Zwift, my journey, my weight and my fitness.

From the live button I was 8:06 behind winner, you were 8:41 so we were not far apart at all. A group of who was ahead of you caught us about 4km out and just blew our group apart before on on the last kick out of the tunnel. I had nothing at all, absolutely nothing on the last 900m. I just left them to it and dragged my sorry self over the line.

We also had an STWer in B who finished 5 mins ahead of us two!

Cracking race though, but what a slog!

2-3 days rest now for me, I'm on 500km total for indoor and outdoor for October, I should still make 700+ even with a few days off.

That was brutal. I nearly managed to stay with the front group on the first lap but got dropped and stayed in the second group. Then we got caught on lap 3 by a pretty big group and I just tried to hang on until the end. No sprint to speak of was left in my legs.

Awesome performance that mate. Impressive

It's a bit sobering as well. The groups within big fields never seem to let up - there always seems to be somebody putting in an effort at the front. Over the last few months I've been used to being in groups where there is an unwritten rule that you all bumble round for the middle couple of laps at a relatively sedate pace and then have a big sprint at the end.

Managed to cling onto Weeksy's wheel for most of the race (P DG) after a ridiculously furious start...bit confusing having B's and C's start together, chased a few B's for no good reason. Patiently refreshing Zwiftpower to see the results now...

Know what you mean eemy, normally groups will, at the very least,cruise a bit downhill. Most of the riders in our group tonight seemed to push harder on the downhills 😯

cosmokramer - Member
Managed to cling onto Weeksy's wheel for most of the race (P DG) after a ridiculously furious start...bit confusing having B's and C's start together, chased a few B's for no good reason. Patiently refreshing Zwiftpower to see the results now...

You managed to hang in that group then! Well done. That group we all had was the difference between 25 places! But I had nothing left to give by then!

Having got zwift set up last week (thanks for the motivation of this thread Weeeksy) I entered the race tonight as a cat D as a complete unknown and think that I may get DQ'd as my legs found a bit more power that I didnt know I had.

I set up zwift power before the race but logged in afterwards and cant get it to recognise my profile. Any ideas what Ive done wrong?

Sorry rmg, don't know buddy.

All sync'd up and working now but not on the results list. Do they not publish cat D results or am I behaving like an impatient child?

If you look bottom right of page 2, you'll see a down arrow. Me, you and andeh are all in there. I'm hoping it's all ok later after they rerun their task that does the results. Think we just need patience on this one.

rmg - I think somnetimes zpower looks at strava for some results. Are you on there and have you set the ride to "public" ?
(no idea if this is actually your problem)

Edit: scrap that - just had a look at your race "results". What a mess !!

Has zwiftpower changed the way they record races since last year? I remember reading an article about it and thinking WTF? It seemed to rely on having dummy riders placed at strategic locations on course to capture when you passed them.

Thanks guys, looking forward to not being such a newbie and knowing my way around all this.

I think I could really do with a smart trainer though, burying myself not looking at the speed and incline then realising im -6% and should be trying to catch my breath a little. Is the tacx 2240 the one to go for still or is it worth spending the extra on an elite direto or similar?

Yes, I'm 99% sure Zwift changed their protocol and ZP now use those intially.

NATH!!! The Aussie Ecrit series was epic. You need to be in on the EU one! Carb up and kick some butt 😆

http://zwift.com/events/view/23686

Results updated.

I'm showing 28/94

Rmg - i use the tacx t2240 and that is perfectly adequate for zwifting.

Weeksy - i was watching you for about 20 minutes and you were doing superb, climbing really well and heading the group on occassions. Your avatar is built like a brick out house, i would definately be drug testing him.

Lol thank you buddy. I was trying my best. If I could have hung in I could have been 10 places higher, but that last kick out of tunnel wiped me out.

