Zwift, my journey, my weight and my fitness.

Throughout all of this, the main goal apart from fitness is pleasure. I enjoy Zwift racing

I get the impression Weeksy that you could get more training from the races

I'm not suggesting structured training. I'm saying that going into a race, getting into a bunch and then saying "this is too hard, I'm slowing down" isn't really conducive to getting the most from the session. Maybe in the real world that makes sense, but if you blow up and die a horrible death you've lost nothing.

Maybe in the real world that makes sense, but if you blow up and die a horrible death you've lost nothing.

Ranking points !

So much for a spin down race, i ended up 6th in the race and i didnt even bother sprinting at the start. I did a fast cruise from the start and could have caught the lead group but decided to chill so went with the next group. I then decided half way through the race that rather than wait for a sprint i would go at quite a fast pace to see if i could drop them all. So with about 15km to go i upped the pace with an aerp PU and dropped them by over a minute in the end. I think i preferred that to a gut busting sprint.

My box hill ride doesnt seem to have migrated to strava, is there anyway to get this back? I did it via ipad so cant get to any logs. I also took a picture showing the result but where would i find this?

EDIT: its ok i have found it now, i forgot i had to change the date on the ipad in order to get the london route so strava has it on the changed date and not today.

Just had a parting shot at the "blader box hill challenge" before my subscription ends
Cheated and used a feather (though no drafts at all since I was there on a watopia day) and still only 7.31 (2 sec better than existing best)

7.00 - no chance for me anytime soon

Maybe in the real world that makes sense, but if you blow up and die a horrible death you've lost nothing.

Ranking points !

Reaalllllllllllly?! 😉

Scaredypants - i got no drafting either coz i was the only person in London this morning as i changed the date. I had the complete route to myself,it felt very weird. I reckon with a few weeks of hill training you could beat your time but it might be interesting to see how fast you can do it if you catch a few drafts.
I can safely say i wont be getting anywhere near my time again as it was just too brutal. To think that nathb can do it in 6 mins is pretty amazing.

i was the only person in London this morning

There were 2 others out there when I was riding, somewhere about the place

Are the pedestrians new ? Only noticed them today for the 1st time

There was an update last week that added the crowd, they also break out the umbrellas when it starts raining.

Managed a Cat B win this morning in the WBR race, finished 5th overall and only a minute behind the winner. It was a 25.8 mile race and best stats so far, 3.72w/kg and avg 309w. I managed to get on this race with only 12 seconds to spare so no warm up or stretch at all, might adopt that policy again as i seem to go faster with less preparation.

Nice... That's impressive ! I find the same on warm-up too i think, it gives me the first few mins at a lower HR to get into the insanity easier.

Was that the 6am start? I finished 6th if it was

It was the 9:05 race, not a big field but not too small either. I think i am going to drop any form of warm up longer than a minute, i am not entirely sure it is beneficial plus nothing prepares you for sprinting out of the gate like a madman at the start.

Nice race! Well done.
I agree on the warmup. I sometimes do up to an hour beforehand but rarely go above Z2. I don't find a lot of difference if it's only 5minutes though.

Many moons ago i read an article in the British Medical Journal that stated stretching before exercise would only prevent one injury every 23 years. I wish i had read more to see if it had any benefits, i always assumed it lessened the stifness/tightness in muscles after exercising. Anyway it seems to not have any affect on my cycling so warm ups now kept to a minimum.

Divided on this..

I've had some good races on 30 seconds of warmup, but the first 5-10 mins have always been a shock to the legs to points were I could have quite easily given up. If I push past this though they free up.

Were as I know I can perform well with a good 15 min warm up.

