Zwift, my journey, my weight and my fitness.

Now, I'm no mathematician - what's 11-10 ??

5th for me once all the sandbaggers got DQ'd....

http://www.zwiftpower.com/race.php?id=3216

@scaredy

I wouldn't go quite as far as 100%, no pain but I can feel every now and again if I stretch to do something unusual its almost like it wants to cramp, but doesn't. I'm pretty happy but trying to ensure I don't go nuts on it.
Need to take tomorrow as a rest day but had a window to ride tonight and I like riding on fasting days.
Bloody hungry now though.

Hoping to get the weight back in right direction downwards again

DQ...... oh well i dont like CAT B, makes me sick!

ah, sadly for mashie 11-10 makes UPG 😐

im looking forward to ditching the mtb spd's for proper road pedals.... float was annoying the **** out of me this eve

First race tonight, which for some reason I chose the EVR C Mountain course. Started well and was in front group up the mountain first time around, then ANT+ dropped out for a few seconds and I went backwards. Ended up in a few scraps with some stragglers and finished 30th in C which gives plenty room for improvement. Maybe next time, I'll do more than a 5 min warm up and have a rest day or two before hand. Rides or footy for 5 days in a row before hand probably wasn't the wisest move. I will be back for more.. Properly enjoyed it.

i did see another STW tag. i was first off the pier for a while!!!

having a climb that early on really blew things apart.

dc2.0 - Member
Looks like "Team STW" took bronze place in last nights KISS C/D race
http://www.zwiftpower.com/race.php?id=3100

(Unfortunately you can't direct link to the team results page so click on the "Team" tab to show the team results).

http://www.zwiftpower.com/team.php?id=756

Any idea what the ranking % means?
Quite a few of use are on 0% which I'm assuming is a good thing, right?

I had a go at a fast (for me!) lap of the Volcano last night. Managed a 6:04 (302W) but I suspect even lopping a few seconds off to get into the 5 minute range is going to be a struggle given my HR peaked at 181 at the end of the lap (a few years back I reckoned my max was 185, but that's the first time I've seen anything over 180 for a while).

For the first time, I worked out how to enter a race last night. Dropped at the start and so gruppettoed around - didn't realise you need to be pushing +400w 5 seconds BEFORE the start rather than a standing start. Utterly, utterly bizarre that Zwift doesn't require a standing start

Nice.. I know Nath was talking about that sort of time being Cat4 status... but depends if you could maintain that for an hour i guess 🙂

I'm still not really cracking on in anger, today i'm going to have another longish bimble round the island.

jamiep - Member

For the first time, I worked out how to enter a race last night. Dropped at the start and so gruppettoed around - didn't realise you need to be pushing +400w 5 seconds BEFORE the start rather than a standing start. Utterly, utterly bizarre that Zwift doesn't require a standing start

Yup, you certainly want to be almost at sprint speed by the time the counter ticks down. I was lucky that Crosshair had done the racing first so i knew a few of the tactics like that.

Nice.. I know Nath was talking about that sort of time being Cat4 status... but depends if you could maintain that for an hour i guess

I suspect I could possibly keep up in a Cat 4 race for one lap as long as they were taking it easy and it was a very flat course... And after that I'd need to go for a lie down!

being Cat4 status

Everyone that applies for a race licence gets a Cat 4 one.

You can sit in a big pack in a Cat 3 race at <3w/kg.

You can sit in a big pack in a Cat 3 race at <3w/kg.

That would depend how heavy you are. I'd be surprised if I could sit in a bunch at ~26mph doing <175W

For the first time, I worked out how to enter a race last night. Dropped at the start and so gruppettoed around - didn't realise you need to be pushing +400w 5 seconds BEFORE the start rather than a standing start. Utterly, utterly bizarre that Zwift doesn't require a standing start

Waste of energy. Spinning 200w as the clock ticked down and up to 350w in the first 100m or so saw me off the front of the EVR C race last night.

That would depend how heavy you are. I'd be surprised if I could sit in a bunch at ~26mph doing <175W

I wouldn't. There's so much benefit to drafting it's unreal (well not unreal it's a mathematical equation involving coefficients and clever stuff).