I missed the end as i had to put the kids to bed. Pretty sure you did most of the work bridging to a group in front about 8 miles in. You seemed to be one of the faster climbers out of the volcano on the 6% gradient

Mostly because I didn't want to be dropped as the flats pace was high, so I was going deep into the red on that section as I knew I'd never get back if I got dropped on the hill.

As expected i've been bumped into Cat C with 2.68w/kg, looking at the times I would have been 59/94 in that cat. For the first time i'm actually excited by winter on the turbo

Weeksy- it doesn't matter really as Watts are Watts after all, but what setting do you have the slider on? I've never had a power trace as flat as yours in a race.

[img] [/img]

I think it's perhaps partly as a result of never doing shorter, more intense workouts too. Your turning into a Time Trialer 😆

Different course but one of mine just for comparison-

[img] [/img]

Some Vo2 max work could be an 'easy' way to gain a few more places and follow some quicker groups ??

CH - 6pm?! Haha I’m lucky if I’m leaving work for that time let alone sat ready on a turbo trainer!!

scaredypants - Member
nath, you don't mind them doing 5w/kg bevcause you're doing close to 5 anyway aren't you ?

Nowhere near 5.0w/kg unfortunately https://www.zwiftpower.com/profile.php?id=8544067 but Tim for instance is a TTer so it makes for a flatter race, by which I mean an all out slog until the end where there’s an attempt at sprints. Without them it feels like attack after attack... but I’ve only been back racing for a couple of weeks so we shall see.

Bailing on tonight’s KISS race (back is killing) - anyone racing?

Weeksy- it doesn't matter really as Watts are Watts after all, but what setting do you have the slider on? I've never had a power trace as flat as yours in a race.

Not checked that for an eternity, but last time due to gearing, i moved it slightly to about 60% if i recall. It certainl doesn't feel static when wtching, it's 200w > 320w> 240W >280w > in about 3-4 seconds on the display... up down up down. I don't have any kicks though like some of you guys really. On the hills i was struggling to hit 4.0 mostly, well, i say hills, they're small kickers/inclines on that one, but the one out the volcano circuit by the village must be 1:30 in time, so that for me is quite tough.

Doesn't seem to have made it onto Zwiftrankings... Which could be a bad thing, could be good 🙂

I was happy overall with my performance, my 5 min power 3.34w/kg pleases me as it shows i was having a decent try even when i thought i was struggling. You could argue the -13% for the second half shows i was dying though, but i knew that 🙂

You could argue the -13% for the second half shows i was dying though, but i knew that

Not unusual given the blistering start ?

Trying the Hare & Hounds again tonight, great race format but the ZP judges are a bit strict when it comes to enforcing the W/kg limits

I got 0 Rankings point for all that effort !

There is some good news though. Over the years my BP has been high. About 9 years back it was 196/164 even though my HR was mid 40's and i was what i thought was fairly fit.
Last week it was tested at 146/92 Which for me was astounding.

Today was a re-test and see if i needed ECG and BP tablets, i scored 136/82 and got the green light from them, all good. Cholsterol tests were decent too. So i'm a happy boy. Resting HR was 42bpm.

Trying the Hare & Hounds again tonight,

That's good news Weeksy. Great that it's having such a positive effect on your health.
Gutted to have missed out last night. I was ok with the decision to not race up until about 5:55 then I started kicking myself for being sensible. I don't normally do sensible.
Definitely racing tonight and I'm off tomorrow so it's going to be either a zwift in the morning and mtb ride in the afternoon or a double zwift.

