Zwift, my journey, my weight and my fitness.

Weeksy, you sure you have the saddle height set correctly?

nathb - Member

Weeksy, you sure you have the saddle height set correctly?

Open to debate of course but i think so.. But it's a very fine art when it comes to road bikes. I think/believe it was all from me moving my seat forwards, rather than the saddle height.. I could easily be wrong with that of course, but that's my thoughts/feelings. Of course, not forgetting the overtraining and the higher watts than i thought on the 'easy' days. On the days i was thinking i was training at 180w i was up over 230 maybe even 250 if we accept the watts of the power meters i've had on.

There's no world in where i live currently i can spend £200 on a bike fitting, so i've got the settings where i think/read/youtube them to be.

So where do the BRS TT races actually time from? Looking at the results, the time seems to be from the start gate where-as on screen it showed 'warm-up' all the way until the mall when it started lap 1/2.

I think the time starts from the gate and the whole 'warm up' is just because you are not yet on the London Classique lap.

Yeah the warm up lap is part of the race, hence why everyone bolts it.

ah well, lesson learnt.

lol, did you wonder why everyone else was screaming past while you were warming up? 🙂

No one riding?

you mean the EVR weeksy ?

I'm too late so just going for a ride. I assume you're NOT riding ?

I just meant generally mate. I'm still a no. Wed maybe.

No one riding?

Rest day for me. 10km run tomorrow then probably the club run on Sunday, so no Zwift until Monday for me.

looked like a nice evening in London - I got quite disoriented. Luckily it then started to piss down and all was well in zwiftworld again 🙂

@weeksy, not sure if it has been mentioned, but 3 things to check for with calf injury.

1) Try to avoid heel dropping too far when forced to put the power down on a climb
2) Make sure you aren't 'ankling' excessively
3) Make sure cleat is set front/back such that widest part of the foot is over the pedal axle (some interwebbing will even find advocates for moving cleats as far back as the midsole.

fifeandy - Member

@weeksy, not sure if it has been mentioned, but 3 things to check for with calf injury.

1) Try to avoid heel dropping too far when forced to put the power down on a climb
2) Make sure you aren't 'ankling' excessively
3) Make sure cleat is set front/back such that widest part of the foot is over the pedal axle (some interwebbing will even find advocates for moving cleats as far back as the midsole.

Understood.

I'm planning on my first ride in a week tomorrow.... I'm thinking, nice and gentle,maybe 170-180w for a 45 mins ride... should be enough to not really kill me, but give me some calories and a gentle re-introduction.

Now you have the Kickr, I wouldn't worry so much about targeting watts. Use perceived effort and HR too- with variable resistance on- you should find sticking to one number a bit trickier.....

.Now you have the Kickr, I wouldn't worry so much about targeting watts. Use perceived effort and HR too- with variable resistance on- you should find sticking to one number a bit trickier.....

In my 2km test that certainly seemed to be the case yes, it was up down everywhere. I was thinking for tomorrow I may set as dumb so I can regulate effort and power easier

Just wondering....does anyone bother with energy drinks and/or gels during Zwift sessions?
I've used them occasionally (maybe 3 times?) though I just stuck with plain water today and I faded quite badly. Mind you, that's probably because I recently got 'promoted' to Cat B so was riding against much fitter riders..

@mark depends on length and intensity of the session and how long since last meal.

Assuming an intense session (what turbos are best at), if you are only doing an hour and ate in the previous 2-3hrs you should be fine with only water/electrolytes, but if going longer, or starting with partially drained tank then best to fuel up.

I can only cope with a maximum of about an hour on the turbo so no need for energy drinks or gels, however I do drop a Hydro Nectar tablet into my water bottle - although as much because I prefer the taste to plain water as anything else.

Can't have got the tension set right as the steeper bit after Box Hill had the trainer tyre slipping a bit. Coming out of the underground at the end was really slow, as soon as the gradient hit 15% I could barely move without the tyre slipping.

You'll need to go through the whole faff of recalibrating it too, otherwise the power readings will be wonky. Could always run the tyre at 120psi, which is what I do with my Tacx Vortex.

I do the calibration at the end of a session when it's warm - that way it'll under read as it warms up but 10 mins in will give accurate measurements, as opposed to the other way round.

Whooop new PB on box hill this morning.

