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Had a quick spin around NYC on Zwift this afternoon,
It pinged up on the screen to congratulate me on getting to Level 11, "great" I thought, "I can have a go at the Alp du Zwift route now"
Turns out that's at Level 12 so still a fair few rides away from getting there.
Bugger.
@nmrn You can already do the alpe if you join an event.
@pjm84 that's a decent power output for nearly 9 minutes. My power is very similar for box though like bladder I'm 25kg lighter.
I'm off crit racing tonight. Hopefully legs will be awake today!
Question for anyone who uses zwift for some sort of training, what's it like for structured stuff?
I used it in the beginning back when it was free/Beta and got bored and/or found it a faff having to be logged on at a certain time. But really enjoyed doing sufferfest videos on TrainerRoad (obviously those are now separate).
I'm thinking of giving Zwift another shot as maybe the riding/racing would fit around real life rides better, i.e. an hours race on Zwift might be something like equal to a couple of hours evening ride if it's pissing it down?
Or should I just go back to the sufferfest and do more specific training sessions, but be prepared to skip them if it's sunny outside, I'm not going to do 40 minutes of VO2 max intervals indoors if its 25C and sunny outside and there's a clubrun with coffee and cake as the alternative!
Also, if I ride to work that saves about 75% of the monthly subscription of any of them in petrol in just one day, so I'm not going to do sessions if it means skipping those real world rides!
weeksy
I want a lot of climbing in there, maybe a 10 min rest break too to simulate some of the SDW riding.
Just read this. You planning an sdw "adventure" mate?
I'll be riding/attempting it again this year. Over 3 days I should add! Failed last 2 years due to crashes and being physically destroyed by the effort and heat.Lol
Trying to get fitter for the ride as it destroys me, even over 3 days. Also getting my shoulder sorted with daily physio after tearing the rotator cuff in a dumb/slow crash...
Both the above has compelled me to get back into Zwift in a structured way.
Doing the Fondo one at the moment but couldn't complete today's one. Just crushed me. It's the one designed to help you keep up with break away packs etc. Can't remember name.Lol
Just read this. You planning an sdw “adventure” mate?
Yeah, mid July for BHF one.
Ah yes! I first rode (successfully! Lol) the SDW back in 2010. Very quite on the sdw until the last day when I ride the last 30 odd miles which coincided with a BHF ride as it happened.
The extra motivation of suddenly riding with a load of people on the last, long climbs near Eastbourne was immensely helpful.👍
Great memories of that ride. Hell even the last 2 aborted attempts have left me with amazing memories and pictures.
This year I will complete it! Lol
I'm wondering if Fondo is the best bet for me, starting from a low level of fitness?
Good luck with the BHF ride weeksy, I'm guessing you are doing the full 100??👍
@poopscoop I am just finishing the fondo one. Are you sure your ftp is set right? It might be with looking at phase 1 of the etape du tour? Supposed to be a pretty good programme and starts from a lower base
Good luck with the BHF ride weeksy, I’m guessing you are doing the full 100
Well, that's the plan. We've done it 3 times now. But I'm not totally convinced a couple of the guys can do within the time limits
robbo1234biking
Subscriber
@poopscoop I am just finishing the fondo one. Are you sure your ftp is set right? It might be with looking at phase 1 of the etape du tour? Supposed to be a pretty good programme and starts from a lower base
In truth my ftp might be wrong as I left it as it was from about a year back! Lol
I think I need to do an ftp test tomorrow...
Cheers, I'll check out etape did your.
Weeksy, sounds like your mates are in for a surprise. Have they rode it before, the ones that might struggle I mean?
Have they rode it before, the ones that might struggle I mean
Nope. We did a Ridgeway 90km a few weeks back. Which is a great distance but was only 1000m of climbing, not 3500m. We're going to qecp on the 29th and riding to Amberley and back, so they'll get more idea then. Hopefully.
Regarding Zwift, I've not raced for ages now, well, several weeks. But I've been up the Alp twice, epic kom 3 times and an 80km ride on zwift.
Today was 40km recovery ride at about 120w maybe less.
Climbs tomorrow I think.
Question for anyone who uses zwift for some sort of training, what’s it like for structured stuff?
There's oodles of training programs and sessions on it now which you can do anytime. I don't use them as I use TR for that.
You can pick a race almost anytime or chase strava times up climbs if the interval length is what you're after.
It's had a lot added since I started at the end of 2017.
