Zwift, my journey, my weight and my fitness.

Roads and circuits ain't much friendlier 😆

LOL you're one of them !

Signed back up as the nights are closing in, what have I missed since March? 😀

Turns out riding proper bikes and trails over summer has fattened me up and slowed me down. Starting from the beginning all over again 🙄

Just got the Snap, quick question before I read this whole thread in next couple of days, on Zwift, the rear brake has no function?

I only ask as Im going to get a spare wheel/ tyre just for the Turbo/ Zwift and want to know whether I need a hub I can actually fit a 6 bolt rotor on.... or just a cheap/ rim brake wheel as I wont need the brake??

Thanks guys!

Looking forward to Zwifting!!

No brakes necessary. I took the brakes off of the mtb I was using as there was just a tiny bit of rub on the rear disc, and when you are struggling to keep the power up on a workout or hold on to the group in a race, really messes with your head

Can someone tell me why they bother having categorys on zwift when most of the time nobody seems to be dq'd for exceeding the limit? I am not sure if i have the limits right or i am missing some key info but the link below shows all riders above me in cat B busted the limit yet they remain

[url= http://www.zwiftpower.com/race.php?id=11735 ]Zwift power link[/url]

muggomagic - Member
No brakes necessary. I took the brakes off of the mtb I was using as there was just a tiny bit of rub on the rear disc, and when you are struggling to keep the power up on a workout or hold on to the group in a race, really messes with your head

Thanks bud and what you said makes sense too!

Woo, new PB up Fox Hill!!

[img] [/img]

https://www.strava.com/segments/12744396?

On the TT bike ha.

What does that symbol next to the mobile symbol mean??

Chapeau Nath!

Think it means you're fast AF 😉

Have you signed up for Zwift Acadamy? I thought it meant that.

Great time too 🙂

Tonight was my first proper zwift ride in 6 months, I'm 7kg heavier than then and my FTP is certainly not 260 anymore (considering I was aiming for 300 by end of summer it really has gone wrong). Anyway it was horrible but I stuck it out and will be the silver lining us improvements should come quicker from this low point.

Yeah I did sign up, but I'm too old so I lost interest 😆

Can someone tell me why they bother having categorys on zwift when most of the time nobody seems to be dq'd for exceeding the limit? I am not sure if i have the limits right or i am missing some key info but the link below shows all riders above me in cat B busted the limit yet they remain

It is frustrating when you get that one. "Exceeeded catagory limits but the result has been configured to allow it to stand"

ARRGHHHH. FFS, if you're over you're over ! I think it depends who it's with.

ZP still needs some work of course, the 'Zwift' races are often quirky but you'd think they if anyone should be OK.. but then Zwift says they're nothing to do with them.

I worried a bit more about the actual ZP results and Zwiftrankings once upon a time, but at the moment, i am just racing to the best of my ability on a given day, what the result is, i don't much care. I just hope/try to hold onto the fastest Cs i can for as long as i can.

cheers_drive - Member
Tonight was my first proper zwift ride in 6 months, I'm 7kg heavier than then and my FTP is certainly not 260 anymore (considering I was aiming for 300 by end of summer it really has gone wrong). Anyway it was horrible but I stuck it out and will be the silver lining us improvements should come quicker from this low point.

Nice work. Getting back into it is proper tough, even after 3-4 weeks, let alone 6 months.... It's a question of getting your body used to going hard hard hard for that long again, that's the killer bit for me.

SZR Autumn for me tonight at 6pm i think. Course isn't really ideal for me being the UCI Worlds which i think has a decent hill in it ! However, it's about the biggest field of the day, so will at the very least be a decent workout and fairly entertaining at the same time 🙂

Wow, its like the good old days of winter, 130+ in the race with 44 in C! Great stuff.

