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If you've only just started you'll probably see a good increase rapidly. Did you do an FTP test to get that figure?
ZP back up and I'm back to being right on the cusp of B again. Waiting for the official push to be upgraded this time though.
Category limits
A 4WKG with FTP over 250w
B 3.2WKG with FTP over 250w
C 2.5WKG with FTP over 250w
D Below
I'll just correct that list as I forgot to change the wattage.
A 4WKG with FTP over 250w
B 3.2WKG with FTP over 210w
C 2.5WKG with FTP over 170w
D Below
@bigdean I wouldn’t worry (and I’m sure you don’t “worry”) about other peoples’ numbers as we’re all weight-doping anyway 😉
That 6wk programme really toughens up towards the end so watch yourself – I did it this time last year and had to sneak a few days off
I've had my arse handed to me today, forth day in a row and a tempo workout. 180w for 6mins was hell strangely 210w for a min was just bareable.
4WKG with FTP over 250w - that's describing 2 very different real-world riders, unless they actually weigh just over 60kg
It has to be both and they're just trying to stop pisstake weight-doping - is that it ?
Awesome work Dirtyrider 🙂 Well done.
thanks, puts me 2 watts off my best - ill just carry on what I'm doing at the moment
did the WBR 1 Lap Volcano Climb Race this morning, only 24 rides on ZP was 58 in the race if i remember, anyway 4 out of 5 in B - group predictably split/i got dropped on any rise and left me with 2 others on the main climb, think one escaped and one caught us up, won the sprint for the wooden spoon, 2 days of New York now, Mrs is on Nights Friday/Saturday so might see whats going on late on
Tried something different tonight there was a WBR KOM Volcano race a 16:05. I finish work at 3 so rushed to get changed and jumped on my bike for the commute home. 6.7 miles later I was home swapped the rear tyre on the bike and was ready to go warmed up for the race. First 5 mins went well. Think I was in the leading c/d group. Then the laptop came up with low battery as I had forgot to plug it in. Had to jump off on an uphill section so lost about a minute. Carried on with the race and caught a few other riders but spent the rest of the time on my own. Still I enjoyed the race and felt better for a good warm up although I started to cramp at the end ( lack of fluids I was in a meeting 2 until 3 and then straight on the bike so didn’t drink for about 2 hours.
Finally out of neck brace and back brace only as needed. Can finally grip the handlebars. I might try one of the WBR races tomorrow. First ever zwift (or road) race. Thinking Cat B. Done two Cat C group rides last few days and found them fairly relaxed efforts so hoping I won't be dropped of the back too quickly.
They'll start at 400+W, I expect, so be ready for that and pedal hard at -5 seconds
After the 1st minute it'll be calmer but a bit surgey and with some folk gunning it up any inclines
Have fun !
4WKG with FTP over 250w – that’s describing 2 very different real-world riders, unless they actually weigh just over 60kg
I read it as you are a CAT A if over 4wkg and your FTP is 250w or over. If you are under 250w you'll be a B. Clearly in an event with a big hill the CAT B rider will really be a CAT A but most events don't have enough hills to make this a major issue.
I thought a bit harder about it after posting and wondered if it was that either could be applied, so that having over 4w/kg could be applicable on climbs but over 250w on the flat (so that really light or really heavy riders might stay in a lower cat in a race where their "advantage" is minimised. Clearly it should say "or" rather than "and" in that case but I think it could be applied quite well
Good luck stevego.
I missed the start of the 8pm KISS race last night and very nearly did nothing. Instead tried a sprint race on the volcano ( https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=101981). Legs were a bit tired from hard sprints in Wednesday's training ride (finally pushed over 1000W again :D) so didn't have the power for a proper finish. Was an interesting loop though. I felt OK at the end and had a bit more motivation so carried on pedalling and ended up going up the Alpe. Managed 50 minutes for the climb while staying strictly under 140BPM HR (Zone 3 for me I think). Apart from the last few minutes that is after I passed beacon one when the timer indicated I was in reach of the blue and black jersey :D. At that point I went for it and grabbed the jersey. Legs can feel the effort today but was a good long ride.
