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Yeah bit early for me that, but sounds like you had fun 🙂
All went well until leaving the underpass for the final time and the afterburners were lit, I held as long as I could but got dumped hitting the mall with a couple of others. I went for it in the final sprint and beat them over the line.
Yeah, it was certainly a race that wasn't a race wasn't it?
They always are Brian, unless you just decide to pootle on your own and don't try to get involved in the main action.
Feels like TDZ has gone backwards, last January there were specific race stage events, now when so many are in lockdown we're back to social rides where some decide to race.
@weeksy great ride in the crit on Tuesday. And it was good to see you riding (and in the chat) in the STW race that evening. Hope the next few weeks go OK for you.
First time I can remember actually racing against another STW team member!
https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=1464987
Good effort by Paulo Paino whoever you are 😊
How did Yorkshire go this morning?
I decided I had absolutely nothing better to do with the rest of my day so I may as well do my ride a bit later than first thing.
Shorter ride was over in a flash. Me and @Oopnorth agreed we'd take it easy but ended up in sub 50th place so of course we pressed on a bit! I had a ANT drop out for 11s and lost the group just after Kirky joined us and I guess he pulled them along for a bit as I sat up and waited for the group behind to catch me. They weren't much use and I ended up dragging them around the second lap. Managed to see @Oopnorth by the last hill, dropped the group but couldn't reel him in. All over by 9am. I like that course. Might ride it again once my new USB extension lead arrives!
Yeah it was a good one...had a go at ot in places but more chilled in others, I didn't really want to go full race mode this morning.
Set off and met up with @slowpuncheur quite early, the kirky joined us a bit further up the road.
I decided to push on the main hill to test the legs then off the gas again after.
All went well and it was a good start to the day. Even decided to have a mini race right at the end up the final drag with a couple of riders around me.
Yeah, it is a pretty reasonable course, not sure if fancy 9 laps or what ever it was they did at the end of the uci but one or two (even three at a push) makes for a nice run.
Bit of a disaster for me. Decided to do it as a recovery ride with my Garmin controlling erg mode and just set the watts very low and gradually ramped it up. The workout finished after 50mins and still had 7k to go. Switched back to Zwift controlling the trainer and spent 5 minutes trying to get out the pairing screen. Eventually got out and rode the rest at 200w ish finishing in 1hour 10mins. Still got a good recovery pace and ticked it off. Not one to do at low power though takes ages.
Yorkshire seemed a pretty good course today, climbs not too severe, I think it was a different course from our series one race, seemed to lack the leg snapper and the start was longer but less steep.
despite being on the first row in the Pen I got caught out messaging Robbo as the clock ticked to zero, I saw Paul’s name flash by so pressed on up the first long climb to try and catch up, took some bloody catching with big efforts on the next hill to finally catch his and Craig’s small group, then there was just Craig. I think we were hovering around 60th.
I pressed on a bit gradually gaining some ground but at the end of the first lap I caught 30th place and there was 30 second gap to a small group in front so thought there would be no chance of making much ground and with a larger group just 15/20 seconds back thought there would be more chance of being caught then two of us catching the guys in front. Anyway it transpired the guy I was with was in the same boat as me and had probably crept through the pack only to find himself in no mans land. He was happy to share the efforts and we pulled each other along and managed to reign in 5 others. we had a little sprint finish but he had a feather so dropped me on the sharp rise and I couldn’t quite catch up.
ZP shows as 13th lots of PBS, practically every climb and the sprint, 274w average wasn’t quite the steady ride I planned.
Looking forward to a much slower and relaxed pootle around New York tomorrow then a rest from the bike before Tuesday.
Yeah nice rest ride tomorrow with the group would be good.
I kept having a word with myself to chill as the urge to chase kept waving over me. At one point I was in 35th position and the group was starting to push so I backed off and dropped out.
To say I wasn't pushing fully I still got a 257w average...more than I planned.
Well I decided to do Richmond mainly because I hate it, so figured it was the one I was most likely to be able to plod round.
Dropped into a group of about 100 riders at a steady 260w ish, it split up into a few smaller bunches over the course of the first lap so required a couple of pushes to get into the forward one.
Cleared the first set of cobbles in about 260th, made another 20 places by the line got to about 220th by the foot of the cobbles second time round then started to fall back from there. By the time I crossed the line I was 303rd I think. Was hard work talking my self out of making more of an effort, mainly that's a surprise as I'm not sure I could have done much more.