I don't even know what a VO2 max interval actually is mate 🙂
Did a bit of a climb today as usual, but went a little too hard for what i'd planned. So bailed earlier on the ride.
They're fun and make you faster. Dead easy.
What sort of time do you do up Box dirtyrider?
just had a look, there's a billion segments so on this one
https://www.strava.com/segments/12744502
Zwift insider, never done a full on effort up it, so 9:00 flat at about 270w in the race,
weather is still naff here, and my direct debit for my subscription went out today so best use it - 12:20 Innsbruck today, 4 lapper today, usual dropped up the hill 1st lap, bit solo, gobbled up by a bunch, dropped them on the hill 2nd lap, eased off to let them back on, then it sort of slowed, 230wish for a bit on the flat through the start banner, couple got shelled on the 3rd lap hill, stayed with the group until the 4th lap hill, and i got shelled, ended up 20 seconds behind a small group,
7/12 on ZP, 3.2w/kg
https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=196178
Best place to look for segment times is on ZP. They have a league table of the most well known segments. Only thing I'm not sure is if it only counts efforts in events.
Thanks Nixie,
Just looked at ZP and I've just managed to make the page 1 in the over 100kg category for BH with an 8.20 @363w average.
👍 nice.
i got a cup! 3rd in B reduced field (12 in B), but you have to race who is there 18:20 Volcano Flat 2 Lapper - stuck with the A group until the 2nd lap, cannot remember the point the elastic snapped, think it was in the rise before the descent to the italian villas, did for a couple of others as well, managed to bridge that gap, ended with a 4 way sprint, of which i got 3rd, they all got the jump on me but was bringing them back gradually but run out of road,
decent result all round
https://zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=196629
Ah, the little kicker, a favourite place of mine to get dropped 🙂
Congrats on the result mate... Well done and well deserved.
Well done @dirtyrider. Cups after a dry spell feel so much sweeter :D. That kicker is deceptive. Been dropped there so many times when not paying attention properly, if just a small gap opens its pain city to get back in touch.
Couple of laps of the Jungle last night for me. The race was defined by the climb to the bridge before turning off to the Jungle/Alpe. This hurt a lot. Six of us got clear and the following groups were too fragmented to take advantage of DD. Lap one was easy as a 3R A+ protected their B rider in the lead group. Lap two had a failed attack at the start and bit of a kick over the rope bridge but was easy pace after that. I dropped to the back of the six at 1.5k then tried to get the jump at 900m. It started to work but then I blew up and had to throttle back to finish 5th. Good fun race though.
https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=196639
I'm still confused by today's race.
Short race, small field.
Set off at 1 min intervals.
https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=196862
On the kick to volcano finish line on lap 2 I was dumped out, along with another rider. Me and him worked well enough and sucked up all the C's apart from 1.
But we were not overtaken by the A riders, we never saw a single A rider.
Decent enough power, but the legs are feeling it lately. Got a weekend away on the KTM to let them recover and then a last long outdoor ride before tapering for SDW.
So.......have kept my head down since first foray into Zwift. Am in week 8 of 12 on the Build Me Up training plan. Have just done another FTP test (rest day) as I was feeling the sessions were getting a bit easier. Gone from FTP of 217 to 255. 17.5% increase. Well chuffed. Know it’s not gonna be beating records but good to know focused training actually works! Down from 89kg to 83.5kg too which is a bonus!
2.44 w/kg -> 3.05 w/kg gives a 25% increase in power to weight as well ratio. Nice work.
I'm heading out in the 8pm kiss race. Looks to be one STW rider signed up at the moment.
How do you affiliate yourself with STE on Zwift? Do I need an invite?
^^^^^STW
Can't remember for certain but think you just go to the team page on zwift power and join https://www.zwiftpower.com/team.php?id=756
You need to register with ZP as well and also set your zwift account to allow ZP access.
👍 Gotcha. Thx Nixie
So the KISS race went mostly well. It was two laps of Fugo flats which I've not races before. I was napping at the start (reading stw on my phone) and nearly got dropped from the off as I pulled away at 200W. Fortunately the start was not crazy fast and there were enough riders I could draft back to the front.
There were a fair number of big hitting riders in the field so I was expecting a fast pace. Not knowing the I also didn't know where attacks would occur. Turns out the short climb from desert to sequoia forest and the drop.dowm.the other side is the place. Lap one it was enough to split most of the B's off till I'm the under water section. They had just reattached as the pace went up again from the ramp to the surface. This split the pack leaving a lead group of around 30.
