Zwift, my journey, my weight and my fitness.

Is the TTT flat-ish?

Its locally flat if you zoom out far enough :D.

First ride on crit city tonight with deeside thistle cc and moray firth crit

That was a tough gig.

I did not enjoy that event! Crit city does not suit me. Languished back in fifth (A). The catch was never going to happen on that course.

We also had a huge turn out from the club's big guns- and some of the big guns who'd never done any racing on zwift so trying to break away on double draft by gradually increasing their power....... Only thing that will get you away on double draft is a real kick and about 4 folk working together

Never mind next week's on uci Harrogate.

Harrogate will suit me better. Nice bit of hill which is where the time tumbles.

Can anybody reccomend a Zwift training plan? (based on the below)

Basically I need to lose weight, if I could lose weight and keep my power I feel I'd be a reasonable cyclist.

I know I need to eat less.. that's a given! I've made quite a lot of progress this year already in many ways, my health, weight loss and my head are all in a much much better place than where I was late last year.

My FTP nearing the magic 300w (kinda muscle memory) so I don't need to increase this too much. However I'm 87kg and I'm 5'10(and a bit) so my weight should really be about 70-75kg

If I can get to 75kg and keep FTP at 300w then that tops the magic 4w/kg which for a fat Vet I'd be super happy with.

Anyway that's a long way of asking which training plan? (Sticking with Zwift)

OK the TTT looks like this tonight:

- in the pen by 18:33, our start time is +2.5 minutes, so 18:35:30. That's a nice short no-pedalling delay for once.
- there are 4 of us on the start sheet at the moment (me, phil56, tiger6791 and zilog6128 ). the link is here if you keep meaning to join us this evening - https://www.zwift.com/events/view/822309

see you on discord / in the pen.

Can anybody reccomend a Zwift training plan?

TT Tune-Up plan helped me improve my FTP from ~273W to 294W (using 95% of 20min effort) and go from ~79.5Kg to ~75.7Kg in mid Feb, having started early Jan. I was also doing regular 20-40min races and TTs at or near FTP.

I'm now back at ~79.5Kg as of today, having felt it unwise to carry on training hard during and after what was probably mild COVID-19. Managed to do the odd effort in early May, but each time it left me wrecked for days, so been taking it quite easy for the last couple of weeks.

TT Tune-Up plan helped me improve my FTP from ~273W to 294W

Was it the plan or just the volume of riding it brought on

If weight loss is the objective choosing a plan you stick with is more important than the content of the plan if that sort of makes sense?

So if racing a Crit every evening gets you motivated that's just as legit as any of the plans. The key is not getting bored after a fortnight.

I'm down from 91.kg at the beginning of October to 63.6KG as of this morning, Zwift was a big part of that (initially turbo, then treadmill now back to turbo)

But realistically it was getting my diet in a better place that had the biggest impact.

For me that was cutting out the booze and trying to form some good habits around food, rather than the bad ones I had, So it was as soon as I wake up eat one of these so by the time I left the house I couldn't justify eating a sausage roll for breakfast any more, like I used to.

What the breakfast was sort of didn't matter it was about the new habit, Does that sort of make sense?

The big one though was actively tracking my weight, I've a Google Spreadsheet which I've updated everyday since I started 1st October last year, I did a month or so then just ran a trend line forward until I had holiday booked back in Feb and made sure I stayed near that line.

And the good news is changing the KG bit of WKG will have a mega impact in Zwift with the Watts you've got already.

Great TTT, tough course that (for me anyway 😂). Flats were comfortable, but lumps were (well) over my FTP trying to stay with the group, so some nice interval training 😀 Great job staying together/regrouping too, always tricky on the hills especially with other teams coming through! Good work all. 👍

Enjoyed tonight's TTT thanks, really needed it, I know we weren't the quickest but it was good fun and we stuck in there together.

If weight loss is the objective choosing a plan you stick with is more important than the content of the plan if that sort of makes sense?

Agreed, I also kinda looking to a plan to give me some structure.

But realistically it was getting my diet in a better place that had the biggest impact.

Yep, working on that, lost 14kg since Jan

And the good news is changing the KG bit of WKG will have a mega impact in Zwift with the Watts you’ve got already.