On the up side, going a bit easier than usual gave me chance to think about why I dislike the course. I think it seems to have a lot more climbing than it's 140m a lap suggests, it feels like a lot more than greatest London flat for instance though is actually 10m less. I think mainly though its that the 23rd Street and final climb appear from no where, (I think this is one of those oddities of zwift where sometimes you look like your going up hill despite it being -% and sometimes you look like you're going down but it's actually +5%), you get round the corner and wallop momentum vanishes and your spinny gear is now very difficult to turn. that and they seem to go on and on and on.
Still as a recovery that wasn't too bad and now I really need a recovery.
Not looking forward to chasing DrP off the great glass elevator tomorrow.
I am going to join in with the New York ride in the morning. I'm working from home so unless I get called in I've no excuse not to get on the bike. I hope I can manage to keep up with the promised leisurely pace 🤔😂
had a month off, uni deadlines, Christmas and all that jazz, been struggling for motivation since New Years but seemed to be ready the last couple of days, so left it a couple more to make sure I was eager, was going to do a ramp test, but noticed a Crit, always a good test of the legs, 16:30 bell lap after a decent warm up, savage as expected, loads of people must have got a satori smart for Christmas 😂 managed to stay with th front group until about the last 500m and just couldn't stay, a feather up the "hill" would have helped but didn't get one, HR up, power down as to be expected, 187bpm av and 294w, so not horrendous, 11th in B on ZP, 6 above me over limits, had no sprint and was 2 seconds behind 10th and just kept ahead of 12th
https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=1477273
That's good going after a month off!
[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50824884656_41c22ba42b_c.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50824884656_41c22ba42b_c.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/2krdPuL ]2021-01-11_02-25-15[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/152318156@N08/ ]Steve Weeks[/url], on Flickr
Ahhhh go faster colour tyre!
Just dont the mountain route on TdZ event. Chased some riders up it and got a 26:54 which I think may be my best or pretty close. The radio tower was a slow affair which seemed never ending. Tried a sprint off the top to try for the 100kph badge but the legs were toast at that point and I managed 96kph only.
Picked up a small group and we all shared the effort back taking some places on the way.
Just over the hour and I took the final sprint over the other 5 riders, so not a bad start to the day.
Well that's a result, did TDZ Stage 3 and decided to do Road to Sky, beat my previous best time of 66:49 by almost ten minutes to get my first sub-hour ride up the Alpe (57:09), got the badge for that, got the badge for my 5th ride up the bastard, and got the lightweight wheels!
According to the stats 273w averaged for 57 minutes which against my FTP of 269w tells me a paced it pretty well, no FTP increase - I think I could have probably gone a little bit faster if my life had depended on it, but also psychologically I think knowing I really do have an FTP of at least 269 is good - until today I doubted I could keep up that sort of power for an hour.
Massive result @Nick and the wheels too!
I really need to work out how to get under the hour, it will probably mean going at least 300w all the way up...gulp!
Sounds like good results all round. Well done folks.
@oopnorth a good way to get that 100kph badge is the bologna TT. A proper TT bike and Aero wheels will usually see you pick it up on the way down if you keep pedaling for a minute or so past the end and just coast back down the hill.
Snap @Nick, good effort. Did the same aiming for under an hour, Strava says 57:06 for the Alpe. Well pleased!
Couldn't decide if the group draft was helping or the sticky draft was hurting. Took the lead in pretty relaxed so overtook over 300 people on the way up the hill (most by the first corner). Both motivating and annoying when you stick to them
I've has 98kph on the way down from Ventoux as well....must try harder 🤣
stop, and change to the steel Zwift bike with the most aero wheels you have
Great going Nick and Janboss !
Did my first virtual Ton today. Signed up for the ZSUN Base builder, two laps of Tire-Bouchon this morning. Finished the event (79miles) and thought I might as well carry on. Didn’t find it to bad actually, the four and a half hours went by pretty quickly.
@yanboss, you beat me by 3 seconds! well done 🙂
I'm going to have to do a metric ton soon, 96 miles on the Wild Wales Challenge a few years ago is my longest ride, not sure I fancy doing it on Zwift or not, might show the so far Zwift only Boardman the light of day on a nice dry spring morning.
*sigh* Ex-communicated from B again in the first event after a year off racing, which is why I stopped in the first place. Either disqualified from B races or last in A races.
Zwift desperately needs a B+ category.
@flaperon the category system is far from perfect but come on. If you are who I think (apologies if not!) you have masses of 20 minutes power, plenty for A. You just need to figure out how best to use it.
