Zwift, my journey, my weight and my fitness.

Nah, grinding 50000m elevation for the ultra realistic Tron bike is not game like at all - pure training aid

But youve still climbed hours and hours to get to that, whether the bike is real or not, your effort was

Weeksy dont get sucked in to it.

too late, he's the biggest addict I know

- oh

😉

So I signed up to the Team Worlds race on 25th November, which will be on the figure 8 course.

Nathan has just actually read what this will involve:
[b]All Category A Teams will depart the start line at exactly 1300pm(GMT) and complete 4 full laps @ 119.2km.
[/b]

So that's:
119.2km / 74 miles
936m / 3,070ft of climbing

40 min laps, so 2 hours 40 mins of racing and I can't eat carbs or sugar...

!!!!!!!!!!

3000ft/74 miles? That's practically downhill.

Need a domestique? 😀

Better get the credit card out for a gallon of sea water Nath 😆

It’s more the endurance that I’m worried about than the hills, I am do 100km group ride which is sub 3w/kg on just buttery coffee. But really not sure on fuelling strategy for 120km at race pace.

Not sure my expensive sea water is going to help that much CH 😆

Cheers for the offer scaled but it’s in teams.

why can't you have sugar/carbs ?

Nathb - i am also in the Worlds event too but obviously in the B category. I am joining MGCC who are based out of Toronto but unlike you i have not read anything about it, is the B race that long as well?

Edit: also unlike you i will be stuffing my face full of carbs and sugar because i dont know of any other mineral, i am a carb beast.

I'm not in it but willing to give up carbs for 2-3 hours

*unlike that weeksy - he doesn't get it at all 🙄 *

Basically, his fiancé thought he was thick so said he had to go into ketosis to improve his brain function* 😆

Nath, I don't think there's much you can do other than to cap your output to avoid running out of glycogen. I'd be worried about my body breaking down muscle for fuel in an effort that long and hard. Perhaps you could top up on protein for the first hour or so to make sure it's readily available??? (That's a guess- haven't even googled it 😆 )

*That is an innocent joke in case I've unwittingly been inappropriate 😆

*That is an innocent joke in case I've unwittingly been inappropriate

You ? Surely not... 😉

You do have a reputation for cyber bullying me though.

🙂

Sick enough to be off work, but too sick for an hour on Zwift?

I figure some light exercise will flush out the virus!

Just make sure your boss can't Strava stalk you PieM 😉

Hahahahaha! 😀 You deserve it though for being so stubborn 😛

Activities set to private as a default 😀

Piemonster - a gentle spin with the A riders should flush the virus and most of your internal organs out 😀

WFH today so did the 8:05 WBR flat in the As, my first podium* 😀

Saw one guy go up the road and didn't bother chasing him down, then another 4 or so got away on the hill, chased him down and stayed away. It took an effort that required a new max HR to chase them down.

Gonna have a proper rest day on sat before riding over to Leeds on Sunday

*and more importantly my first race where i wasn't DQ'd!

Nice result- well done 🙂

Marvellous work scaled!

Nice result scaled, dont forget to polish the trophy before you put it in stw cabinet.

I see you are riding over to my town of leeds on Sunday. I think its gonna be pretty chilly here so a few layers required.

I just did a 1 lapper for the first time and i managed to stuff that up. Stayed with mostly A’s all the way to the finish line errr why is everyone going hard for the cool down? Yep you guessed it,that was the warm up lap and that finish line is the start line,doh! I had sat there recovering for 30secs so i had to go again but i was spent so i rode in with a C rider who beat me to the line. I MUST PAY MORE ATTENTION.

hahahahahaa you daft sod 🙂

you still beat me by 1min 30 !

I just did a 1 lapper for the first time and i managed to stuff that up. Stayed with mostly A’s all the way to the finish line errr why is everyone going hard for the cool down? Yep you guessed it,that was the warm up lap and that finish line is the start line,doh! I had sat there recovering for 30secs so i had to go again but i was spent so i rode in with a C rider who beat me to the line. I MUST PAY MORE ATTENTION

2 hours 40 mins of racing and I can't eat carbs or sugar...

This CVR and ZP stuff is weird...

I'm 12th in Div 7 on CVR, so i looked and saw the guy in 1st is LOTS of points ahead... so thought i'd look how

http://www.zwiftrankings.com/vcr/client/racer/194599/2017r11/all/7/1/0/0/1/1

He collected 197 points in 1 race.. oh.. he beat Tim Cartwright ! in a 1 lapper....

http://www.zwiftrankings.com/vcr/client/result/14914/40368/2017r11/all/7/1/0/0/1/1

But...

https://www.zwiftpower.com/race.php?id=14914

He got DQ'd from that race for 5.72 w/kg!