@zilog6128

Entering as a C for this one. Last week's C group was big & strong with some good banter during the ride too...hopefully the same again tonight

Just did the KISS race and blimey it was a bit rapid in terms of overall time taken, i was determined to make top 10 in cat B. The start was really bizarre as it was quick but really short as in we had settled on a pace by the time we got to the road which meant i didnt need any recovery time. Decent size field and we were all bunched up so it had all the makings of another bunch sprint. Anyway after lap 2 the bunch was down to 12 so i knew i just had to beat 2 of them for top 10. There were a few mini attacks but nothing sticking and up the hills i seem to have the legs on most so i decided the big climb after the sprint up to the rollers was my opportunity. Last lap started really ramping up so no chance of saving the legs, ideally i wish i had been a little closer to the front when the hill approached. I hit the feather PU and put the bike in top gear and lit the burners, got to the top just 3 seconds behind 2 guys and managed to drop everyone else by 4 secs. Then 1.5 miles to try and keep the group behind me off my back and bag bronze with legs that were now burning, kept calm and a reasonable tempo going but the 2 guys in front were pulling away. I had 0.5m to go and had maintained a 4 sec lead on the group but i knew i had no sprint in me so with 0.3 to go i just kept the pace at 500w may be less and that seemed to discourage them. I bagged bronze by 3 secs and i think based on time alone we would have been mid to lower in Cat A just behind bigfoot who was 30 secs quicker.

Cracking stuff, you've really come on well with Zwift. Any plans with your improved fitness outside of Zwifting ?

The fields seem a LOT harder to break away now, last night we had a group of 15 but were still pulled in by a group behind, you never used to see that.

Just looking to be fitter for riding outside with a view of joining a club for group rides but family life just doesnt tie in with schedules. I had planned on a mtb ride today but heavy rain last night and again this morning means my local trail is just a bog and no fun at all. Its nice on the times i do get out that i now have no qualms about 20-25% hills of which i have quite a few to go at plus steep gradients on mtb trails in the dales feel easier (only converted to single ring last year and running 30t front and only a 34t rear was hard work to begin with).
Would like to do some long events next year as i still havent done a century yet so i like to keep that in mind as a goal. Have done a fair few 80-90 milers but they were brutal and i was ruined at the end of them.

Would like to do some long events next year as i still havent done a century yet so i like to keep that in mind as a goal. Have done a fair few 80-90 milers but they were brutal and i was ruined at the end of them.

Offroad, 80,90,100 it makes no difference. Once you get over about 60 miles offroad it's just grim determination and pure willpower, they're all heartbreaking and soul destroying. The SDW was just, well, hard. LOL.

[url= http://www.pezcyclingnews.com/toolbox/toolbox-the-zone-3-syndrome/#.WeiKDFWnFaR ][b]Zone 3 syndrome[/b][/url] Anyone guilty? 😆

I was happily commuting this morning in Z1/2, but the Queen had other ideas - road closures meant I found myself on a horrid 5 lane stretch of road where I hit the power button to avoid dying 😆

My back is still twinging and saying no to tonight's race, but I really want too!! I may do an FTP test on Saturday morning to punish it instead.

I think i couldn't be more guilty of that article than anyone else on here LOL.
I'd say 90% of my rides are described in that. I do have a weekend ride where it's generally more gentle, but that's because my riding buddy isn't quite at my level, so it's within my comfort zone, but it has it's moments within there.

8th in this morning's KISS race, an improvement on last week's 11th. Four escaped on the third lap, I chose not to follow and had an easy ride in the remaining group until the sprint at the end. 10 minutes later another race started, so I joined that along with about 10 others. A couple of ZP riders shot off at the start, leaving me to a lonely 2 lap cool down ride. Day off Zwift tomorrow, probably.

Entering as a C for this one. Last week's C group was big & strong with some good banter during the ride too...hopefully the same again tonight

cool, probably have a crack at that in C tonight as well then! Worth having discord running as well then? Used it for the first time on a group ride last week, bantz was minimal to say the least!!

Not sure, I've not used Discord yet but the text chat was entertaining last week until the last couple of laps when there was just the odd 'hmmphj' 😀

I am still seeing the old style rider list in the races, is this the same for everyone or is it just on KISS races?

Also can anyone explain who Johan Gren is as he keeps winning races everyday but is always dq’d coz he isnt zada approved and its been like that for months,why does he bother? He is very fast, i was in a race with him and he left a big group of us cat b riders like we were standing still

Was old style in last night's race which was szr. The WBR was new style.

