Zwift, my journey, my weight and my fitness.

@dogthomson - you don't *need* anything else (T2240, with latest firmware which you can upload from the ipad, plays nicely with the ipad over bluetooth - controls the resistance etc) but a bluetooth HR monitor would be useful too.

I've just used that setup for my second Zwift race, having previously used my iMac, and it works really well. Just used my daugther's music stand to hold the ipad!

This is the HR strap I'm using: [url= http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/polar-h7-smartphone-heart-rate-sensor/rp-prod114193?gs=1&gclid=COCUwKuL7dACFem_7QodO30ClA&gclsrc=aw.ds ]Link to CRC[/url]

Just set up the T2240 for the first time, took a couple of hours annoyingly but got there in the end, did a couple of miles on Zwift and looking forward to giving it a proper go this week.

Just not sure if I should do a proper training plan or group rides and races. Will do an FTP tomorrow and take it from there.

Fascinating reading, keep up the hard work everyone 😉

I'll be very interested to see in a few months how the real world performances are coming on for everyone after a winter of Zwifting, whether your weight is coming down, the power going up, the Strava segments outside come crashing through the floor etc.

It's a brilliant thread though lads, i can't help thinking we need some sort of a plan to get to know eachother a little more in Zwiftland too as it's always nicer to find people you 'know' to ride with.

I seem to be in a Zwift limbo when doing some riding at the moment, putting out 2.7w/kg and having a good profile means i flat speed well and climb OK now, but people are generally around 2.0w/kg or up in the 3's.... so i can often find myself struggling to find a group to play with.
I'm not sure what's happening with racing at the moment, but there seems to be a lot less going on, i'm struggling regularly to find something interesting to enter.

Tonight has the EVR Europe race, but with only 13 riders in C cat, i'm not sure it's a massive incentive to join it, so i can see myself doing a 3pm ride for 60-90 mins depending on how the legs hold out 🙂

Just a thought, everyone is a member of Strava?

How about setting up a Zwift group on there, just for posting what roughly what time you will be on or races you'll be taking part in.

I've set up a club to trial this if anyone is interested? https://www.strava.com/clubs/244094

I've set up a club to trial this if anyone is interested? https://www.strava.com/clubs/244094

yeh, i win climbing this week...

London's flat 😆

devon isn't, and i did the box hill, fox hill combo the other night when there were no races on.

Joined the STW club just now (Alastair Graham). I've just started Zwifting this last week or so, after 6 months with zero biking in. After years of lazy winters I'm most chuffed that I might get to spring with at least a vague bit of fitness. First race last night (BRS), came 22/28 in the D category, it gave me a new ftp of 194 from this.

The amount of 30-50kg riders annoys me a little. Supposedly there was a 30kg rider in the same category as me, I'm 6'6" and 100kg!

They'll get DQ'd mate usually. I mean, my 8 year old weighs more than that.

http://www.zwiftpower.com/v2/race.php?id=1928

Can't see anyone unusually light apart from 1 guy at the bottom.

Joined

Yeah, I only noticed the 30kg as it was in the same cat. There's a 41kg chap in A (6.4 stone). They might be legit, I'm not sure. He'd look pretty bizarre though with Bruce Lee torso and giant legs.

Seems to be a shame in a way though, it's the one metric they have no control over, it'd be easy to give myself an extra free 20% w/kg without anyone even questioning.

Minor moan though, it was fantastic fun. Although having my turbo upstairs is dangerous! Jelly legs every time! 🙂

@Toasty
Congrats on your first race!

Just had a look at the Cat D's, there was only 1 under 50kg in the 27th position (he's under 10 years old though).

Zwift cats are based on W/KG -which is a fair way of doing it on there I think.

Seems to be a shame in a way though, it's the one metric they have no control over, it'd be easy to give myself an extra free 20% w/kg without anyone even questioning.

