Zwift, my journey, my weight and my fitness.

Provisionally 30th, Strava is very slow to update - must be getting bombarded!

Looking at the stats no wonder I died a little!

How did you find it crosshair?

Little disaspointed that I could only see/talk to people in my category, would have been fun to see all 400 riders! Well for the 9 miles I had a screen.

andeh
I feel like a caterpillar, getting ready to beast all my mates when I escape the winter cocoo

Haha good I like.

Hmm. Still some annoying issues with my Kickr Snap. Lost all resistance during the ZSUN chaingang ride so I was hitting 110rpm to make the required watts. I attempted a fix but lost the pack.

So I regrouped and set off up the Mountain for KISS B and my first proper B race. I'm certainly not a B-Cat climber, that's for sure 😀
I finished about 66/93 I reckon.

Just did my first ever Zwift race, the course didn't suit me at 95kg but I pushed far harder than I would if I wasn't racing. Had a good race with a Chris Deacon, is that anyone on here?
Why do I struggle to get my HR up compared to on the road, yet my legs hurt more? My cadence was normal 80-100

Wahoo Blue SC Bluetooth and Ant+ sensor on Amazon lightening deal at the moment if anyone is interested. £33.99 down from £49.99

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Wahoo-Cadence-Sensor-Android-Computers/dp/B00NW882KM

95kg-ish as well. Week 2 of Zwift for me and thoroughly enjoying it although tonight's race was hard.

it was my first one tonight(Kiss 8pm)entered as D, but found myself with mostly C riders what's the score with the results ?

@cheers_drive no-one knows exactly why HR tends not to come as high indoor.
Two common theories are:
A) you're not using your core/support muscles to balance indoor.
B) you don't get distracted in the same way by steering/potholes etc, and with the lack of distraction the only thing to focus on is the pain and whilst it feels terrible, you aren't going as hard as you think.

it was my first one tonight(Kiss 8pm)entered as D, but found myself with mostly C riders what's the score with the results ?

I'll reckon b although the engagement in Zwift should cancel that out to some degree. My HR step wouldn't pair tonight so I don't know the exact but it felt sub 150bpm

If your w/kg (based on 95% of your best 20mins in the race) is over 2.5w/kg you will be taken out of the results. I can't remember if KISS will put you in the C category results or not. A lot of the backmarkers in the C category will be borderline C/D so may be lower than 2.5 anyway.

I quite enjoyed racing on the mountain for a change. Managed to keep a steady pace up on the climb, then went for the TT bike switch at the top, caught and passed someone on the descent, managed to catch a second, but I couldn't keep up with him on the flat. There was a group of 5 about 20secs ahead of me at the end, but I just couldn't catch them. I think there will be a few people moved out of the category after that one.

That wahoo sensor looks the double of the bontrager one i have which is typically less than £50 online.

I noticed most riders had KISS (C) after their name but I didn't, am I supposed to change my name for each race?

I don't think it is enforced in that race, everyone was in the same category. It is only needed when everyone is mixed up, or in the days before the event module. I always change mine out of habit. Just make sure you Strava file has KISS (C ) in the title.

just looked on Zwiftpower in 209 place i'll try cat C next time

I've lurked on this thread for a week now. Made the jump and bought a T2240 (with BC discount down to £170, natch!) today and tried it out with my wife's MacBook, a 3m USB extension lead and a £10 Amazon ANT+ dongle this evening.

Brilliant!!

I downloaded the Mobile Link app but couldn't work out how to use it to turn left or right at junctions, so ended up on Watopia heading left past the crashed aircraft and... up a mountain. I'm one of those weirdos who quite likes climbing, so despite the little screen and the lack of riders around me, I just carried on getting stuck in and powering it out, changing down a couple of gears and standing up when the mood took me and sitting down, changing back and spinning when that got tiring (much like I do on a real mountain, really).

But the result was amazing - there is no way I'd ever have been bothered to keep going for that long at that intensity in any other turbo session! I even found myself pushing harder than I'd planned to for the last km just because Zwift started showing me possible places on the live leaderboard for that climb!

Thank you for inspiring me to take the plunge. I think the Tacx reads a little high on the power output, I'm going to fit the Stages to the bike tomorrow and use the readings from that, but that was easily the best turbo session I've ever done and I'm actually looking forward to the chance to do more.

