Be magic if I could lose 10kg
However based on the wine & beer I have just consumed after & justified by that short effort says it’s unlikely
😂😂😂😂
Pizza chips and beer, I may be in C again soon at 105kg
Bloody Trophy hunters! I've just scoped the Newbury RR which I'm riding in an hour, to find that the C cat has only 7 entries, 4 of which are A or A+, and one is a B.
I've entered B this week (usually C) to see how I fare. In W/KG I line up mid pack so a lot depends on being smart and fit to the end.
An A+ in C cat? Thanks loopy, dropping a single cat I could maybe forgive but thats just cheeky
Jeeeez. I'm sitting here with my head spinning. Shaved 2 mins off my course PB to come 10th in B, 1:43 / 3.4wkg average and 6 mins faster than the C Gold.
Thats cemented me as a Cat B rider, so says Zwiftpower :D. Need Coffee....
Anyone on the Alpe at 3.35? Going to be lumbering up and try to tick the hour off.
Let us know how you get on Garry.
I missed the hour by 35 seconds this morning 😆
Did our club century this morning
Possibly the last as our lockdown gets relaxed .
We tagged onto the 7.30 3r on the waistband
Good ride but the pace got a bit wild from about 75k on. Mixed up with some big old sprints through fuegoflats.
Alpe on Tuesday.deeside Apr on Wednesday (if zwift get their act together and put us on critcity as requested)
Considering ticking off the final TFA tonight after jnrs in bed but we will see as legs are tired.
Trust you have seen this Gary
W/kg to get the time on the alpe. Pace your self is key. The alpe exposes burnt match sticks near the top exponentially.
2 w/kg: 90 minutes
2.5 w/kg 75 minutes
3 w/kg: 62 minutes
3.5 w/kg: 55 minutes
4 w/kg: 49 minutes
4.5 w/kg: 44 minutes
5 w/kg: 40 minutes
5.5 w/kg: 37 minutes
6 w/kg: 35 minutes
6.5 w/kg: 32 minutes
Yep Garry, I'll be there! I'll be K.Newman [STW/WKG]
Good luck on getting under the hour, you'll smash it, there's always a wheel to chase down which helps. In two minds whether to ride it as normal and try and shave a little of my best time or try and bury myself in the first twenty minutes of the climb in an attempt to up my FTP.
In fairness I'll probably cock-up both
Thks Trail_rat not seen that before - should be comfy with that but have to see what the legs are doing.
Will look out for you Kelvin (in the first 2 mins at least!)
Looks like you did the whole route in under and hour Garry so reckon you must have done the Alpe in 50-55?
Nice work!
Well mixed blessing for me.
Got a new FTP over 300 so nearly creeping me into A+ but had a major turbo overheating fail. Kept getting ten second drop outs and about 25 minutes in so had to turn it off and let it cool down. Which obviously screwed the race overall!
I think I might have to admit defeat and upgrade my turbo, I’m on the most basic Tacx Flow, without wanting to go mad spending cash am I better getting a cheap direct drive with an external power meter (pedals/crank) or going for a Kickr/Neo?
Accuracy and being able to handle climbs more important to me than loudness as in an insulated detached garage.
Also hoping mines not over-reading too dramatically! Would pointing a fan directly at the turbo help?
Id go Elite route again. Their direct drive units consistently get good reviews - I have had my Direto a couple seasons now and its been faultless.
Expect a big difference to your existing unit.
Yeah fully expecting a big drop!
Youd be mental to buy anything that isn't erg if your spending wheel off money.
Not seeing the attraction of a seperate power meter these days. Times have changed..
- I have a 4iiii and never crossed my mind to use it in place of the kickr
A solid 56.28 for me on the Alpe - rode it steady and ground out 320 - 330W for each section, 324W overall average. Pleased with that - felt close to my limit, and was definitely having to dig deep last 15 mins, but possibly there's a bit more there.
Good effort. What did the wheel of fortune bequith you with
Looking round feels like the chances of getting anything new from anywhere is pretty slim and plus lots of people trying to sell for new prices second hand. So I'll have a go seeing if blasting air at it helps.
I know when I upgrade likely my numbers are going to go down and under no illusions the current number is "true" but I hope it's at least accurate to itself, so I'm getting better compared to past me!