So why on earth does his points count in CVR if he's booted out of the race.

I don't care in the context that if he is that quick he won't be near me for long.... but just weird that they're not integrated in any way so a DQ doesn't get a DQ.

WBR 1 lapper for me today.... Didn't quite work out as well in some ways as the groups split early and i spent a decent majority of the race alone. I managed to hold the guys in front at 7s, i closed them down to 3s at one stage and thought i may get to them but dropped off again to 6s, then some guy joined me from behind who was also a C and when i was responding to an STWer on chat, the other fella jumped off the front and breached the gap to the 3 in front. Ooops. Not convinced i could have gone with him anyway.
The rest of the lap was alone then for 8-9 mins and i was just concentrating on not letting the guy behind catch me. Held him fine at around 20s back.

My suspicions were correct anyway and the other Cs were bumped, leaving me with a Cat win again in C and 3.14w/kg

I suspect it will be lower on the rankings points, i'll be happy with a 0 i rekon for this one.

Don't forget CVR and ZP aren't related at all. (Although Frank did try and buy Zwiftpower out!)
The DQ can be reinstated with Zada approval I guess....

What does the red background mean on the stats mean?

[img] [/img]

Do i have to do anything?

Highest/lowest in the race.

So red there is highest power figures, you'll also have one for highst/lowest weight in race.

It's not a 'problem' just an observational thing

The DQ can be reinstated with Zada approval I guess...

He better be bloody good in real life to prove he can beat Cartwright

EDIT: i actually got SILVER in the 1 lapper which given i stopped at the start i guess was down to pure luck than cycling prowess.

To make up for my stupidity in the 1 lapper i decided to punish myself with the EVR 2 laps of greater london loop. Oh boy was that a pain fest. With legs already wounded from the 1 lapper and not having really anything to eat the first lap felt pretty pacey. First climb up box hill was done in only 7:54 which isnt that quick but my legs felt otherwise. I was in a niice little group of 7 so we pushed along nicely but thankfully the 2nd lap was a little slower so i was able to recover a small amount for box hill number 2. I decided i was going to lead out and try and make it faster than lap 1 but i splintered the group pretty quickly so it was only 2 of us but i pushed on and did it in 7:49. I was then blowing out of my bumhole all the way to the line but he beat me by a second or so. That is me done for zwifting now this week and thats official.

He's not even registered on ZP so doubt he is legit- or cares. And until organisers ask for some kind of commitment from racers, it won't really change.

Whilst plodding along in Z2 I’ve been wondering.

What are the pros and cons of an FTP builder over race prep training program?

Only real objective is to develop fitness.

Only real objective is to develop fitness.

It depends on how you define 'fitness'. FTP is simply a notional measure of the power output you can sustain over one hour, but it doesn't measure any other aspect of your performance, like the ability to recover from anaerobic efforts - handy for a lot of mountain biking - or sustain an effort above threshold. And it'll depend on the FTP builder programme too, if it's just focussed on improving your FTP test performance, or if it has other, more general aims too.

So I guess the question is 'fitness for what'?

2hr to 12hr MTB rides, some slow and steady, some as fast as I can go.

I guess without a specific event to nail it down it’ll be hard to define which is better.

Hmmm

crosshair
Basically, his fiancé thought he was thick so said he had to go into ketosis to improve his brain function*

Nath, I don't think there's much you can do other than to cap your output to avoid running out of glycogen. I'd be worried about my body breaking down muscle for fuel in an effort that long and hard. Perhaps you could top up on protein for the first hour or so to make sure it's readily available??? (That's a guess- haven't even googled it )

*That is an innocent joke in case I've unwittingly been inappropriate

Haha pretty much! 🙂

Also trying to rid the bacteria in my stomach that feeds off sugar so I can stop taking omeprazole...

I think I'll be using coconut chunks as energy source 😆

fifeandy -
2 hours 40 mins of racing and I can't eat carbs or sugar...
Enjoy the bonk when it comes

I'm used to bonking, even on my Sunday 100km group rides. It just normally it happens around 75km mark for 2-5 mins of pain, and then I get a second wind. Really am entering the unknown 🙂

Anyway, I guess I'm about to find out! 😆

@piemonster

I'm 1.5 weeks into a 6 week FTP builder, basically the focus seems to be on 30/40min intervals at threshold and sweetspot with only a few VO2max / anaerobic efforts.

Compared to racing which I think is mostly tempo (provided you can stay in a group) with anaerobic efforts during surges

Believe the research shows that training at or just under threshold with adequate recovery has a beneficial effect on your FTP.

Can someone explain the Zwift Power results page to me? Shouldn't the figures in the 95% and 20m columns be swapped?

Also trying to rid the bacteria in my stomach that feeds off sugar so I can stop taking omeprazole...