So given the choice I'd take a warm up over no warm up, but time keeping is not really my thing 😆

stretching before exercise would only prevent one injury every 23 years

Did the EVR race this morning which was a 2 lap greater london 8 so box hill twice. Had a fellow stw resident in the race as well so we were in the lead group till box hill. There is definately a huge gulf in class between a cat b like me and the cat a riders, they went up box hill in just over 6 min whereas i tore my lungs outs and spat my guts out to get up in 7 mins dead. I coasted all the way down the hill on both laps as i was shot. Anyway i ended up 8th overall but got another cat B win which i think is the second in a week.
I also decided i need a bigger fan and to put it in front of me rather than the side as my face doesnt get the cooling affect as much so gonna jig things around to see if it doable.

That's awesome, well done! Yeah, as a big guy, Zwift flatters me in the Flat races v A's but they leave me for dead up every decent climb.
As would you with a 7 min Box Hill 😆

Crosshair i reckon its the same for me too, my zwift results look good but in the real world i am a pretty slow rider. I did a sportive last month and i had all manner of ages and sizes passing me i dont seem to have a terrain that i am good at.

I think it's the drag coefficient part of the formula. It assumes (I think) that you ride in a pretty darn good aero position- which I don't!
I'm 85kg but not really a cyclists build. My shoulders are huge. (Although to be fair, my Avatar looks like the Hulk compared to many 😉 )
So generally I'm going a couple of mph slower for the same Watts outdoors even measured on the same PM.

Lots more drafting on Zwift too of course 😉

I think I've said it before but I find the drafting very realistic these days. Bunch speeds in real v Zwift races are similar now. It's only the zero cadence in the corners they're going to struggle to ever replicate I think.

Yeah there is no way i am that aero as i am quite broad shouldered. I could do with weighing myself as i havent for 6 years and that was when i had just spent a year on crutches. I have guessed my weight on zwift but i reckon i could be closer to 85kg than 79kg. I reckon i could lose a few kg's so gonna get my food intake cleaned up and see what difference that makes. My new target is to finish a race with an avg over 4 w/kg.

6 years?! Bloody hell.

I'm weighing myself every other day - particularly if I'm going out on long rides (help with fluids afterwards).

Also calorie counting so I don't keep losing weight, trying to maintain 70kg but seem to be losing the battle a little bit..

Did the EVR race this morning which was a 2 lap greater london 8 so box hill twice. Had a fellow stw resident in the race as well so we were in the lead group till box hill.

Zwift flatters me in the Flat races v A's but they leave me for dead up every decent climb.

Nathb - what can you possibly learn from weighing yourself everyday, surely you would only assume that fluctations in weight will be down to fluid and that could mask muscle wastage? Do certain shops still have weighing scale machines in them?
6 years ago i was going in for the fourth and final op on my knee so was weighed in preparation and i was 92kgs! Not a great weight when you are only 5ft 9 but i had spent the previous 11 months unable to walk so no great surprise. I shall weigh myself and report back and update zwift accordingly.
EEMY - good to ride with you, i think we were the only brits in that race. Not sure when we dropped you but i only lasted about a minute up box hill with that group.

I'm actually looking forward to next week and to getting back into Zwifting. I have been off it for the best part of a month by the time i will get back... I may need a new profile though as my race performances will be well down and don't want to lower my ranking 😉

Gonna do the aussie crit race at 10am, this is the only race that i cant make the lead group. The guys in that go fast at the start and only settle down long after my legs are shot which is about midway through the second lap of 7.
This time i am gonna concentrate on my power output and actually ignore the race completely.

Weeksy that might be a shock to the system that first race back.

I'm not very good at drinking fluids after a long cycle, so by weighing myself after breakfast and then once back after lunch I can force myself to drink fluids to get me back up to weight.

E.g. I weighed 69.5kg before setting off and 67.5kg after lunch so I poured out 2l of water to drink over the next hour or so.

But also at, what I deem to be, a silly amount of training (15hrs/250-300miles per week) I've really got to be careful that I don't lose.

Nathb that makes sense, particularly given the mileage you are turning out. Do you ever stop eating though as after a fasted zwift session of only 25 miles i am ready to eat a small planet followed by a larger planet and an hour after that a planet made entirely of pudding.

