Zwift, my journey, my weight and my fitness.

Lol.... Zwift wasn't your thing not that long ago 😆
Strava was a once a month occurrence too 😀

Agreed. Strava is being used to map my distances, so I can see in detail that I'm putting in the hours, the PRs are not important but the distances are.
In first week of June we've got 7 days on 40-50km per day in Andalusia so needing the distance for that and then the SDW potential double, but certainly single

Did the Italian Gladiator race thingummy tonight, won by World CX Junior silver medalist Dan Tullet, he was incredible! 5.5w/kg, so he promptly got DQ'd, doubt he'll care!

My fastest time over 3 laps of Watopia Hilly, first time under 40 minutes and a PR on the climb, so quite pleased really.

Great stuff, personal records are always hard fought!

Under 2 minutes for the climb next target! I never have enough for the second bit, after the LH turn!

70km of trail fun today, up and around Stoke Row, Nuffield etc has some bloody excellent woodlands with tonnes of trails in them.

I cut my ride shorter than I planned, partly because when I stopped in Costa I couldn't find my bloody bank card! So I only had a snack bar on me for nutrition. I only found it again in the pocket of my under jersey! I put it there to keep it safe!
Also partly down to boredom. I was 4 hours out and my brain was bored. legs felt fine if a little tired after Friday and Sunday efforts, but they had plenty left in them, so I think I'm pretty well prepared for the upcoming events.

Relaxing now and trying to fight the urge to down half a dozen San Miguel's as I'm planning on shooting over to see CH race at Thruxton

That's my neck of the woods. Some great routes can be put together. I'm really hacked off with XC and intervals atm so will be putting some distance in over the next few weeks.

Deffo mate, some great routes around there. I broke a few bylaws and did whole of Grims. Loads of cool woods too!

Always up for a few miles if you want company. Xc/HT bike only, no drops here.

Despite being tired, the trails were calling me. It was sunny, dry, lovely, who am I to resist.
Decided to push on a few known segments and got lots of best evers, including a 9th overall on a climb that's 12min long.

Worked hard coming back and ended up with an average of 21.6kmh which is great considering some of the hills which obviously drags the averages down. One of the long flat segments coming back was 26.6kmh.

I did a WBR 4 lap flat race today...To say my legs were not playing ball is an understatement. However, my power figures etc seem to argue slightly, a couple of weeks ago i had a good race and got 272w average weighted according to Strava, today was 262w, so only very minimally down compared to that ride.
It felt hard... I think the weekend off needs to be the plan and way forward.

I've dropped Zwift down to once a week now for the moment - well, that's the plan anyway; out in the world the rest of the time.

I have started doing a 'workout' rather than just riding on the one session I am doing. I use the whatsonzwift website to find suitable workouts - seem to be working well so far.

I did the Hunter's Challenge Tractor Pulls on Monday and thought I was going to be sick or pass out!!
When I started on Zwift, 170W was about my average for a ride, but the workout I did on Monday had my 'rest efforts' at 180W, with the effort intervals at 330W!!

Went out on the road last night & felt very strong compared to how I have felt for the last 18 months or so. I was hoping for a PR or two, but no such luck so I am still a way off my quickest.

Already smashed last years mileage total and it's not even the end of April yet!

I did a WBR 4 lap flat race today.

You dropped me about 500m in... I was trying to hold onto your group but you were all 4.5w/kg+ at that stage and i thought "nah, won't bother, can't manage that"

I finished 2nd.... out of 4....

Weird Zwift goings on though as the guy in front of me finished 1s ahead, but was actually 13s ahead on the screen/road. Sad thing is, i backed off massively in the last 300m so i'd have beaten him... but wouldn't have felt like a moral victory as he was ahead.

It was a bit strange though as i had 40s on him and the Cat B who he crossed the line with with 1/2 a lap to go. Next thing you know the pair of them are at 5w/kg and closing insanely quickly. Even when they went past me it was only with 1km to go and they pulled 20s within that KM.

It's only a game Weeksy. I nearly won a race outright the other night until some 'whippet' came past at about 13 watts per kilo.

I don't know what all the obesity debate is about as everyone on Zwift appears to weigh less than 65kg.

Hahahahaha indeed... there were a few VERY light riders i agree. One of the A's was 53kg ! Although the guy who won D was 117kg ! epic performance from him there.

Heavier is better for a given power:weight in Zwift, so if you can put out 4w/kg you're better being 100kg than 70kg on everything except the mountain.

Heavier is better for a given power:weight in Zwift

Got to say I am loving Zwift but I need to get out on the road soon. Thinking about buying another dedicated turbo bike so that I can keep up the Zwift stuff.

Heavier is better for a given power:weight in Zwift, so if you can put out 4w/kg you're better being 100kg

If you can put out 400w average at 100kg you're not 100kg anyway lol

What do you mean?

400w is 400w, that's a very reasonable 4w/kg for someone of 100kg, but a monstrous 5.7w/kg for someone of 70kg.

Did the WBR 4-lap flat race tonight, I like London, I find the flat races harder though. Got into the front 4, but one guy kept trying to blow it up, bloody hard work chasing back on repeatedly! He succeeded in the end, couldn't go with the lead 2, rode with another guy and then dropped him with a couple of miles to go. Got 3rd, both in A and overall.

It's funny though, my average Zwift power (using a Vortex) is much higher than I ever do IRL, but the peaks are far lower. Only peaked at 670w today, felt much harder!

I'd have thought in honesty 4w/kg would be massive for someone of that weight as they're unlikely to be super fit as they're obviously 100kg. Doesn't matter, just seemed excessive to me.

Awesome work. I dream of doing well in B, let Alone A.