Well, the Wahoo Kickr Snap is a complete game changer compared to the dumb trainer, it's a whole different world and experience. Now bear in mind, due to the injury i'd set myself a baseline HR of 105bpm tops....

Over the course of the ride i averaged 102, so i'm more than happy with that. I did throw a splurge of power in twice, once on the small climb, Horseguards Hill, once also on the Sprint, i set/equally my PRs on both segments even though i wasn't really pushing it and only hit a max HR on both of 154bpm, considering i average 167 usually it gives an idea of how much i had in the tank.. Of course your HR takes a while to compensate, but i wasn't really trying hard. On the sprint i put our 676w without really pushing the pedal 'that' hard. Which again tells/shows me the difference in output between the Bkool One and the WKSnap.

https://www.strava.com/activities/847052701

It's also a completely different riding sensation, cadence, effort, gears, all totally different, although i was riding a lot in a single gear i admit today, but that was mostly because it was the Classique which is exceptionally flat overall, so just upping or lowering cadence a bit to keep power and HR in the right places.

The power comes in as you'd expect in the real world though, i had the virtual slider at 50% which at this stage i imagine is where i'll keep it set, that's the Zwift default and works fine for me up to now.

Really enjoyed the ride... now it's into the bath and see how the legs feel tomorrow and whether i'm back to 1 on 1 off for a week, or a couple more days off...

I did a ride round London last night - the half loop, can't remember the name.
I then joined a 2w/kg group ride.....Het is Koers social ride arranged by a Dutch guy.
It was a bit weird....hardly anyone stuck to the effort level, there were sprints all over the place....not sure it was worth it.

Then about 2 miles from the end I got a bloody puncture...it's the second time it's happened on the turbo. Last time I found a large bit of grit in the tyre that I thought had caused the puncture, but either that wasn't the cause or there's another bit...
Just bought a new tyre from my local lbs because the rear has seen a lot of abuse....a £50 Michelin Endurance something or another reduced to a tenner!!!

The power comes in as you'd expect in the real world though, i had the virtual slider at 50% which at this stage i imagine is where i'll keep it set, that's the Zwift default and works fine for me up to now.

Ive got a smart trainer (Tacx Vortex) and I found the 50% trainer difficulty setting meant I was just spinning and getting nowhere up steeeper hils. I definitely couldn't punch up short steep climbs. You may want to test again on a course with bigger/steeper hills...

Got a little while yet in the recovery before I go attacking box hill yet. But I'll take that on advisement.

KISS London at 8 is twice up box hill tonight....

On a Wahoo Kickr Snap most people won't be spinning up 10% hills at 50%, unless you are very strong and can put out 500W for a few mins!!! I'd suggest the optimal figure varies trainer to trainer and rider to rider.

meta - surely you can spin up a 10% hill if your bike has gears, even at 100% "real"

Thing that's weird is how hard it is to keep the power up as the gradient lessens - I'm using 100% just now and I always drop 20-25% over the top of a rise, even if I try to anticipae the easing and change up gears

... but then I always end up pushing +20-25% up the hills, so it evens out

You can definitely tell who's on what sort of trainer during a race or hardish ride

Good point, yes you can, I agree, depends on gears. I have a low of 34/25, but never use it in Zwift. If I upped the realism I guess I'd need to use some easier gears. Anyway the Kickr tops out at 10% of course- and you can tell- but to me it feels very realistic at lower gradients. Main thing is its accurate with the power.

Good point, yes you can, I agree, depends on gears. I have a low of 34/25, but never use it in Zwift.

Same here (I run a smaller cassette on the trainer wheel to minimise the jumps between gears), and so far I think I've only used the big ring when on the turbo. Suspect my T2240 can't emulate all that steep a slope.

[quote=jam bo ]KISS London at 8 is twice up box hill tonight....

holy shitballs that was hard...

holy shitballs that was hard...

err, 😉

(nearly signed up for that. Phew)

Only on the first lap as I was in no mans land with a group 30s ahead and another 30s behind.

Lap 2 I was trying to drop a couple of people I'd passed on box hill so pedalled down fox hill for possibly the first time ever.

54th/160ish I think. Which isn't too bad for an all categories race.

Ah, don't worry, I haven't been stravastalking - just assuming you'd do what I always do

Good result !