Crit race was incredibly fast, i was with the front group for less than 2 minutes! They flew out of the blocks and didnt slow down at all for the 2 minutes that i saw, it was 5 w/kg and above for the first long lap. It must have been a helluva finish as 21 riders finished within 4.5 seconds of each other. Cat B winner finished within 3.5 seconds of the winner which doesnt seem right. I was 8th in cat b after a bunch sprint which was good fun.

I'm not very good at drinking fluids after a long cycle, so by weighing myself after breakfast and then once back after lunch I can force myself to drink fluids to get me back up to weight.

E.g. I weighed 69.5kg before setting off and 67.5kg after lunch so I poured out 2l of water to drink over the next hour or so.

But also at, what I deem to be, a silly amount of training (15hrs/250-300miles per week) I've really got to be careful that I don't lose.

From what you've posted, you're also not very good at drinking ON the bike, not just after. Even a midget like me that doesn't sweat unless weather cooking gets through 500ml/hr on the bike. On the hot TDF stage the other day they had someone on that was saying the riders would be drinking 1L/hr.

And yes, over around 10hrs a week eating starts to become like a second job, and only gets worse the more you do. You're probably burning very close to 10,000kcal per week on the bike, which means you need to eat 11 days worth of food every 7 days.

Do i need a hr monitor to do the ftp test on zwift? Still looking at buying a cheapo sunding bluetooth hr chest strap from fleabay but i just cant find out whether it will be picked up by zwift or whether they only work with certain apps.

From what you've posted, you're also not very good at drinking ON the bike, not just after

I'm rubbish at remembering to drink outdoors on the bike. Have my Garmin set for 5 mile auto laps so goes off every 15 mins or so so just use it as a reminder to take a drink.

First proper Zwift session for a while today, a long block of high tempo. Had forgotten how unpleasant a soaked chamois is 😐

Edit... just seen a tweet from Cav saying he's about to Zwift as part of his rehab. Anyone spotted him yet?

Just seen Nath's post on another thread. Anyone else having trouble with the turbo control cutting out when using Zwift? Looks like much the same thing happened to me and Nath, about halfway through a session the turbo control cuts out and just leaves it in some default setting and doesn't come back. Not used Zwift for a while, been an update recently?

There was an update when I started it today, PC version.

Cav had a go on it today. I hope he won the sprints.

A slight off topic, but seems an appropriate place to ask it.

My Dad is interested in getting a new trainer (smart/direct drive/electro brake). I'm pretty clear on how that interacts with various apps etc to control the resistance, but what if you want to control resistance manually?

For example if you want to simulate a 8% slope on an old 'dumb' training video?

Change into a harder gear.

That's no different to a fluid trainer though and doesn't make use of the electro brake.
One of his reasons for changing is he's not getting enough resistance for 60rpm intervals in 50/11, so being able to simulate a gradient would be a massive improvement for this type of interval.

Yeah that was bloody painful trying to maintain the required watts meant I was spinning at c.105 rpm.

It worked for the last few minutes though, it's like it decided it was too much of an effort to offer resistance against the higher numbers 😆

Hoping to jump back on Zwift this evening, it's been a while since i've done any, so not sure if i'll enter a race or do a social ride yet, there's a PACK 2.0 ride at 7pm which would suit, but there's Europe race at 8pm which would either kill or cure me 🙂

Either way, i think it may e painful !

Back from holiday and 12 non riding days, so tried a few races in the last couple of days. Power is down a bit, but fields are even smaller now, no groups to hide in when there is less than 20 in the whole event. Outdoors tonight for a TT, hopefully the wind drops before 7 then back on Zxwift again tomorrow for more training/racing.

Haven't been on Zwift for a while but might try the Kiss race at 8pm if I can get the kids down in time. Wife's away for a couple of days with work so can't get out on the road. Good opportunity to get back on Zwift.

I'll be in C Mr Blitz.

