the only selectable option, so off I went.

I must have been DQ'd or something though, as I managed to do the 16.3 miles in 41 or so minutes, but the results thing says "WKG" in big grey letters. I'll wait a bit and see if it appears, I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong.

MY ZP results page is here if anyone has any ideas:

https://www.zwiftpower.com/profile.php?id=224442

everyone started going sideways and then everyone disappeared except me so

I was in a race once where I had a dropout. When the thing woke up I was fifty yards back like you. Shortly afterwards, a faster rider (I think it was that Llama geezer) came past me and so I drafted him back to the bunch. He tried to get a breakaway group going off in front but I wasn't up to it so stayed with the bunch and finished with them all.

Afterwards, zwift or ZP seemed to ignore my 50 yards of droppage and instead decided that I'd finished fifty yards ahead of the bunch (presumably because it "saw" me ride the remainder of the race 50 yards faster than the bunch 😕 ❓

Tried signing up for the tour de zwift tonight but by the time the “join event” popped up it had already started, was fuming as I was kinda looking forward to it all day.

Then decided on a workout as the above failed, half way through zwift stopped and had to restart, couldn’t resume the ride so I had to stop 🙁

Took 2 fails as a sign to get off the bike and cook some tea.

Sounds like a bad day all round for Zwift. Mine was life related though!

I was looking forward to a nice 5 laps of volcano flat today in lieu of my commute then some bugger booked a meeting in at short notice so I had to can that 2 laps in.

No bother, i can get a ride in later while i'm home alone but no, i'm still working now, bastards.

I couldn't seem to select anything other than "A" for my category. There's maybe something obvious that I missed

although it may just all be weight of numbers; we had 6,000 plus the other day when I had a quick ride

Well my TDZ worked at least.

Although i got dq'd last race in cat C i thought thats where I'd try again as i had a 5 hour day in the saddle yesterday and felt pretty stiff.

The start was bonkers as per and found myself right at the front of the group. Dropped back in with the intention of minimal wattages to hold enough wheels to finish top 200. This was my first time having a go at a race that hasn't been an all out suicide mission. I thought I was riding pretty smart with lots of time to recover and get the watts sub 2w/kg to bring the average down. Once the first 10 mins was out the way people stopped overtaking and i was still top 50 to my surprise.

To cut a long story short I finished feeling really good and worked but not overly and could have kept that pace going for double distance. The biggest shock though was that I averaged 3.5w/kg and put another 2w on my ftp so DQ again but amazed and very happy my numbers have risen again. I'm unsure if I'd be able to do the 3 sisters course in cat B but the shorter races I'll need to upgrade. Really enjoyed the race as it had some elevation so wasn't a glorified time trial.

The biggest shock though was that I averaged 3.5w/kg and put another 2w on my ftp so DQ again but amazed and very happy my numbers have risen again.

Thats brilliant!

Enjoyed the TDZ today, but there were a LOT of riders.
Tried to avoid disqualification by riding at a sensible wattage (280 I think). Turned out that was higher than Saturday's ride, but I went off too quick then and suffered later. Finished feeling relatively fresh.
Finished in 207th place in C (47:26).
May stick to the same pace for Saturday's ride.

Fastest C finished in 33:17 with an average 2.4w/kg??? Does weight have that much of an advantage? He was 10kg less than me.

As a lowly level 7 it was nice to ride the Mayan Ruins part of the route.

I'm finding it hard to stick with a group pace, is there a knack to it? I tend to catch, overshoot, back off slightly and drop out the back again.

I'm a bit confused about all this keeping wattage down, surely if you're capable of putting out that W/KG just go in at the correct cat and race as hard as you can rather than just sandbagging in a lower cat?

