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Not enough watts.
HTH
HAND
;0)
More seriously give up clinging onto the front group and work on bashing people further down the field uphill.
Or find some races that are split with a C only category.
Today’s training session was horrendous, or at least part of it. I’ve never been good at high power intervals, 45 seconds at 6.7 watts/kg for 6 intervals, followed by 8 minutes just below FTP. The 8 miles was actually reasonably comfortable, but the 45 second intervals were just horrible.
As soon as I hit a certain heart rate I immediately drop off. But it’s all fairly close. In the 45 second intervals my heart rate peaked at 172(ish) but I sat fairly comfortable at 160 doing the 8 minute threshold session.
Well I messed that up. With a prior 5min indoor max of 295w and an outdoor max of 320w (I know, with an FTP of 281 its a mystery to me also), for some reason I ignored 'goat and my own instincts and started - on the turbo - with an average of 300 in mind to push on at the end. 3 mins in and I gagged, paused a bit and started again at 420w, 4 mins gagged, paused bit and finished at 420w.
A badly managed and uneven 5 mins with an average of 295w. I should have negative split - which works for me - and started 280-300-320 and pushed to the end.
Balls. Ah well, I'll try again in 8 weeks.
More seriously give up clinging onto the front group and work on bashing people further down the field uphill.
I know I know. First 5km I was over 300w. Which basically as above, too hard too fast. Meh. Been there more than once lol
Six laps of Grand Central before dinner, focussing on the ramps up the reverse KOM (moreso during the first 3 laps, then mix of recovery and moderate efforts) has left me feeling ready for bed before 2000!
34/16 @ 80% slope and later ~50% slope up those ramps is nasty, in my modest MAMIL world.
There's always next time Kryton57, I'd love to be ~65Kg (your weight?) rather than my pleasantly surprising 80Kg after my North Wales break (I was ~83Kg a week before I went up) and knocking out ~320W for 5mins... ~4W/Kg for 5mins is me on a very good day!
Something I did last winter to try and improve my 2min MAP was choose my target power (400W) and do multiple 400W ~1min intervals per session and then gradually build up the interval durations while reducing the frequency of repeats over a few weeks.
I’m 79.5kg ‘goat 🙁 and although it’s good for Weeksy the fact he’s riding at 300w for 5km depresses me a bit. It’s a real chink in my armour. However, better to be matching my 5 min PB at the beginning of the new season training and the end of off season, than later because this means I can improve it.
But then, I can ride at 240w for four hours on a turbo in Erg mode. Odd isn’t it.
Yeah but the world falls apart after that and as soon as we got to a hill you'd disappear!
Long one tonight just over an hour on "out and back again". Raced that way too. Not too fast out of the start then STEADY. Short kicks up the little risers on the way to the Volcano. At the sprint I'd planned an attack through the sprint and up the hill to the esses. Others had the same idea so I went with them to try and spread some panic. Last time out up the Volcano I dropped myself over the top but held on in a faster time tonight. Job done really as I'm not getting dropped up reverse KOM or on the flat from there. Kicked hard up the Reverse KOM but it all stayed together and slowed down again for the last 4km. My main competitor Nic was marking me all the way round and it felt like team mates were putting the hurt on on all the risers. I saw him drop a ghost with 400m to go but failed to react fast enough and didn't go all in until 250m to go. Dumb as due to the relatively sensible pace I forgot that I'd have a bigger sprint left. Which I did and broke my 1min and 15s records in Zwift races. 4th over the line I think but Zwift failed and a few didn't finish so I'm 2nd in the race but Nic was either 1st or 2nd. Happend in the earlier race too.
https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=248547
A memory fail by me Kryton57, had it in my head you were ~15Kg lighter than me from your recent post of a (1min sprint?) way higher than I can muster, rather than very similar weight.
Until my power meter gave some crazy high figures recently that I hope were down to a dying battery, https://power-meter.cc/home had me down as a "Time trialist" (and a very modest one at that, 285W for final 20mins of two lap Sand And Sequoias, having taken first lap very conservatively... Must be nearly 6 weeks ago now so needs retesting).
The conflict is I love attacking hills as best I can, but we have no hills near Southampton that are long enough to take me 20min+ to climb on a good day and things went wrong last Friday on so many levels to get from Prestatyn to Denbigh to climb the ~6.9 mile ~1250 feet cat2 Road To Hell climb which resulted in abandonment until next spring/summer!
Losing ~3Kg recently and doing some respectable times last weekend on some Prestatyn climbs on the fatbike, has given me a new drive to try and get back to sub 75Kg again and try to get an estimated FTP over the 300W threshold, after what had been a challenging year for me on the bike since very early March.
1000 posts of ride reports and 11000 posts of Weeksy asking and then ignoring why he’s ‘rubbish at hills’ 🤣🤣
@kryton interestingly, my pb 5 min power is from the TR ramp test. +20w on my best 5 min power in a crit.
