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As far as I recall I picked fec when doing it a while ago, but for some reason it wAsnt that today. I dunno what my mate chose first.
Thread on zwift forum states his changes 1/20 times to the standard.
Off to try the WBR 1 lap highliner in a mo. Be my first time as a self-selected Cat B rider. Wish me luck!
Waves.
You seemed to be doing alright to me.
That course is hard, some real short sharp ramps! My race went ok, stayed with the lead group (apart from two zada approved riders) till the first time up the KOM. After that I worked on thinning the group out. As we approached 5k left I got it down to four and had an aero in the bank. At about 3k ish to go I went for it up a short ramp, hit the top and dropped the aero. Ended up 14s ahead of the other three. I'm kept that gap till the KOM climb but up this two of them caught me again. One have saved an aero and I couldn't catch him on the last 100m to the line while the other seemed to have spent everything catching up and I pulled away to the line. Got a bronze (in a small field again). Been a while but nice to get a cup again :).
Cheers Nixie. I didn't realise you were in the race. Well done on a great result. Afraid my race turned into a solo time trial after losing everyone in my group on the last steep climb to the first KOM. I kind of held steady about 20 seconds behind them until the end though so wasn't too unhappy. Seems I came last of 7 in the B Cat which is strange since there was about 23 of us started from the pens! At least my Stats mean I was racing in the correct Cat again. Looks like I need to get used to being bottom of the pile for a while and work on getting stronger/lighter over the winter.
I was the BRT rider (gave you a ride on the pen as a wave).
Yeah the pace stayed a bit high when we hit the first proper hill. Not surprised that broke the group's up alot. Your definitely in the right cat though, that's a comfortable margin to the C group.
good work everyone !
weeksy, my FE-C option has gone too (mine's an Elite, so presumably that means it's at zwift's end and not a change in both our trainers)
just had a great razz round the laguardia loop and managed to hold the front group pretty much to the line (small field and no big-hitters in A but still, ...). Hard all the way, and pretty surgey too; HR got to within 5 of my max since I started recording. Reckon I hit some PB power as far as races go but was an 18 minute effort so no change in FTP.
(evenin' leeroy !)
New update to the app (Android) seems to fill in quite a few of the missing bits.. you can now browse the whole of your training plan and the activity feed is more fully fledged - woo!
One week left for me on the FTP builder.. will have dropped about a stone, possibly mostly due to less time to drink wine while Zwifting 5 times a week..
WBR 3 Lap Perimeter Loop Reverse last night at 18:05 - decent race, pretty uneventful though, stayed at the front a while, settled into a group of 7, 6 B's and 1 A, couple of times i just managed to hang on, went early in the sprint, was only passed by the "A" and we were allocated the same time, 6/28 in B and my best 20 minute & 5 minute efforts
Well that was interesting and horrific all at once.
I checked on startup and it was set to FE-C.
First thing I noticed was, I had and needed more gears again. About 2 months ago I put a 42T on the front ring and riding in 42/11 was too hard a gear. But more and more recently I've been in that gear. I just thought I was going well.
So that gear we'll call 10th as we're on a 1X 10. That was 300w at 92rpm or so. Today I was in 7th and that was 97rpm for 300w give or take. If I went for 8th that was 85rpm for just over 300w.
Into the race I knew in advance I was going to struggle. I was finding it hard even when warming up. Into the race it went pretty badly. Although I did gang with the C and some Bs in group 2 for 3 out of the 4 laps. Short course so should have suited me better really. But when I died, I died massively. Coming into the last 800m me and another dropped rider had 8s on a group behind, but they were 4.2w/kg, me and him were 2.8! Eeek. They caught us by the line and swamped us.
I've been off the turbo for a week with a back issue and hangover from Xmas party, so we'll see how much of an issue they were or how much my turbo settings have been flattering me lately.
surely power is still reported by your trainer weeksy - resistance might be delivered differently but zwift should still see 300w ??
Not sure on how it's worked but the gearing is completely different now. Is the actual power different, not sure yet, may have just been one of them days. In a sprinty effort on warm up, I found 650w a lot different to other tries. Sometimes riding is a case of finding a sweetspot of gears, cadence, power, I think I had that perfectly before and I've lost it today.
try changing your "difficulty" in the zwift settings ?
Not sure if it is a glitch but my turbo seemed to play funny buggers last night. I was actually finding it harder to pedal down the hills than up them. Even when they got to 16 %. I was watching the speeds though and they were pretty much as you would expect so it wasn't giving me any advantages. I hope it was just a 1 off. Will see next time I use it.
try changing your “difficulty” in the zwift settings
Yeah I'll see later where my slider is set to.