There's so much benefit to drafting it's unreal

For a [b]benchmark [/b]if your thinking of doing a crit race, first W are weighted averages, second are highest 20mins:
Race 1 - 17th - 318w/334w (strava est)
Race 2 - 28th - 329w/355w (strava est)
Race 3 - 7th - 262w/266w (stages PM)
Race 4 - 12th - 276w/286w (stages PM)
Race 5 - 9th - 260w/266w (stages PM)

me 70kg + kit/bike/water/computer = 80kg roughly.
My FTP under strava/tacx = 340w. Under stages power meter from a Zwift TT it's 285w (TBC).

Yeah but you sit in the wind all race 😀

It takes me 295w (88kg) to finish with the bunch 😉

Race 3&5 I didn't. Race 4 I was punished by the bunch. 😆

Also don't have an aero helmet 😈

Are you taking your 20 min number as your FTP nathb?

The Southern Yeti
Are you taking your 20 min number as your FTP nathb?

No, best 20 mins using stages = 301w *.95 = 286W

Oh, its London today ! Box hill....

Previous, 10.02

Today 8.28

https://www.strava.com/activities/852519134/segments/20774172418

https://www.strava.com/segments/12744502?filter=club&gender=both&club_id=244094

Phew.

Not wanting to piss on chips, but that's on different equipment, isn't it?

Whether the old number or the new number is more correct, you need now to normalise at that and see whether you improve from there.

Climbing Box Hill on your mum's shopper and then on a 6.8kg climber's bike - and claiming the difference indicates you got stronger doesn't count 😉

Today 8.28

now there's a challenge...

Congrats on moving to P1 Weeksy, but I thought you were supposed to be resting sir? 😆

tomorrow as at Forest of Dean on Sat.

was just an attack, now at z1/2

Not wanting to piss on chips, but that's on different equipment, isn't it?

Whether the old number or the new number is more correct, you need now to normalise at that and see whether you improve from there.

Climbing Box Hill on your mum's shopper and then on a 6.8kg climber's bike - and claiming the difference indicates you got stronger doesn't count

of course its relative, however i now class that as my real time, not my turbo restricted time

Crumbs!! It's getting too close for comfort 😀

When you start troubling real life segments I'll really start panicking 😉

Serious answer- well done! That's epic 🙂

I'm actually gutted.... if i'd known i was only 7s off your time i'd have pushed the last few 100's to take it 😀

I think mine was a Z2 day if I remember rightly 😀

Oh, its London today ! Box hill....

Previous, 10.02

Today 8.28

Wow - no chance I'll be challenging that anytime soon. Sure it was a turbo and not an e-Bike you bought... 🙂

Suspect I could maybe get to somewhere like 9:30 without ANT+ dropouts and pushing my HR to near explosion levels, but doubt I could do any better than that.

Oh, its London today ! Box hill....
Previous, 10.02

Today 8.28

How does that compare to real life Box Hill times then? (just curious)

And how do I have a go in Zwift?

8.21 v 10.04 for me but not sure how close the segments are?

10.04 was on Ride London so I had a few miles in the legs...

nathb:

[me 70kg + kit/bike/water/computer = 80kg roughly.]

How does that compare to real life Box Hill times then? (just curious)

No idea, i don't ride outside.

Sure it was a turbo and not an e-Bike you bought...

Sorry Steve, as we found with the Garmin/Stages, my turbo at the time was under-reading by 50-70w for say 250w effort. So my times on segments now that i'd previously ridden on that turbo are coming down in chunks rather than the usual small increments through training and fitness increases. Obviously, now i've set my times on this turbo, dropping these times will be a lot harder.

I thought rider weight was just the rider not including the ancillaries....

i think your right. which is why my avatar hasnt got any socks or a helmet on. all those grams add up...

i think your right. which is why my avatar hasnt got any socks or a helmet on. all those grams add up...

You ride naked too then ! I assumed it was just me.

[IMG] [/IMG]

Nice tats...

Right having a go at London loop

Enjoy Tiger... Have fun out (in) there.

I changed my kit last night, but have no idea how, i seem to have been the only one with a time, despite people in front and behind me being higher outputs lol

At one stage it was showing the little green jersey next to me and the polka dot... but only when i passed that sprint did i get the Green.