Might be worth a shot at seeing if it improves on what you did?
I think it's genetics lol.
I'm so far beyond caring though now, I only enter ones with hills if they suit my times, I know I'll never fly up them.
I can't even use weight as an excuse as 2 of the guys who stuffed me were a chunk heavier than I am.
Yeah, you’re lighter than me on Zwift too 🤣
(Actually you prob are in real life again after this last two weeks but only by a lb!)
The improvements would come quickly if you trained it a little. 1 session a week of hill reps up the little KOM would sort you out 💪🏻
Well I'm at 14st 10 now on actual scales, which is down from 15st 10 this time in Sept, so more than happy with that, still planning on seeing low 14s by the time we head to Belgium. Ideally 14 0.
Yeah that’ll be good. I’m hovering around 14stone 12.
Got zero motivation again right now so not really worried.
Wanted to race this evening but not keen on Yorkshire.
Why ever not 😀 3 laps of Harrogate never hurt anyone that badly 🤮! I'm going for it as nothing better to do this evening. Was thinking of also doing the 2 laps of Innsbruck ring at 9:05 but something don't think I'll be finished in time. Might have a go at getting the MTB instead as my after ride ride.
lighter than me from your recent post of a (1min sprint?)
No, I've never been lower than 76kg. My sprint & endurance power is OK, its the middle bit I suffer from which is why I now race longer events rather than the more punchy XCO. 5s = 1299w, 10s=1089w, 30s = 692w, 1 min 420w.
We had legit C who was 101kG last night. Bit worried he might have a good sprint so tried reasonably hard to shed him on the Reverse KOM. He got distanced briefly but got back on then proceeded to go back to the front and push on. Luckily he didn't have a sprint.
Not much in the way of ride reports from me recently. Partially from not doing much and partially from not wanting to post another story about getting dropped.
I did have a fun outing in the Ultimate racing league this Tuesday though. 10 laps of Queen's Highway, a route I've never ridden before. That's an ace little lap for a crit, I'll definitely be looking out for events using it in the future.
This was a strong field so there was a simple plan. Hang on for as long as possible, no attacks and no going up front. Normally this means I get dropped on a ramp about half way through but Tuesday was different and I was in it till the end. The bit I really liked about the course is that you can drop a gear, raise the RPM and power into the two worst bits of climb (7% ramp and ramp to through the banner) then kind of coast through the second half without really having to hit it too hard (other than one lap where my timing was off and I had no choice but to go hard to close the gap). So pretty much a rinse and repeat lap after lap until the inevitable sprint. As I said the plan worked and I held on right till the end, only to make a stupid timing error making any kind of sprint pointless. To my surprise I came away with one of my stronger outputs for the duration at 4.3W/kg. Been a while since I've been able to do that outside a TT and more surprising given I basically soft pedalled down hill wherever possible.
https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=248711
As above heading back to Yorkshire tonight for 3 laps of torture. Would rather do the Lamb Chop race but that doesn't fit well with kids bed time.
sterling service from Wahoo.
obviously it shouldn't have broke. but less than a week from reporting it broke I am in possession of a new one
Be back on the bike tonight.
Nice one @trail_rat mirrors my own experience. I’m on my second replacement in four years and just the same- I was barely without a trainer for a week each time. The first time they actually got me to buy a new one which they then instantly refunded and then I used the new box to send the old one back.
The second time they switched it for a refurbished one.
@Kryton57 How often do you do z3+ turbo rides of ~30mins+?
Besides possible power measurement variances between your turbo and outdoor power meter, I find it takes ~3 weeks of 3+ weekly turbo rides to get my body to adapt to indoor sessions and put out similar numbers to outdoor for the same heart rate, due to indoor heat stress.
I tend to lose my indoor adaption if I don't turbo for ~2 weeks, but otherwise, my power numbers are very similar indoor and out.
Couldn't connect to Zwift servers on game app or Companion app earlier with my mobile, ended up using the basic "level" resistance scale in the Elite app to do a very brief ~5min interval, recovery and then a ~1min interval... Legs weren't happy after last night's session and my hrm lost its pairing, might try and do some gentle riding in a while.
How often do you do z3+ turbo rides of ~30mins+?
Bear in mind I've just come back from off season - a month - I was doing 2-3hr intervals at Z3.
Besides possible power measurement variances between your turbo and outdoor power meter,
I have a 4iii and have changed the offset so both display equal watts.
indoor heat stress.
I understand that principle, and this is why my indoor/outdoor is different.