I did a wbr race on saturday and finished 8th in what was a very fast race (ended with 3.78w/kg and 314w) i then checked the whole weekends worth of the same race (its repeated throughout the days) and if i had entered any of the other wbr race i would have won by over 2 minutes! I picked the only race with fast cat A riders in it!

Awww nightmare mate.

I'm a little scared about tonight!

massivwe bunch!

Had a mare. Got the kids down with 10 mins to spare. Signed up for Cat C, got the bike on the turbo, grabbed some water.....1 minute to go jumped on the bike and start peddling, only to find I haven't attached the bloody cadence sensor back on to the chainstay! Missed the start and couldn't be arsed to do pootle round. The house is a mess so my exercise is now a bit of tidying up instead. At least the bike is on there and set up now so hopefully get on tomorrow instead! Good luck Weeksy!

Oh my word ! That was such a laugh ! I felt great, which condsidering i couldn't walk on Sunday, i'm quite shocked at.

Was a group of 25+ C riders, so i kept doing a countdown and trying to break the bunch ! hard hard hard 2 mins.... then a bit off.... i got a 9s lead at one stage but no way i could hold on alone so eased back, rested up, went again, then again.... We grabbed and tagged a few Bs, it was then down to 18 or so... On the last kicker a few lads went for it... i grabbed a wheel and hung on... 400m to go i went all in ! pulled a few in but lost a few over the last 100m.

Way the most fun race on Zwift i've had.

I even got a new FTP from it of 301 ! Awesome fun !

Oh poop !

Exceeded limits... Upgrade !

Well done Weeksy. Unlucky with the DQ

I'm well happy to be bumped 🙂 new FTP and a bump, awesome !

My TT was cancelled due to high winds, and I just managed to get back in time for the Kiss A race. Stayed with the lead group for two laps, but the lack of warm up or fitness showed and I rode most of the remaining laps solo.

Weeksy, well done on joining the B's.

I just got me an upgrade (replacement)

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I'll be doing some races next week after an FTP on Saturday.

Too windy outside so i'm going to jump on a WBR 4 lap flat at 10.05am today. As much as CH isn't convinced the racing is the best plan for training, i enjoy it and in particular today for example, it would likely be the difference between me exercising or not.

WBR Races are a bit screwy as they're non-cat and they seem to randomly put you in the cats based upon your performance.

Will be leaving the B in my name though now anyway, all or nothing. ! I fully expect to be last or so in B.

How was the WBR race? Would have joined in but could not get sorted in time, so did the ZHR race and finished 3rd. Still feeling tired from earlier in the the week, my average HR was 50 lower than the two that beat me. Trying to TT outdoors again tomorrow, but dual carriageways in the wet are not my favourite way of spending Saturday afternoons.

6th out of 9 in B. (I'd have won C).

It was a bit of a lonely race in honesty. But i suspected as much. First 2 laps there was 2 then 3 of us, but i couldn't stay with them so was dropped, they ended up 52s ahead of me at the end. The last 2 laps were me hanging in to stay ahead of the other B's who were behind and working together and closing, but i managed it. For some reason the circuit was exceptionally quiet. In fact i'm not sure i saw ANY other riders... Is it changed recently so in a race you only see the guys you're racing ?

Performance wasn't quite up to earlier this week... but i'm happy enough.

One of the recent changes in Zwift is that in a race you only see riders in your race, but non racers can see you race and sit on your wheel but you will never know about it. Drafting non racers or other races is no longer possible.

Oh, i see.... I'm not sure i like that, especially as i was sitting there at times thinking "Hell, i could do with a draft right now"

But no, obviously i didn't get one at all.

Good change IMO

So i tried the ftp test today, probably not the best idea after a left over chinese takeaway breakfast. Never done one before and i was a little put off when i struggled to reach the required 380 watts. There was no resistance on the trainer so i was in top gear spinning at 125rpm which was just crazy. Did i do something wrong or is this normal? Anyway did the 20 minute session at the end and i reckon i paced it just right as i was spent by the end. Anyway it turns out my ftp is 310w, i have no idea what this equates to in the real world but is that about right for a dribbling middle aged man in his mid forties?