They don't really have any control over power either, it's just what your turbo or PM is reporting (I could easily tweak the slope on my PM to give me more watts, or the wheel size on my turbo to give me more virtual watts.) There's a huge variance in the speed/power curves of some turbos too between the same models. And I guess most people don't weigh themselves just before getting on the turbo too and tweak their weight accordingly.

It's just a training tool though and not real world so doesn't really matter I suppose 🙂

I haven't raced yet, but what are people's experiences of varying the "reality" setting for racing?

I ask because I MUCH prefer the 100% reality setting - that and instant (rather than 3 second) power monitoring has meant much less of the weird sensation when I'm soft-pedalling up the first 50m of a steep climb or heaving on the pedals a while after going over the top, because the resistance hasn't change enough, or quickly enough, to reflect the gradient. It's also made riding on someone's wheel more like reality as well, just easing up the pressure for a couple of seconds is enough to sit in rather than automatically overtake.

So I'm wondering if lowering the reality makes racing easier, effectively "cheating" - I've found in IRL crit racing that I'm very rarely pedalling a nice constant cadence and even power, I'm constantly sprinting and easing off and hanging on and pushing a bit and sitting up slightly and cornering and soft-pedalling and hammering to close the gap, etc. - if you've got reality set very low and you're just pushing a steady decent W/kg and your little guy is hanging on to the bunch in all the right places, that's not a very accurate representation of a race, IMO.

On another note, my T2240 is now making an unpleasant grindy noise at very low revs and much more noise at high power, I think it might have knackered bearings... 🙁

So I'm wondering if lowering the reality makes racing easier

Quite likely. Lots of changes of resistance, gear changes, cadence changes and the required accelerations, will be more fatiguing... but will be more representative of real riding so better training 🙂

Does it show in the results what level of reality you're riding at?

Another happy Zwifter here, inspired by this thread to get a 2240 and give it a go. I've not given racing a go yet but I'm pretty sure I'll be towards the back of cat D to begin with 😯 Only one way to go from there though!

We (apart from Nath) all started at the back of D...

I'm now not too far from the back/middle of C....

I'm quite pleased with being lowish D, there were people around to compete with at that level. The chap behind and in front both added me on Strava afterwards and had a natter 🙂 My previous FTP was 164, after the race it set it to 194, the incentive definitely pulled me up the hills a lot quicker!

Looking forward to gradually going upwards with any luck.

Every year when the clocks changed out of BST I'd give up road cycling, so much traffic around here, it just seemed far too risky to bother. This has really picked me up! My lack of cycling tied in with having a newborn in the house 6 months ago, which made finding spare time a bit more tricky too, this is perfect!

We (apart from Nath) all started at the back of D...

B then A for me, not the fastest A but a good challenge every time to finish mid A category. Seldom beaten by anyone older than me.

Still trying to work out why I get dropped on the hills on Zwift but not IRL, only 65kg but always do best on the flatter courses.

Just done an Asian MNR (I assume Monday night ride) 2.0-2.5 pace but with 2xKOMs and 2 sprints.. I finished 9th in the village sprint, about 450w for it.

Times like this i miss out on some of your advanced Strava data, but i know i worked bloody hard on the climbs etc.

1hr 5 mins as i carried on after the event to get the calories in and a few extra km 🙂

Just joined the strava group
I can't ride tonight but planning to ride the kiss 8pm tomorrow

Is there a marker on the road to indicate the start of the sprints? I always seems to miss the start, then it's too late.

Yep. Normally a white line drawn on the road. On watopia it's just as you go
Into the tunnel.

Is there a marker on the road to indicate the start of the sprints?