Kelvin,
If you can find a Kickr Core in stock anywhere, i can flog you a Snap for a reasonable price.
Now is not the time to buy a trainer - this lockdown, and good weather, has seen people get super bored and taken up cycling or jogging en mass🙄😳
Apparently bikes and indoor bike trainers are sold out most places .. or do the media is saying.
Yes - other people have commented on this thread previously about their power reading being different on a direct drive unit .. keep your fingers crossed it won't be too big a drop.
Good effort. What did the wheel of fortune bequith you with?
Thks, got some gloves for my efforts😂
Didn't expect to want to do it again (done it twice, steady last week and hard today), but it is a brilliantly rendered route. Best I've seen on zwift, so think I will persevere to get the wheels.
Did the Alpe this afternoon - dropped down from B to C, following my poor STW hare and hounds effort the other day. I subsequently realised that my power curve has dipped quite a bit from pre-lockdown.
Did it in 63mins, with 3 w/kg average. Surprisingly got silver in Cs on Zwiftpower.
Felt heavy legged and a bit 5h1t, so can only improve. 4w/kg seems a long way off though.
I'm thinking Crit at 14:35 tomorrow in B. Usual 8 laps of fun and pain. Git a small ride in morning with my boy so will be a decent workout. Will be back on the Parkwood which may hinder/help accordingly
Kelvin, I’ve just upgraded from a tacx flow to a wahoo refurbished kickr core on Friday. I wasn’t looking for refurbished but I’d been keeping my eye on all direct drive turbos particularly the elite direto x and the core. Obviously there’s been slim pickings for weeks and couldn’t believe it when one was showing in stock on the wahoo site. So far massively impressed it’s like night and day to the tacx. As for power loss I’ve not seen anything different in terms of numbers, in fact I just got 2nd(ZP) in the 17.05 3R tick tock flat race. So if you can get hold of one go for it I’m really glad I did.
That's reassuring Ljarch, gonna give the Flow another tilt at the Alpe today with a fan pointed at it and see if that helps.
Def gonna upgrade at some stage just a question of how urgently.
Looking into it more think I'm prob going to plump for the Core/Flow/Suito mid level though rather than Kickr/Flux high end
Morning Zwifters - i am just starting week 6 of the FTP Builder. I have quite enjoyed the structure of having to do certain sessions by fixed dates but I am not sure if my performance has noticeable improved. Can anyone recommend what I should do next? Ideally I would like to go on a nice long bikepacking adventure but that can't happen so should i look at another Zwift training programme, go for a long / short road ride (the countryside is rammed with people round here so off road is not much fun), do another FTP test (how long should i rest beforehand) joint a Zwift race, if so which one (Weeksy's are too fast for me) or try Sufferfest for some more training. Finally how do I get to the gravel courses on Zwift? many thanks
Kelvin - I'd definitely recommend a direct drive as first choice though; the Elite Suito looks a very good choice.
I swapped out my Tacx Vortex for a Saris H3 about 3 weeks ago. It’s night and day in terms of performance - makes the whole Zwift experience so much less frustrating when you’re not feeling like you’re fighting the trainer’s limitations, particularly on climbs and low cadence training sessions.
Jamin, we'll race in whatever Cat you fancy if you want company. All we get is a DQ from results, but who cares.
thanks Weeksy. I was finding on the flat empty sprint circuits once I fell off the back (after about 5 mins!) There was no one else around so it was a boring lonely ride. at least chasing the training numbers gave me something to aim for! it will be interesting to see if after the FTP builder i can keep up for 10 mins now!
entering 09:45 instead, not convinced my legs are in it
lol 35s i lasted and knew my legs didn't have it... so no point flogging myself 🙂
Jaminb unless you were already in pretty decent condition before starting if you’ve done six weeks of 3/4 structured sessions I’d be surprised if you haven’t seen a decent jump.
The question is how’d you wanna test it?
Did you do a test at the start, the fairest way is to test in the same way.
If you didn’t do a test at the start you’ve got a few different options.
Ramp Test - this is quick if a little brutal, if you’ve not done one before you’ll prob underperform as there’s def a knack to them.
There’s the long test, I wouldn’t bother as a you can do the same in a group ride or race.
