Zwift, my journey, my weight and my fitness.

So basically I'm mid c cat on a hilly race - wattopia mountain this am - put out 3/Kg average - d cat dsq imminent! But on the flat I'm sooo much slower can hold 3-3.5 up wattopia mountain no probs but on flat 2.5's a struggle even in a bunch. Suggestions?

Wondering if it could be temp related as it was -1 in garage. Tricky one really.

My power meter needs to be calibrated at the temperature it's being used in, otherwise the readings aren't supposed to be reliable. When the turbo and power meter are both calibrated I've not noticed a meaningful difference between them - although I have noticed that I find it easier to sustain higher power outputs on outdoor rides than I do on the turbo.

No Zwifting for me today as I've been out and done just under 50 miles with the club. Lovely day for it, if somewhat cold (down to -3C with icy patches on some of the lanes).

Hi guys a great thread this, keep it up.

I'm going to take part in my first KISS race tonight at 8:05 my watts per kilo works out at 2.49 right on the line for cat C or D. Should I stay in D or register for a C?

I'm going to take part in my first KISS race tonight at 8:05 my watts per kilo works out at 2.49 right on the line for cat C or D. Should I stay in D or register for a C?

Stay in D. There is some leeway, plus if you do get booted up a category at least it'll answer the question for you.

Cheers Steve. I will be using the STW tag as well of course

I think it's Zwift. When I was doing my tests with the PM versus the Tacx Vortex, I found that the one not connected to Zwift was much higher than the one connected.

That is very odd as Zwift will just be displaying the power data it gets fed from the PM/turbo. I usually zwift with my Garmin and both Zwift and the Garmin display exactly the same numbers.

Might you be pairing the trainer "wrong" ?
IIRR my trainer "announces itself" as various options, only one of which is as a power meter, although it has one built in. I could choose to run it as z-power if I wanted to - at least I think I could - and that'd add in a series of unneccessary extra calculations. Even so, the discprepancy you're seeing is pretty marked

Talk us through it MrBlobby! Looked epic!!

Was good ride that. A decent group and a nice pace, time went pretty quickly. And where else do you get to ride 80k alongside Andrew Talansky!

Brill! Glad it went well!

It's here!!!! The Volcano is live.

Ooooooh, you going to test it out then ?

I'm debating 2nd Base race tonight at 8pm, i do like that one 🙂

Supposed to be a rest day....

I just watched a few people riding the flat part on my phone and other than extending the mileage to spread people out- it was a bit Meh!

At least Ocean Blvd has fish and the Whale, a Submarine, Manta Rays etc etc where as this seemed very boring!!
The new board members are a bit more conservative I fear 😉

That said- I will reserve full judgement until I've tried the climb 🙂

Arghhhh!

LBS now saying delivery date due 14/2 for the tacx neo

This is just stupid now.

It seems the climb section isn't live yet (loads of clips of a winding mountain type climb so it is coming) but you now have a truly flat course avoiding the Esses. You can also choose to do indefinite laps around the Volcano either clockwise or anti clockwise which will be good for Crit type races I guess.

Zwift blog has some info now.

I've been downloading the update for best part of the last hour, guess the servers are a little busy.

Something to bear in mind for tonight then if racing... i better do the updates about 3.30 when i get home from work just in case

Yes, currently downloading on work PC just so I can have a nose. Planning on KISS at 8pm but not sure my crap home internet will manage to get the update downloaded on time

Update took 9sec.

It's here!!!! The Volcano is live.

New achievements always welcome though to help me level faster, and the lap thing sounds interesting (is it like a volcano-based velodrome?!)

LBS now saying delivery date due 14/2 for the tacx neo

🙁 Well it is worth the wait. I know they've had a load of demand. Had to wait a month for mine. If you don't get a Neo then the Flux would probably be the next obvious choice but a chap working at my LBS has been waiting over a month for his too so demand stripping supply there too. Some places do actually have stock though if you shop around.

Re the update. Probably being a bit thick but how do you do it? I've logged in and it's not asked me to do an update. I can't see a "check for update" button either. Do you just need to download a fresh copy and re-install?

Update took 9sec.

Looks like the update hung for me. Restarted and now showing 6 minutes to download on a 100Mb connection. On a very good day I get 3Mb at home....

It starts downloading as soon as you open the app & before you log in. Pops up in a little grey panel under the login fields. It will download, install the patch & disappear all by itself (another example of their "unique" approach to UI 🙂 ) so it's probably done it without you noticing! Only took seconds on mine.

Don't think it's done mine. Maybe not on a mac yet?

yep, definitely on Mac, just done the update & can select Volcano routes, etc

Here's a question on race tactics.

Lets assume i can average 2.5w/kg over the course of a 3 race lap of Watopia.