13 members so far 😆

I wasn't always a Cat A. If Zwift was around when I first started properly cycling I bet I was the lower end of D. The first Zwift ride I have is January 2016 on a dumb trainer. Looking at that my FTP was 226W, but I only weighed 65kg back then so 3.48W/KG. If only I was still that weight 🙂

Just joined, but still getting over the dregs of man-flu so not sure I'll be riding any time soon....might aim for Thurs, perhaps??

nathb, impressive progress in quite a short time there! My first Trainer Road was back at the end of 2012, about a year after the cataclysmic event that was the birth of first child. After a year of no exercise, no sleep, and a diet of mostly chocolate and cake, I was 82kg and tested at 225W. The turbo probably saved my life 😉

I just joined the STW Zwift group but I live in Vancouver so the time zone difference (and me working office hours) means it's unlikely I'll be racing with anyone here!

If I were nath's weight I'd be winning races lol

Thanks @mrblobby - I had a very poor diet. In fact back in May 13 I weighed 95+kg and could FTP at circa 171w (strava), I managed to get down to 77kg by Jan 14, so yeah like you cycling along with a diet change (became a vegetarian too) probably saved my life. I did pick up gastritis along the way though haha. The missus did a before and [url= ]after[/url] pic (strava profile pic) 🙄

Wow good skills Nath! (Although it does [i]look[/i] like being a chunky meat eater got you a hot date whilst being a skinny vegetarian left you good only for hugging a cat 😀 😉 😀 )

2016 has taken me from 13st13 to 15st03 and very nearly back again! Fingers crossed I can maintain discipline from here on in and get somewhere handy to 13st07 by this time next year when I'd love to get an upgrade to A on Zwift.

@crosshair Haha my missus is stood on the other side of the bride there.
Keep at it, you'll be there in no time - plus winning races at Hillingdon!

Just done part of the BRT Training session - a lot more fun than I anticipated. Also did some sweeping too to get folk back into the bunch.

Something I've noticed on the iPad is a longer delay between the screen and my feet!? Anyone else notice that? Also had to increase my realism as I was spinning out a little.....

Lol! A long way to go before that happens I think!!

Training sessions seem to be the next big thing on Zwift at the moment- loads of folks offering them. I did a Vision one with Nathan along with Discord comms the other week and 2hrs literally flew by!!

oof. KISS second base. jumping on the turbo with about 3 mins to go before the race wasn't the best prep...

Just finished my first race! Also did the Kiss second base. Entered as cat D to see how it went and it was the right decision. Looks like I came about top 1/3 in that once you factor out those with the dodgy w/kg. have to say, absolutely loved it. I never would've hit the turbo as hard for that long. No question. I'm sure there's lots about the racing to improve on tactics wise etc but that's not the point really. I came off a sweaty jelly legged mess which can only be a good thing long term!

Part of the race tactics seem to be sand-bagging your W/KG just below category threshold...

I entered my first race in Cat D as I had no idea how my fitness ranked. Each category set off separately.I was running near the front of my group right up to the final couple of kms when suddenly nearly everyone seemed to go backwards. I was feeling very clever with myself for saving some energy for the last sprint and finished 2nd (only a couple of seconds behind the first guy).
Anyway, I was DQ'd as my average W/KG was over Cat D 🙁
I suspect those behind me were sand-bagging and it wasn't my awesomeness which got me a great result:-)

Been doing some stalking this evening (went on to see what my profile showed and ended up following some riders)

**** ME !! some of those riders are fast, or else dEPO is already on zwift. 80kg riders running 450-500w for 5-10 minutes at a go and a HR in the 150s. Are any of you jokers doing that ?!

Good idea on the STW Zwift group, also just joined.
Not on it tonight but will probably be on the next couple of nights, maybe try another tt

Scardey,

I do sometimes laugh at some of the figures you see on screen. I was riding yesterday on a 2.0-2.5 with Sprint segments. Watching one of the Asians come past me with his active power showing 12.7w/kg and i'm thnking "no way, it's just not possible".
We've all seen guys with weights of 30kg racing, we've seen guys who are slow sometimes, fast, insanely fast on others..

Not sure there's a lot any of us can do about it really, it's one of the issues of riding indoors against randoms.

