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Doesn't sound unreasonable for that gear. 80rpm isn't very fast.
46/15 isn't a massive gear.
This is me noodling round on the big ring and probably something like 50:20/22 gear
https://www.strava.com/activities/3111783721/analysis
72rpm avg 122watts
And if you isolate the race on this one
https://www.strava.com/activities/3102577303/analysis/0/1237
99rpm
268watts avg
gearing 50:13 or 14 I'd guess sometimes down to the 11.
FEC is the recommended setting from Elite. They have a page on facebook that is helpful.
not sure if this helps, but have a play around with this website.....
https://www.bicyclegearcalculator.uk/derailleurgears.htm
I’ve had a look, for me being 69kgs, 46 16, without taking into account drive train watt loss, at 85rpm is 153 watts. If you include drive train loss it’s 187 watts.
I started on Zwift back in December. I'm not really interested in the racing side of it as I don't have a competitive gene in my body, and I haven't tried out the 'Just Ride' features yet, because if I want to do go for a ride, I kinda figure that I should really just get on my bike and get outside. What I do really like though is the structured training programs. I've completed the FTP program and I'm now on a 12 week long 'Build me Up' regime that I hope will set me up in good stead for the summer.
I'm finding the workouts really hard, although I suppose that's the point. Riding at 85-95 rpm though, who does that? It can't be natural?? I'm generally 'blowin oot me arse' by the end of the warmup!!
The benefits are there to see though. I've actually started to slowly lose some weight this winter, rather than my usual habit of gaining weight with interest, over and above what I lose in the summer. The feeling of actually doing something though, is what makes it all worthwhile for me. Rather than sitting on the sofa, feeling grumpy because I don't want to go out on my bike, on my own, on yet another dark and miserable night, I can now just nip into the garage for an hour long blast. The feeling of satisfaction, of actually having fought back, is priceless.
Mind you, it can all still go tits up! Which is why I was smiling after reading the last couple of posts about power loss. I was midway through my workout last night, with the turbo simulating a grinding climb when my legs just completely failed me. Batteries flat, legs hollowed out, nothing more to give. Couldn't really figure it out because it was well within my capabilities (around 180 watts at 60rpm), but I was completely burst. I gave up in defeat, thinking that maybe my FTP score was a wee bit over ambitions, switched everything off and went back into the house. That's when I thought I'd better check my blood glucose.....whoopsy! I was down at 1.8 mM/l ....that would explain my power loss, stupid diabetes!
Really liking Zwift though. Really like pushing myself hard, to the point where I think I'm done, then looking at the screen and seeing that I only need to go for a few seconds more to finish the interval, or 'keep going to that corner / till you catch that guy' then look again. No way would I be able to spend any time on a regular turbo without that interactivity. It's rapidly becoming one of the best bits of riding kit I've ever invested in. I really think it's going to make a big difference to my proper riding once the trails emerge out of the floods again!
Cheers Tom and Woodster, I'll look into it further and play about on Zwift this weekend, doing different speeds / gears to check output.
I maybe just need to put more effort in and forget my previous results 🙂
Riding at 85-95 rpm though, who does that? It can’t be natural??
The average of my last three Zwift sessions is 100rpm, admittedly I only have a choice of two gears (34/16 and 50/16) and I can tweak "trainer difficulty" (slope feel), but even when I have a full selection of the theoretical 22 gears I am naturally a spinner.
My plans to do a gentle freeride yesterday to see how my lungs feel, given I've not felt quite right since Monday but then it's not developed into much besides a very minor tickly throat and a bit of fatigue, got dashed. Bit more wary than normal, as it was about this time last year I came down with a lurgy and probably did a few rides pushing too hard, which consequently meant I had to knock z3+ efforts on the head for ~2 months.
The landslide on the railway line between Salisbury and Romsey is now bringing another challenge to focus on, as there is now a replacement bus service, which might mean I need to my first ~50-mile ride in months if I want to take my road bike to Longleat.
When I think way back into the mists of time, as a novice mountain biker in the late 80's early 90's, I always remember that the biggest frustration I had (on the bike), was getting beat by my lungs, long before my legs were ready to give out because I would spin through the gears to fast at too high a cadence. So I kind of trained myself to be a steady grinder on the pedals, using the gears to keep a rhythm maybe around 60 rpm. I'm rather set in my ways now, as Zwift is painfully showing me.
I know that spinning like a loon is probably really good for me, especially as it'll burn those calories, but jeepers, it just doesn't feel right!
CAMSUFFERS
gets you a month free on sufferfest
So I kind of trained myself to be a steady grinder on the pedals, using the gears to keep a rhythm maybe around 60 rpm. I’m rather set in my ways now, as Zwift is painfully showing me.