The pace stayed steady for the desert and again went high as we went up the hill out of the desert. Another split started here and I was on the wrong side of it. The gap opened up to 7s and I thought that was a done deal but for some reason the lead pace slowed as we entered the underwater section. This meant the chasing group regained half the gap just going down the ramp and we're back together before sequoia circle. On the ramp to the surface the pace went up but there was no real attack. With about 3-4k to run I think everyone had settled in for the sprint.
With a lot of sprinters in the pack there seemed to be a concensus to go long and the pace ramped up before 1k. This suits me as I'm not a good short sprinter. Full chat sprint seemed to start at around 500m at which point I was just off the leaders. Managed to not loose any more spots but couldn't move up. Finished 14th which I'm very happy with considering the field strength. I'm now very close to breaking under the 300 point racing license level as well which had been eluding me for a while.
https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=197181
raced in real life last night, first ever on the road bike, Cat 3/4 local summer series, rained hard start to finish, cornering in the wet on a road bike isn't my forté, was around a 2.29km loop round a race track 14/15 riders, commissaire pulled me before the start and said wheels above 60mm meant i couldn't place in the top 5, decent learning curve, did my bit at the front a few times to pull it along, led out the last lap and let every come past me with about 400m to go to fight for the sprint and rolled in 13/14 i think,
Sounds fun. Was the tyres wider than 60mm or deep rims?
Slightly unrelated question, but still Zwift related.
Lets say you've trained harder in 6 months than any other. 30+ hours a month and the legs are tired each and every time.
How much tapering should you/I be doing for something like the SDW and the like ? I want to go into it as strong as i can, but without losing fitness in the next 4 weeks.
So, what sort of tapering ? easy days, short days, long slow days ?
Thought appreciated.
Same race as nixie last night (although a bit further down field... 🙂 29th in B).
Really enjoyed that one though!
Thought i'd jump on a race today as i had 45 mins spare to play
https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=197698
Typical of the race really. Over the line and the lead-in it was a group of about 35 of us, which was shortly hacked a bit where the courses cross and you get a 4% for 150m, then a 2%, i know from experience it surges there as the lightweights sod off at 5+ so i was on the case and ready for it. It then surges again at the roundabout with the statue at the 2%..... We'd dumped about 10 riders in them sections.
Onto lap 2 of 3 and i'm sitting OK, trying to recover as it flattens for the next Km or so, i've got 178 on the HR monitor and i know that's non sustainable for me. So i settle in for the next lap. Up to the crossover again and it kicks, hard.... I hold it... But it's pushing me right to the limits. On the run down to the hairpin it all gets a bit quick and 4-5 riders are slowly being dumped.... Sadly, i'm one of them as i was sitting a bit too far back. But then 3 riders throw in a 500w boost and drag themselves back in... So it's just me and 1 other fella.
Sadly for me he was a bit crap LOL he didn't stick in the effort at all and we had 1 guy just ahead who we could have caught if he'd worked a little... but no... nothing... we had 1min 30 on the group behind, but they now had an A rider who was finding 4w/kg, so i had to hold a decent power to make sure the gap never came down. Blokey still wasn't playing, so it was more of a solo than a duet. To top things off, he then beat me by 0.05s in the sprint LOL.
3 days off the pedals now as i'm away on the KTM.
How much tapering should you/I be doing for something like the SDW and the like ? I want to go into it as strong as i can, but without losing fitness in the next 4 weeks.
So, what sort of tapering ? easy days, short days, long slow days ?
My current taper based on A Marathon Xc on the 30th is for 4 weeks:
Weeks 1 and 2 - For the SDW - as I am for my Pivot 12h - id be doing lots of long 6-8hrs of z2 per week with a race and some short sharp intervals in the weeks before the taper, say 4 workouts a week, 10hrs
Week 3:
1hr race last night (intensity)
1hr Z3 / Marathon race pace tonight
3hr Z2 Sunday
Week 4:
30 mins Monday - Warm up/down with 3 x 2mins all out 1 min off
30mins Wednesday - Warm up/down with 2 x 5 mins threshold 5 mins off
30 mins Saturday ramp through all zones pre race
sunday - race
So basically a lowering of volume yet keeping the legs turning.
