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Did the 3.15pm 3R Perimeter Loop Reverse Race today.
1st lap group of A cats and 4 of us B cats put about 40 second gap on the chasing group behind. On the 2nd lap me and 2 other B cats lost the front group, so worked together to stay away from the chasing group behind ... surprisingly I managed to outsprint the other 2 to finish.
Question here is; in the results on Zwift power it only shows me in the Unfiltered results as getting 2nd place ... but nowhere in usual results; and on my profile it shows me as UPG in the category section?? what does UPG mean??
I was wearing HR monitor and was inside the 4w/kg limit??
I think upg means you’re actually just over the cat threshold and it suggests you should upgrade. Previously (don’t know if still valid) you could get away with this a couple of times before it would DQ you..
Strange that then because I only average 3.93w/kg in the race.
ZP thinks your an A according to your profile. Your previous two events were 4w/kg AVG. You entered as B so were DQd.
I think they should make a category between the A and B then. I can just about manage to stay up the sharp end of a B race ... but definitely cant hang with the A cats.
Suppose it not make any difference - I1ll still just be battling it out with the top B riders.
Welcome to my world. Suspect you'll quickly find yourself at least able to hang for a while quite quickly. That's what happened to me.
Would be better with an A+ or pro cat over A.
There is such a gulf between being able to do 4w/kg on a good day - and trying to stay with s group who can push 4.2w/kg on their average day.
I have still to work out what course best suits me too. At 69kg I don’t push big watts; ftp is around 280 - yet practically always get dropped by the A cats mid race on a climb😩
Absolutely no motivation to ride outside at moment; which is typical of me this time every year. Thankfully Zwift is much easier motivation to get on ... 15.25 volcano race will do me today.
I'm with nixie on the "A+" category. I've watched a couple of bits of streamed races and there are riders there riding unbelievable numbers - waaay over 5w/kg for long stretches of a race and then putting up well over a thousand watts at the end of that
I'm upper-mid B if I'm lucky but that's me riding full whack right through and after doing that for half an hour my sprint is well under even a doubling of my race average. If I trained REALLY REALLY hard I reckon I might get to the bottom of A but it's such a wide cat that that's a meaningless term. Doesn't bother me personally if I finish last in my cat but I don't want to start from a different pen with people who're going to shell me out within ten minutes and leave me TTing home, maybe with one or two other similar riders.
I like a race - would much rather a tight race for a mid-pack B finish than a shit race with an A next to my name.
(course, this is what those CVR points were for isn't it - like real life racing, your finishing points decide your category. Only trouble is the huge numbers of new riders coming in, some of who will smash their first few races before they move up. That's easy though; big points for podium places to move the best riders up fast but lesser scores right down to, say half way down the field for the mortals)
What are the CVR points? I am only aware of zwiftpower for races??
Old rankings system that died after gdpr came in. It was better in many ways, worse in some
8th our of the 12 A cat riders.
1minute 4 seconds behind the winner (4.5w/kg) .. 3.9w/kg for me during race - those in front of me were between 4 - 4.5w/kg ...
@mooman, your w/kg levels aren't that different to mine. You will get races in A and with a small improvement even the occasional cup (subject to picking the right race :D).
My race from last night https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=122316 . I'm the last A. The two that finished ahead had sub 4 w/kg averages (I missed a break and ended up on a solo TT as I couldn't close the gap).
I just not worked out the right races. 30-35km distances are perfect for time; warm up & warm down, plus the wipe over of training mat and shower afterwards is as much time as I have available in evenings after work. As for which course suits me best I am not sure; the flat races are easier to hang on the back of, but because I will be on my max, any climb after halfway will shell me. The hilly races can catch me out even quicker, and always puts me into no mans land of not being fast enough for the fast As - but typically too fast for the chasing group who have the fat boys. And if I sit up and wait for them they smash me on the sprint!!
Minor Zwift type question...
Over/Unders. How much over and under FTP then ? And what sort of time/intervals ? Wont be doing them until after the weekend, but will give them a try.
Happy New Year everyone!
