Zwift, my journey, my weight and my fitness.

lol sorry boss, i ain't playing. As you've seen, in the right races, i'm not quite as rubbish as i seem in your series. Play to your strengths 🙂

Play to your strengths 🙂

..but grow your weaknesses...or something like that!

Its shame you cant select the crit circuit for meetup - would make for a good fun alternative on the series.

It is tough riding at night just as my bodies winding down for the day. Didn’t stop sweating last night until about 2am, 2 showers just seemed to make it worse.

However there’s really no other option is there other than a weekend morning and that will still probably be less popular. It’s tough to please a majority and impossible for everybody.

Absolutely Kirky, i'm not criticising in any way at all, i completely get it... It's just that for me, other times work a lot better.

See this vid here with Chris Pritchard roasting BC for their choice of UK e-cycling squad - they have largely drawn from athletes in their own structure (e.g. Ed Clancy, Andy Tennant) who don't have much / any zwift experience, and overlooked the top amateur riders who currently win on zwift.

Is he talking bobbins do you think? I reckon he's over-playing the depth of zwift racing massively and any of these athletes can pick it up very rapidly, so drawing from the elite ranks probably makes sense. As long as they take it seriously...

Hmm yes and no.

Watching this years worlds on Zwift a couple of riders at times did arguably out perform their real world rides on Zwift, plenty of times the Pros races the Zwift best, both ladies and blokes and were found wanting.

I think that comes down to knowing the drafting, knowing the quirks of the course, the delays in trainer responsiveness and reactions to pack moves. Along with sprinting etc.

Some of the Zwift superstars have gone on to race outdoors and are arguably not quite as good outdoors as their Zwift rides, for exactly the same reasons, but in reverse.

I'm going to make the assumption that riders like Clancy will train on Zwift and train on the actual courses and he'll fly.... I've seen him in plenty of short Crits and there's little doubt he's fast as heck... I also think his rider profile in some ways will suit Zwift racing too if on the right course.

Looking back at Team Sky when they raced a few months back, Rohan Dennis cleared off every single time on Zwift, but didn't quite do it outside once they went back on the roads... Why is that... I dunno.

One of the big differences of pros Vs Zwift elite is the pros put out alien power levels while being more aero. On the turbo, you can set your bars up high and put out good numbers while being as aero as a brick.

On the turbo, you can set your bars up high and put out good numbers while being as aero as a brick

Welcome to me on my 29er HT 🙂

Right, I'm looking to get some fitness back as I've had a lousy year on the bike this year and have a couple of bigger rides I want to complete next year.

I've just got the Kickr set up and after the attempt at a crit race yesterday, it's recommended me an FTP of 218W. When I was a distinctly average mtb racer my FTP was 284, if I remember correctly, so I've got a way to go.

I struggle to follow proper training plans due to my shift work so often need to make it up as I go along to some extent. I'm thinking that three sweetspot sessions a week and a sub hour long Zwift race a week should see some improvements. I'll be riding outdoors/commuting where possible rather than just sticking to the turbo.

Does that sound about right?

@notmyrealname I've just started this "back to fitness" plan that is fairly new on Zwift, as a way to try and get some structured training routine going again after a blighted year, but with them being just two small sessions a week I can hopefully still throw in some TTs and races without overtraining.

https://whatsonzwift.com/workouts/back-to-fitness/

That looks interesting. Shouldn't be too much to fit around other riding and life in general!

https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=1236574

Massive massive C field in this one today... Wasn't planning on it, but 16:30 works well enough for me and a layout i like.... I'm tempted.

A rider aged 9 and 29kg! Good luck weeksy. I need to have a rest today!

I think lowest weight Zwift registers is 45kg, so you can go lower, but it won't see it as lower. Unless that's changed

It changed earlier in the year.
Massive outcry from overweight middle aged men getting spanked on hilly courses due to the "rules".
:0)

LOL i've had it every Friday morning in the Crits against 2 lads who are 13, Maxx Nuspann and the other kid i forget, but they kill us every Friday.