Won't be able to hold high power for sprints, don't want to stress the back too much yet and will be at the lower end of the power band. Haven't done a FTP test since the accident but was around 300 ish before. Will try for either the 9.05 am or 10.15 am melbourne time ones and cruise it if I get dropped too quickly. I was going to do something this evening but pizza and a cold beer interfered.
Anyone wanting a direct drive trainer.. the Tacx Flux has just dropped to £399 at Halfords. Stack that with 10% off for BC/AA, 6%+ off for Zeek gift cards and 3% cashback (Quidco, plus another £2.50 if by midnight) and you can get it down to around £350.
Fast and flat in New York today
https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=102402
Couldn't hold the fast guys today... Slightly disappointed in that.. but tried hard.
Still a Gold though :D.
Just seen the Grandfather rights have gone and now it's £13 a month! - So regrettably I've cancelled it 🙁
Just too much at that
boo! having said that, unless they've come up with an annual plan I'll just sub 4-5 months per year rather than just leave it the whole year even though I'm not using it. Will probably work out cheaper over the year 🙂 !
A yearly subscription would be nice.
Just had my arse kicked by scaled and a few other grown-ups 🙁
(I'm sure I've asked this before, but who's Dan Henderson ? - sorry guv, I'd have said hello at least if I'd seen the name before the end)
Scaled also did back to back races! Gold in the first.
Thats me!
got dropped from the front group in more or less the same place both races, start of lap 3 (did the earlier 4 lapper as well that scaled won!) on the downhill section after the sprint/lap marker, strange as im 83kg, Guess i need to work on downhill peddaling with the neo, need to shift down and fight the urge to coast probably, once there was a gap i couldnt bridge it - but by lap 3/4 and 3/6 i had enough time on anyone behind to cruise home, was only passed by 2 in the second race, held their wheel for half a lap or so when they escaped on the same downhill, group behind closed me from bout 40 seconds to sub 10, but i had my eye on them and did enough to keep them behind
see you got a cup for 5 minute power at 4.1w/kg well done on that, and well done scaled for winning the 4 lapper
yeh, I saw scaled as I went on to warm up, pedaling slower than would hold you up in real-life - that was obviously straight after a race. Then the daft sod turns up in "my" race 😀
That 6 lapper was pretty quick for the last couple of laps. I had nowt left for the sprint. I really need to get some intervals in.
dirtyrider - well done; was a hard race, that. I'm very happy with that 5min figure as that's where I'm lacking (shorter durations of higher effort)
Got my 2nd ever cross race on Sunday so we'll see how that shapes up in real life (likely with a hangover)
... as for losing power down hills, I used to get that a lot when I first started. I used to have my "difficulty" set at 100% and that made it really hard to get power in when going downwards (you could tell who was on a dumb trainer as they'd struggle up the hills but catch back up down the other side, just because they were on smooth power output rather than grunting up hills and then not being able to gear up fast enough on the downs)
dirty, you're not Dan as in "beer and dan"; stw's first celebrity couple, are you ? 🙂
What trainer diff do you use now then? I’d agree racing on a dumb trainer is easier, smart trainers are more fun though & I guess make the training more “real world” useful.
I'm about 2/3 usually - if it's a ded steep hill (bloody rare for me) then I go to about half as I don't have the gears on the trainer to cope with that
dirty, you’re not Dan as in “beer and dan”; stw’s first celebrity couple, are you ? 🙂
ummm no? ive been here since more or less day 1 although theres been a few forced hiatus' over the early years 🙂 whats it been 18-19 years? remember chipps showing people a copy of issue 1 in the queue to get in Bike01 at the NEC maybe, had a 5 year break in the middle maybe, barely rode, its mainly this thread i post on, dip my toes in the others but theres no mikewsmith in here so its a quiet sanctuary ;o)
i do have the trainer set at 100%
Podcast on trainer difficulty.