I’d go for a race, enter in Cat D try as hard as you can for twenty minutes and then see if you’ve got anything left after that. A bunch of different routes to choose but I’d just chose the event with the biggest number of entrants so there’s plenty of wheels to chase to keep the motivation up
Oh and in terms of rest a day off b4 will be plenty and unless you’re feeling knackered do it today. If the numbers aren’t great you can’t use tiredness as a justification!
Anyone played about much with Intervals.Icu to analyse your Strava and Zwift performance?
I'd been using Elevate which does a lot of similar things about training load, but Intervals has a really nice "how does your power profile compare to others" feature that's interesting.
Really shows I do not have a sprint even in the slightest!
Can anyone suggest any Zwift workouts or other options that will help improve my general riding speed? I find I usually just freeride more or less at the same pace, I'd like to improve it but realize my 88kg weight will have an effect with W/KG.
I'm not looking at sprint improvement, just overall speed so that I can ride at around 3 W/KG, right now i'm more in the 2.5 bracket.
Is it the FTP workouts or are there better alternatives which will help?
Cheers!
https://whatsonzwift.com/workouts/tt-tuneup/ seemed a good, generalised improver for me when I started it in early Jan.
I've lost pretty much most of the benefits now, but that's another story!
Great...thanks for that n0b0dy0ftheg0at, did you manage to complete all 9 weeks? Did you start at the beginning or jump into it a few weeks in?
The 4-6wk FTP Builder is good and flexible enough to allow a bit of room for outdoor riding/the odd race.
Few sessions than the TT Tune Up I think
I started at the beginning, which I found a bit dull, but it soon got spicy!
Only reached day2 of final week before I started feeling really rough and stopped, but then some of that could have simply been fatigue, I was often throwing in one or two daily short races/TTs at race pace on top of doing the workout.
Cheers both of you!
I'm guessing only 3 of us entered means no TTT tomorrow?
Thought I'd best check before I plan to go out side and have some fun instead
I'm still up for it but if the numbers aren't there I'll go for a ride outside instead! It was bloody hot in the Zwift cave last week 😂
Sorry chaps gonna ride with WKG tomorrow, got bumped to A+ which would mean pulling the team into espresso cat as well.
I'll ride if needed, but it's not a course I enjoy or perform well at
OK, so far there are 4 of us signed up for tomorrow. No start time yet.
Weeksy would make 5. On the other hand, I don't blame dangeourbrain for bringing up the prospect of riding outside in the sunshine.
Anyone else tempted to sign up? When do people need to decide be (e.g if your alternative is a morning ride, we can hardly wait until lunchtime...)
Ah sod it, forecast is too good to resist.
I'm going to head out for a ride tomorrow so going to pull out of the TTT.
First ride on crit city tonight with deeside thistle cc and moray firth crit
That was a tough gig.
Seeing 500 watts all too often. One for the big power merchants.
Is the TTT flat-ish?
I'd be up for it tonight as I'm a single parent at the moment and getting outside is harder
Edit: oh! Just looked it’s Harrogate.... Ive entered but will be useless, sorry in advance, but at least I can make up the numbers
Is the TTT flat-ish?
Its locally flat if you zoom out far enough :D.
First ride on crit city tonight with deeside thistle cc and moray firth crit
That was a tough gig.
I did not enjoy that event! Crit city does not suit me. Languished back in fifth (A). The catch was never going to happen on that course.
We also had a huge turn out from the club's big guns- and some of the big guns who'd never done any racing on zwift so trying to break away on double draft by gradually increasing their power....... Only thing that will get you away on double draft is a real kick and about 4 folk working together
Never mind next week's on uci Harrogate.
Harrogate will suit me better. Nice bit of hill which is where the time tumbles.
Can anybody reccomend a Zwift training plan? (based on the below)
Basically I need to lose weight, if I could lose weight and keep my power I feel I'd be a reasonable cyclist.
I know I need to eat less.. that's a given! I've made quite a lot of progress this year already in many ways, my health, weight loss and my head are all in a much much better place than where I was late last year.
My FTP nearing the magic 300w (kinda muscle memory) so I don't need to increase this too much. However I'm 87kg and I'm 5'10(and a bit) so my weight should really be about 70-75kg
If I can get to 75kg and keep FTP at 300w then that tops the magic 4w/kg which for a fat Vet I'd be super happy with.
Anyway that's a long way of asking which training plan? (Sticking with Zwift)
OK the TTT looks like this tonight:
- in the pen by 18:33, our start time is +2.5 minutes, so 18:35:30. That's a nice short no-pedalling delay for once.