To be honest I don't think pedalling down it is much quicker.

yeah that mega-tuck or whatever they call it is pretty fast, esp if you kick off with a "sprint" first

jamo bo, how do you know your 54th?
i entered but couldn't see my name on the leaderboard at the end

scrap that its on zwift power now,but im not on there yet

25th maybe?

Looks like I was 52nd.

That's excellent JAmbo 🙂 Well done fella.

Yeah 25th well pleased with that, I got dropped by the group on the boxhill descent and had 10 seconds to make up I managed to wind them in and overtake them on the next climb

Well the great news is that after yesterdays first test ride of 45 mins on the Snap, i don't have any negative side effects on the legs. I can just about feel they've done some work... but nothing more than that. There's no pain, no aching, no problems.

I'm still taking today as a rest day as i'm going to spend this week going 'easy' and alternate days only... but even an easy ride day is 1000 times better than no ride day at all. Made me feel a lot better about the world yesterday just pootling round and having a bit of fun. It was funny to see the gym mat at the end... it's normally a massive pool of water.. i had about 10 drips yesterday... But i'm not injured, so that can only be a good thing.

I'm a long way from getting back to racing with you guys i think... but i'm back on the course and next weekend will be back out at FoD i hope... just need patience.

Today should have been my first road ride back after coming off 6 weeks ago on slippery roads and fracturing a finger. This morning I promptly slid off again on black ice after 1 mile, I walked home vowing to stay off the roads til spring.
Whilst the adrenaline was still flowing I thought I utilise Zwift preferences to have an attack on box hill, it worked, 9.12 smashing my only other attempt of 10.28. I was hyperventilating at the end, I don't think I can try any harder than that.

Wow, that's good/great.

Cheers, it helped that someone had been up and set the best time of the day of 9.14. I need a defined target to motivate me

I need a defined target to motivate me

Hope you're still OK after the fall - you'll be aching eventually I guess but it sounds like no major damage

Only a couple of grazes this time, not a bad fall like last months. I also did my back in on Thursday (fine on the bike but cant bend down when standing) so the fall is actually providing some welcome pain relocation.
I guess the projected time works for me as I'm fairly steady on climbs and attack the crest, if you attack at the bottom you're the projected is always going to be slipping away

I was all excited about going for a ride on the CX bike today. Decided to tinker with the brakes as the rotor was rubbing slightly on the pads before setting off.

At that point I decided to stick my finger in the spinning rotor.

Darwins theory springs to mind.

My left index is now a little shorter than it was this morning. Bollocks

You daft s0d! Ouch!
Well I bonked big time this morning on zwift 10 laps of the volcano ...

Darwins theory springs to mind.

Had another play so I could then take tomorrow off and ride Tues Thurs and Sat. Mostly due to the earlier post and thought I'd have a pop at sub 10 on box hill. I was most shocked to find out it was Watopia not London when I signed in.

I ended up trying to ride with Nath but I don't think he saw me. We were pootling round the volcano. I then ended up at the bottom of the Hilly loop climb. My PR according to the screen was 3 min 20. Gave it a decent effort up there and rolled over at 2min 40. That's quite a chunk quicker than previously. How much of that improvement is down to the Bkool reading incorrectly or the Smart trainer aspect is hard to say, but its a fair bit faster.

I cruised round s bit more and found myself at the village sprint and thought, why not. So wound up the power and destroyed my best putting myself in 7th on today's leaderboard and 4s quicker than I'd previously done it. I think it was 23.4s or so

Bit more cruising then had to stop, both to keep my legs happy due to getting over excitable and as I had to wander round to the village shop before it closed.

behave yourself weeksy !

Hopefully I'll be able to do a gentle spin on Zwift later. Once my finger stops bleeding :-s

Thinking of doing a (B) race this evening - 7.30 BRS or 8.05 KISS

anyone in already ?

Sorry Weeksy, I was watching the grand tour just doing laps of the volcano for the achievements. It's the only way I could manage a zone 1 spin!

I'm not loving the volcano loop.... don't know why it's just a bit meh!

I think it's a stop-gap crit racing course really - not for interesting ridng

scaredypants - Member

I think it's a stop-gap crit racing course really

What's not to like about that... a full on assault of staying in a group with a flat out sprint at the end.