KISS today was old style leader board

I was in the same race as you bigfoot, i thought it might be kiss related but i guess not.

Did the Hare & Hounds for the first time. Quite good fun, less so than a normal race but a bit less effort too! We managed to catch the only two Ds who weren't disqualified! Most of the group of Cs I was riding with got disqualified too 🙄 Got caught by a couple of As early on but they couldn't press on & ended up riding with us for the rest of it. Would do one again, if I didn't feel like a full on race.

You did well Zilog, fast start which caught me napping so was playing catch-up for most of the race. Last week's seemed more fun with C group egging each other on and texting what the distances were.

Incidentally, noticed that the weight-Nazi who is charge of DQ'ing people on Zwiftpower isn't leading by example "With an estimated FTP of 274w and 3.19w/kg this rider should consider upgrading." 😆

Yeah he was leading the charge when everyone was storming off at 4+ w/kg at the start!! Seems like the category boundaries were a touch lower than for other races so maybe that caught people out?

Zone 3 syndrome Anyone guilty?

I certainly was yesterday. As there was no race or event that suited I just smashed myself around the hilly route (as you do). A KOM and hilly route PRs followed although in my defence I realised during it I had a shot at getting the jerseys for both which I did. I blame Zwift.

I started out doing this for fun and basic fitness but the competitive part of me is starting to come out.

By the way I have noticed my avatar hardly ever gets off his seat on the climbs but most others seem to. Is mine just lazy?

@blader1611 I think the B & D races were in the normal direction, the A & C races were in the reverse direction. I think our races were of similar speed as we always passed a bunch going in the opposite direction around the finish line each lap. I knew I did not have the legs for a top 5 finish after 5 days of hard riding, so settled in for an easy ride to the finish and got my hr down to 115 near the end. Went early in the sprint, faded and then kicked again.

By the way I have noticed my avatar hardly ever gets off his seat on the climbs but most others seem to. Is mine just lazy?

Cadence < 70 I think.

and something to do with power? because my man stays sat down when I warm down.

I did the Trisport-WAY Hilly Race. 5th in the As knocking out a 95% power pb of 4.52W/kg. I think I need to race smarter not harder if I want to get on the podium.

Which races are the big ones? Mine was pretty sparse. I basically came last from the break that formed off the start line would be more fun to have a bigger bunch with more attacking racing.

Thanks I'll look at both of those. Doesn't seem to stop me passing people but it does look a bit strange when you're the only one not standing.

KISS
ZTR
SZR
TFC
WBR

in that order roughly.

Sorry Nath, I run TR on my phone so can't text whilst intervaling 🙂

Bigfoot, oh i see, i hadnt realised you guys were reversed, i did see your group as i think at one point we all rode through each other. I actually prefer the reversed route though i always do better on the normal route.

Jonba - good result. We have a few cat A stw members now so you should team up and start trying to get some victories.

jonba, if you use the mobile link app to join races it shows you how many are enrolled in each category (even day or two in advance, though numbers obviously grow as the time approaches)

I've just been browsing through STW'ers on Zwift.

There's a few determined folk to stay in a Cat below where they should be!? Someone should be B but keeps trying to race in D!!

https://zwiftpower.com/team.php?id=756

Anyway 😆

I think there's 3 A riders now for STW?

P.s. Wow, check out this guys HR!! https://zwiftpower.com/profile.php?id=3360103

Nath, have you told your boss that you need to finish early for ten Mondays 😉

Ha that'd go down like a lead balloon!

Even if I could commit I'd only be available until 1st December, then my live gets a whole lot busier/turns upside down for a while.. You might not even see me on here for a month!!

Also don't worry about not responding, I was only going to send you some abuse about not trying hard enough anyway 😆

ERG mode innit- I was trying just the right amount 😛

80w the right amount? 😆

I've started a list, because who doesn't enjoy a good list, https://www.strava.com/clubs/244094/posts/

Do we count CH or is he an interloper?