Weeksy - the numbers have definately gone up of late, i guess the seasonal change in weather over here has helped, lot more brit riders certainly.
The cat limit issue does bug me somewhat particularly as i turned myself inside out in that last race. I dont race for the win anymore i just see it as a nice bonus if i podium, i am generally just racing myself for better times/performance and i look at the screen a lot less these days. The race the other day was one of my best statistically in terms of watts and w/kg and for 3.5 laps out of the 5 i was solo, i didnt once look at the screen for nearly 2 laps,really focused the mind to push hard ( i was a horrible sweaty nausous mess mind you).

going to do the TT at 7.10 I hope - offspring permitting

1st "event" for months. I'm guessing it'll hurt

Eeeew, nearly puked.

Got off bike and legs almost gave way!

Got a new max hr of 182!

Cheesecake time now.

What race were you in weeksy?

I seem to have been DQ for not riding a TT bike - except I bloody did and about 3/4 of the field similarly bumped!!

Is that likely to reset?

Only thing that I did "wrong" was changed bike back again after finishing the race. Is that enough to get me chucked off?

(seem to have kept some decent form though - pretty much matched my best ever 20 min power, if that stays the same on the results)

Szr 6pm race. 2 laps UCI worlds

is that the ded hilly one? I bloody hate that course

I love Richmond! I hate the final climb but it's nostalgic from my early Zwift racing days of two years ago 🙂

The first climb is all about momentum on that steep bend, the second is just a sprint but that last f****r just drags on and on 😆

Reminds me of this too 🙂

They all drag on and on at my weight and power

Was on Parkwood tonight, not sure how much that affects me out there.

Your race was ZCL'd tonight Weeksy too 🙂
I didn't watch it so not sure if you got a mention 😉

When Nathan used to hang around until the bitter end of races watching everyone home, I used to look forward to watching the replay of my finish until I realised how slow I looked compared to the A race 😆

I wasn't really in a position at any stage to be worthy of a mention. Hanging in or hanging on.

6.30pm big race tonight. Flat course and riding the Isaac, so hoping for better than the -10 points I managed last night, not sure how good the zwiftrankings algorithm thinks I am!

Good luck Weeksy, drop a watt bomb on them all.

Was that the pack race weeksy?

I joined you all on the TT bike, don't think you noticed lol

ZTR Nath.

[QUOTE=Crosshair;2754990]Looks to be 4th C at the moment.

My old nemesis from the TFC series is racing. Had some great battles with S.Vatle 🙂

Ended up in what transpired to be the lead C bunch for about 2.3 laps, on the small hill just before village me and 1 other got dropped and had to pin it to get back from 5s gap. I pulled the last 3s back and we hung on for another 1km, then I went pop. Lost the tow and blew out the back.
Overtraining, under energy from fasting day, who knows, but I plodded the last 5km alone, trying to chase a guy down who'd gone pip too, but I was history.
13th out of 33 I think, but as always I gave everything I had. I've stopped caring about results at the moment, its more about training and weight

Well, just got around to being able to ride a few miles on Zwift. The hilly track.

Did about 6 miles then logged off and did another 7.

Erm.... Didn't mean to ride even that far but got confused as the "end" of the 5.7miles or whatever it is never seems to appear.

My video game mentality had me expecting a cheering crowd at the end of the lap or something! lol

Hence Ikept on riding.... all the while trying to figure out why I never got to the "end"!! 😀

Not got the fan in here yet and I dont think I have ever sweated so much in my life. Being spot on 18 stone currently doesnt help.

All in all, an enjoyable experience, trying to learn how to draft and figure out what all the icons etc mean. Certainly gived the legs a good going over, found it hard to get off the bike at the end.lol

My avewrage watts is about 180 I think so if I divide that by my weight in kg I get my power per kg weight I assume?

About 1.57W/kg.... not good I assume. 🙁

Still, only way is up!

You definitely need at least one fan and a sweat towel. It’s hard work at first, but I really noticed the difference even after as little as a week (around 4 x 1 hour long sessions) when I got out on my MTB. I was powering up climbs that I would just drop down a few gears and spin up.
If you look through the workouts you’ll see the ftp test. Worth doing one early as a benchmark to measure your improvement against.
I find the workouts quite enjoyable as you have to push yourself but even when just riding I will try and catch or gap the people around me.