I tend to lose my indoor adaption if I don’t turbo for ~2 weeks,
Yes I had this last year and I think that impacted my 5 min yesterday also. Problem is I only had one shot... ah well.
frustrated, well sort of, was a decent race still. 6 lap classique flat at 14:05 today, big big crowd, always going to string out on the lead in up Northumberland Ave, too many A's to try and stick with the front group, tried to bridge under the start banner, group had 4 seconds, no one came with me and i couldn't close it down, so settled into the 2nd group, lap 1 was so slow, 241w, laps 2 & 3 much the same, ramped up on 4 and 6 was fast, usual sort of stuff, 20 in the group, we hoovered up some dropped B's from the main group, some confusion in the chat when the distance increased when a couple started their sprint, been caught out here before so knew to hang on, i probably went 1 second too early in the sprint when we finally got there, maybe, maybe 2, i think i was the first to jump, and i went hard with 300m+ to go, I'm sure there was only 4 avatars in front of me through the line, holding some off, but i guess not everyone sees the same picture, 6 of us got the same time, another 4 a second less
https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=249232
19:45 Lamb chop for me, i'm remembering how to suffer on the turbo.
I'd already commuted and felt super slow on the way in and much better on the way home. Having spent about an hour wandering round the house conflicted about what to do, wearing both bibshorts and pajamas I decided that the turbo should win out over the 12% russian imperial stout that honest brew had delivered today.
Jumped on the bike with the traditional <5 mins to the start and fired up mindhunter on Netflix (it's ace, if a little, nay, very disturbing). I'm embracing being a B on Zwiftpower, it's proper boarder line but i'm a legit B (95% of 20min 296watts / 3.95wkg)
These chop races are brilliant, there's hardly anything else on the menu that makes people push as hard as you can as a group - There were a good 8 of us taking turns on the front pushing 300+ averages and 450+ pulls, it's a strange strain when you're not used to that, nice little intervals 😀
Came in 17th or something in the end, too many pulls on the front and nowt left for the sprint, but we held off the A group by 14 seconds, the winner of that was 5w/kg for the 53 minutes, machine.
https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=248885
Cracking fun and an FTP bump to 311, despite it not feeling like it
So, hour power. Zwift or velopark?
Nicely done scaled! I was 53 in same race. Dropped on the descent 10k's in as per usual and then formed up with a small mix of B's and a couple of C's we caught. Actually managed to time using the featherweight power-up to 'win' the group sprint at end too 🙂
Really enjoy the chop races!
Nice work scaled. Love the pursuit race format.
After a bit of a barren spell I've final got a good result to report. 3 evil laps of Harrogate and I managed to walk away with the bronze right on the line. Very, very happy with that result.
The start wasn't too high paced which suited me as I'd only got on the bike 5 minutes before. The B pack numbered the As so I was expecting it to be tight. Lap one rolled off at a decent pace but the group stuck mostly together till the KOM. This trimmed the numbers some what but there was still a decent group size. Little gaps kept opening on the ramps to the end of the lap but never developed into a break.
Lap two was more interesting, a few of us started to explore with little gaps off the front. By the uphill after the main down this was clearly starting to get to some riders and by the second time up the KOM we had trimmed a fair few more. By the sprint the first 10 had nearly got away but the case group closed back up before the lap ended (shame as one of the riders I wanted to drop had got on the wrong side of the gap).
Onto lap three. I was starting to feel the effort now but was really enjoying it. Had to close up a few gaps as some of the dangerous stronger riders looked like they might be trying something and in turn tried a few things myself. The KOM again trimmed the group down to 7 or 8. I was nearly done but still had one last play. I've had got results from going long in the past and went for it again. I was never going to escape the A+ rider as he's a machine but the two of us so nearly gapped the rest.of the lead group. Just didn't work but worth a try. I think it paid back in the sprint though as several riders dropped on the ramp before the last 300. I was pretty much done now but dug deep and just sneaked past 2 riders on the line to get the trophy.
With my wife out tonight I hung around for a bit more suffering and did an extra 2 1/2 laps of the full circuit including some decent lactic threshold efforts up the hills (I've not done enough of these recently and have suffered for it). A nice brucie bonus on this was taking the Harrogate 5 lap KOM in Strava. Wonder how long I'll keep hold of that as realistically you'd need to be racing to have a high enough pace to trouble it.
All in a good night I'm the loft.
https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=249294
"legit" B :0)
Well you were congtas on being a A again.
Well, going to free ride the Epic KOM today for the first time.
Part of the (very...) long term plan to unlock the Tron bike and start doing the occasional race too.... Though that's not going to be pleasant.
Weight is the best it's been in years and fitness, though still low compared to most on Zwift, is getting there gradually.
Bumped into Alexleigh off here last night riding up Epic KOM reverse.