- there are 4 of us on the start sheet at the moment (me, phil56, tiger6791 and zilog6128 ). the link is here if you keep meaning to join us this evening - https://www.zwift.com/events/view/822309
see you on discord / in the pen.
Can anybody reccomend a Zwift training plan?
TT Tune-Up plan helped me improve my FTP from ~273W to 294W (using 95% of 20min effort) and go from ~79.5Kg to ~75.7Kg in mid Feb, having started early Jan. I was also doing regular 20-40min races and TTs at or near FTP.
I'm now back at ~79.5Kg as of today, having felt it unwise to carry on training hard during and after what was probably mild COVID-19. Managed to do the odd effort in early May, but each time it left me wrecked for days, so been taking it quite easy for the last couple of weeks.
TT Tune-Up plan helped me improve my FTP from ~273W to 294W
Was it the plan or just the volume of riding it brought on
If weight loss is the objective choosing a plan you stick with is more important than the content of the plan if that sort of makes sense?
So if racing a Crit every evening gets you motivated that's just as legit as any of the plans. The key is not getting bored after a fortnight.
I'm down from 91.kg at the beginning of October to 63.6KG as of this morning, Zwift was a big part of that (initially turbo, then treadmill now back to turbo)
But realistically it was getting my diet in a better place that had the biggest impact.
For me that was cutting out the booze and trying to form some good habits around food, rather than the bad ones I had, So it was as soon as I wake up eat one of these so by the time I left the house I couldn't justify eating a sausage roll for breakfast any more, like I used to.
What the breakfast was sort of didn't matter it was about the new habit, Does that sort of make sense?
The big one though was actively tracking my weight, I've a Google Spreadsheet which I've updated everyday since I started 1st October last year, I did a month or so then just ran a trend line forward until I had holiday booked back in Feb and made sure I stayed near that line.
And the good news is changing the KG bit of WKG will have a mega impact in Zwift with the Watts you've got already.
Great TTT, tough course that (for me anyway 😂). Flats were comfortable, but lumps were (well) over my FTP trying to stay with the group, so some nice interval training 😀 Great job staying together/regrouping too, always tricky on the hills especially with other teams coming through! Good work all. 👍
Enjoyed tonight's TTT thanks, really needed it, I know we weren't the quickest but it was good fun and we stuck in there together.
If weight loss is the objective choosing a plan you stick with is more important than the content of the plan if that sort of makes sense?
Agreed, I also kinda looking to a plan to give me some structure.
But realistically it was getting my diet in a better place that had the biggest impact.
Yep, working on that, lost 14kg since Jan
And the good news is changing the KG bit of WKG will have a mega impact in Zwift with the Watts you’ve got already.
It's a ways been a niggle ini the back of my mind that my chub has been hiding a capable rider underneath somewhere.
Ahh sounds like you're already pretty far along the journey, sorry if I was being a bit "teaching grandma to suck eggs"
I think with the plans then I'd start by working out how many days a week you wanna do as that'll immediately rule some out, i.e. TT Tune up is 6 work-outs a week, that doesn't leave much room for anything else!
And how much do you like cadence drills because some like Build Me Up seem to me like cadence drills or threshold rides that are really cadence drills, which never work for me!
I did the TT with WKG and was a bit of a car crash for me, did some sprints in the warm up where I think I went too hard, trainer took ages to wake up so killed myself getting into the group and then was either out the front or off the back the whole way around! (Even more than usual)
I have a really (I mean really poor) cadence discipline.
Hard one last night on the TTT - managed one lap and the first hill before getting dropped off, which was always on the cards.
Think a short rest from the zwift racing is needed for me, wouldn't have said I was doing too much but the top end is feeling flat. Going to go steady for the next couple of weeks, maybe just do the TTTs as races.
52nd in class (141 teams) last night. Well done team STW. You do certainly seem to do better when I'm not there.
52nd doesn't seem bad? I thought we were well off our previous pace last night, I was nowhere near as destroyed as I have been.
Right I've signed up for the Intermediate 'Build me up' plan - 12 weeks @ ~5hr per week.
If you don't mind I'm going to use you lot to keep me honest and do a very dull weekly report on the training and how I'm getting on.