I've just ordered a Cyclops magnus trainer... Do I need anything else just to get started? Know that you can get extras to give a more 'realistic' experience but just want basic stuff for now.
Cheers!
A got a Magnus earlier this year, it's been good. I would say it's worth getting a ANT dongle if you don't have one. I found connecting my HR and trainer to Zwift via bluetooth to be a faff. The ANT connection just works every time I fire up the laptop and spin the bike. They're pretty cheap. Also, a proper trainer tyre. I used some old road tyres but but there was some slippage at high efforts and wear to the roller.
HR monitor. Some races insist on HR monitor being worn.
Plus a fan, something to play music, and a large rubber/plastic mat to catch the sweat.
My boy asked if he could do a zwift event. Closest to compatible was a 2.0 German ride so off he goes
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[url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/152318156@N08/44755045820/ ]2019-01-02_04-59-06[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/152318156@N08/ ]Steve Weeks[/url] - [url= https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.dariogf.flickr2BBcode ]Flickr2BBcode[/url]
H8216, undefined@4.4 mm, f2.0, 1/100s, ISO640
Same surname as me, give him a thumb if you see him out there.
I’m wanting to start doing regular group rides each week and I’ve never done any before. Is it a case of trying some randomly (at the expected cat level) or are there certain organisers/groups that are better?
Have look on zwiftpower for the scheduled rides. You could always just enter a race as lowest category and just ride around in that.
Weeksy - that garage door is going to give me nightmare - tell me there are deadbolts in the corners.
BTW kids under 16 can get a free Zwift account. Have a look on Zwift Insider from a couple of weeks ago. My 7YO is now giving me grief up hills with his tiny weight when I'm on a steady day rather than pushing a full size adult avatar around with a bodge to get the power up on a dumb trainer.
Weeksy - Overunders seem to be 95% to 105% for varying times. 1minute to 2 minutes and varying the length of the over or the under.
Saw a few of you on there last night. I have spent the last 3 nights doing 15 mile Z2 gentle rides as I am doing the Jennride on Sunday so don't want to knacker myself for that so no racing this week. Will prob hop on for another 15 miles tonight.
Is it just me or is London pretty boring - guess I never noticed as have been doing races previously but it isn't that interesting to ride around. I much prefer Watopia.
At least it is Watopia today and I unlocked the Jungle map I think last night as I finally reached Level 10 so might have a play around there.
BTW kids under 16 can get a free Zwift account
Yup, that's what my lad uses. He's not Zwifted for 6+ months but last night said "I want to be faster for Swinley to make you happy"... Who am i to argue... 50 mins later he'd done 30km at 1.8w/kg... I had to force him to finish early
There's a simple hack to set the world to wherever you want. Of course that's not much use of you want to do a specific event.
What’s the simple hack?
(Hopefully it works on an AppleTV)
Changing the device date to whatever date had the course you want. You're then placed in that world instead.
Is it just me or is London pretty boring – guess I never noticed as have been doing races previously but it isn’t that interesting to ride around. I much prefer Watopia.
Have you tried the Surrey Hills circuit? A great training and/or racing route I think. Certainly better than New York or Richmond.
Surrey Hills isn't really suitable for me doing Z2 training. I end up going to hard on the ills and upping the HR! Need something pretty flat to keep the HR down.
You can do Z2 on the hills, just takes a bit more self discipline to control your output. I did Box Hill last night in Z2. Also done the Alpe in Z2 though found it really hard to not go harder on that effort!
For me London is way better than NY. Richmond is so bad its hardly worth bothering.
Oh yeh I realise I can do Z2 on the hills - it is the self discipline that is lacking! At the end of the day you are just spinning - its what is entertaining your brain or eyes that makes the difference.
I really enjoy Watopia but I only started Zwifting in September - since then it hardly ever seems to get selected (or at least not when I happen to be Zwifting) so I end up on one of the other tours.
