Zwift, my journey, my weight and my fitness.

My zwift properly shit the bed tonight mid workout which was frustrating, think my computer doesn't like the warmer weather, might need another fan...

Well done, weeksy and blitz, good to see STW in the results. I managed 4th in last night's ZHR TT, which is better than my outdoor TTs so far this year. Off to Flanders for the weekend and some proper outdoor rides.

Of course, Zwift is no good for real training.

I did a WBR 4-lap flat race last night. There weren't many entered by the looks of it but I think I won Cat-D (I might even have been the only one in Cat-D that actually finished though) however it all seems to have gone horribly wrong in Zwiftpower as it's currently only appearing to show the guy that finished 12th (1 place in front of me) as the overall winner and then everyone else as not doing the full distance (that chap did an extra lap).

Quite a lonely ride - I was riding with another guy for the first lap but he then blew up on the climb out of the tunnel and barely saw anyone after that, not even other riders not in the race as it was in the reverse direction so very quiet.

I hate it when that happens ! It's a shame if you don't get the full results really.

I'm not Zwifting today, i was at Silverstone yesterday on the KTM, first of the year on track and woke up twice with calf cramp in the night last night, so makes sense to take today off cycling.

Quite excited about another race tomorrow! Reckon I'll give the WBR hilly a go at 13.20, not really done a hilly race. Struggling with climbs in the real world currently, hopefully won't translate to the virtual world!

I won EVR cat C race yesterday (i should be in B class but with a slight quad strain i decided to go easy) but it is really telling that this side of the planet is now entering good weather as the numbers in races have dropped off quite a lot. I regularly ride and talk to the MGCC race leader and he reckons the last 2 weeks numbers have dropped over 50%.

Yeah you can see it when you look for upcoming events too and there's 4-5 riders in a race... rather than 20-30. It's a shame in some ways from that perspective, but i'm glad that winter has broken mostly and on it's way out.

I hate it when that happens ! It's a shame if you don't get the full results really.

The WBR guys think it all went wrong due to the races being run in the reverse direction as they had problems with several other races the same day. Anyway they've sorted it now and it does show me as winning Cat-D - even if there were only 2 of us in Cat-D that actually finished. I ended up a couple of minutes behind the last Cat-C guy and 7 minutes ahead of the only other Cat-D finisher. Still, a win's a win! Given the lack of company it was more of a training ride than anything else as after the first lap I realised there was no chance of anyone coming from behind to catch-me, and very little chance I was going to catch anyone else so just cruised around at 200W or so for the remaining 3 laps.

I

think it all went wrong due to the races being run

dropped on the hill - again, 2nd lap of 4. TT'd in ahead of second bunch but miles behind the grown-ups.

Mid-Table Mediocrity once again

Still, loads of recent STW trophies so I'll just bask in that

WAIT:

meant to say, the race was a trisport-way one and as far as I could see, only "B" racers were visible to me (I think I'd have noticed A.dam Yates ORICA) ! - though I doubt it was the real one) AND we all magically had the same kit on at the start pen

Intriguing, Meester Bond - was it able to read the B in my name and sort things out from there ? I liked it

They did do some update yesterday, not seen what it includes.

I just latched onto the back of the KISS race, was chilling with the Cs. There was at least 20 Cs there...

Several wrong turns later I ended up going up the Volcano, beating my PB by .5 of a second.

Did the WBR 3 lap hilly today, 38 starters, didn't feel any quieter. I got stupidly hot in the garage though, may have to wait until it gets colder again!

8th, ended up in the second group, front two chipped off, couldn't go with them. Good fun. Not sure I actually like my turbo doing the resistance, feels like I'm fighting the gear all the time.

I did the wbr 4 laps of watopia flat and there were only 18 of us! I managed 5th but it was one of the best races in a long time, only 3 in a group but going at a really good tempo. One of the group decided to go for it on the last lap so i decided a team Sky style slow catch up was in order, i hauled him with about 30 metres to go, perfectly timed sprint.

816km in March, about 60% of that was on the mountain bike outdoors.

Passed 2000km for the year too.

Had a cracking ride with a mate, trails, forest, forest, trails, 50km and great coffee and cake mix ride. Lovely evening and fun at night. Epic!

I've packed up my turbo...

Hopefully? it won't see the light of day again til at least November.
Real world riding only now! Yay!

Not sure I actually like my turbo doing the resistance, feels like I'm fighting the gear all the time.

Yeah I did have it like that. The problem I then have is that I'm in the top 1-2 gears all the time, anything >300w is 100rpm+ And it tops out about 500w, which is a pain. Oddly I found it easier to stay in the group today with it adjusting the resistance, counter intuitive.

Oh, not sure that was a bright idea! P race at 3pm. 3 laps of volcano flat, which isn't really flat.
I was killed on the climbs and had to pull a group back from 4s down on 3 occasions! Which was proper proper tough.
Ended up losing them on next one and was just me and a Canadian for a sprint, I waited until 325m and nailed it and beat him.
12th in real time, but I expect a few to be sent home without pudding.
Good race and tough after a 50km last evening. I've pulled a muscle at the bottom of my bum now lol.

I waited until 325m

Sadly, the P race results are as usual a complete farce

Did you save it with the right name?

I just used the default, out of 30+ who raced only 4 have been marked as completing course. We got the banner and distance countdown etc along with the finishing graphic.
It's not a major issue for me, but it's the lack of reward from a dnf, which clearly i never.

Your Strava is saved as B. Change it to C and see if you get included?