[URL= http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg167/weeksy59/IMG_20170201_205036_zpsakswig1v.jp g" target="_blank">http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg167/weeksy59/IMG_20170201_205036_zpsakswig1v.jp g"/> [/IMG][/URL]

Boxhill again tonight for me, no chance to beat my last time though, not with a rotten cold 🙁 If i Try I'm likely to pass out on the bike!

Wow that was actually quite good fun!

Sort of liking Zwift 🙂

It's not far off

Box Hill - London Zwift - 8:22 - Av 22.1km/h AvCad 78 AvHR 176bpm AvPower 337W

Real life - Boy Hill - Zig Zags - 7:54 Av 19.0km/h AvCad 86 AvHR 188bpm StravaPower 296W

Box hill for me. 9:10 IRL V 9:12 on Zwift, I was nearly 2 stone lighter for the RL effort though..

No Zwifting for me for a few days as my daughter is visiting so the spare room has had to go back to being a bedroom. I've also got a 10K running race at the weekend so want to take things easy for a few days before that.

I'm supposed to be zwifting this evening (on my plan), but it's my birthday so I'm eating a bag of chips with a pint or two instead. 😆 Will be doing bike fit stuff tomorrow - thanks to the person who posted the app earlier!

On a side note, the new forum is funky:
[img] [/img]

Happy birthday mate!!

I scheduled my Birthday on Monday this week so it was on a rest day 😀

#dedication
#organised

😉

scaredypants - Member
Weirdness on the 8.00 TT tonight - never finished. Supposed to be 10miles (16km), I gave up at 17.3km with no banner in sight
Results are on the live button but they pretty much arrange themselves in order of distance ridden.

weeksy - Member
Had that. Unless you ride to banner about 24km it doesn't register

Screesnshot taken, just in case, like

Happy birthday nathb 🙂

A pretzel pootle for me tonight.

Edit... oh arse, it's London 🙁

[b]mrblobby [/b]

if you have an Ipad change your date to last tuesday 31st, then log in.......once in before you start a course, change your date back to current.

Well done weeksy on the new Box Hill time, that's a bigger improvement than I had last weekend. Much left in the tank afterwards? I'm stuck in Gdansk today so no Zwifting for me, perhaps for a race some of us with close stats should try riding as a team, through and off etc. Not that I've ever felt any real drafting benefit myself

.Well done weeksy on the new Box Hill time, that's a bigger improvement than I had last weekend. Much left in the tank afterwards?

Mine wasn't improvement as such. I'm not convinced I'm any quicker than say 4 weeks back, just now the right power is being reported by hardware/software. I tried hard though, average 353w and 175bpm is proper hard. I think if pushed I may have 5-10s tops left in me. I think more gains would come from weight loss at the moment.

Pizza and beers for tea won't have helped me.

I can't get my BP that high since being on BP meds and I'm on docs orders to take it easy too because of my Atrial Fibrillation, since starting Zwift though I've pushed myself harder and haven't had an episode.
I might hire a stages for a month just to see what my real output is, was never interested I it before.

harry too
nathb:
[me 70kg + kit/bike/water/computer = 80kg roughly.]
Are you talking about real life weight or Zwift weight? I thought rider weight was just the rider not including the ancillaries....

crosshair
Happy birthday mate!!

I scheduled my Birthday on Monday this week so it was on a rest day

#dedication
#organised

Thanks CH, top organisation skills there! I've just eaten my weight in chips and cake today 😆

mrblobby
Happy birthday nathb

@cheers_drive - I'm renting mine from these guys: https://panaguabikes.com/pages/stages-power-meters-as-used-by-team-sky-hire-or-try-before-you-buy#.WJOUpMvfWhA
If you decide to buy they knock off your first months hire too.

Hmmm! Sounds like some crafty carb-loading tactic to me!!
Or extra weight for those sprinting legs 😀

I'm back on MyFitnessPal today after a relatively kind few days off! Should be back within 1lb or so of last weeks race weight.
Aiming for 85kg for the Spring races.

Oops- veered off-topic 🙂

As I expected, that hurt a lot, think I ripped my lungs open and only managed 8:52 boooooo! Day off work tomorrow and was gonna ride IRL but that may have pushed me over the edge.