Count me for what?? I'm not a STW rider....

I am a legit ftp/kg based B rider 🙂

Count you in the STW list 🙂 He's put you in it, but i'm aware you don't run as an STWer.

I don’t either, I have STW in my name but not connected on Zwiftpower.

I’ve put it together to see if we can try and get multiple stw’ers in races together, plus helps to know what cats folk are in when talking about racing?

We might not let you on the list either then 🙂

Was just being playful, no biggy.

😆 in that case I’ll delete him anyway - he’s too posh for Zwift Racing!

😆 I'm hoping to squeeze a weekly race in from November.

Those 1 lap races are an absolute bastard. I was mixing it with the Cat Bs though. 327w average 😳

I saw on the Zwift app you were powering along so dropped you a ride on... 🙂

327w, jeepers, nice.

Gentle one today for me as per Naths article. Z1/2 and cruising on the Parkwood. Will stick a movie on to watch etc.

Thanks Weeksy I could just about see the name through the fountain of sweat pouring over my eyes 😀
Pleased that I managed to keep up with the cat b riders on the climbs near the end of the lap. I always get dropped on those climbs but hung on today. Left the sprint for the line a bit late and couldn’t quite catch a couple of the Bs in front. I left it until 200m. Should have gone at 300.
Finished up 1st in C which probably means -10 points on CVR

I raced in the 8pm KISS Europe last night and omg. Managed to stay with the lead group all the way even though I thought I was going to get dropped several times. Had to dig in really deep at points but stayed with them until the sprint finish but I had little left to give by then.

Came in 10th out of 57 in C cat which I'm pleased with. Just need to drop my weight to where I was last year as I've put on some Kg and it's not helping.

I'd forgotten how much fun Zwift racing is.

Muggo

I think it needs 8> riders in the Cat for CVR points ?

Hedley, Cracking stuff, keep it up.. I think we're getting a decent pack of riders in A, B and C now.

Those 1 lap races are an absolute bastard.

That’s alright then weeksy. Bloody annoying to see minus points when you’ve given it your all.

I find the one lap races are like a HIIT session and hopefully good training based on Nathan’s link as you tend to be well in to zone 4 for the duration. The hardest bit is going hard for 10km and then having to sprint for the line. Going to skip an outdoors ride this afternoon and do another zwift ride as I shudder at the thought of riding on rough terrain with the way my back is atm. Will either do the 3 lap hilly or the 50km sportive ride.

Well i think i have just been in the fastest cat B race ever! The WBR 4 lap flat race had the top 5 in cat B in a bunch finish with the cat A group. The top 5 B riders all were within 3 secs of the overall winner of the race, i was nearly 4 minutes behind B winner and i was 6th. The start and the first lap were madness, relentless pace of which i was barely hanging on and the next lap wasnt much different and thats where i left them so 2 laps to myself with a guy chasing me down. He took 30 secs out of me on lap 3 which meant i was only ahead by 23 secs but i managed to dig in on the last lap and put in a couple of big sprints up the hills and maintained the gap to the line.
How on earth those lead guys did not dq is beyond me, i was pulling nearly 400w in the sandy bit just trying to hold on and close to thst through the tunnels.

Looks like i got 8 points for that today, i was fearing a negative score. I am currently 14th in div 2 with 1462 points and am forecast to be div 1. That will probably be it for me this month as kids are off next week so no cycling for me but looking forward to recharging the batteries.

recharging the batteries

Why am I showing as inactive!?

I raced on the 17th!!

http://www.cycligentrankings.com/vcr/client/racer/98508/2017r10/all/inactive/1/0/0/1/1

Haha, I needed an electric motor in that race this morning scaredypants.

Nathb - you were so slow in your last race you deemed inactive!

I got 4 points for my efforts this morning 🙂

+1 point for 'knocking my pan out' this lunchtime (so to speak).