I've only been here since about 2002 when we got our first internet service at home. Noob really
ill give the podcast a listen cheers,
Didn't make the race I'd planned this morning, so instead did the 1 hr FTP test. Was good to get some hard numbers, FTP has dropped 10-15% since my accident, unfortunately puts me right on the border between C and B (3.182 W/Kg). Have to do some training I think. I assume the FTP test doens't take into account gradient to alter effort.
was going to do the 10 lap LaGuardia tonight, but im knackered so didn't,
listened to the podcast, makes sense, i guess i should dial it back a bit for races that have downhills im getting caught out on, like yesterday, but leave it at 100% at other times
Just seen on Zwiftpower on your rider profile we now have
"Nemesis and Victims"
People who've beaten you or you've beaten regularly.... Kinda cool.
Must admit i recognised the first guy right away.
Its a nice new feature. Might need a little tweaking though as team members feature heavily in mine!
they wouldn't do if you'd not bailed on us 🙁
Splitter 😉
Hats off Weeksy!!! That was hard....
https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=103006
That was me on the limit! (and a bit more than)
Strava tells the story - Av HR 177 with max @ 193 & 20% in Z5 over 183 - Not good for a fat 42yr old biffa...
I'm a long way from the version of me that could race in B and get a place.
Back to training I suppose, shame I cancelled it.
Sunday evening and what did I get myself into. I noticed the fire and Ice tour and decided I'd like a go at the Alpe. Didn't have time for a warm up so just jumped in and started nice and steady up the volcano KOM as a warm up. The start of the Alpe is a shock as it's very steep for the first few Kms, I thought it was going to beat me. I was riding with another rider who most likely was using a dumb trainer as he shot past on every corner just for me to reel him in on the climb again. I was chasing down a couple of B riders that were about a minute and a half ahead of me at the start of the climb and also watching another B who was 20 seconds down and at one stage closed to 3 seconds before dropping away again. I caught and passed the other 2 B riders at about corner 3. One tried to go with me and little does he know that one kick on the pedals would have broke me. I managed to gap him by about 5 seconds at the top.
My target for the climb was the hour. I just missed it by 23 seconds but could go better I think. My power figures were about 20w down on threshold for each of the segments between corners, nice feature that. I'm a long way down on Pantanis time though!!
I've not looked at my HR but I was cruising along happily, I seem to hide a lot better than you and barely took a turn on the front. It was only on the final lap about 2km at the most from the line it became anything tough for me, I pushed on up the climb, then sat in on the down bit into the roller coaster section. Then as we caught the other 3-5 riders it all went a bit nuts. I went a bit earlier than I wanted but if I'd gone late, it would have been too late.
Enjoyed that lots though, zwift racing is brilliant
23s! Damn. I think I'd have cried lol. Great effort though.
At least the 23 seconds means I'll try again! If I'd beat the hour I might not have come back. I've never tried that route before so didn't know what to expect.
Dutch corner is a lot further into the climb than it seems in TV.
Ive gone from 1:11:33 in April to 54:33 in October, keep at it, the more you ride it the more you learn how to ride it and times tumble - equipmemt makes a difference as well, Trek Emonda & Lightweights is quickest
Dutch corner feels a long way on the way up but seems close to the bottom on the way down! I've been up twice now and definitely want to do it again. It's strangely addictive. Bet you smashed the hour next time.
I'm not so sure I'd smash the hour, maybe take a little chip out of it but that might be all!
Stupidly I entered wbr flat reverse this evening. Said I'd take it easy but of course that didn't happen, Iegs were in bits by the end, I think a rest day is called for.
I never thought I'd look forward to getting onto my turbo trainer.
I never thought I’d look forward to getting onto my turbo trainer.
It's weird isn't it... I now sit here and plan particular things around races that suit me...
I'm still very much enjoying Zwift.