Clearly, there are some VERY quick people riding on Zwift, but i'm not convinced all of them who appear quick actually are quick 🙂

Tonight, i'm debating between 3 options
1. Rest night
2. BRS TT 7.05pm
3. KISS Europe 8pm

I'm not actually sure i've got the legs for any of the rides at the moment, stiff and tired comes to mind. But i need/want to drop 3lb of weight this week and next, so need the calories to be getting burnt really. Timings wise, KISS probably works best, so i can see it being that.

scaredypants
**** ME !! some of those riders are fast, or else dEPO is already on zwift. 80kg riders running 450-500w for 5-10 minutes at a go and a HR in the 150s. Are any of you jokers doing that ?!

If you ignore the HR then that's pretty standard, however 150bpm is ridiculous! Unless in a group?

On last nights group ride (where I was taking part in the sprints and sweeping) my average BPM was 124 @ 223w weighted average. The drafting effect is very strong on Zwift.

@weeksy - I'm thinking the TT, Zwift being a Doddle to setup now.

**** ME !! some of those riders are fast, or else dEPO is already on zwift. 80kg riders running 450-500w for 5-10 minutes at a go and a HR in the 150s. Are any of you jokers doing that ?!

I did the EVR race last night in 'B'.

I pushed a lot off the start - just to see what the pace was like at the start. It was mental. I think were pushing 450-475w for the first 5 minutes, with the odd little surge & drop.

The pace was mental - I was deep into the red zone trying to hang on, then I got the respite, as I snapped my chain & had to sack it off after 10 minutes.

Considering i'm a 'mid pack' cat B rider (based on my w/kg anyway) there are an awful lot of sandbaggers IMO, which is odd, as it's just training & a virtual world. I guess some people are just odd 🙂

I struggle to work out the people who do it though, i'm pretty sure that with a bit of effort/thinking i could win a decent chunk of D races now, i can put out 2.49w/kg pretty well for an hour and if you beat me with my aero profile then you're likely on for a DQ... but WHY would I ? Why would i go out and stop someone who's a true D from getting a great result ? There's no glory in the winning, after the initial elation of "oh wow, i won the race", there's no prizes for it, no-one from Team Sky is watching the D's to see if they can pick up a new team-rider. Why why why would someone do it ?
I was really pleased to get DQ'd from a D race and forced to move up into C's, it was a badge of honour for me to move to C. Even though i've not made the top 50% in C yet i'm still proud that i have to race in Cs.

Hob nob- if you watch any of the race streams, you'll see that these sorts of starts are standard really. Watopia Hilly and London Loop are about the only two courses where a more measured approach can pay off as both have a large climb pretty soon. After about half a lap, the main groups have usually formed and wattages and HR's come tumbling down for a bit. Until the next climb 😉

I don't think there's too much malicious sandbagging going on- I think most of it is people who aren't 'in' to it as much as some of us.

ODZ are one of the few series organisers utilising a neutral roll out for one of their races. The Magnum I think it's called?

I think there are a lot of badly setup turbo trainers out there. Zwift have tried to make it as accessible for as many trainers as possible, but from experience I know that some trainers they support just don't produce repeatable accurate power data. My Cyclops fluid trainer was an example of this, the resistance of the trainer varied as the fluid changed temperature.

I don't take the results from the racing too seriously, it is just good motivation to ride as hard as I can. I am sure there are people that finish ahead of me I could beat in a real life race, and there are bound to be people behind me that would beat me in real life. What I like is that you are racing real people rather than a computer simulation - at the start of the race you never know what tactics are needed, and every race is a bit different. How quick the people I am closely racing are in real life doesn't really matter

The guys with an ftp over 5w/kg in races do get checked, from what I have seen most of them are known within the cycling community, and have real life results that back up their Zwift performances.

I normally race on Tuesday nights, but will have to give it a miss tonight due to my daughter's Christmas play.