A question for those that are race regulars.
I struggle to do the races as I tend to just jump on it when I have a spare hour. Would you say that the races provide you with a better workout than the set workouts? I’m wondering if it’s worth making a concerted effort to do at least one race a week this winter?

If you're looking for a workout I'd look at the structured plans. The 4 Week FTP Booster has been good for me so far, but it depends on what you're ultimate goal is. Using ERG mode allows it to be controlled. I'm going on in the next 10-15 minutes for a couple of hours whilst the house is asleep and the weather outside is duff! Had enough rain riding to work this week. There's no harm in doing 1 race a week, although like you it's finding the spare hour with a race at the right time, particularly after the littlun has gone to bed.

If you're on shortly look up BMBO STW and join me if you fancy, although I'll likely be in ERG mode!

I can’t get on this morning, but I’ve followed you.
Through the summer I’ve mainly been using zwift for recovery type rides as I’m out on my mtb 3 times a week anyway. During the winter I tend to drop that to 1 or 2 mtb rides per week so was thinking that should make the effort to do one race a week. I find the builder type workouts inconvenient to follow as I don’t use zwift often enough to follow them. So tend to do stuff like Jon’s mix etc.

Racing's good if you're a lazy bastard like me - Above 5 minutes or so, my effort's always higher in a race and, since I'm not on a structured plan (like you, access is sporadic), that's good enough for me

It's also quite good fun, or at least it's more "immersive" 🙄

I struggle to do the races as I tend to just jump on it when I have a spare hour. Would you say that the races provide you with a better workout than the set workouts? I’m wondering if it’s worth making a concerted effort to do at least one race a week this winter?

It's very rare I do anything other than race, I can't get the mindset for structure or z1/2 etc, so for me, it's all or nothing. Some weeks I will race 6 days in a week, more than likely hindering my results and performance, but I enjoy the racing, chasing, trying to hang on etc.

Still, only way is up!

Loads of us were struggling at sub 2.0 on week 1. Just how it is mate. Now, I'm just under 3.0 you'll get there if you stick with it.

weeksy - Member
Some weeks I will race 6 days in a week; [b]some weeks I will race 6 times a day[/b]

My thoughts on racing are:
- it is great but not when you have the cold
- You can soon become obsessed with your cycle ranking (which isn't good)
- always start fast and try and hang on for as long as possible
- tuck into the bunch
- sometimes a long sprint at the end can catch everyone out

Ok, sounds good. Are there any races that are worth making the effort for or are they all much the same?
Based on my current w/kg I’m between cat c and d is it worth starting at D to see how it goes or just go straight in at C and hang on?

Pick a big one - KISS or something, earlyish evening (the phone app shows you entry numbers, so take a look an hour or two in advance). You can enter using the app and then just start riding a little while beofre the race starts - you'll be offered a button to go to the race but if you do you just sit on a turbo on the line so I'd ignore it and wait for it to move you over automatically)

I'd start at D and see how you go - at the worst you'll be upgraded

Go for C, start hard and hang on for as long as you can.

Is it still the case in KISS races that most of the top half of the leaderboard get DQ’d or upgraded?

Is it still the case in KISS races that most of the top half of the leaderboard get DQ’d or upgraded?

Welcome to Zwift!

Thoughts on the new mini map?
[img] [/img]

Thoughts on the new mini map?

It may, I'll have a proper look when I pop out on it in a bit.

I think it looks really out of place, like a true afterthought, needs to be blended in 😆

It looks a bit odd. It's not on the ipad, which I've switched to since going back. It was just getting to warm in the house and I'm relatively undisturbed in the garage and can have the music blasting out! Just dinged level 20 after doing the Long SST on three sisters, although I'm a bit pissed off that I missed out on half a star on the first over/under for stopping for 20 seconds to tighten the back wheel up, it's a 30 minute segment ffs!

I find that the structured daily plans (at an hour each are relatively easy to fit in), have really improved certain areas of my riding (well anything involving power, definitely not improved my handling!).