Tough ride in the KISS race there. Moved up to C and started quickly but lost the lead group and then couldn't seem to catch onto another group. Probably rode 80% of it alone or briefly with random stragglers and then my legs just gave up. Still a good workout as always.

The RL Box Hill segment looks shorter than the Zwift one. That said myRL time is slower but I've only ever ridden it at the end of PRL so to be expected.

Tough ride in the KISS race there. Moved up to C and started quickly but lost the lead group and then couldn't seem to catch onto another group. Probably rode 80% of it alone or briefly with random stragglers and then my legs just gave up. Still a good workout as always.

I find the KISS races particularly bad for sandbaggers which makes pace at the front totally unrealistic. Try the EVR series. It's been much closer racing in the two I've done so far.

In fact looking at the results, the top 25 or so got DQ'd.

you sure it's sandbaggers - maybe just people trying it out for a first/2nd time ? (I did a TT before I did a FTP, for example)

Don't you get forcibly upgraded/DQ'd if you keep overshooting ?

Results won't count on zwiftpower but doesn't stop you from entering. Top 5 > 4w/kg, most of the top 20 over 3.5w/kg.

Like I said, I've stopped doing the KISS races as it' doesn't make for a good race.

I've only done 2 races (actually only one, started a second and then couldn't be arsed so deleted it) and both times the pace at the front of a Cat D has been unbelievable. Then at the end the top however many who were doing that pace end up at 3.5W/kg and get DQ'ed anyway. So you don't know who's really racing and therefore how to race against them, because you don't know till the end whether they were genuinely in the race or not.

Not that i can see any means of preventing it. And I know weight doping is probably a thing too, but at least with that whether it's a 100kg man doing 250W average or a 100kg man doing 150W average but pretending he's only 60kg so he goes faster - at least it's still the right W/kg so you're racing against the right band.

Yeah, might try EVR then. I've enjoyed the kiss races I've done before but this was pretty brutal. Didn't help that I'd munched a chilli for dinner 30 mins before. Nearly saw it again 😯

I really enjoy the races but rake absolute position and cat with a pinch of salt.

Get in the race, get in a group help each other fo as fadt as possible, sprint for rhe line.

Simples.

Lol! I'm now division 2 in 'RR with climbs'

I know it depends on what draft I could have found but my finishing time in Tuesdays KISS race would have put me almost top 20 in A's!!!!

I'm so tempted next week..........

@blitz I found the same when I was in the KISS (C) race on Tuesday, and couldn't figure out who was in the race, or how (badly) I was doing... Still as you say, it was a good workout, and fun to try.

Looking forward to getting another race in soon, but the 8pm starts are really the best for me, but might try EVR to see what that's like.

Guys, don't underestimate the draft! If there are sandbaggers in your cat- USE THEM!! Leave nothing in reserve hanging to their wheel at the start or up the climbs. Then wheelsuck and recover.
If you can get it right- you can hang with riders putting out 1w/kg more than you!!

[quote=crosshair ]Guys, don't underestimate the draft! If there are sandbaggers in your cat- USE THEM!! Leave nothing in reserve hanging to their wheel at the start or up the climbs. Then wheelsuck and recover.
If you can get it right- you can hang with riders putting out 1w/kg more than you!!

yeah. but in the EVR races I've found I can hang onto the front group for long enough for the race to settle down whereas in the KISS races the pace of the front is just insane.

Wrong thread.

Kind of agree that KISS can be like the wild west but the 8pm weekday time is convenient for me.

Argh on bloody Zwift again despite best intentions. Set off this morning but less than 15 mins into road ride got a slashed sidewall. Careful ride home then a few laps of London 🙁

When are you going to pin a virtual number on MrBlobby??

[quote=cheers_drive ]Kind of agree that KISS can be like the wild west but the 8pm weekday time is convenient for me.

KISS seem to be 8pm tues/thurs

EVR are 8pm mon/wed/fri

When are you going to pin a virtual number on MrBlobby??

Hi CH. Doesn't really fit in with what I'm trying to do over the next few weeks but when non-virtual racing season starts some Zwift racing will probably work quite well. I think if I was going to put in those sorts of efforts now I'd come do some real racing with you and nathb 🙂

How are you liking your Neo now? I know I ask you that every few weeks. Still find Erg mode rough?