Got my new kickr got it all hooked up - its not been a good year in the garage - first the telly then the kickr - its insulation has been much improved and its no longer even cold/cold damp in there its actually reasonably plesent ..... (spray insulated roof and rubber tiled the floor + fitted some patio doors so get solar gain in the day)
45k of the pretzel loop last night in Z2 - so Epic KOM reverse , radio mast (hit 100kph badge on the way down) then Zwift KOM each way. and climbed back to the bridge for EPIC KOM forwards and it was bed time so canned it.
Get back on the racing next week - plan is to try some longer hills. While I'm not the lightest so struggle on the medium hills - i seem to have staying power in the hills so where the lighter riders **** off at the start - i claw them back over time at my pace so on EPIC and AdZ Zpower seems to agree
I'm hoping for the 16:05 volcano flat. I quite like the course, so we'll see how i go. Bit long for me to be in with a chance in the mix-up, but we'll have a crack.
“legit” B :0)
Well you were congtas on being a A again.
Arse 😀
Had to do some work today so it’s fairly late race for a Friday evening, 7pm Friday Autumn Series Crit, 27 miles. I’m a bottom end B (3.5w/kg is a damn hard session for me), plus struggling with the drafting technique, going to give it a go and have a night off from structured training.
Another round of WKG winter league tonight, 2 laps of Yorkshire UCI, too hilly for me, will be happy with a top 15.
Is this mad? Instead of a consistent interval on Sunday for my power test, I do an hour long race.
Thats gets the most from my legs as long as I don't sit in for an hour?
True to form, less than a few mins to warmup before my 1303 Tempus Fugit TT, 10mins in thought I'd set off too hard... Kept the 50/16 gear turning but legs dying by ~20mins in, begging for it all to end during the final minute to finish in 25mins52secs.
Surprised I managed a best 20mins of 288W, just 1W down on 4th Oct... I'll definitely take that after having a cold through most of Oct where I stayed well away from z3+ rides.
Hmm, Bologna TT later? Quicker on my Allez or Emonda than my Zwift TT frame, with that brutal hill.
Thursday evening and didn't want a wet ride, so Long Sweetspot Workout. I love ERG# mode, except I finished it 30 minutes early (It's 2:20) so as to spend some time with Mrs TiRed. Felt OK at 225 watts, but I'm running Q-rings, so cadence down on the TT bike.
I may do some races, but am not so excited - I prefer long steady efforts at 3 W/kg as that's my target for next season. A boring target, but 3.2 W/kg for 12 hours would be a good result.
I ought to do another FTP test too, as my current one is very out of date. HR for power is looking better though, and that's my real fitness measure.
#You get a lot of drafters in ERG mode and a lot of Ride Ons too it appears!
Well, got up to the radio tower for the first time. Highest gradient I've been up on Zwift and glad I didn't remove the small ring on the turbo bike as I was thinking of going recently!😆
Can't do Alpe Du Zwift yet as I'm only a lowly Level 11....
Had an Italian guy keeping pace with me up there which helped a lot. Lovely feeling jelly legs now which is quite satisfying.
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With all the talk of racing on here I thought I’d get in on the action so I took a half day off at work full of excitement.
I chose a relatively short race to get my eye in. I went to my shed (where my turbo is) about 20 minutes early to get warmed up etc
In summary, I would recommend the following go eat a bag of d*cks
- Apple, for not recognising my phone as a suitable hot spot connection, even though my phone had awesome signal
- TACX, for creating a turbo trainer which is programmed to think it is socially acceptable to disconnect while on zwift
- Three, for also loosing connection 20 seconds before race start
- Zwift, for being so addictive I’m ranting online because I couldn’t go on a virtual bike ride
I'll be selling my kickr Snap soon if anyone is in the south east (Medway, Kent) and interested, by the way.
Got a great deal on a Core you see.
Only issue I had was the lock ring loosening after a ride so I just put some thread lock on it as suggested on here and all was good.
I even took a picture from Zwift to say how many miles is done on it. Can find if needed.
Mega mates rates for anyone from here. £200, picked up, it's frigging immaculate and with box and manual etc. I look after my gear, mega ocd...
Pm me if anyone interested.
Not to be sold on for a profit though please! These do for about £320 online. Would like to see it go to a forum regular ONLY. That's the only reason I'm putting it in this thread first! Hope the mods don't mind.
7am 3r road to the sky group ride anyone ?
What's 7am?
Good ride that. Good use of fence to keep it blobbed .
Fwarm up into road to ruins turn up the alpe irst half at 3w/kg then 3.5w/kg from turn 10 then chaos from turn 1 to top.
Any advice of racing Watopia flat please? I've signed up for two races - one 40km and one 60km tomorrow afternoon. I need to time an hours max power within them. I'm concerned that I the former Ill fall short of the hour - so perhaps just TT hard after the finish to get my goal? Or do the longer one which might mean I end up too easy across the space of an hour...?
I'm thinking of deferring to the 40km. Only 5 riders entered currently though.
I'd welcome any thoughts