I'm not a doctor but I was always led to believe that stomach bacteria fed on fat not carbohydrate but I guess you are taking advice from a doctor not an internet forum! 😆

Having said that I "cured" my father's ulcer after watching a Horizon program and getting the doctor to put him on a course of bismuth and antibiotics after taking Zantac for decades.

I guess without a specific event to nail it down it’ll be hard to define which is better.

You could always do the FTP build stuff then throw in some shorter, sharper stuff as well I guess. I suspect a coach would ask you to think about your strengths and weaknesses then build a programme to address them. If you're fine with sustained sub-threshold efforts already, but struggle with, say, short, sharp technical kick climbs, you might want to look at working specifically on those. On the other hand, boosting your FTP is going to mean you can put out more power sub-threshold... anyway, I guess this is why coaches exist.

Shame no-one seems to do 'fit for trails' programmes. Everything's very race focussed.

Believe the research shows that training at or just under threshold with adequate recovery has a beneficial effect on your FTP.

Most of the recent research i've looked at has shown polarised training to be the most beneficial (short hard efforts above FTP and longer sessions a long way below FTP)

Whether or not its the [i]best[/i] way to train may be up for debate, but I think most riders (doing 4-8hrs/wk) will find typical FTP builder (sweetspot/ftp) based plans a pretty efficient way to spend the winter months.

Yeah, FTP building is a great place to start really as it lifts all your zones. Anything above threshold is quite prone to 'use it or lose it' which is why plans that utilise Vo2 max intervals are handy if you need to keep hold of some top end.

The flip side is, short, hard stuff is quick to improve and equally quick to plateau so if you are training a long way in advance then the time may be better spent working on endurance this time of year as the intensity also increases fatigue.

In the TR podcast episode from the Riprow thread, Lee McCormack talks about spirals of learning in relation to bike skills whereby you work on specific skills in turn- constantly ramping up the level.
Well, really, that's the same as the theory behind Friel (TR plans are blatantly ripped off from Friel with Coach Chads twist) and any other periodised training plan.
By going Base, Build, Speciality, rest, Base, Build, Specialty, rest etc etc you should continually spiral your fitness upwards.

The trouble with trying to keep your entire game sharp all the time is that you never really maximise your potential so everything blends into a dull beige of performance with random peaks that may or may not coincide with a ride you care about.

One of my mates wants to try zwift out using my set up, he wants to do a race rather than going for pootle. He could use my credentials but that might not be best as he is 124kg and barely a cat D. Will he be able to race if i set him up with an account and take advantage of the free trial period?

Yep, nothing is out of bounds 🙂

Yes.

Bloody Nora! I just got an email from Zwift saying the monthly membership is going up to £12.99 effective today. That's a hell of a jump.

Existing members will carry on paying the £8/month for the next year. Lucky I just upgraded my membership from the trial yesterday!

Just about to post that:

In order to continue to make Zwift bigger, better and more beautiful, we are updating our membership price to £12.99 per month, effective today. As a way of saying thank you, however, to the awesome Zwifters who helped us get here, your pricing will not change for one year. If you happen to suspend your membership during this period and come back, you can still enjoy your current pricing level.

Yes! Just got the email. If times got hard, I'd probably ditch Strava Premium before I sacked off Zwift but Zwift would be before Trainerroad at that price that's for sure!!!

Fifeandy is going to have a seizure!

I thought of FifeAndy actually with Eric Minns comment about the Myan ruins.
The only reason they built it where they did is because that hill was the quietest bit of road on Zwift 😆

#nothrillsinthehills

£12.99 does seem excessive - I can see people dropping in for the winter and cancelling for the summer.

Ouch, that's one hell of an increase...

I'd pay double that and still be more than happy. It's like having a gym at home with mates 24x7, you'd pay a lot more, plus travel time etc.

Except there are options for less money. At the same price as the others, Zwift was good value. At more than half as much, again it does look a little greedy.

Trainerroad is flawlessly executed too- it's really plush to use whereas it's always a little uncertain what's going to happen when I click on the Zwift icon 😆

Bold move. Not sure I’ll renew at the higher price.

The way I see it is this;
Not many companies around today give you twelve months notice of a price increase, and allow you to pause the subscription (so could save months).

Secondly they have now got twelve months to convince us that and extra £5 a month is worth it, only time will tell...

Personally I’ll be renewing at £12.99 a month unless something else that’s better comes along, but I’m not sure what that could be...

I'll be ditching Strava premium first but it's a big increase. Do you get 2 months free Zwift every year as a strava premium subscriber or is that just first year?

Secondly they have now got twelve months to convince me that and extra £5 a month is worth it, only time will tell...

Quite, they’ll need to deliver the goods!

That said, what competition is their with a similar alternative.