I wonder what would be the best way to ride a race...

1. Ride in TT mode on flats/hills.
2. Ride a bit slower on the flats, attack the 2 'climbs'
3. Ride the climbs at normal speed and pin it on the switchbacks and the downhill to the line.

I guess the question is...

How much time can you gain on the hills, or how much time will you lose on the flats cruising.

Should update on launch, Not sure if it is the same on the mac but on the Pc you can right click the Zwift icon in task bar and click 'Update Now' to force it to update.

4. Adjust power to sit in a group that lets you travel faster at the same nominal average W/kg

At least, that's what I've been trying to do. However, having moved into C (in KISS at least, still D in BRS terms) at ~2.8W/kg, I seem to be sat in no mans land between the fast Cs and the recently-promoted. Which means it becomes a solo TT 🙁

I'm going to do KISS C/D race tonight. However, I've switched back to a dumb trainer (with separate power meter) for now so that my son can use the T2240 and that requires manually moving the resistance unit with allen keys for the 650 wheels on his mini-roadbike...

(As an aside - worth noting that if you're a paid Zwift member, they'll give you a free membership for 13-and-unders in the same family)

yep, definitely on Mac, just done the update & can select Volcano routes, etc

No volcano route showing for me 🙁

I wonder what would be the best way to ride a race...

You talking about a TT or a road race?

Depends on how much drafting you can do as it has a much greater effect on the flat. Flats are also more about outright watts than w/kg, whereas climbs are more about w/kg. If you're a big heavy rider you might want to push it more on the flats. If you're light then you might want to try and hang on to the wheels on the flat and go for it on the climbs.

Oh, and to actually answer your question - push harder on the uphills. It's physics - on the flat/downhill there's a bigger impact from air resistance (even in the virtual world of Zwift) and that's non-linear so there's diminishing speed returns for more power. Up hill, you're going slower overall but every extra watt produces relatively more speed than it would on the flat

That goes without saying DC, i'll try and draft a faster group of course.

I end up in the same place as you.. over an hour race i'm right on the border of C and D i usually end up a good chunk of a race 10-30s ahead and behind the persons closest.

You talking about a TT or a road race?

Tonights race, non-TT

in the GCN race before the servers exploded, I took a new tack and got in early, near the front, and put a biggish effort in. it made a huge difference to my position in the race but not that much to my overall power output. if your in that big main group, you can recover a bit once the race turns down into the tunnel.

I wonder what would be the best way to ride a race...

FWIW I tend to ride climbs as fast as possible and then recover on the downhill afterwards. I always try to draft 100% of the time if possible, I find it's worth putting in a big effort to stay with or catch up to a fast group as the rewards are massive, and even more so at the start of the race (which is why it's so important to go as hard as possible from the off for as long as you can!)

Obviously you can reach the point where you've just got nothing left to give though, so it's a balancing act!

The C's generally split into 3 groups from the races i've been in.

3.0+ w/kg
2.5-2.7
<2.5's

I generally find myself in the middle bunch of however many... sometimes 10, sometimes less, depends how many racing.... That usually means a 320w start for the first min, 3.4w/kg and then settling in about 280w for the next 5 mins.... Then i find i'm usually ok in that group and get some rest with a 220w (2.3w/kg) to 240w cruising.... Then we get to the little incline just before the U turn... i'm OK on there, then you've got the gradual incline bfore the sprint in village... i often struggle and hang on here... I then get through village and it's now all going wrong, i've lost a few wheels on the incline, we're then onto the hill after the bridge/sprint... i'm then trying to go all in and sticking in 300w+ which has now pushed my HR up and i can't make the top of the hill !, by the time we then get over that and into the roller coaster, i've lost the plot, i'm breathing too hard and i end up trying to recover...

I want to work out how i'm going to do OK on the hill (for a big lad) and then still have something for the roller coaster..

Often once we get down to the start/finish, i've lost 20s+ on the lads i was riding with together into the village.

here is another question. last race I did, some people were using power ups off the line? how does that work?

Warm up, cross the line, get power up... go into the Pen....

You then take the power up in with you.

pick them up before joining the event I guess?

ah ok, i just assumed it would reset everyone to zero in the pen.

The best A cat riders go hunting for their preferred PU before the start 🙂 Tactics innit

crosshair - Member

The best A cat riders go hunting for their preferred PU before the start Tactics innit

I'm screwed then if i don't get the best one first time out as i'm not getting a 2nd chance due to the distance required...

Unless there's some sort of a trick for getting a PU ?

I'll make sure to get the software going before I walk the dog tonight in case there's a big surge of people finishing work and signing on.

No Weeksy- just luck. Another good reason for a good warmup 😉

PU......What's that?

powerup