It's a ways been a niggle ini the back of my mind that my chub has been hiding a capable rider underneath somewhere.

Ahh sounds like you're already pretty far along the journey, sorry if I was being a bit "teaching grandma to suck eggs"

I think with the plans then I'd start by working out how many days a week you wanna do as that'll immediately rule some out, i.e. TT Tune up is 6 work-outs a week, that doesn't leave much room for anything else!

And how much do you like cadence drills because some like Build Me Up seem to me like cadence drills or threshold rides that are really cadence drills, which never work for me!

I did the TT with WKG and was a bit of a car crash for me, did some sprints in the warm up where I think I went too hard, trainer took ages to wake up so killed myself getting into the group and then was either out the front or off the back the whole way around! (Even more than usual)

I have a really (I mean really poor) cadence discipline.

Hard one last night on the TTT - managed one lap and the first hill before getting dropped off, which was always on the cards.

Think a short rest from the zwift racing is needed for me, wouldn't have said I was doing too much but the top end is feeling flat. Going to go steady for the next couple of weeks, maybe just do the TTTs as races.

52nd in class (141 teams) last night. Well done team STW. You do certainly seem to do better when I'm not there.

52nd doesn't seem bad? I thought we were well off our previous pace last night, I was nowhere near as destroyed as I have been.

Right I've signed up for the Intermediate 'Build me up' plan - 12 weeks @ ~5hr per week.

If you don't mind I'm going to use you lot to keep me honest and do a very dull weekly report on the training and how I'm getting on.

My weight as of today is 87kg & my 'fictional Zwift created' FTP is 296w

Right I’ve signed up for the Intermediate ‘Build me up’ plan – 12 weeks @ ~5hr per week.

What's your thoughts on schedule? Finding 5 hours a week on top of other riding strikes me as a pita which is why I've not signed up for one yet.
I've debated trying to do something in the mornings as it seems* I can do training plans as part of a group meet up so might put sticky group on for commute club and see about fitting it in that way.

*I've not looked into it but seen enough "urgh training plan on a group ride" comments to think it's doable somehow.

@Tiger6791 52nd seems good to me!! Although the flats seemed easy (to me), I was working REALLY hard on the hills, and that's where you make up time on a hilly course like that. Plus we did a really good job of keeping together, so while it might've seemed slow when you had to keep waiting for us 😉 it made the team faster overall... last week I had to ruin myself a couple of times making up the gap which had developed, which doesn't help in the long game.

It's a team effort so we go together, it wasn't that it seemed slow it just seemed that based on the previous efforts I didn't feel to work as hard which was odd as I was dreading the lumpy course falling off the back and the elastic snapping.

On the previous 2 TTT i've been chucking 300w just to hang onto the coat tails in the draft and totally broken by the last 5km last night was a lot more comfortable.

1st one I did on 7th - 1hr 8mins - 256w Av (found that tough)
14th - 57mins - 280w Av
Last night 52mins - 262w Av

What’s your thoughts on schedule? Finding 5 hours a week on top of other riding strikes me as a pita which is why I’ve not signed up for one yet

Yeah same thoughts, but somehow I seem to find more than that on bloody screentime so I'm telling myself to just get on with it, be a better person and carve out the time from pointless stuff.

@Tiger6791 I think the rolling nature of the course made it a bit more tactical... recover slightly on the flat then smash the hills for max gainz 😃 Like you say, probably actually an easier ride overall vs just going full chat for an hour on a flat course. Funny as a lot of people were scared off by the prospect of a few hills 😉

https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=826129

Bit disappointed in that, i wanted another 15-20w average really.

zilog6128
Subscriber
@Tiger6791 I think the rolling nature of the course made it a bit more tactical… recover slightly on the flat then smash the hills for max gainz 😃 Like you say, probably actually an easier ride overall vs just going full chat for an hour on a flat course. Funny as a lot of people were scared off by the prospect of a few hills 😉

I wasn't scared - I was being selfless and sacrificing for the good of the team!