Oddly I was always a stomper (asthmatic so always ran out of lungs before legs too), to the point of killing cassettes and snapping chains. Over the last year I've made a point of increasing my cadence to preserve my knees and save money.
When I tried the MTB training routine after the 12 week FTP builder I really found it hard producing high power at 65rpm compared to 80+rpm.
UPDATE: ANT+ dongle arrived this morning, I uninstalled everything including Zwift, recalibrated the trainer and connected back to zwift with FE-C.
Everything is back to what I would expect, I'm getting 200-300w quite easily without using crazy rpm's. Before I was struggling to get near 200w.
Thanks all for the advice 👍, I rode this morning and am loving the smart trainer and the hill resistance. See you in watopia!
Great.
I forgot to mention a couple of times it's not connected properly and you have no resistance so spinning like a loon to hit 200 watts. It may well have been down to just not connecting to the correct things.
Here's a question then, sprinting?
In a crit race I'm riding at a 280w average, I use 1 gear, maybe 2. 38-11 and 38-13 (well I assume it's 13, it's 2nd cog anyway) but 90% of the lap is in 38-11.
Cadence is mid to low 80s.
When it comes to sprinting do you guys use your power gear or do you kick it down 1-2 and spin it? My sprint is rubbish, I'll barely hit 600w. I wonder if hitting the shifter will help?
I’ve an ok sprint for my weight, over 900 watts, I’m currently 68kgs. I gear down before the sprint, slow my cadence slightly then stand up and smash it. When I sit down I then change to an easier gear and try and keep the cadence as long as I can.
Some days though, especially if there’s been a lot climbing, my legs are just like jelly when it comes to the sprint, so when I go to a harder gear, my legs are empty. I’ll normally still hit between 6 or 700 hundred watts, but it’ll last milliseconds!
Bit of a PSA but Halfords currently have the Halfords Elite Drivo 2 for £699
12 months interest free. I'm pretty tempted myself.
Decided to have a go at a race longer than 21 miles, so signed up for the 14.45 63 miler. Fired up zwift. It needed to update. I find I always need to restart the laptop after an update, so I did that. Then the endless light blue screen of death: fill up water bottle, do this, so that etc. Finally ‘ride on’. Then logged in and sent to Innsbruck for my last location. Then zwift needed to go to the desert so changed worlds. Then hung while changing worlds. Restarted zwift. Then turbo wouldn’t pair. So switched off companion and turbo paired on ble (even though it’s ant+ and my dongle is ant+ and it’s been fine). Finally get into the race by which time everyone was gone. Switched to a different event. Did 15 miles, lost interest so climbed off. Bah!
No Zwift for me at the moment, pulled a muscle in my lower back, not even sure how. Full on Voltarol share holder at the moment, getting older sucks.Lol
On the RPM front I see some of you chatting about RPM I feel most comfortable at just under 90rpm most of the time. On saddle sprints I go a bit higher. Out of saddle sprints I go lower..... any faster cadence and my quads just go to jelly and I collapse onto the saddle.
I sprint in the biggest gear unless it's uphillish, which is 50-11. My 100kg comes in handy to mash the pedals down.Lol Still can only hold 800ish watts but that's an improvement from a few months ago even, so happy enough.
Can't wait to get back on Zwift! Even getting off the loo is agony at the moment. Too much info I know...
Riding at 85-95 rpm though, who does that? It can’t be natural??
That's where I average now. It seems to burn less matches keeping the power up by doing that and easier to respond to pack speed variance.
I gear up slightly for the sprint so I don't spin out. I try not to shift once sprinting.
I'm looking at a third week of doing nothing. 2 seperate foreign trips and 5 days between getting in the way. I'm hoping the hotel this week will have a watt bike so I can race.
85-95rpm cadence is the sweet spot.
I typically start a ride warming up at 65-75rpm and gradually increase the cadence over the next 15 minutes to sit comfortably at 85-95rpm.
Once your lungs are used to it then it's much easier on your legs than grinding at lower cadence. Then responding to attacks off front of races you will be amazed to see later that your cadence will have increased to 120-130rpm; takes a bit of getting used to,but worth getting used to it.
For a correctly categorised C rider. ie not one who has an average and normalised power that is massively different a 600w sprint is decent at the end of a race IMO. I'd say those with bigger sprints should either be up a category or probably got dropped long before the finish anyway.
My absolute best (not best power) sprint was when I got upgraded to B at the end of a race I was trying to win solo for 10minutes and still mustered a sprint to win. 615watts for 15 seconds. The most power was a longer hour event in the same series when the race was relatively steady all the way through and I fluffed the finish as I saw my main competitior go invisible but didn't react until too late and had big power left 701watts for 15s and probably longer. (PS I wasn't 2nd in that one as Zwift didn't calculate everyone.)