About the usual 50% for the slider.
harder to pedal down the hills than up them
Random resistance - that's a proper feature !
Week 5 of FTP builder done, I have trouble holding +90 cadence was all set to give it all out, then the bloody session wanted sets of 60rpm followed by 90.
No chance and was a wreck by the end, type 2 fun though.
I am finding how hard to push and have supprisingly good heart rate recovery just not the big numbers.
Last week, next week and dispute eating none stop have lost 10lb.
best of luck for wk6 bigdean, sounds like you're going well. I honestly think that whole plan is mostly teaching us how to suffer so we pace the FTP test accordingly (I missed my FTP test as I had an operation before the end of the plan but I reckon I'd have PB'd by quite a distance - and at least I was nice & fit for surgery)
I am at a Zwift crossroads.
I just got my new paypal monthly invoice for Zwift and it's the first one for me after the (delayed for existing members) price hike - £8pm to £12.99pm. Some of you clearly use Zwift a lot at it's easy to justify but sadly partly through lack of time and partly through laziness and apathy I'm an occasional user at best. I don't use the race element as the power outputs of others are pretty unbelievable to make it a nonsense (imo) and my life is not simple enough to use zwift at times not determined by me alone. So I only either use a training programme or JRA. At £12.99pm I'm either going to have to sort my life out and use it more or leave and find another medium for my turbo training. It will be interesting to see how many other people are in the same position at me and do leave.
Well on a Fondo today there were 2500+ riders just on one ride! So many seem to be hanging in
Bit crap again today, I think my turbo has been flattering me.
If you don't use the Zwift races, there's several options out there to get a good turbo workout this winter...
www.roadgrandtours.com beta (which has the odd "events" like several 3-lap races at Paterberg yesterday)
https://virtugo.com/ beta (bit more limited at mo for routes)
http://www.onelap.cn/ (yet to try this, now has a Euro server too)
Or you could do the (30-day trial?) of https://www.bkool.com/en-US/cycling-simulator , which apparently has races and loads of routes.
etc. etc.
Due to concerns about possible noise transferring to our downstairs neighbours, racing is not really an option for me, as the flat/downhill sections need you to use the big chainring which creates an awful lot more noise on my Direto.
Thanks for that. I'll look through those links.
Also would consider going back to trainerroad. That works out at roughly £8.40pm if bought in annual lumps. Back to a band of info on the bottom of a tv screen and streaming some tv (which I rarely get time to watch normally) might be no bad thing anyway.
n0b0dy0ftheg0at I use a direto in our loft room directly above my daughter's bedroom. She doesn't complain about noise from it. Turbo is on carpet though.
16:32 Dutch Diesel Cycling Volcano Race - B's went off 2 minutes after the A's so everyone was together, nearly got caught out in a gap early on, and had to use an aero to get back onto the group of 10 or so, stayed together for the whole 6 laps, every time we went up the small climb into the volcano i seemed to surge to the front, same with the little rise before the lap marker, through laps 2,3,4 it was the same, started to think i could win it, laps felt comfy at about 290w a lap, hald on to a feather as i didn't need to use it, massive tactical error though, i thought id use it after the climb into the volcano, just before the finish, got blown to bits on the first climb though, just had nothing, 6/13 and 8 seconds off the winner
Wondering if today is a ride or a rest, or even a recovery.
Since the week off i've lost form... but as stated, not sure if that's a turbo or a rider issue. One thing i did notice though is that i did a spindown and got 11s. (recommendations are between 10-15) usually i get high 14s, possibly even a 15.5s.... So i'm wondering how the Wahoo works that out and how it relates to Zwift... If you set it to say 10s spindown, how does it then know the power, if you set it to 15 (all of this is using the tensioner to give higher/lower initial resistance) then how does it know etc ?
Todays realistically available race is the 8 lap volcano CCW at 15:15... but i'm sitting here partly dreading the thought of a crap race now 🙂
If its a quicker spin down would that not indicate more friction?
I'm aiming for the GGCC race at 20:10 tonight. Then hopefully extend to around 50-60k.
I'd think so yes... so a 10s spindown is more friction, but how does that translate to speed ? And how does it know or how does Zwift know etc ? I don't leave mine tight when not being used as i've seen tyres deform when left under tension.
My thoughts are that if it's a 10s spindown that's 'harder' and therefore slower.... but by the fact it's an operating 'window' implies that anywhere within that window should work.... i don't see how though LOL.