Competed in the today’s race of the WKG winter race league today. 12 laps of the Hilly route reverse so 68 miles (that included going up the Zwift island climb 12 times 🤮)The first 3-4 laps were insane, I was on the limit all the time. I don’t really do group races, only the TTT on a Thursday and the odd individual TT so got caught out a few times with splits occurring then having to pull my tripe out to get back on again. Going up the Zwift climb on the 5th lap I lost the wheel and I was spat out of the back along with three other A’s. We tried to get back on again but failed. Then we noticed a big group of B riders (must’ve been 10 +) coming up behind us so we all joined forces and managed to catch the A riders again. On the last lap I got dropped again on the climb (my legs were shot by now 😩) so rolled in to the finish. Managed to come 10th (out of 21 A’s) so happy with my result. Especially as I averaged 4W/kg (305W) for just over two and a half hours, haven’t put that amount of power out since this my long distance TT’s I did this summer.

Wow, andy.w, that's some output for a long ride

In lower-wattage news, I'm getting back near to pre-COVID form (stopped riding hard and was just ticking over all summer in case I caught it. Still not smashing it). Did a crit-city 16km B race today and surprised myself by making the front group. No way was I going to win but reckoned I could sit in and then had a sort of drop-out at half way where the field didn't disappear for any length of time but just flickered & "moved" 5 seconds up the road. Couldn't get that back as I was working pretty hard already so went back to the next group. Won or came 2nd in that "sprint" so pretty happy but ... bah

Had that myself on the TTT. One minute everything’s going swimmingly then bang, I’m three seconds off the back and have to work really hard to get back on. Really annoying!

another Monday another 18:15 Seaside Sprint race, first time I've been on the bike since last monday need to get some consistency in, anyway, the start wasn't nearly as hard as last week, made sure i got further up near the front and it seemed to work out better. still hard but didn't feel i was playing catch up, big bunch of A's and a few B's including myself got away, that soon split and I ended up in a group with about 7 or 8 A's no one was pushing so sat in, guess their race was over, could see there was a group behind getting closer, think they got to about 5 seconds but the pace increased for the last 4km and they never closed, a solo B had got dropped from the front group and was getting ever closer, saved a feather for 2 laps to use on the hill before the downhill, was on the front of the group midway down the hill, eased off to try and muster a sprint 3rd on the road in B, originally showed 2nd but reshuffled moments last, the solo B stayed away, a wee strava stalk suggests the 334w he did doesn't really translate into his real world rides and other zwift races,

ZP is where it counts though, and that has me 1st ! and 13 seconds back to 2nd - ill take that all day

https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=1249859

Great reports and even better riding lads 🙂

12:32 then tomorrow I think. Short Crit before I then head out to the woods with my lad.

changed plan and i'm going for longer and different, i may die 1/2 way through 🙂

11:20am at Volcano CCW.

Strava is running like a dog, presumeably Zwift is/was...

Just seen Erin Min's Thanksgiving Ride started at 1500 GMT!

Tried 5 mins of that Thanksgiving ride - got as far the first bridge!!! Decided on a different course 😃
Zwift definitely isn't any good for 3000 people on the same ride!

different one today, 9km race, cobbled climbs reverse, didn't really feel like it today, i don't think ive ever felt so knackered as i do at the minute, however, while i was never going to win todays race, i do like races where i just hang on as long as i can, and with 9km, there's no endless drag to the finish, and i finished bang mid pack, i don't actually know where i got dropped off the front, stayed with a little bunch of 5 and won the sprint for nothing,

here's the thing though, red numbers on ZP - best ever power for a zwift race, 3w higher (324w) than last year in a similar 9km race, both mid 13 minute races, , and best 15 second power at 9.5w/kg, must have got the sprint bang on

and this is off more or less zero riding, last 4 weeks have been 1hr 18m, 46m, 40m, 1hr 23m

weird

I was gutted to strip thread in my crank and have to drop out off last night's STW race, so I fitted a new chainset this morning and entered the Road to Ruins race mid-morning to atone. Race went well. Was fun to see Louis Meintjes appear at the front of the race. I never saw him again when the road went uphill straight after this though:

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I thought that I should sample a cat B race today after being upgraded in zwiftpower, I haven’t raced one since last year and was at the tail end.