Every race i've done in Zwift has been flat out near puking or falling off the turbo at the end of it. There's loads of nice rides if you want a structured ride without going full gas. The 2W/KG for 1 hour rides are a good laugh. PretzHell, not so much 😀

I've just found myself in 'unfiltered results', with a time of 46:49, with "+02.25" added on to my time. Oddly enough it shows me as a 'D', although it made me select 'A' at the start....I have absolutely no idea whats going on now!

Anyway.....it was fun, and very tough. I enjoyed the Mayan Ruins as well TTP.

Im just trying to learn to pace myself, my last race was the first time I hadnt been significantly dropped - average hr was 7bpm lower than my max and was a mess all day long from it.
In my opinion it's a learning process and just working out what I can and can't do at the moment

The new indicators at the start of each sprint/KOM section are very welcome (and long overdue!)

codybrennan - Member
I've just found myself in 'unfiltered results', with a time of 46:49, with "+02.25" added on to my time. Oddly enough it shows me as a 'D', although it made me select 'A' at the start....I have absolutely no idea whats going on now!

If i'm reading your posts correct you entered the type of race that's 'open' cat. Which it then filters you into the correct actual Cat itself at the end based upon your power (or possible your CVR ranking). You then finished 2mins 25s behind the Cat winner, hence the 2.25.

As to why you're unfiltered, i'm not sure.

Did TdZ stage two as well. Mine also crashed just before the start but managed to reconnect. After DQ from stage 1 in C i selected B this time. Thought I was pacing ok but never saw any B’s and the road was full of D cats and a few C so reckon I must have missed the start as I rode at 3.6 average in the end and still ended up 207th in B. Shall see how I fair in the next one, didn’t feel quite as brutal without those of a similar pace around me and I just sorta plugged away til the line, but I also added 2w to ftp supposedly so a good end result.

rmgvtec - Member

Im just trying to learn to pace myself, my last race was the first time I hadnt been significantly dropped - average hr was 7bpm lower than my max and was a mess all day long from it.
In my opinion it's a learning process and just working out what I can and can't do at the moment

If you can pull over 3.2w/kg on the flat you can do it up hills too. You're definitely a B. Pacing better will only make you perform better, maybe not in a pure w/kg but in a race where you are able to recover from the intial effort and have more left for the end. If you haven't done a normal race with far less people in it with a bit of hiding and assuming you get in the right group from the start you'll be comfortably in the top half of B with that kind of output. You'll still be screwed afterwards ;0)

Finally I've been put in a division that's not Rookie on CV rankings. Wouldn't take a lot to get into the top 100 of Div 4 whatever that would actually mean!

Taking a break from Zwift racing to follow a Trainer Road program based against my actual outside racing goal. Might substitute a race in now and again once I've settled into it. Struggled on Sundays session after a hard 2 hour MTB ride.

Sounds like i did something wrong with the signing up then. Must have clicked something on the iPad, originally signed up on mobile link.

Gonna give the PACK event a go tonight and see if that works.

PretzHell, not so much

It’s all in your head! Watopia Pretzel is my favourite route at the minute.

Fastest C finished in 33:17 with an average 2.4w/kg??? Does weight have that much of an advantage? He was 10kg less than me.

no, but drafting in a fast pack has a huge effect.

@scaled - I maybe didn't word that so correctly. The limiting of wattage was mainly to make sure I would finish. 280w is just shy of my ftp. Nothing to do with sandbagging, as I'm not racing. It's the first time I've ridden these courses, so not sure of the correct pacing as yet and going relatively cautiously.

@jambo - I'll have to get the hang of drafting as he was 10 minutes ahead of third. 😀

Fastest C finished in 33:17 with an average 2.4w/kg??? Does weight have that much of an advantage? He was 10kg less than me.

Lol. I was there doing intervals at 3.8w/kg and there was a guy drafting me showing 2.1w/kg - it was quite disheartening.

Lol. I was there doing intervals at 3.8w/kg and there was a guy drafting me showing 2.1w/kg - it was quite disheartening.