Join the Tues evenings STW series and I think you'd be at the very front of the race, with people like @nixie, @seabass and @benman - obvious A's who let's say don't attract much sympathy on here for lacking power!
This is probably one of those highly repeated questions.
But...
Running Zwift on an IPad and Trainerroad on an Android phone. Do I just connect one by BT and the other by Ant+ somehow?
Some trainers have dual Bluetooth. You have to make sure that Zwift isn't controlling your trainer and just taking outputs from the power meter, HRM and cadence sensor.
I don't think you will get Ant+ on an ipad - not sure if you can on a android device or not?
I had suspended my Zwift sub as I wasn't using it. Lost all motivation due to a real trough in my depression but am getting my mojo back and sticking to the 90 days of exercise challenge thing.
My big problem is I push too hard too soon and really should build it up way slower. Can anyone recommend some good training plans that go right back to beginner levels of fitness and I will give it another go.
Want to get back out on the bike proper soon but just need a bit more strength...
Some trainers have dual Bluetooth. You have to make sure that Zwift isn’t controlling your trainer and just taking outputs from the power meter, HRM and cadence sensor.
I don’t think you will get Ant+ on an ipad – not sure if you can on a android device or not?
Hmm, don't think dual bluetooth is a thing on my turbo (1st gen Direto) but my phone is listed on the thisisant directory.
Should I be able to connect as is or do I need an app?
@piemonster don't think in terms of what protocol to use where. Think in terms of what needs connecting to what. You need to connect:
- controllable to trainerroad (so it manages your resistance/watts for the workout)
- power to zwift (so you move on screen)
- HR wherever you want it (both/one/neither)
- cadence wherever you want it (both/one/neither)
You can connect ANT+ as many times as you want (controllable excepted, but you only ever want 1 connection to controllable so that's fine...). Or mix and match ANT+ and bluetooth if your devices allow or require that.
Ah ok. Cheers Savoyad
No bike tomorrow and off work (long run day) so that should give some faffing space to set it up.
Tried Zwift for the first time on Sunday, lack of motivation to train means I've not been making the most use of trainerroad. I'd always assumed it was a gimic but I really enjoyed it so think I'll get a subscription when the 7 day trial goes. Going to try the BC race this evening, kind of excited. I reckon a couple of races a week for a month and I might be motivated enoguh to think about training again. fingers crossed anyway
@ferrals Do you know the starting drill? ie be up to 300ish watts depending on your category BEFORE the start.
Also get registered on ZP as it makes so much more sense of results than the daft ones they give you at the end.
https://www.zwiftpower.com
Ms Makrie Jr and I have just started zwifting. She is doing the Pebble Pounder training while I began with the FTP Builder. Ace!
She is determined to get a Tron bike, to which end she did Alpe de Zwift last night. 94 minutes of grinding :/
I am determined to not be absolutely humiliated by Jr and Mrs Makrie when we next head out touring. The standard amount of humiliation, fine. Total, no.
Are there ever any Singletrackworld 1.5 to 2 wpk rides? Or junior rides in the same range?
Tron requires lots of effort and the purists don't like it but Radio mast repeats whilst doing a user defined workout is one way of making things a bit easier.
I've heard stories of people nearly completing it and then realizing that they had to sign up for the Everest challenge for it to count and so all that vert done in vain.
ZZRC are a very friendly group that do sub 1.5 and sub 2.0 rides and include juniors, Andi the yellow beacon is an awesome pace setter and she has a brilliant sweep team working for her should you get dropped and need their help and if I remember correctly SAS have junior specific 30 min rides.
We could always set up some of the sprint lap sessions on either a Monday or Wednesday evening maybe. They work quite well for lower power riders as they can roll with the group constantly but the stronger riders can do the sprints for building strength.
@tomlevell - thanks, I can only hold 300w for about 30s 😂 so basically just start pedalling 10s before the official start? I’m sure I’ll get the hang of it eventually
I enjoyed the sprint lap meetups so would be up for that!We could always set up some of the sprint lap sessions on either a Monday or Wednesday evening maybe.
Don't worry @ferrals, @tomlevell didn't mean you to start at a wattage you can actually sustain. He was just warning you that everyone blasts out of the pen at full speed, which requires really winding it up (to a wattage you can't possibly sustain!) before the end of the countdown. It just often catches first time racers by surprise. It'll settle fast but if you do that sprint at the start you at least give yourself a chance of settling into a group when that happens.