(I was scared)

Thursdays TTT was our best yet.
Everyone complains about hills but it suits us better compared to the competition.
Our core 5 riders only and most are under 75kg and I've generally got the power to hang on the smaller hills.
Mind you I went from combfortable to the end of lap one and then suddenly clinging on. Only just got over the KOM second time but managed to rally to do some big pulls at the end. Almost top half of Frappe. and considering it's 3 low/mid Bs and one higher B and me the lowly C that's good. The top teams all have 2 or 3 A riders.
Not expecting as good as a result in London next week.

I did have designs on getting into the Latte Premier League but people kept getting upgraded :0(

We're entered in this week's TTT. Thursday, 6.30pm, 1x 31km lap of Greatest London Flat.

Riders - please enter category A (yes, we're back in pen A) here: https://www.zwift.com/events/view/847415

Then make sure (STW) is appended to your rider name in zwiftpower settings.

I'll be back with start time, more details, discord link if necessary, etc later in the week.

I'll be a maybe.... The course isn't too bad for me but depends on injury recovery...

Optimistic maybe.

Thanks Savoyad - I’ve entered

im not intervalling tonight nor am i racing tomorrow night. Could put in a shift on Thursday if you want .

B cat 3.8w/Kg

We’re entered in this week’s TTT. Thursday, 6.30pm, 1x 31km lap of Greatest London Flat.

I've thrown me hat in

I was feeling a bit low today, but as my leg didn't feel bad I jumped on the 3:45 Crit.

https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=843981

It went ok. Sat in the lead group until lap 6 and I saw it was going to split apart, so i held my power instead of kicking for the lead bunch, which I think was the right plan as I don't think I'd have hung in.
That went ok too and we had a decent battle for the minor placings. All in all, fairly happy

Glad you're not too badly damaged!

I'm in assuming still needed. Terry Davidson (stw)

As I've not seen it mentioned above were on for 4.5 min delay tomorrow folks so another short one.

I’m in assuming still needed. Terry Davidson (stw)

Who's in for tonight then ? I'm still waiting to see if an outside ride is happening.

I'm in tonight. I think - feeling a bit naff at the moment but sure a few hours of coffee drinking will sort it out

Who’s in for tonight then ? I’m still waiting to see if an outside ride is happening.

Im on discord not had much success with it.....

What's the room //group I'm looking for

@trail_rat You need an invite to join, I've just realised that anyone already in the group can invite others so this link should work: https://discord.gg/p8bzNC

Try to get it sorted if you can, really helpful for co-ordinating the start, plus we will need some way of telling you to slow down & wait for us 😂

If there's room I'd been keen to join the TTT fun..if there's no space no worries though.

zilog - that worked im in.

Ive got a pass for jnrs bed time as ive done bed the last few nights so should be good

Will fire up the machine at lunch and be sure its updated - elected to go out on the road sunday so zwifts not been fired up since wednesday last week.

@ljarch not sure where to look to see how many team members we have so far. Out of the STWers I follow on Zwift, I can only see 4 (including me) signed up, but there might be others who I'm not following. The max is 8 so there may well be spaces! Hopefully @savoyad can help, he manages the team via WTRL

EDIT: just seen @trail_rat on the big, unsorted list so that makes at least 5... potentially up to 3 places left

Yes, there's still room in the team for tonight. There are 6 of us on the start sheet so far (dangeourbrain, phil56, tiger6791, me, trail_rat, zilog6128).

@ljarch - sign up to cat A here: https://www.zwift.com/events/view/847415
(cat A whatever your normal cat, the TTT doesn't use the categories like normal, they are more like start pens)

then go to zwiftpower.com -- settings and add (STW) to the end of your Rider Name (not on zwift, just zwiftpower).

then join the discord server: https://discord.gg/PGyyvm

@weeksy how are things going for you? Are you planning to ride with us this evening?

And I think @IvanDobski was pondering joining us over in the meetups thread as well.

I'll post some actual concrete arrangements (with patronising precision probably) later rather than tangling them up in this mess.

Just to add: for the TTT (and STW meet-ups in general) change to the stripy bee jersey if you haven't already, looks cool as a swarm & helps ID other team members (even though there were at least 2 other teams last time wearing the same tops which did get confusing 😂)

Also personally I find it really helpful for telling individual STWers apart if everyone picks a unique hairstyle/colour/hat etc as this is the easiest way to differentiate riders!

Good luck for tonight lads, looks like you've got a decent line-up sorted and the course should work well for you