It is on the iPad. I had an update this morning and it’s there now.

needs to show the hills

It does show the elevation profile at the bottom of the mini map and where you are.

It is on the iPad. I had an update this morning and it’s there now.

Will have to update then 🙂

Yeah my screenshot is from the iPad 🙂

Just got KOM on the first hill of the Hilly Route and lap record - got slightly carried away and now knackered for the other 3 laps I had planned 😆

Hopefully going to start racing again next week - it's been a while!!

Good work. I get excited when I’m the fastest on a sprint on course until I realise that everyone else was just warming up and get to see it tumble further and further down the leaderboard.

I did a race yesterday and i stayed top of the sprint board right to the end of the race when i realised it was only for my category of which there were only 7 of us so a hollow victory.

Arrrggghhhhhh. Stupid sodding thing!

Did Zwift race at 1.30 I think it was. C cat, all going well for 15 mins, we had 1 guy who's jumped on with B group who was 13s ahead, but we were pulling him in as he lost draft, strong thing.
Next thing you know, I'd lost 2s on the group of 6, wtf. So pinned it and got back on, going ok, then I had hangs in power again, so even if I eased off, it was showing say 320w for 5-10s, great when it works in your favour, but hit the kick out of the glass tube and wham, 200w, damn! Hit the power, still 200w, the bunch blew me away and I was in no man's land.
Carried on but the thing was playing up constantly.

Last time I contacted wahoo they told me about a firmware upgrade in beta to try, so I tried that, went into Zwift and resistance was all over the place, in, out, easy, hard, just bouncing about.
Tried in wahoo fitness app and that was just as bad.

Sigh

Could the update to zwift released today have anything to do with it?

Don't think so, I've been having minor issues for 3 weeks now, but thought it was ok at last

Emailed wiggle now as getting a little frustrated in a way with Wahoo, I email and due to timezones etc don't get a reply until day after, then another mail with delay, then it works ok, then repeat until I scream.

I tried to do the P-race today at 3pm. Logged in fine, but no one else on the island. Just tried again and the same - so hopefully there is something up with the latest update as t'interweb and wifi seem to be fine.

Weeksy, I had great results with the live chat.
Really helpful and replaced without delay. (Once I'd realised it was not a software or Zwift issue).

Muggomagic
If you look through the workouts you’ll see the ftp test. Worth doing one early as a benchmark to measure your improvement against

Thanks, didn't know about that, will do that today, good tip!

Can I ask anyone on here, if I say sign up to an event:

1) Will I automatically be shifted to the start line if I happen to just be out riding somewhere on the map?

2) also will I automatically be "steered" to follow the route the race is on so I don't have to choose directions at intersections during it?

Sorry for daft questions but thanks for help!

(Reading through this thread a few pages at a time as and when I can to play catchup.)

Yes and Yes to both. A 'Join Event' box will be on your screen, but if you ignore it and go for a ride it'll automatically take you to the start line about 4min 30secs before the start. And in a race you can only follow the race route, so no need to worry about going the wrong way.

Fantastic, thanks!

OK just did the shorter FTP Tester. Averaged 1.724 (avg watts 197 / 114kg... right way to work it out I guess?)

Anyway, got a baseline now! 🙂

Couple more noob Q's:

1) Noticed no resistance (gradient change) during the Test even though its shown on screen.... guess that's correct for this type of test?

2)Watts dropped out quite a few times on the PC (Kickr Snap)though not on the Android mobile on BT... guessing I just need to get a USB extender lead and place it near the Snap?

3) Lastly.... if I enter a race which has all cats in it and (obviously) enter as a cat D will I find that the ride breaks off into groups of riders, by cat type, to a degree anyway. I mean, i wont be left totally on my tod... Im likely ro be with some other cat D riders I can try and mix it up a bit with? Sorry for dumb questions again!