WBR 1 lapper for me today....responding to an STWer on chat

And, yeah, agreed - they'll need to deliver something good to justify that hike, esp now that numbers seem so high. I think they may be driving a whole load of seasonal users

Lol Blader sent me a ride on, so I said hello.

I was currently in solo mode, holding the guy behind and we were not catching the guys in front.

KISS race in 15, anyone joining?

lol Weeksy, sorry to disappoint but no seizure.
Blatant money grab to cash in on growing popularity.
Lets hope no more server explosions like last years GCN ride as it becomes increasingly harder to tolerate things like that at what is now quite a premium price.

You should set up a FB live stream Nath. Really enjoyed watching Jesoers race earlier.

beej - Member
£12.99 does seem excessive - I can see people dropping in for the winter and cancelling for the summer.

+1.

I retained my subscription over the summer even though I barely used it. I figured I was happy to support them, given the price.

I can see me being a 'winter only' user at £13 a month.

Increase might have gone better if it were not on the back of a major outage yesterday 🙄

I just bonked so badly in that race, my worst ever finishing position and expecting a huge hit on the CVR points front. Actually struggled to get off the bike and just had to lay down on the garage floor. No matter what I did I couldn’t get passed 250w.

I used to bonking but that was the worst one I’ve ever experienced! Clearly long hours at work, commuting and racing have had a detrimental effect on me.

https://www.zwiftpower.com/race.php?id=14946

Wow, you are human after all!

Full bonk on 42km race - signed up for 120km race.

You need to set up on Twitch and stream so we can all watch as your glycogen starved muscles give up one by one and you slide sideways off bike still clipped in.

GWS Nath, sounds like a bit of rest might be needed.

I'm shattered when I commute into London on a motorbike. Kudos for Zwift racing after cycling to work!!

I did the 19:20 WBR 1 lap race and after the dust had settled finished 7th of 9 in the C group in my first full race finish. Didn't go off too mad at the start this time and got into a group of 2 Cs and a B practically the whole lap. Just couldn't sprint at the finish and they went away from me in the last 200m.

At least I have a starting point now and am getting feel for pacing myself and how much power I can sustain. Just need to up my FTP! 😀

On the price increase front I am a brand new member and £8 seemed pretty reasonable to me. I would have probably paid the £12.99 if that had been the price so I'm not too unhappy that I luckily signed up yesterday and have a year's grace. A 62% price hike does seem a big jump though.

@weeksy - haha I’m flattered you thought I wasn’t human? 😆

@fifeandy - not really, I’ll have a fuel plan in place by then, including caffeine etc

@joe - pretty much all my races are after commuting mate, use the commute as a warm up. Unfortunately I’m not very good at stick to sub Z2 🙁

Bottom line is I’ve radically changed my diet, I’m under a ridiculous amount of mental stress from work and I’ve just been touring London to get past a diversion. I’m not too worried just yet. Definitely don’t want to experience that again though!!

I saw the price increase email as I got my bike out of the car to go ride in the woods and just skim read it and thought I'm definitely binning it at that price as it seemed an excessive increase, but as I was riding round I realised how much that subscription has done for me (comments like you must be on an ebike 😀 ).
I will see how much I am using it through summer 2018 and if it's similar to this year I will become a seasonal subscriber once it goes up to £12.99 for me.

I agree muggo it's been brilliant for me as well. Far cheaper than a gym subscription especially as I am on it 3 or 4 times a week and I never want to do spin classes ever again!

This has got me stumped, but okay:

http://www.cycligentrankings.com/vcr/client/result/14946/41530/2017r11/all/elite/1/0/0/1/1

P.s. Edmund is a professional cyclist - I’ve ridden with him before around Richmond Park.

LOL 5 points more than Tim who finished a long way ahead of you. !Weird system, i keep telling you that.

I guess it's just about position relative to prediction and there were enough big hitters with more points than you??

Trying to do the 12 week FTP thing starting from week 3. On the face of it a lot of the sessions look very easy when looking on whatsonzwift but day 3 6 reps of about 70% of FTP which I can relatively happily sit in at bottom end of z2 had a nasty sting where the smart trainer ramped up the RPM to 115 on reps 4 and 5 and 130 at the end of the last rep. It was leaving me dredding the final 3 minutes which I guess is the idea even if it wasn't because it was a full effort sprint.

Fighting and battling the desire to race today... It's Richmond which is the flattest of the flats... Decent field in at the 11.30am 4 lapper with WBR... But i have to admit, the legs are saying NO !

Yeah exactly, sorry I’m not confused as to why I got 5 points. I’m more stumped that it isn’t -100 points, but there’s a hell of a lot of people with negative points below me!

Cartwrights allocation of points would have gone to Edmund who’s only done a handful of races.