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my opinion, to be a better 'all round' rider you need to do all sorts of stuff. When i trained to solo the Gorrick 12 I did lots of long rides at a calculated HR below my 'threshold' so as long as I kept fuelling, i could ride almost for ever. But I couldn't keep up on an average saturday ride when the hammer went down on a hill or a bit of ST because I wasn't doing any 'power' work. I got good at the one thing I was practising.
By mixing up longer rides at 'easy' effort, with power based work then you'll increase the power you can put out at a certain effort level so you'll be faster naturally, but also get used to doing the longer efforts where metering effort and fuelling is more important.
And get a singlespeed. Just because 😉
And get a singlespeed. Just because
I love the looks and simplicity of SS's mate... but just don't think i'm strong/good enough for an SS bike.
but just don't think i'm strong/good enough for an SS bike
clearly bollix...... I can ride one!
Trip to Swinley? Have a lap on mine. Wouldn't be my weapon of choice for a long day out in the hills but for 90 mins around somewhere like Swinley it's great.
And it will make you faster even without the pedalling; did you read http://singletrackworld.com/columns/2017/02/drag-acts-and-singlespeeds/ - I think I said to you it forces you to carry speed better and also attack little rises rather than gear down and stall.
@CH - yes on Zwift I have to work a lot harder on the flats and downhill sections lol. It's funny as on most the races on watopia everyone is pretty much together right until exiting the fish tank. Sounds like you had an epic ride though! Now you've raced in A you can't go back to B!!
Might start doing some more races from Monday, been a bit of a poor show from me recently as I've been concentrating on training instead.
@Nath- yes I can, I checked first 😉 😀
You only can't go back once you've had an ftp/kg over cat. boundaries 🙂
Apart from the lack of coasting through corners, it's a pretty close match to IRL I'd say.
Ha - another puncture last night. This is getting silly. 😳
I've had more punctures on the turbo trainer in the last month & a bit, than I have in total since getting a road bike a few years ago. Quite ridiculous!!
Got into the garage & the tyre was pretty flat, but still a decent amount of air in it, so I figured if I pump it back up it might last a short session.
Planned on doing 5 min warm up & then just bashing out a hard 40 mins because I was late home from work. Got to about 37mins hard effort before the tyre started slipping.
I imagine my power readings on Zwift were progressively going out of 'true' but wasn't so bothered about that.
Need to get to the bottom of this puncture thing, but just don't have the time without sacrificing something else....got no new tubes in the house & don't even think I have any patches that I trust to use...
Might have to ram raid Halfords on the way home....
I've also had two punctures in the past 3 or 4 weeks. None on the road for over a year. I use a Vittoria red turbo specific tyre. Reading around, it seems it might be a combination of too high a pressure (over 100 psi), a rougher internal face of the tyre compared to a decent quality road tyre and friction. I calibrated the pressure on the wheel using the Tacx app (when it actually works). Will check the pressure, the tyre for rough edges (again) and shove some talc in there as well.
Any other ideas?
Anyone racing Si Richardson from GCN live on You Tube?
I watched half an hour on their YouTube stream last night. He got popped by the lead group about half way around having raced around or above his FTP (of 340 I think). He was surprised how competitive it was. Having said that he rode off the front a few times and didn't draft very well. He needs to watch CH I think.
Matt Stephens' commentary was ace although not sure if just unhinged or quite pissed.
Getting quite frustrated with Zwiftpower, I really wish they'd make their own race tracking. I'm sure they're raking in enough money now to fund a proper dev team.
[quote=Toasty ]Getting quite frustrated with Zwiftpower, I really wish they'd make their own race tracking. I'm sure they're raking in enough money now to fund a proper dev team.
do you think zwiftpower make money?
http://www.titaniumgeek.com/cycling/zwiftpower-the-coding-behind-zwift-community-racing/
ptun74 - MemberI've also had two punctures in the past 3 or 4 weeks. None on the road for over a year. I use a Vittoria red turbo specific tyre. Reading around, it seems it might be a combination of too high a pressure (over 100 psi), a rougher internal face of the tyre compared to a decent quality road tyre and friction. I calibrated the pressure on the wheel using the Tacx app (when it actually works). Will check the pressure, the tyre for rough edges (again) and shove some talc in there as well.
Ah. See, I'm currently waiting to get the bits together to build up a second bike just for the road & was then planning on getting a proper trainer tyre for the current bike. I thought this might solve some of the problems....there is a lot of grit embedded in my current tyre (I've tried to pick a lot of it out) which could be contributing.
But - it sounds like this might not solve the problem itself.
I did wonder if the pressure was too high, but I think Zwift relies on 100psi on 23C tyres for the calibration of the different trainers to be most accurate.
Talc is a good shout; I'll try adding some to the tyre & might drop the pressure to 90psi and see if it helps.