One newbie question that I may have missed the answer to in the 15-ish pages of the thread that I've skipped: what's the deal with cadence? Even though Zwift detected my Garmin crank cadence sensor, the cadence shown in the game and the on-screen cadence of my little guy was at times completely different from my own physical cadence.

@leeroybrown I think KISS will automatically upgrade you to C as at 3.0w/kg your right at the top of C.

@pierre welcome to zwift 🙂 You may need to download the Tacx ultility app to update the trainer and to calibrate how tight you have the rear wheel, if not done already. The difference in cadence is due to the limitations of the turbo trainers - they can only do a certain % incline, after that it's adjusted on screen. You can adjust this slightly by moving the realism setting from the default 50% to 100% in the options, expect to down change a lot.

I can't believe how dead I am after that, without a bloody screen it was just a long hilly TT on a non TT bike 🙁

What are folk doing this evening? I'm thinking the 10 mile KISS TT at 8pm

Drinking beer and go-karting.

@Pierre - please report back when you've compared the power from Stages to the power from Tacx Flow (T2240). I've got the same trainer but no power meter and I too suspect it may be a bit high. The specs say this base model only has "<10% accuracy" tolerance so individual units could differ quite a lot.

Don't forget though that the drive train typically accounts for ~5W of loss, so power at the crank *should* be a little higher than the power at the rear wheel.

The cadence on-screen SHOULD match the cadence on the trainer - BUT I think you need to use the Cadence from the Tacx (which broadcasts speed, cadence and power on both ANT+ and Bluetooth channels). What I've noticed is that the Tacx Cadence readings from my unit is only accurate above ~50rpm, below that it's all over the place (probably sampling rate).

Hopefully the other way round? 😆

By the way weeksy, do you use myfitnesspal? It was great for me when losing weight, as I made sure it was controlled. Well until I was really ill and it was out my hands lol.

Interesting, thanks all - I'll report back tonight. I have a hunch that the battery died in my cadence sensor fairly early on in the session and Zwift started using whatever algorithm they use when people don't have cadence sensors but do have power to animate the little guy on the screen. Doing 90rpm seated on the bike and seeing my guy standing up and groaning out about 50rpm was a little weird!

@dc2.0 I suspect that the Tacx is giving higher readings than my actual power output, so I'd expect the Stages to be a bit lower... we'll see tonight - I'll also try @nathb's suggestion, I hadn't thought of that.

...and another newbie question, sorry - why _wouldn't_ you play with 100% realism? I did wonder why I didn't need to change gear as much.

so, I've got an 'analog' turbo trainer (Tacx basic model which is 2/3 years old.
It has no 'connectivity' functions.

Can I use it with Zwift if I buy one of these?

[url> https://www.amazon.co.uk/Wahoo-Cadence-Sensor-Android-Computers/dp/B00NW882KM
> https://www.amazon.co.uk/Wahoo-Cadence-Sensor-Android-Computers/dp/B00NW882KM
[/url]

Sorry for the dumb question but I know nothing about this, but want something to make using the turbo more interesting, and accurately recording my results.

Pierre, I generally set the realism on my Neo to 50%. The bike I have set up on it has a 1x9 drive train. At 100% I would grind to a halt on the steep climbs, and spin out on the descents.

Freeagent, as long as Zwift supports your turbo then yes the gadget you link to will let you get on Zwift. There is link of supported trainers on the Zwift home page. You need to be using a normal 700cc wheel for it to work properly on Zwift.

@freeagent Yes - that should work fine if you've got Bluetooth on your computer. It's the same one lots of other people are using.

Final results from yesterday 8pm race are up. All I can say is I didn't come last and there is plenty of room for improvement 😉
A flatter course next time hopefully.

The results are up: http://www.zwiftpower.com/v2/race.php?id=1970

25th @ 4.69w/kg!?!