Set tension 1/2 turn less, gave me 15.1s spindown. Put me on my PR pace round volcano, maybe even 2s below in my race. I knew I wasn't good for 8 laps at that pace but first 3 were on PR pace. So that certainly seems to make a difference.
I was pretty happy overall knowing my legs were not going to last and my HR was about where I'd expect for a 4 lap effort round there.
As to what setting is accurate to the world. I don't know. But just on 15s spindown seems accurate to where I've been training previously so that's what I'll use.
That was one or the reason I stretched out to a wheel off trainer. Calibration and wheel tightness seem like a pain. Glad you worked it out.
I've had a bit of a crazy night. I doubled up and did the GGCC figure 8 followed by WBR 3 laps Watopia flat. Add in warmup and cruising between races bagged 80km tonight! Longest effort by a good 20km.
First race went quite well. Stayed with the lead group and set a load of PRs including up the reverse KOM. No real break away attempts in this race (double draft) until on guy went for a 2km sprint. I sat in the bunch and waited for the group sprint. Was feeling good for once and went hard. I ended up 6th but only 3.6s down on first and 2s down on second. Happy with that. https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=108321
The plan was to add a few more km on afterwards but for some reason I found myself looking in the event list. The three laps flat sounded ideal for a second bite so I span around gently for 15/20 minutes until it started.
Race two was never going to be as easy. Worked out early on my higher power usage was going to be limited so concentrated on spinning. I couldn't quite make the jump to the lead group which went at the sprint in lap one. Tried but got stuck in no man's land. A few minutes later was joined by another A which I thought gave a reasonable chance of staying ahead of the second group. Didn't work out that way and we were swamped as we entered the underwater section. I was able to hide in this group with quite a low power output and still had enough to make sure no breaks got away without me. I wasn't going to sprint at the end but got a aero which I dropped at 0.5km and pulled nicely away from the (mostly B) group. 2nd last A in this race but it was really the entertainment while getting the miles in. https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=108443
LOL 2 in a day, impressive ! Nice work there.
Weird. Went on for a race and it had set it back to non FE-C. Set it back again for short race, pace wasn't bad but not exactly setting world on fire. I'm going to try a comparison and do non FE-C next.
Was 1min 30 down on same course etc from 2 weeks back and 288w v 323w that time.
Tricky to know what's right and wrong now. Doesn't change how I race or the effort I put in. But can and does change where I end up.
I know i'm over analysing things now 🙂
https://www.strava.com/activities/1987723004
and
https://www.strava.com/activities/2011827134
The difference between the two rides is quite large, not only is todays ride slower, but my HR in all the segments is higher, not just in them, but also on average. Today i averaged 6bpm more on average, the difference between 168bpm and 174bpm. Now that may not seem a lot, but 174 is right on he limit of working possible for me.... 168 however is reasonably comfortable a working effort.
I think i'm going to try some 200w 5 min sets tomorrow, with it set at FE-C and set without FE-C. I'm confused though if FE-C is correct, then why does Zwift keep changing me back out of it and into standard. Both modes seem to allow for hill resistance though that's for sure.
I just took a whoppin from one scaredypants 😉
Got dropped on the first climb but ended up in a really lazy gruppetto minutes behind the main pack and ~30 secs ahead of scaredy's bunch. we made it to the last lap picking up stragglers as we went but each one of them was toast, bar the scottish BRT lad who was prepared to do some work for us.
Got to the sprint and every man and his dog had a powerup except me 🙁 nowt in the legs and finished with a w/kg figure that would put me back in B.
I've lost about 3KG and about 50 watts in the last 6 weeks 🙁
@scaled. In the kiss race? Don't think scardypants was in it. I was in the sprint with you (with an aero). Likewise in the power levels. After yesterday's epic ride I could only manage 3.8w/kg. Do like that course though.
^^ That makes sense, sorry dude, i have a disconnect between forum names and zwift names!
Don’t think scardypants was in it
Agreed ... and if I had been in it, I wouldn't have been "in" it anyway
No worries. My group was prepared to work but wasn't so good at staying together. I had nothing on the first climb so got dropped and was lucky to end up with another BRT rider. We worked together to catch a smaller group ahead and then stuck with them till we caught scaled's group just before the sprint in the last lap. The aero really helped for the sprint and I timed its usage correctly for once. Disappointingly though was slower than the lead Bs. Kiss must have changed settings as I didn't see the B's on the road and normally you do.