You've got to remember, their job is to cater for all needs, all wants and all requirements of Zwifters. Some people want short sharp Crit racing, some want epic climbs up the mountains, some want to fly round central London, it's an impossible task to please everyone with the new sections.

Me, i didn't ride that much of the Volcano, but it was a little spooky and therefore interesting. I like it when you have different bits of terrain, different places to hold, to attack, to pin it and of course to hang on as long as you can because you're about to die !

I like it.

I can see it as being a very good crit racing simulator without the shouting and broken carbon/bones.

Been lurking this thread for a while now. Took the plunge and got a tacx smart trainer and cheap road bike. I think I have it all set up properly now and had a couple of rides.

First impressions are good, I love the techy stuff (though I don't pretend to understand a lot of it). I did the ftp test earlier today. Seems I'm starting well on the bottom rung (according to the chart posted early on in the thread anyway) 1.83w/kg.

Hopefully I'll stick with it and be able to at least wave to a few of you as you fly past a fat lad. 😀

Nuts, I started not far from that, as have many others, we've all worked our way up to mid/high 2s. So just be patient and enjoy it and its benefits.

What's not to like about that... a full on assault of staying in a group with a flat out sprint at the end

by stop-gap I mean that eventually I bet there'll be climbing up & around it but also I reckon eventually they'll have 2 different live venues at once, one for racing and one for "rides"

I think the terrain/view really only matters to people with a smart trainer as they have a vested interest in the lay of the land so they know whats coming up. For me with a dumb trainer i very rarely look at the scenery as it has no impact on me so i only ever look at who i am riding with so i know i am still in touch. I guess this makes zwift less emmersive for me which is a shame but i still love it as its motivating to be riding against people.

We should have a day where non smart owners go round to smart owners and try it.

I'm between Newbury and Didcot if anyone wants to try a wahoo snap.

Drivo between Southampton and Salisbury

... but my family tell me I look a bit like a mass murderer and you'd have to go upstairs into my garage attic

Welcome to come try my neo - Thames ditton
Be good to see pictures of setups - I'll post mine when I get a moment

I would hazard a guess that it would be an entirely different experience on a smart trainer and probably more beneficial when it come to real riding fitness. When i start gainful employment again i think a smart trainer might be high up on my shopping list.

They teased this photo the other day, so hopefully more routes coming

[img] [/img]

7km route apparently
[img] [/img]

Did a session earlier and have started getting intermittent wi-fi which is a pain in the arse...

I lost all other riders etc. although everything else worked...
I ended up connecting my phone as a hotspot, it connected and I definitely had internet connection as I checked with Chrome but the other riders didn't re-appear so I ended up riding on my own for over half my ride. Not the end of the world but definitely not as interesting as seeing other riders to catch or stay ahead of...

I can see it as being a very good crit racing simulator without the shouting and broken carbon/bones.

A race on zwift i'll sit between the middle 3 power zones (so tempo, threshold and vo2) however in a a crit the biggest couple of zones are often 1 and 6. Not sure how they could recreate that with how the cornering and drafting works.

I realised I was getting dropped a little on the corners last night as I was easing off the power into corners without thinking about it.

[img] [/img]

KISS- Watopia Fig8

[img] [/img]

Hillingdon Cat4.

I don't see how Zwift can recreate the constant accelerations as you never have to slow down for corners/others.

Not a million miles away though....

Did a race tonight round the fig 8 - as a B. Very much mid-pack (14/27 I think) and much the same 20min power as last time, but loads of variability this time - lots of kicks and slowing of the pack

MAde an interesting discovery (well, it's obvious really but does work) that you can get off the bike completely when your avatar's in a tuck down hill (pile of boxes collapsed next to me and was fouling the pedals so had to move it). Think I actually improved my position while doing that 😆

Ordered kickr snap today, been using a dumb trainer but not on Zwift. Next weekend straight on it !! Weeksy made my mind up.....he doesn't know that but he did

stonecoldhhh - Member

Ordered kickr snap today, been using a dumb trainer but not on Zwift. Next weekend straight on it !! Weeksy made my mind up.....he doesn't know that but he did

I'll be very interested to hear/see your reaction fella... IT's certainly made my riding (limited at the moment i admit) a bit more interesting. Some of that coming from the fact i can now put out better numbers as it's a calibrated turbo, but also the fact that i'm changing gears, tactics, plans and ways of riding/attacking.