By looking at the numbers and strava fly by I've learnt a lot, I need to race a [b]LOT [/b]smarter. There was a few times in the first 5 or so miles that I was leading, I should have kept mid pack and saved energy by drafting. After 6-7 miles I backed off a bit too much and got stuck in a much smaller group than the main group leading, who started to increase the gap further and further. I have no idea what happened after the 9 mile marker (discovered that team viewer crashed on my PC). 😥

Come on Zwift, release the iOS app already! 🙄

Your w/kg are more than double mine nathb!
I'm using a dumb trainer so don't know how accurate it is having never used a power meter. I doubt mine is that low though.
I flew out of the blocks in CAT D and was 5th until the climbing started, ended up 21st. My profile was 1kg to heavy as I lost weight since I joined 2 weeks ago, not sure how much difference that would make.

@cheers_drive yeah 1kg would definitely help, particularly uphill! If you link your profile to strava it gives you more power stats etc.

I've just looked at Cat D, shouldn't most them be in C? Most are above 2.5wkg+ threshold. 😐

I didn't think that just 1kg would make much of a difference, I'll need to check my settings then.

Really enjoying it now. There is no way I would have previously spent the best part of 2 hours on a turbo trainer. Even tried a sprint section this morning. 3rd on the list... happy with that! Althought zwift seems to top out its power at 1200W for me on my cycleops fluid 2. Couldn't get it above that level ( couldn't maintain it either! 🙂 )

Yeah, even the Feather Weight boost only reduces riders weight by 8lbs/3.64kg.

Bah, inspired by this thread I tried to download Zwift onto my ageing Dell laptop last night and it seems it can't cope with the graphics.

Anyone seen any HD4000 equipped bargains knocking about?

How much to you want to spend ?

Apologies if this question is already covered in this thread, but I've not had time to read it all as yet.

Inspired by what I have read so far, I have ordered a Tacx Flow T2240 and while I am waiting for it to turn up I just wanted to check that I can use it with just a bluetooth connection either via my phone or with my laptop if it supports bluetooth v4.0?

Assuming I am correct here, is there any functionality that I will be missing vs using an ANT dongle?

Thanks

@mlpinto use the mobile link app on your phone and it'll be fine as long as your heart rate sensor and any other sensors you want to use are also Bluetooth.

Has anyone mixed and matched bluetooth and ant+ devices at the same time?

These could be of interest- Zwift Routes in Veloviewer.

[url= http://zwiftblog.com/route-details/ ]ROUTES[/url]

Watopia PDF

[url= http://zwiftblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Watopia.pdf ]WAT PDF[/url]

Was planning to be on last night, but was held up by work.

Anyone planning to do the 8pm KISS TT?

Yep. I'll be there about to log in now, aiming to beat my 21:44 on the last KISS TT.

F%*{ it.

I give up. 8 miles into it my phone decides it doesn't want to talk to Bluetooth devices.

Titanium Geek

[url= http://www.titaniumgeek.com/cycling/zwift/zwift-user-manual-unofficial-running-updates/ ]ZWIFT GUIDE[/url]

Use this to analysis your sytem stats

[url= http://zwiftalizer.com/ ]Zwiftalizer[/url]

Nothing's wrong my PC it's Bluetooth via mobile link on my phone.

Can't get it to keep a connection to anything - HRM/Cadence or Trainer. So I give up trying to do races until the iOS app.

8 miles into that I was about 5th with more in the tank too.

This was why I asked how others where managing with Bluetooth, I personally have never found it reliable so stick with ANT+ given the choice.

Well that was bloody hard, but new FTP of 265.

Having a look on Zwiftpower at the live results, and I seem to have been Classed as a "U", despite me using the format Name KISS (C)?

Am I missing something?

Yeah I'm wondering if my Ant+ dongle can reach from the study to my setup in the garage directly below it. I'll give it a go tomorrow night.

10.5km into the race I was only 9 seconds from the leader. 😡

I think Zwiftpower is stuck on 10.5km at the moment, well it is for me. I wouldn't take the data as gospel until tomorrow.

@nathb - thanks I will try it that way, bit judging by your later comments I may find myself investing in an ANT dongle!

Found out tonight the Zwift 'power' reading is limited to 1200 watts unless I buy a fancy pants trainer.

Not ideal when in the middle of a sprints training session 🙂

I wish there were a few more KISS races starting earlier. At 8pm I've got zero motivation to get on the turbo trainer.