I did buy a new tyre from my LBS to replace the well used one that is currently on the bike, but I couldn't get it ont to the rim. It's a Michelin Endurance something or other (LBS was selling it for £10, should have been £50). After the tyre levers pinged across the garage for about the 5th time, I gave up 😆
I did one of those short "WBR 1 Flat Lap" races this morning. Legs weren't great as still a bit stiff from last nights race so even for only a 15 minute duration I wasn't able to put out much power - only 253W when I was expecting maybe more like 280W. Ended up 12th out of 20 or so riders. Quite a few Japanese riders in the group who have high W/kg (some 5W/kg or more) but not all that much power which, given it's a flat course, meant I wasn't that far away from some of them despite the huge W/kg difference.
Got my first ever spin class at the gym this evening so need to leave something in the legs for that!
do you think zwiftpower make money?http://www.titaniumgeek.com/cycling/zwiftpower-the-coding-behind-zwift-community-racing/
No, I think Zwift make money and have the functionality to organise races, yet have no ability to tell you who won. It seems bizarre.
Adding their own results just feels like something that would be fairly trivial, given they've recorded the start, end and full race data.
They've got somewhere between about 25k-100k paying users, all paying a pretty hefty monthly premium, direct to Zwift without any publisher. I just don't see why they can't contract a coder for a couple of months to pop out a results page. Why not even just buy Zwiftpower out and integrate it?
Jam bo- I think he meant Zwift are making enough money to develop their own results system.
In my opinion- if you think ZP, KISS, Nathan Guerra, Shane Millar etc etc are doing all of this for the pure love of it still then kudos to you for keeping the faith 😀
From Zwifts point of view:
Customers pay money for your service of supplying a virtual world for them to cycle in and organise [b]events[/b].
You introduce racing, and someone cheats or is using Zpower so you disqualify them.
Now you've got an angry paying customer bombarding you with emails because of said disqualification, and they have been paying for Zwift since it was released and have never been treated like this by a company before, blah blah.
It's a headache they are avoiding for the time being and I don't blame them!
Granted, but the fairly amateurish, haphazard manner in which Zwift has evolved - especially in which you have to faff about looking for results, tells me these are bike fans first and corporate men second. Without this Forum I wouldn't have discovered Zwift as soon or used it as I have. Their website as a first point of contact is poor.
Say a VC bought a stake in Zwift. They'd develop their own results system (which can't be that much of a job, surely?) rather than buy ZP, get runners or rowers on there, expand the number of courses and whack the price up. It's got a hell of a lot of potential in the right hands but I'm sure we'd lose something in that happening, even if it is only paying more money and having busier rides.
Wonder how far away the runners are from getting into production? I've seen a few out and about on the course and DC Rainmaker has beta tested it. It's not clear if they'll support ANT+ foot pods but even if I have to get a bluetooth one it'd not be expensive given I've got a decent treadmill already.
Still waiting for anything like some results from the 7.05pm BRS TT last night... I do wonder at times why i'm bothered or even expecting anything now... it's just rubbish...
the 'live' tells me where i was at the time i guess.. but really.. has to be better to be worthwhile from a results perspective.
It didn't change how hard i tried/rode of course 🙂
Say a VC bought a stake in Zwift.
Thought they already had, didn't they put in another £20 million at the end of last year?
Weeksy- the stock answer for that from race organisers (who are almost all unpaid volunteers/enthusiasts) is "feel free to organise your own series!!"
We should organise a STW MTBers race 🙂
(Kim Little would still win of course 🙁 )
Re BRS TT - Zwiftpower Live is broken at the moment - everything is being fed in manually by Rob via Strava. He's throwing in the towel on organising races - finding it too difficult to manage and please all.
I don't even think it needs a VC to be honest, I just think they need to hire a few coders for a few months.
Yes, people will argue about DQs but I'm sure just as many won't bother racing as it's broken, but get bored of just rolling around by themselves, so quit. DQs only really apply at the top anyway, if people are outside the bracket they need to go up a cat, looking at last nights KISS for example, only 20% of racers are in cat A.
If it was totally solid and offered all the metrics which Zwiftpower offered, showing my improvement over time, I'd be far more into the racing aspect.
We should organise a STW MTBers race
Yes indeed we should....
A flat one yeah 😉
[url= https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/zwift#/entity ]https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/zwift#/entity[/url]
Oof
Wow. Changes afoot then? I think their first question will be how they make Zwift less 'seasonal'. Sure, subs average out as its a global market but I'm sure I'm not alone in that I'll probably suspend my account April/May until winter. I can't see what they could do to get me on the turbo in August.
Wow. Changes afoot then? I think their first question will be how they make Zwift less 'seasonal'. Sure, subs average out as its a global market but I'm sure I'm not alone in that I'll probably suspend my account April/May until winter. I can't see what they could do to get me on the turbo in August.
There are a couple of things they can try - ramping up the racing side of things is one, and enhancing the training programmes is another. I'd tend to agree that in August I'll also mainly be riding outside however I can still see me using Zwift as a training tool.
One thing that is working well at the moment is my race starts:
[img] 
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Would be nice to be able to hold the lead for more than the first 10 feet though!