If you use a PC/Mac you can probably still use https://zwifthacks.com/zwift-preferences/
it loads a bit of software that sets your preferences for a ride, including venue
(don't forget to "cancel" it afterwards as it remembers the choice or you'll be riding round empty roads next time out, too)
https://zwiftinsider.com/world-tag/
World hack for pc, site has solution for at least some other platforms like iOS.
https://zwiftinsider.com/using-the-trainer-difficulty-setting-in-zwift/
Reduce the setting to reduce the feel of the gradient, it's 50% by default IIRC. If for instance you don't want to have to put out ~250W to get up the final hill to the radio mast in your lowest gear, lower it to ~25% and you will now have a virtual dinner plate sprocket to use... You will be putting out far less power, almost certainly reducing your heart rate and your speed will drop. But you will get to the top.
Edit: Forgot about that tool that scaredypants has linked to, makes things very simple. Just be aware that if you have overridden the world setting from default and an event you have entered is on the default world, it will completely screw up your race!
It's the start of the new Zwift tour today then. Not sure i have the legs for the long one today, but i may jump on the shorter one at 2 laps of the jungle layout at a nice easy 200w.
I've signed up for the long route at 17:00 and there are over 2700 entrants so far!
I'm in a bit of a loop of getting blown out the back of races and feeling knackered. Not been posting write ups as they would be very samey and demoralising. Going to cut races down to one a week and try some proper training for a bit. A bit of digging shows my 1 minute power sucks so will be trying to get that on par with my 5 minute and FTP efforts.
Another STW rider sent me a message last night when I was doing a Watopia Mountain 8 race but I didn't reply as struggling with last hill. Apologies.
Forza, my 10 year old is in the shorter one 🙂 There's another couple of STWers in it with you in A as well.
I only did the short one today due to time constraints and dentist appointments lol.
Did the B at 5. 2000 riders in the category and still managed to spot Weeksy's lad requesting rideons at the start! Planned to take it steady but ended up with a good group working hard. I forgot how addictive it can be.
I actually bothered to look at my power curve for my race today and it seems i managed to hold over 8.5w/kg for 30s with a peak of 9.6. I also had 1min power of 6.2, i felt tired in the race and very tired afterwards,never again....well till next time.
I also put a fresh battery in my tickr hr and destroyed my msx hr (it went from 183 to 190). What i cant workout is if my hr is now reading correctly or is now inaccurate. My avg hr was very high too so not sure which it is.
Yesterday I barely had energy and motivation to get onto the trainer. So just did a very gentle 40 minutes at HR under 120bpm.
Tonight felt a bit more motivated so did the 18.55, 3 lap, Team Italy Gladiators Race. There were only about 15 A cats entered, and probably the same B cats.
As is usual it started fast to dissuade the hanger ons, and almost straight onto the Zwift Island Climb that made a front group of about 10. On the 2nd lap there were only 4 of us who went over the top together, and at the bottom of the climb I broke away when I noticed some were trying to draft and gaps had formed - it worked and I made a gap whilst others I assume were waiting for someone to try and chase me.
I guess they were waiting for each other to make the first move, because I gained about 30 seconds on them in no time which I should never have been able to do if they were riding together. The last lap I could see 3 of them were working together and were starting to close the gap - so I put a big effort up last climb, and looked as if one of the other chasing riders did too, cos they were spread out again which enabled me to keep the gap ... and grab my first A cat win.
Good work mooman. I did 30 minutes tonight but it was so laggy I stopped after that. Think it was the number of users on.
Forza, my 10 year old is in the shorter one 🙂 There’s another couple of STWers in it with you in A as well.
I only did the short one today due to time constraints and dentist appointments lol.
I had a bit of a nightmare at the start as my inRide power module dropped out about 10 seconds after the start of the race. I couldn't get it to reconnect so had to switch to virtual power with my speed sensor. By the time I got going I was about 3 minutes back so had to TT for about 15 minutes to get back with a decent group. Good laugh though!
I hope your kid enjoyed it weeksy.
Great work Mooman.
Forza, my lad lacked legs and a minor gear issue, he pulled the plug after 26min. He did 55 mine yesterday on zwift so no shame in being tired of leg tonight.
How do you view past runs in Zwift to view average FTP, HR etc, can you only open them up in Garmin or Strava ?
I have looked in Zwift under activities and it only lets me edit the title???