Zwifting and trainers/Wahoo are a bit weird..
i did some spindowns today, i also did a workout i created with warm up, 260w for 5 mins, cool, then 260w for 5 mins... I tried with the setting on FE-C and without FE-C. They felt exactly the same and no differences in performances or effort etc.
I got a reply from Wahoo and basically they said whatever Spindowns i do go automatically into the 3rd party app.. in all honesty it was a very unconvincing reply LOL.
So i went back into Zwift, did a Spindown within the App and went for a race... 3 lap WBR of the Classique. If you know me and read my threads you'll know i quite like this layout, usually go well but if it goes wrong, it's Horseguards hill. The race went off at a bloody bonkers pace... I was sitting at about 400w+ and being destroyed ! sitting in about 70th out of 250.... As we got over onto the lap proper i quickly grasped that the As were gone... our group though had grown with some from ahead and some from behind into a massive group, 65th-85th at a rough guess. The pace at the front was bonkrs though.... Over the Horseguards on the first lap proper we were all together and i tried to settle the HR down to the Mall.... I just about managed it.
Onto lap 2 and it was going OK.... but as we hit the bit leading to HG hill i'd got my positioning all wrong and was sitting right at the back of the group.... damn.... I went all in for 450w+ and still got shelled out at the top... 2s down over the crest and down towards the hairpin "Pin it " but pinning it wasn't happening and even at 350w i was losing the bunch due to the blob/drafting. It was about then i thought about binning the race...
I looked back on the list and the guy behind was 11s down, but closing and holding 4.0w/kg... So i think "OK, lets grab his wheel" and i just about managed it.. Within about 1km we'd caught 2 others so we were a group of 4.... 1 B and 3 Cs.... Onto the last lap, i was fighting but struggling, they seemed to be doing better than me.
Up horseguards i used my feather but was just as much to hold on as it was to pull a gap... It worked well enough as 2 of the others were hitting 5w/kg so the feather kept me in there...
Up towards the Mall i waited as long as possible, the lead guy was sitting 4.2w/kg and i was 3.4 to sit in with him... he went i went. He went harder than me, but i was on the wheel at 600w... We both got killed by the guy behind, he came past with 1000w+ but the 4th guy died on his ar5e.
https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=108965
Not sure about that result LOL... i was behind loads of Cs... but i guess they all took a DQ or an upgrade... So it's currently given me gold LOL. But more importantly is 276w all in... which is where i think i should/want to be. Don't know really... bit weird all this, but a good fun race
Damn weeksy, that made my head hurt
Final paragraph and end result, though: 👍
Well that'll teach me for not to properly read the race description. I entered the EVR Europe Race in NY tonight. First race for 2 winters. 48km and 1hr 25 later, I was dying on my arse but managed 7th in C's. Couldn't hold onto a group on the longer climb and ended up with an Irish lad who wasn't for working together. He sacked it off after 2 laps so I spent 30km on my todd. Not sure why he didn't work to close the gap but hey ho. I kept a 2 min gap to the group behind and got a ride off a few A's who passed me. I'll be more selective next time as the field wasn't great and I didn't know the course but it was definitely a workout. ZP bumped me to 2nd in C so my first cup. That'll do for starters.
First cup, well done sir 🙂 they're all hard work to earn irrespective of how many races you've entered 🙂
Rest day today, so 53km later at 220w average I've done stage 1 of the tour of London.
Wasn't quite what I had in mind today.
Weeksy - i did the london stage this morning and was going to use it as a warm up for the mgcc pursuit race. I got sucked in to the lead group but i didnt help in any way and i didnt bother with a sprint at the end. I went too fast to be considered anything like a warm up and finished 10th out of 362! I did the pursuit race straight after and ended up destroying all the B’s and finished 2nd overall in the race,about 5 secs behind some featherweight chinese guy. No idea where my legs appeared from but i held on to some pretty hefty attacks and left a group of 9 B’s in fairly short time to latch on to the A group. May be i should double race more often.
That's beast like! You crazy boy. Did you do 2 laps or 4 in tour?
Only did the 2 lapper, not enough time for 4. I think it was just one of those days when it all comes together
Also did 2 lap ToL at a very gentle pace as warm up to WBR 1 lap classique. Not sure I will complete the tour as I can see some pub visits getting in the way.
Has anyone experienced any power dropouts since the last update? I am on a gen 2 KIckr and have experienced dropouts in last 5 Zwift sessions. Prior to update not had a dropout since I bought usb extension lead over 2 years ago. Drop out seems to occur about 10 minutes into the session. Have a dedicated laptop for Zwift so nothing has changed on the HW front.