I can't see what they could do to get me on the turbo in August.
force you to have young kids that keep you in the house of an evening 😉
I think i'll keep mine going. Sometimes in an evening/day it's still not really viable to be heading out in the hills into the mud and slop, even in July.... This country can be wet anytime as we know... Also evenings when i'm at home with my nipper, can't just shoot out... but i can jump on the turbo...
Lastly, there the racing element... the ability to push harder when racing people...
there was a link to an interview that I posted the other day with Eric Min. it seems they (zwift) seem to have finally clocked the innate draw that racing has.
it's what strava worked out over all the myriad of fitness apps and propelled them to where they are now.
The thing is Jam Bo, in the open cat races, Zwift do give you a results screen. It's only the guys at KISS who have chosen to turn them off for their races as they were fed up with people noticing discrepancies.
If Strava could find a way around the clock time problem- they're best placed to solve the results conundrum really.
Still waiting on Zwiftpower for the results of last night's KISS race, mind you I certainly didn't trouble the top 50 or so, I think. I don't know whether it's because my legs were a bit tired from the previous night, or I switched to using the Stages instead of the Tacx for power metering, or I also forgot to calibrate the Stages before starting, or whether I'm just not very powerful.
I may give Friday night a go though, as Mrs. Pierre has just said she'd like to go out and meet an old friend for drinks - it's pretty sad that my first thought was "oh, that would give me a chance to go on Zwift!"
On the thing about what Zwift do with your money, I'd love them to expand the game side of it - they've got an engine for rendering a virtual world, but they've only got three maps, so the actual choice of ride is very limited and they've made them all as close to real-world riding as possible. I'd pay good money to be able to race around some of the courses in Mario Kart, for example, especially if there were Mario Kart style power-ups!
The thing is Jam Bo, in the open cat races, Zwift do give you a results screen. It's only the guys at KISS who have chosen to turn them off for their races as they were fed up with people noticing discrepancies.
The open cat race I just did have a results screen at the end - first time I've seen one on Zwift:
[img] 
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The thing is Jam Bo, in the open cat races, Zwift do give you a results screen. It's only the guys at KISS who have chosen to turn them off for their races as they were fed up with people noticing discrepancies.
BRS TT didn't have a finishing banner/text last night... If it had... i wouldn't be looking to see where i finished 🙂
Greater choice and easier to search workouts might mean I dropped my TrainerRoad sub and just used Zwift all year.
Rob Bolt must have got fed up with it and switched it off too then 🙂
It's because the ZP watchers are more accurate than the way Zwift calculates the finishing order...
The way ZwiftPower works is ingenious, but ridiculous, and totally unnecessary IF Zwift were only to make their data available with an API.They'd develop their own results system (which can't be that much of a job, surely?) rather than buy ZP, get runners or rowers on there, expand the number of courses and whack the price up. It's got a hell of a lot of potential in the right hands
A cynic might suggest that Zwift are happy to let ZP bust their balls trying to make it work in order to keep the interest in racing up, whilst planning/developing their own system. They surely must have cottoned on to how popular racing & the sort of stats/leagues etc that ZP makes possible are.
This must just be down to the chip/gun time differences that I've read about. It is obviously possible for Zwift to record & publish definitive & accurate data though. They just don't seem to want to for some reason!It's because the ZP watchers are more accurate than the way Zwift calculates the finishing order...
Already binned mine off. TR are seriously on the back foot now... and they know it judging by the comments made by someone from them that were pasted earlier in the thread!Greater choice and easier to search workouts might mean I dropped my TrainerRoad sub and just used Zwift all year.
epicsteve, you had a draft boost and didn't use it?! 😉
Greater choice and easier to search workouts might mean I dropped my TrainerRoad sub and just used Zwift all year.
http://whatsonzwift.com/workouts/
I can't see me renewing when my TR subscription comes to an end.
force you to have young kids that keep you in the house of an evening
Got enough already ta but you are right. Will need to purchase a bigger fan in the summer though. Racing would also keep you tied in, especially running series across a period of several weeks/months...
It's because the ZP watchers are more accurate than the way Zwift calculates the finishing order...
Zwift can be just as accurate as Zwiftpower if it likes, Zwiftpower is using third hand data from Zwift -> Strava -> ZP.
If anything it should be a lot more reliable as it doesn't have to cross reference data between two sources. What happens currently if someone digital epos the fit file from Zwift before uploading to Strava? It just seems an unnecessary extra step.
I'm not saying it needs to always give instant feedback, it's fine collating it later. It could offer a preliminary result, which is just how people cross the line if it likes. I'd just like to see my improvement via a vaguely reliable portal. Yesterdays races still haven't been sorted, for example.
ZP uses virtual 'watchers' out on course to log racers as they pass. It only uses Strava as verification AFAIK.
Oh....
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Gutted !
- by a second! Bad luck weeksy. Next time...
I hate it when you think you have a spot and then someone uploads their ride late 😉
Good ride though still....
I think it also shows something interesting .... Also a bit weird...
M Barber in 2nd went past me with <40m to the line....
As for the other bloke.... i don't recall seeing him either in front of or behind us.... at all....According to 'LIVE' button, he's 12s behind me....
Confused..