But that means you can draft someone at 4.5 🙂

My fastest laps of the Volcano CCW have been at what would be 4w/kg if i were solo, but i was in a bunch of B/C's and flying along putting out only 2.7w/kg. It works both ways.

weeksy - Member

If i'm reading your posts correct you entered the type of race that's 'open' cat. Which it then filters you into the correct actual Cat itself at the end based upon your power (or possible your CVR ranking). You then finished 2mins 25s behind the Cat winner, hence the 2.25.

As to why you're unfiltered, i'm not sure.

Ah, that makes sense- thanks weeksy.

This morning I see I'm in the results, seems like it was just updating.

I can see how addictive this is going to be 🙂

codybrennan - Member
This morning I see I'm in the results, seems like it was just updating.

That's quite common... we sometimes need to give it an hour or 3 before the full results are in place

I couldn't stand the tension 🙂 thanks though, will keep that in mind for future things.

Its put me in as I think a Cat D, with a time of 46:49, 95%= 3.2w/kg, Avg power of 246W/3.4W/kg.

I have no real idea whether any of that is any good or not (I'm a month shy of 50, 73kgs in weight, 5' 8"), but I do [i]feel[/i] faster, so I'll be happy to use these as base numbers to go on with.

Ambition wise is really just to get into a solid Cat C position I think, keep the fitness up over winter and into spring, and get a bit better placed in the CX races I've been doing.

3.4 W/Kg is firmly in B.

jam bo - Member

3.4 W/Kg is firmly in B.

Really? There's no way I'm that quick. I'll investigate, and do a bit more testing to see that I'm recording this all correctly. Cheers jam bo

3.4 W/Kg is firmly in B.

This.

B is 3.2-4W/KG average.

I'm on the border between B and A but always enter A, DQ's really, really suck and in a race you always seem to be able to dig a little deeper than you think 😀

Really? There's no way I'm that quick. I'll investigate, and do a bit more testing to see that I'm recording this all correctly.

As you are reasonably light at 73kg and near the bottom end of a category you'll need to hone your Zwift racing skills! It'll be tough as you'll be racing against people who are 80+ kg and near 4 w/kg so FTP of 320+ watts which is a lot more power than you. So you'll find it hard on the flats unless you're good at hiding as others will have a lot more power (probably near threshold just to stay in their draft.) And you'll find it hard on the hills as you're at the bottom end of w/kg scale. Good luck 😀

mrblobby - Member
So you'll find it hard on the flats

I already am, now that you come to mention it- cheers for the advice 🙂

TBH, my ambitions are fairly modest. I'm well over the hill now, and this is primarily intended to maintain fitness for me. Anything else is a bonus.

I’d not rated myself performance wise but I’m thinking I might give a race a go shortly and see what happens based on the above. To those of you with experience doing them - do the longer ones tend to be a bit less committed due to the time they run for, or is it the case that pace stays high regardless, you just have to suffer for longer?

do the longer ones tend to be a bit less committed due to the time they run for, or is it the case that pace stays high regardless, you just have to suffer for longer?

You'd think they'd be less intense/easier wouldn't you... but not really.

Admittedly, if i do a WBR 10km race, i'll finish on 295-300w If i do a 30km i'll put in 275-280w, if it's a 42km, i'm more list 260w.

Sure, it's 40w... Or heck, it's only 40w.... LOL... Depends how you look at things.

It's not the whole story though, it's the kicks in power, especially late on, it's the surges with 3-4km to go and people just wham up the power..

Not sure that helps.

Depends on the group you end up in. Going off hard get's you in a better group which makes it harder for the entire race. I found I got dropped if setting off too enthusiastically and dropping back to the group behind on lap 2 of 4. Going off at a more sensible pace, still quite hard, got me into the right group which I probably would fall back to. BUT if I can get my recovery in with the harder group and hold on I'll do a lot better...
3 lap races of about 45 minutes suit me best. 1 lap was fun too but. All are flipping hard if you want to make it so.