Yes the resistance won’t change on the ftp test. You just have to go as hard as you can for 20 minutes. When doing the workouts the resistance is governed by the zone you are in on the workout not the course. You’ll just notice that your speed changes.
Not sure about the dropout as I use my iPad connected via Bluetooth.
I’ve only entered 1 race before (around January when I first got it) and just tried to stay with the group for as long as possible. Noticed a few people had updated their name with the race and category so just kept with them but never finished it as my WiFi cut out (thanks Virgin media) and haven’t tried again since.

@Weeksy

I had issues with my Kickr - it was set as a smart trainer on Zwift, but once warmed up would lose all resistance, then get really hard, really easy, then almost lock up. Tried all the checks, beta firmware etc but I was 99% sure it needed a new top cap (the bit with all the electronics in).

After a couple of weeks of back and forth emails a new top cap was sent.. and hey ho, it's been fine since.

Poopscoop - you will all start together and the start ALWAYS is a sprint so go as fast as you can for about 30 secs. The race will settle down and it is then up to you to stay with other people around you or catch up people in front of you. Some races you will be in a group and some days you might have to solo, it depends on who is racing.

Thanks been

Put firmware back to previous version, ran an advanced spindown and it worked lovely.

No races that appealed so jumped on a social ride, but got a bit bored I must admit and bailed after 1/2 way.

Not sure what the answer is now lol

Thanks all for the continued help!

Is drafting a bit of an art? I tend to lag a bit. Drop out of draft, floor it, then overtake the lesson I was going to draft.lol 🙂

[/b]weeksy[b] have you got the Snap, or the Kickr?

I'm damned if I can find Advanced Spindown on the Snap. Online it says the app will prompt me to do it when it's needed but I would like to do it as and when I want to, too! 😀
Using the apps on an Android.

Thanks for info mate.

First session back on last night. Bit depressing really.

Watopia hasn’t changed much, has London?

A bit. But its all just pedalling.

Used my kurt kinetic last night which made me realise how flimsy my tacx flow smart is in comparison.

Didn’t really miss the smart control either so I think I’m going to stick with the kurt and sell the tacx.

What dont you like about the tacx flow Jambo?

It’s not bad, just built to a budget.

Whereas my kurt is built like a tank.

Did my first ever race yesterday as part of the zwift academy necessary two races. Ended up getting bumped up from B category to A which lost me my second place spot but meant I came 10th out of 60. Happy enough for a first race but felt I could of gone up one or two places but just as I was starting to think 'the end line' the commentator started saying we're now approaching the last lap banner and I thought crap I cant push any harder and then do another lap so i stayed at the current pace and then as I crossed the line he started saying 'oh my apologies', the swine!!

Thats a good result golfchick,well done. Also congrats on getting a bump to cat a, thats the stuff of dreams for many of us on this thread!

Awesome result! Well done.

Quick Q,

So as the seconds count down to the start of a race I should be sprinting hard?

Not entered a race yet, nervous stupidly! Lol

I generally ramp up to around your FTP type power for the last 30seconds and then start to sprint at about 8 seconds. I don't want to burn too big of a match so it's not a 100% sprint but more of a 75% one.
Then blip just enough power to hold where you want to be. About 10 riders back works well as you are forward enough to follow the moves but still getting a good draft. Then hold on tight for the next 2-5 minutes 😆

Poop,

Don't forget that a lot of races now you'll go off with all groups together, so if you're a C and go hard you'll fight with As etc, so don't get disheartened if you can't hang with them. Just solt into next group when they catch you.

I was having a debate today between a day out on KTM or a day on the Whyte. As long as its not too cold when I go outside for school drop off, its going to be a KTM day.
That will mean I'm taking the 8pm kiss second base at 8pm. Its one of my favourite races usually as it gets decent fields and the Cs are mostly Cs, so is a good race and battle.

Thanks for the helps guys.

I am gradually reading through this thread from the start, honest!

I'll be a definite cat D at the moment with 1.7w/kg or there abouts. Once I've done my first race I'll be a lot less nervous I'm sure.

Got a USB extension arriving today as the Snap keeps on dropping out over Ant+. Pretty common I think?