I won a crit city race with sub 500w for 15s becuase everyone was so gassed from going stupid fast for 20 minutes.(plus I pulled my foot out)
You can train it too. I would think V02 max intervals would be most suitable. I stand to be corrected though. (Plus specific technique for sprinting on Zwift)
That would improve you to keep you fresher for the finish. Of course you'd end up in B though :0)
Did the Gran Fondo earlier. Probably (definitely 😂) rode a bit too hard trying to keep up with groups as I figured being dragged along would be worth it in the long term, meant I had nothing left for the last epic climb though!!
Got passed by a couple of guys on MTBs who clearly couldn’t be bothered to change back to a road bike after the dirt section, they must’ve been knocking out some serious watts!
Knee recovered, did one Dirt Destroyer session yesterday. Felt good and rested after a week off.
Today shifting kit around in the back of the van resulted in a pop from the my back, just above my left hip. That's probably it for me for a while.
^^ Well, that officially sucks jamesoz.
I'm going to get back into Zwift in a few days all going well depending upon what muscle I decided to pull in my back and how long my Zoltarol stocks last.
Doesn't sound (literally) as bad as what you have done though.
Cheers, I do have form for back issues. Surgery 10 years ago and I turned down further surgery 5 years ago as I was able to train/physio my way round it. Annoying as I was feeling strong.
Hope your back improves.
Best of luck mate, had a spot of surgery on the top of my spine back in the 90's. Not pleasant as you obviously know. Mines just an annoying little pulled muscle this time. Annoying as I still think I am 20 in my head and at that age I didn't used to get this sort of stuff.Lol
Did the Gran Fondo earlier.
@Zilog You have my respect, I did the short fondo yesterday and was destroyed by the end, it's the longest ride I have done for probably 2 years. I can't imagine doing the 97km event.
I went out too hard and was okay for the first 30km, then when we hit the jungle loop I just seemed to be going backwards. First time I've done that section and by the look of it many were changing to MTB's, so I'll try that next time. First time up the volcano too. Came in about mid 500's out of 870, under 2 hours, ZP has me at 279.
Definitely need to work on endurance, I'm fine on short events.
Indoors is very different though, especially in events like that, you're constantly on the pedals, whereas outdoors you'll cruise, power, cruise, power, climb and then roll down. They seem to be far longer and easier on the rolling than on Zwift events when you do the outdoor rides instead. So don't be too hard on yourself because you found it hard.
Not being hard Weeksy, I loved it and was happy I completed it, but I was definitely at my limit.
Zwift has really given me the buzz again, I'm always looking for the next ride / race /event. I am time limited with family and work, so it really suits my lifestyle. Weight is starting to reduce too, all positive!
I'm not seeing anything appealing in todays list when i'm back home later. There's the usual Crit race of course, but trying to stay out of racing for a few weeks. None of the socials seem particularly interesting today, so will either pootle round or maybe even have a day off and do some spannering instead.
First go with all the kit at the weekend (smart trainer and HRM) and I think there is a mix up between average watts output (80, over 11 mins) and average HR (143).
That must be it, right?
80w average ? That does seem.... well.... low.... and especially for a HR of 143 yes...
That was the craziest race ever!!!!
After having road bike thoughts for Belgium I jumped on a mates road bike for this Zwift race. Usual Crit race and usual style of racing
First things first, by lordy!!! The bars are 4 miles away from the seat!!! I think I could take 70mm off the stem and still be uncomfortable. This is despite it being the correct size frame. I guess it's just what we get used to over time lol.
Race went off with a huge field and some frantic laps! Like crazy fast for C.
According to my history I usually do 3 laps in 8min 06-10 today's 3 laps cane in at a best 7:49 so nearly 20s quicker and I lost the lead group on the final lap and battled 4 others for I think 11th-15th or so.
After the shakedown and DQs I got the win lol. Crazy. I think I was 12th in real time. My overall race time was 20:57 with a previous best of 21:17.
All in all was very interesting, I made 293w average, I'm generally 287-288 so a tiny bit more for the road bike, but really tiny amounts.
The Parkwood remains the weapon of choice. But I'll deffo need the bigger chainring when racing again.
80w average ? That does seem…. well…. low…. and especially for a HR of 143 yes…
Sadly it’s accurate and I know it. I’ve always had a high HR, and haven’t used my legs with any real purpose for 2 years, due to my shitty foot.
Gonna try an complete an FTP test, regardless of how crap the result is this week.