My weight as of today is 87kg & my 'fictional Zwift created' FTP is 296w
Right I’ve signed up for the Intermediate ‘Build me up’ plan – 12 weeks @ ~5hr per week.
What's your thoughts on schedule? Finding 5 hours a week on top of other riding strikes me as a pita which is why I've not signed up for one yet.
I've debated trying to do something in the mornings as it seems* I can do training plans as part of a group meet up so might put sticky group on for commute club and see about fitting it in that way.
*I've not looked into it but seen enough "urgh training plan on a group ride" comments to think it's doable somehow.
@Tiger6791 52nd seems good to me!! Although the flats seemed easy (to me), I was working REALLY hard on the hills, and that's where you make up time on a hilly course like that. Plus we did a really good job of keeping together, so while it might've seemed slow when you had to keep waiting for us 😉 it made the team faster overall... last week I had to ruin myself a couple of times making up the gap which had developed, which doesn't help in the long game.
It's a team effort so we go together, it wasn't that it seemed slow it just seemed that based on the previous efforts I didn't feel to work as hard which was odd as I was dreading the lumpy course falling off the back and the elastic snapping.
On the previous 2 TTT i've been chucking 300w just to hang onto the coat tails in the draft and totally broken by the last 5km last night was a lot more comfortable.
1st one I did on 7th - 1hr 8mins - 256w Av (found that tough)
14th - 57mins - 280w Av
Last night 52mins - 262w Av
What’s your thoughts on schedule? Finding 5 hours a week on top of other riding strikes me as a pita which is why I’ve not signed up for one yet
Yeah same thoughts, but somehow I seem to find more than that on bloody screentime so I'm telling myself to just get on with it, be a better person and carve out the time from pointless stuff.
@Tiger6791 I think the rolling nature of the course made it a bit more tactical... recover slightly on the flat then smash the hills for max gainz 😃 Like you say, probably actually an easier ride overall vs just going full chat for an hour on a flat course. Funny as a lot of people were scared off by the prospect of a few hills 😉
https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=826129
Bit disappointed in that, i wanted another 15-20w average really.
zilog6128
Subscriber
@Tiger6791 I think the rolling nature of the course made it a bit more tactical… recover slightly on the flat then smash the hills for max gainz 😃 Like you say, probably actually an easier ride overall vs just going full chat for an hour on a flat course. Funny as a lot of people were scared off by the prospect of a few hills 😉
I wasn't scared - I was being selfless and sacrificing for the good of the team!
(I was scared)
Thursdays TTT was our best yet.
Everyone complains about hills but it suits us better compared to the competition.
Our core 5 riders only and most are under 75kg and I've generally got the power to hang on the smaller hills.
Mind you I went from combfortable to the end of lap one and then suddenly clinging on. Only just got over the KOM second time but managed to rally to do some big pulls at the end. Almost top half of Frappe. and considering it's 3 low/mid Bs and one higher B and me the lowly C that's good. The top teams all have 2 or 3 A riders.
Not expecting as good as a result in London next week.
I did have designs on getting into the Latte Premier League but people kept getting upgraded :0(
We're entered in this week's TTT. Thursday, 6.30pm, 1x 31km lap of Greatest London Flat.
Riders - please enter category A (yes, we're back in pen A) here: https://www.zwift.com/events/view/847415
Then make sure (STW) is appended to your rider name in zwiftpower settings.
I'll be back with start time, more details, discord link if necessary, etc later in the week.
I'll be a maybe.... The course isn't too bad for me but depends on injury recovery...
Optimistic maybe.
Thanks Savoyad - I’ve entered
im not intervalling tonight nor am i racing tomorrow night. Could put in a shift on Thursday if you want .
B cat 3.8w/Kg
I'm in!! 🚴♂️🚴♂️🚴♂️🚴♂️🚴♂️We’re entered in this week’s TTT. Thursday, 6.30pm, 1x 31km lap of Greatest London Flat.
I've thrown me hat in
I was feeling a bit low today, but as my leg didn't feel bad I jumped on the 3:45 Crit.
https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=843981
It went ok. Sat in the lead group until lap 6 and I saw it was going to split apart, so i held my power instead of kicking for the lead bunch, which I think was the right plan as I don't think I'd have hung in.
That went ok too and we had a decent battle for the minor placings. All in all, fairly happy