Well there's only 1 guy in the A race and race2 was classed by them as B not C so i left it to default, it doesn't really matter as there's only 4 guys who finished, so the result is not significant other than not being an enforced DNF. I think it was a distance thing rather than a filename.

If you click the live tab, all looks good so it's the Strava data throwing it out.....

[img] [/img]

I tried a training workout thing yesterday evening. It was the SST (med) - sweet spot training apparently.

I found the 10 min warm up and warm down a bit tedious, but I guess it's probably best to do them. My normal warm down is about a 3 minute pootle.

Initially I didn't think it was asking me to work hard enough, but my legs were pretty whacked by the end. Weirdly, my heart rate stayed quite low for the duration (probably bounced around 143-148) with a peak of just over 150; normally the average is high 150s with a peak of high 170s.

I think I'll probably have a proper look through them & try to fit in one a week based around where I see my weaknesses.

Oh, and scaredypants gave me a ride-on! Thanks for that, it was appreciated but by the time I worked out how to reply I seemed to have missed the opportunity!

Weeksy - got a ride on from you but where the heck were you?

That was an interesting mgcc race, my set up was really slow to respond to my pedalling at the start so i was already 20 secs down on the group leader within about 30 secs. By box hill i was a minute down and hating the solo run but i kept churning away and by box hill on the next lap i caught up. I then had a race up there and then to the finish with a Cat A and i think he beat me by a wheel on the line. I thought i went up box hill pretty quick on the first lap but it seems yesterday i was 30 seconds quicker (7.53).
I had a bluetooth drop out which on previous set up signalled the end of your race as you stood still but with the smart trainer it didnt affect it very much which was a god send as i was pushing.

Was doing a little short race earlier and its bumped me to B on power.
I'm still not a B though.

https://www.zwiftpower.com/race.php?id=5563

Was a cracking race

Blader, I just saw you when I was searching for events, I wasn't riding at the time.

Oh, and scaredypants gave me a ride-on! Thanks for that, it was appreciated but by the time I worked out how to reply I seemed to have missed the opportunity!

The only real time that I know of to spot people you might know is at the start when anyone you follow (that's most folk with a stw in their name for me) shows up at the top. Other than that it's pure random luck who you ride past and how able you feel to grab the mouse and follow them to give a thumb

Ha - ninja ride-ons !

12th for me today in Kiss C- I love Zwift 🙂 best result yet by a mile

Was doing a little short race earlier and its bumped me to B on power.
I'm still not a B though.

https://www.zwiftpower.com/race.php?id=5563

Was a cracking race

I've done a few of those short races and the normal power categories aren't really relevant - even I've been bumped to B in one of them.

Was a cracking race

Deffo, i got great numbers, great HR and worked damn hard.... Wanted to give the legs a rest from 'distance' riding, but also wanted to give them a recent workout... So it worked out pretty much perfectly.

There used to be one of those 1 lap races at around 8am each morning and I found them ideal for a quick pre-work (when I'm WFH) session. Might only be 15 minutes of racing but it's very hard work.

I've packed up my turbo...

Hopefully? it won't see the light of day again til at least November.
Real world riding only now! Yay!

Me too. Subscription cancelled.

Easing back into the riding to work 3 times a week, evening & weekend MTB fun.

Glad it's over 🙂

Really ? I'm still finding it very useful.

Today for example i'll be outdoors on the trails, it's dry and fairly sunny, so rude not to. But there will be times it's VERY much needed. It's going to rain in the UK and rain plenty.... So will be horrific out there at times.

Yes, I only ever used it as a training tool for extended periods of bad weather over late autumn, winter & early spring - as soon as the weather started to turn my interest falls off a cliff with the turbo.

Zwift to be fair has kept me on it for a lot longer than usual though, so it's served a purpose 🙂

Apologies if this has already been covered. Now the light evenings are here, I can't see me using Zwift much until next winter. I imagine some people will be in the same boat? Are you just cancelling your subscription and rejoining in Winter? Seems obvious, any reason not to do this?

Zwift state that if you cancel, everything in your data will be retained for when/if you come back. So assuming you're not going to use it, there's really no reason not to cancel.

For £8 a month... i'll keep mine running.

Fun race with the WBR gang again today. 3 laps Watopia Hilly.

https://www.zwiftpower.com/race.php?id=5625

I had to laugh when i saw the guy Pax out there, who beat me by 1s yesterday, but today i had the beating of him. We hung together until the little climb just after the village sprint, then i gapped him a bit, it was all over by the time we did the 2nd KOM climb, i had 15s on him and was comfortable.
Looking at the names, there was a C ahead of me, put putting out about 3.6w/kg average, thinking to myself "he'll get a DQ for that... " but i caught and passed him anyway and then he threw in the towel and bailed. I know Pax is a B and Teasdale was close to me who's down as a B, so i was happy with how i was going. I ended up 11s ahead of Pax, but i cruised some of the last KM and 30+ ahead of Teasdale who seemed strong enough to do me until the last lap.

ZP has me currently at 3.14w/kg and Strava at weighted av power of 291w which is pretty high all round for me. Sadly, ZP doesn't seem to have catagorised the riders into ABCD which they did yesterday, so i'm looking at 18th place finish, which kinda disappoints me as i feel looking at the results/power, i'd likely have had a C class win.

It's hard at the moment to find C group races that fit in with my times and availability, but i'm enjoying it and working hard, so i'm not going to complain 🙂

Rest day tomorrow as due outside on Fri evening with Crust.