The 12.05 3r volcano reverse, 8 laps. The A and B seemed to set off together or at least joined to recreate our previous series race around the same track. Cat bs including myself trying to hang onto the A’s for as long as possible. We managed 6 laps at a sickening pace before an handful of the strongest a riders broke away.

I seemed to be hitting that one switch back climb early to give myself a chance and then a small pack of mainly a would pass just before the final switchback, I was most of the time the bridging to the front group and towing the others back on with me. On the sixth lap I thought I may get dropped at any point so decided to do the same again but this time I purposefully left a bit of gap in front of me and didn’t bridge hoping the next guy behind would get caught in my sticky draft and make it hard for the two groups to rejoin. This worked a treat and we fell into a chase group going at a slight more manageable pace.

I hung in there to the end and just about managed to muster a little extra for the uphill sprint but only gained ground on two or three positions. I managed to finish in the top three abs, tied in second and 1sec behind first, only beaten time wise by the first 6 cat A riders.

The result of all this, as happened in our volcano race and trying to keep up with nixie, Phil and co is that I averaged 289w and my FTP as increased to 284.

I’ll post the change on the race bread just so Robbie sees it, it’s only damaging my slim chance of doing anything up the KOM next week a little more but full transparency and all that.

https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=1293797

Top ride @kirky72. You've been on fire recently - not surprised to see all those red numbers clustering at the top of your zp profile.

I did a morning outdoor ride then early evening I decided to jump in the fairly flat race as a massive field

https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=1289922

First 14km was spot on, the next 8 was ok, but in the last 7-8 I lost my legs, which wasn't a massive shock.

Up to 24km I was in the bunch with Patch Harvey who I've raced plenty and he finished 2nd, but I lost a wheel a couple of times. Was nice to do a longish flat one though.

#savoyad, I’m not all that familiar with zwiftpower and reading the data therein, so can you let me know what you mean by cluster of red numbers as I can’t see anything in red other than the figure for my best 20mins.

Cheers.

So @kirky72 on your profile page with the long list of race results the highest value in each column goes red. i.e. your power PB for each of those durations gets highlighted. I noticed that the red values for 4 of the 5 columns (20mins, 5mins, 30secs, 15secs) are right near the top in your most recent 5 events. i.e. your power PBs across those durations are all really recent.
(Which I mentioned because it tallies with my experience riding with you recently - you are in excellent form). No idea what's going on with your best 1 minute power.

Thank you for the explanation Savoyad, makes more sense now, I’m aware of those figures but to be honest don’t really check or monitor to those, normally just the average watts, average hr as an idea of how much effort I had put in. However looking at them yes it really paints a picture of some decent improvements in the last few months.

To be honest I had done far more random races in previous years but as I had edged from d, quickly to C and stayed there, I’ve managed to place well without perhaps hammering myself as much. Since the start of robbos series and riding with faster lad and mixed cats, I’ve had no choice but to push myself a lot harder if I want to try and hang with the big boys and it’s kind of proved to myself that I can push a bit more and not die.

Through summer I have been riding mtb or road outside and Zwift only when I’ve been housebound so only 2 or 3 a month. During robbos series I didn’t race randomly on Zwift very often and if I did I could coast it in cs. So only recently have I put the effort into races linked to zwiftpower hence that’s why I’m suddenly reaching PBS. Almost every ride I’m also improving pbs on sprints, key sections or climbs that I used to try to avoid altogether.