What category for 0.8 w/kg?
weeksy
Subscriber
That was the craziest race ever!!!!... Race went off with a huge field and some frantic laps! Like crazy fast for C.
... My overall race time was 20:57 with a previous best of 21:17.
... I made 293w average, I’m generally 287-288 so a tiny bit more for the road bike, but really tiny amounts.
I seen the result; superb - more so for a C cat.
80W lol ... my 7 stone daughter pushes out more than that warming up!
80W lol … my 7 stone daughter pushes out more than that warming up!
Cool story bro. Has she not been able to exercise for fear of having bits amputated too?
Easy tiger. I don't know your circumstances and I doubt he does too. Just a bit of friendly banter
Tom H, good luck with Zwifting. The FTP test/ramp test is a necessary evil but I bet you'll see quick improvement. See you in Watopia.
I don’t think the FTP is that necessary. I haven’t done one for a long time and don’t plan too.
Pick a number, say 150W and do a workout, if it was too easy then ramp it up a bit. It was too hard, ramp it down a bit.
Never done one. But never done a training workout either
324 pages !
Haven't read it all - but does sound good, am keen to get back into shape for spring / summer mtbing, so looking hard at this.
Any recommendations for a smart trainer ? One that won't break the bank, as I'd like to invest just enough to make it interesting and if I really get into it then see whats about kit wise.
Was tempted by the Wattbike Atom, but £1600 so thats a no at the moment.
I don't think you can go wrong with a KickR myself. Whether an old one, or indeed a Core, or a Snap.
We all have likes and disklikes on many of the trainers, some do ERG better, some have road feel, some do QR only, some do 142x12 etc, some are wheel on, wheel off.
Snap is my trainer and i'm more than happy with it.
I don’t think you can go wrong with a KickR myself. Whether an old one, or indeed a Core, or a Snap.
We all have likes and disklikes on many of the trainers, some do ERG better, some have road feel, some do QR only, some do 142×12 etc, some are wheel on, wheel off.
Snap is my trainer and i’m more than happy with it.
thanks weeksy, just having a look at the kickrs now. They look good, new some of them are damn expensive ! Guess I can always take a look at FleaBay
Asides from wheel on, versus direct drive (or wheel off), is there much diference in the "smarts" between the models ?
I'm indifferent to road feel, haven't ridden road bikes for 20+ years now.
some react differently, better for sustained power, better for downhill, better for uphill etc.
Hey Walowiz,
If, like me, you're looking to dip your toes into Zwift on a budget, then have a look at the Elite Novo Smart Interactive turbo from Halfords for £180. I wasn't sure if I'd be able to stick at the indoor training thing, so didn't want to blow a wad of cash on it, but I've been pleasantly surprised with how much I'm enjoying Zwift on the Novo Smart.
I'm a big lad ( 1.83m and 114kg), but with my bike CX bike clamped into the turbo's frame, the rear wheel is nice and solid on the roller and the whole setup is wobble free. It links up to Zwift on my laptop flawlessly, and reacts to climbs within a second or two, although I haven't really tried out the 'just go for a ride' options on Zwift as I much prefer sticking to the structured training programs at the moment.
The only thing I've found a wee bit frustrating is the cadence measure. It seems to jump around a lot, although I think I've now found that it's much more stable if I'm already spinning the pedals while the system boots up and links to the laptop.
C.
@tomhoward There's plenty of CatD races looking at events today and if you are signed up to Zwiftpower, you can race in higher categories without being disqualified.
The "ramp test" will give you a rough ballpark FTP, where it increases the power by 20W every minute. The figure it gives you is based on the best 60secs of your effort (75% of), so every second counts when it starts to push your current limits.
Alternatively, you could try entering one of the frequent Tempus Fugit TT events which are pretty flat and ~18Km long. You should get the event split into four sectors on your screen, which might help you to do a "negative split" of the event (or simply 20mins of event if you wish) to gradually increase your power effort. This would give you a more accurate FTP starting point, as Zwift will base it on 95% of your best 20mins in a session and tell you if you have improved (and automatically increase your FTP in Zwift settings).
Negative split, lol I wish. I'm a sucker for too hard too early
I had a good blast up the Alpe last night, not been on for ages or really ridden outside other than commuting so was nicely rested (like 2 months rested).
The goal was to get sub hour and get the wheels on the spinner (spoiler alert, another helmet) I'd not exactly geeked out on the w/kg needed to get up sub hour. managed 300+ watts for the first couple of corners so figured that would be a fun game to play for the next 20 odd.
Was going pretty well till my netflix bugged out and left me with nothing by my suffering 😀 I certainly don't think I've got 2 more minutes in the tank at the moment for sub 45 as was pretty gassed at the top.
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