Going uphill on a section yesterday i actually got out of the saddle into a sprint as i was putting out 500w+... I also got into a Sagan tuck on the way down for the first time ever ! I didn't even know you could do that.
Getting 7th (at the time anyway) on the Village sprint was a highlight as my Bkool never allowed me to have a kick/sprint, but the Wahoo gives me the ability to have a burst of power when i need it.

There's been times in races where i think "if i kick off the front here i'll leave these 2 riders behind floundering"... but the Bkool taking 30-40s to actually build up the power means it just looks to them like i'm taking a turn on the front and leading for a bit, rather than me kicking off the front and gapping them.

In a slightly unrelated but also closely related discussion i had on another forum with CH. I was thinking about my training and realising i need to concentrate on my actual goals for the years riding rather than what i think they may be. Realistically i still don't believe i'm good/fast/effective enough for Crit races, so it's more likely to be an odd XC race, along with the SDW 100 and the White roads 100, along with the 7 days in Andalucia, they're more my targets than anything else that i may ride on a whim.

So my next few sessions/months are going to focus on longer, slower and a bit less worrying about putting in records on Strava and concentrate on putting the hours in on the pedals. Getting the weight down, getting the miles in etc. With that, the odd Gorick/Southern won't be blown out of the water as we know the training on Zwift seems to work OK for that too.. but the extra calories and longer efforts will prepare me better for the things that are important for the year.

I was actually thinking of something a bit random that you guys may have some thoughts on which was putting the Hybrid tyre on the spare 29er wheel for a few rides on it, riding the PArkwood which will be my 100 miler event bike, whilst it makes sense to use the road bike for training, i'm guessing it also makes sense to use the bike i'll actually be riding...

Interesting regarding the new London route, around green park area is a nightmare.

Bit surprised they haven't done this loop yet, the TOB one:
[img] [/img]
^^most fun I've ever had cycling in central 😆

@weeksy - should totally try and get a spot either at Hillingdon or Abingdon - I really think that benchmark versus when you sign up to do Hillingdon at the end of the year ( 😉 ) would be a good en!

@weeksy have you done the White roads before? Having ridden the MTB a lot in that area I gave it a go last year. Took 3 or 4 punctures before i realised how much care you have to take descending on 23c tyres when you weigh > 14st. Good fun though.

@Nath, maybe mate, maybe... i just don't want to waste my time at the moment riding it and being blown out in 1 lap... The segment i tried on yesterday and the time associated shows me i still have a lot to work on
https://www.strava.com/segments/9719730?filter=overall
Sure, i can sit here and get hung up on power, stats, times and figures and they don't actually matter... of course, i get that... But the times i can do are indicative of my actual speed/abilty...so of course, they're directly related to my ability to ride quickly.

@Mossimus, No, but i live about 200m from one of the main routes they take, not a million miles from Streatley. So plenty of their roads/sections are 100% my day to day riding and usual terrain. I won't be riding it on a narrow wheel/tyre bike. I'm likely to do it on the Parkwood running Rapid Robs. I'll be riding with a mate assuming he goes, so will be a nice day out, rather than flat out.

weeksy - Member

I was actually thinking of something a bit random that you guys may have some thoughts on which was putting the Hybrid tyre on the spare 29er wheel for a few rides on it, riding the PArkwood which will be my 100 miler event bike, whilst it makes sense to use the road bike for training, i'm guessing it also makes sense to use the bike i'll actually be riding...

Certainly try it, but it might not fit. How big is the tyre?
I mentioned the other day setting my Wife's mtb up on my old trainer.
I bought a new tyre to stick on the back of it - can't remember the size of it, but it's a 26" almost slick commuter style tyre....I couldn't get the bike into the trainer with that tyre on - the roller wouldn't move out of the way far enough - even with it 'released' and unwound as far as it would go....
I ended up swapping the tyre to a 1.5 City Jet. That fits, but there is a small amount of tyre compression even when the roller is released from the wheel....

I don't know if the Kickr Snap has a wider range of adjustment, but it's something to bear in mind.
You could always buy a cheap tyre to get you running with it - just make sure it's a small size.

MAde an interesting discovery (well, it's obvious really but does work) that you can get off the bike completely when your avatar's in a tuck down hill

I also got into a Sagan tuck on the way down for the first time ever ! I didn't even know you could do that.