Weeksy- I think Zwift racing is a great workout. It's just not the way to train at getting faster at Zwift races 😉

....unless you race to blow up which you won't because of your rankings.

So Zwift-race away to your hearts content but don't wonder why improvements plateau 🙂

Well done Blader! 310 is great.

Thanks Crosshair, I reckon i could increase that by a few watts now that i know what to expect plus be better prepared for it but i reckon its pretty much a best effort from me. At least i now have some sort of base to go off. Is it possible from this test to calculate my zones or is that more a HR thing?

There was no resistance on the trainer so i was in top gear spinning at 125rpm which was just crazy. Did i do something wrong or is this normal?

310 is better than me (as a dribbling 52yr old) but weight also matters a lot when you evaluate results. I'm 78kg or so and ran 295 as my best (of 2 proper) test, so 310w for a 20 min test. I also found the zwift method unsettling as it made me ride really hard in the warm-up but it seems there's good reason for that and if you know it's coming then it's not so bad

(missed the important bit):
I expect you've got more than that, judging by your results compared to mine - unless you're quite a lot lighter

Scaredypants - trainer was set up in normal fashion in fact i have never changed the set up since day one. It did seem odd to have to spin it so fast, rather throw me off till i got used to it. The actual 20 min test had plenty of resistance so i assume the warm up was meant to be non restistant. I reckon i am about 80kg so not far off you.
I might try another test in a months time and see if anything is different.

Cracking battle of STW today in the P race, I gave my all but he had me in the last 1500m and stuffed me. I tried 6 small attacks during the race to thin the bunch out, only managed to drop 1 though. I then had to chase back on twice after a split, but at the end I had nothing!

Win and 4th for Stw
https://www.zwiftpower.com/race.php?id=9870

Long race, hence me racing C

Weeksy, I was trying to get a small break towards the end of lap 2, but no one seemed to want to go with it. It was a good race though. Thoroughly enjoyed it - makes it all the sweeter that I also seem to have won now that a few people have been bumped from the results.

2 of us came with you, but no sooner did we pull 3s then the pack closed it.

Was fun for sure, good bunch all working like lunatics.

Congratulations on the well deserved win!

Hooray!! After a bit of luck with a random 4.0w/kg guy passing me a couple of miles out, I jumped in his draft for a lead out, attacked the mall sprint and got my first ever jersey 🙂

It was at the end of an hour long workout too so a really good race sim too.

Tried my first FTP test, safe to say it's not as impressive as blader's.

Managed a 161 watts at 69Kg. So 2.3 w/kg give or take, the only way is up eh? 😆

It won't take long 😉

I think I was around 2.4 when I started on Zwift.

I want to write a nice meaty article/blog post called "Cat D to Cat 3" but I need to score 12 BC points before I can do that 😆

Why can't I turn off that silly motion blurring?!

It's so annoying, hurts my eyes...

I'm talking about this:
[img] [/img]

I'm going to be venturing out on Zwift in the morning as the weather forecast looks dire! Anyone doing the WBR race at 10:05??

I quite like it 😆

Wondered about it, forecast looks good here, so may go outside.

AFAIK you can't turn off the motion blur on intervals, agree I'm not a fan.

I don't like the blurring, very clever that Zwift can do it but it goes on for too long, and too often on bad turbo days.

Probably doing the 8:20 race tomorrow, but if I don't wake up in time 10:05 is the next choice.

Is the blurring only on the workouts? I have only seen it once and that was on yesterdays ftp test, at first i thought it was my internet connection until i realised it was an effect.

Yeah just on workouts.

[b]Victory!!![/b]

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Well happy with that, only had 30 secs warmup and my legs didn't really wake up to full cadence (spent most the race grinding at low cadence).

Felt very much like a real race, just sitting on tick over with a few digs. Then the last couple of KM a bit quicker with a sprint finish:

[img] [/img]

Good man! Top performance!