It all certainly ties in with the increase I’ve seen in ftp from 241 (from memory) at the start of the last series to 284w now. I’ve definitely improved but upon reflection I don’t think I had ever totally maxed myself out to reach the earlier ftp like I’m now doing. I was literally struggling to prevent pukage at the end of today’s race.

Regarding the best 1minute, it’s odd that if all the other timing improvements have come recently that hasn’t also uplifted, ie if had my best 5 minutes recently I must have had a good minute amongst those 5. However the 1min PB was in may 2018, I expect it may have been down to a mega crazy start or a trying to keep with a breakaway finish and a sprint finish. Now I know it I will try to bash out an improved minute effort (don’t tell the wife she may get the wrong meaning and be jealous).

I’m starting to get into the detail of all this stuff, never really studied my numbers in the real world before despite riding with a power metre for a while. Normally just check out segment pbs and average speeds for regular loops on strata as a performance guide. Might stick the stages back on the bike.

@weeksy - do you know who owns/admin is for the STW team on Zwiftpower? Want to try and encourage people to sign up for the team but their are no contact details.

After my poor show on Saturday morning I signed up to a TT yesterday afternoon.

https://zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=1266775

Was pretty happy with the outcome. I average 282w for the whole thing (30 mins). Had a cock up towards the end as I thought the finish line would be the sprint line but was 400m further on. Was aiming for sub 30 mins and thought I had it but didn't base my effort on the extra 400m ooops and eased up before realising it hadn't finished. Should bode well for tomorrow night if I can average that up the climb (at least for my handicap/limit)!

Sorry mate, dunno.

It all certainly ties in with the increase I’ve seen in ftp from 241 (from memory) at the start of the last series to 284w now.

@weeksy – do you know who owns/admin is for the STW team on Zwiftpower? Want to try and encourage people to sign up for the team but their are no contact details.

I don't know but you might try David Churchill, he seems to have done the most rides. Not sure if that means he was a STW original or. not though

Not sure what his forum name is though?!

IIRC they left the team to join another.

No owner or modertor shown on the list. I think if they rejoin they are still classed as owner (I've done the same with the club one)

Best bet will be to post on the ZP forum and see if Sticky can help create a new owner or set some admins.

https://www.zwiftpower.com/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=12220&p=54984&hilit=team+owner#p54984

Look back through this thread it'll be there somewhere

https://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/zwift-my-journey-my-weight-and-my-fitness/

:0)

Thanks Tom - have put a post up on the Zwiftpower forum.

yeh trying to find it in that thread wont be an easy task!

Anyway was doing the Deeside Wednesday night series and managed to get downgraded to C after 2 and picked up a 6th and a 2nd (points based for sprints and finish) but the 2nd pinged me to B properly. Badly placed at the start of every sprint but a decent finish at the end distancing the man who won the 3 intermediate sprints.
https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=1259073

Needed a rest and just holding onto the back of B to be blown out in the hills wasn't appealing so switched over to their Saturday Snowman sprint series.

Now that's ace and I can be competitive in B. Kinda.

First race included the KOM but picked reasonable points up on the sprint for 16th
https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=1271900

2nd race was 4 sprints on London Classique. Ride around as slow as you like the rest of the time. Rode with 2 club members and finished a more than respectable 11th.
We should have sat up more though as the fastest group were 90 seconds behind us which would have increased sprint start speed and drafting opportunities. Plus it looks like I need to find another 100w or so.
https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=1301258

Wow that was quick - I am now an Admin/Mod for the STW team on ZP. Does anyone else want Admin rights? Cheers

ugh, its not often i quit zwift races but tonight it was just too damn hard, 1815 DBR, 3 laps of Watopia flat, and it just wouldn't settle down, and from the results, top 30 within 3 seconds it doesn't look like it ever did, lasted 8 minutes, 8 minutes at 187bpm average, last minute was at 190bpm as i bridged, but couldn't settle back in and pop! 316w av ridiculous, couldn't sustain it, plugged pulled

sometimes your the hammer, sometimes your the nail

https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=1309682

Wow, that's a tough one!