Fun little race - towed a group round completely failing to drop 'em on the 'hills' only to be outsprinted by a C cat putting out 9.4W/kg 🙂
Good craic!
https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=197732
Thread has been quiet recently. Guess everyone apart from me is taking advantage of the nice weather outside. I've been stuck in the loft mostly cooking. Definitely time for a second fan. I have however got the go ahead for a SDW attempt at the beginning of August so may be doing less races till then and more climbing.
Last Tuesday I did a big evening while wife was working late. Did the KISS 8pm ( https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=198925) quickly followed by a 1 lap 3R sprint race ( https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=198929) and finally a 3R training session with interval ramps and sprints.
The KISS race was good for me. I felt strong and for once was leading or towards the front of all the ramps, especially the one on the lead in that I frequently get dropped on. I was still there for the sprint but don't have the legs to compete when its short and fast. Felt like I should have done better though. Still a good solid race and enough points to move me under 300 on the racing rank for the first time.
I've done a couple of 1 lap Watopia flat sprints now and always have fun with that. I really like the bunched start and then attempts to string the field out. Even after the KISS effort I was still feeling good so put the hammer down on a couple of ramps to spice it up a bit. We had dropped all but one of the Bs by the end. No one seemed to want to go for it at the end and the winner slipped away as everyone else prevaricated. Legs didn't want to go full sprint again so I finished at the back of the lead group.
Sunday I did the BRT Iron Goat race on one of the new routes 'Out and Back'. First time out on this route and I thoroughly enjoyed it, though I did forget about it going up the KOM climb after the Volcano (Note to self read the map).
The pace started off quite sedate with comments on the chat to it feeling like a rando. Can't have to much of that talk so I hit the ramp out of Saddle Springs hard (6+ W/kg for as long as I could hold it). This caused a bit of a split :D. Did the same again out of the underwater section and the small ramp in the volcano. I settled down a bit then to get the HR down before the main climb. This was tough, set a PR up the Volcano but at several points I only just stayed in touch. Over the top two riders pulled off the the main bunch by 7s so we had to work hard all the way down to pull them back.
There were a few small attacks as we passed the Italian Villas but nothing too full on. To my surprise the pace up the reverse KOM was not that high, I was expecting it to go flat out. Seemed like the field had settled in for a sprint. I decided to try and go before 1k to stretch out the short sprinters, someone else had the same idea and was off at 1.5k. I was a bit slow respnding as we got towards the end and fell back a little. Managed to catch one rider before the end but gave up early and another came around me on the line, grr. Must not give up next time as I'd done the hard work for that place.
https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=200137
Rejoined Zwift this week.
1st step on a bid to end my current 8 month self destruct which has resulted in a total loss of any fitness and a 2.5 stone bacon suit in 8 months
Somehow I totally lost track of my way, not sure my head is in the right place. I’ve barely touched my bike and I’ve maybe ridden 3-4 times this year totalling 150km (I rode 5000km last year)
Going to try to motivate myself out (I’ve managed an odd jog so far )to get the turbo out as not ready for roads or trails yet and try to fix this.
Watch this space (I hope)
https://zwiftpower.com/profile.php?z=288273
Welcome back. Do you have room to leave the turbo setup with bike in place? ONe less hurdle to using it if your suffering with motivation. Hopefully you find it and the fun again 👍.
No, no room at moment, need to make space in the garage.
First time in ages i jumped on Zwift yesterday.
https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=204018
Made a deliberate choice not to head out with group1 and just sat in group 2 for the first lap, before being binned out by them on the Innsbruck hill as always. 🙂
All in all it was mostly just a tester for me really, just wanted to see if my legs worked after the last weekend. They were fine and happy enough.
Morning,
Am I right in thinking that there is no Pay As You Go (literally by session) option for interactive training software at the minute?
Aside from buying Sufferfest videos (if that’s still a thing).
I think RGT might be an option if it’s still free?
Anything worthwhile? Has to run through an IPad. I’ll only use it for very short pedals once a week or so. I suspect I’ll end up just manually controlling the trainer and YouTubing but thought id ask for suggestions.
I guess the question is how much would you be willing to pay per session and compare that to zwift monthly cost. RGT is pretty good for free, far less people on it but still pretty good.
TBH Zwift is what £13 a month now ? Even going to th local gym is going to cost a Fiver a time, so you wouldn't even get 3 sessions for your £13.
The interactive aspect of zwift and the immersive racing/events/socials of it make it worth each and every penny.