Thanks! I just go flat out from the gun (wind it up 5 seconds before), then just sit with the leaders as long as I possibly can. I'd sooner throw the race away and die a thousand deaths (not losing anything after all) than sit up and wait for a second group! 4 was a tough number though, once one's up the road there's not much group momentum to bring them back. We had a group of 6 about 30 seconds back, hard to work to keep them at bay.

I know what you mean about the 100kg rider, but it's pretty difficult to fake the actual power figure, so assuming the 400w is accurate(ish) then it's more likely they were 100kg than lighter. You'd be handicapping yourself to inflate your weight after all.

😆

just had a disatrous attempt at a workout in erg mode - my fault I'm sure.

Sooooo laggy but, on googling, it appears that I'm not supposed to change gear at all even when going from 100-odd W to 750

Think maybe I'll just DIY next time. Can't be that hard if I choose a flat route, right ?

duuuuuuuh

Would one of you regular zwifters be kind enough to explain power zones for me?
I'm a B group tail ender but often seem to end up with a lot of yellow in the colour coded column compared to those around me.
Does this just mean I'm trying harder given a limited ability? When I click on that column (yesterday's evr Europe race,)it puts me at the top, but in the race I was way down.
Thanks, Paul.

Do you race regularly outside in the real world ?

My graphs are pretty much ranked in the same order using the graphs as they are chronologially as I've either improved or learned to try harder and my FTP's gone up. I'm mid-pack B now and find that I use much more power in short bursts followed by stretches of hanging onto wheels and recovering. That makes me look like a lazy bastard compared to how I started (I've never raced outside though, so was very new to it).

If you're like me, you'll get faster and/but your graphs will "go green"

30 min warm up then joined the the sub2 ZHR. Which was more sub 3 at times. Pack went from 70 down to 10 with leader, i got bored faffing about and bailed after 50 min.

Thanks Scaredy, certainly don't do any racing and being relatively new to zwift probably treat it like a normal turbo session rather than a tatical race, just trundle around as hard as I can for as long as I can.
Guess I need to concentrate on harder efforts and recoveries in between.

Today's ride was ideal! 15km out with my boy. Talking rubbish, eating wine gums and playing at the park.
I was really pleased when he asked to come out as I wasn't sure I could face the ride on my own. Ive got somewhat sucked into riding for training not for pleasure at times, I try to keep an eye on it, like last Tues I went out alone and just explored. But I'm finding myself too often riding every mile like a Strava segment. So it was great to remove that from my mind and just cruise along.

My lad had a bit of a breakthrough moment he seems to have every year where he realises working hard won't kill him. Stuck down some great power and enjoyed his ride.

Got an Epic KOM yesterday. 16 whole people had been up there!

[img][url= https://c1.staticflickr.com/3/2944/34195071026_e394fcd462_z.jp g" target="_blank">https://c1.staticflickr.com/3/2944/34195071026_e394fcd462_z.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/U6GFh7 ]1492933145858[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/78228834@N00/ ]Bryan[/url], on Flickr[/img]

It's always cool when you get a jersey 🙂

I think it resets at different times of the day, so if you get it right, you don't have to actually go nuts to get one sometimes.

IIRC you get to wear the Jersey for an hour.

First Zwift race in over a month yesterday, 7 laps of the Volcano, lack of cycling showed and I got dropped on the 4th lap, did the last 3 at a sedate pace and think I came last in C.

I did notice that even though i've been training outdoors a fair bit, you kinda lose the Zwift intensity if you don't do it.. As with anything i guess, you lose the edge, what you may gain in other departments you don't necessarily keep all the bits you want for Zwifting.
I seem to have lost the ability to hit 160+ for a long Zwift.... I'm now sort of semi-cruising around 155bpm instead. Which kind of fits in with the outdoors activities i've been doing lately.

Due to a few circumstances i will be Zwifting a bit more this week, but the racing fields look a bit lacking 🙁

You get it until someone beats your time surely? But as Weeksy says the times reset every day (not sure when), so if you're the first person to post a time then you get a jersey by default.

You get it until someone beats your time surely?

No, you only get the jersey for an hour max, presume your time is then erased from leaderboard? [url= https://support.zwift.com/hc/en-us/articles/204866145-Segments-Jerseys-and-Time-Limits ]here[/url]

So they never clear the times entirely, you just don't get the jersey after an hour? Seems confuddling

Cracking race, Zwift race, 3 laps volcano flat.

Hard hard from the start, had a bunch of 8, then on start of lap 2 is was 6, then 5. then 4 of us.... Into the volcano on lap 3, i'd lost the wheel up the incline before you turn right out to the volcano.... then caught back... but inside volcano i lost it again....and couldn't get it back.
Last 2/3 lap was a solo effort... but DAMN i tried !

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I'll be interested to see how it compares to my other circuits of the same 3 lap there.

Great ride, nice one!

I tried a TT, didn't really like it, really pleased with my consistency and figures, but much more dull than a race. Turned off the smart trainer so I could just maintain a steady power more easily and aimed for 320w, managed to average 331w, which I'm sure is a gross overstatement of my abilities, but meh, I'll take it!

Results show me as winning, which i clearly didn't, was 4th over the line, bit weird. Never thought I'd voluntarily turbo train on a dry April day!

Yeah I've found myself on Zwift this evening too, popped on to do a quick 45 min session and noticed there was a group ride "Back to work" so joined in with that.

Was good, nice and chilled until I got distracted reading a text and then had to make up 20s gap by doing 30 secs at 520w lol.

Maybe Zwift does have a place in my life still after all...

I like the ease of getting kitted and knocking it out and the consistency of power/effort. Today Mrs Weeksy was heading out so I didn't have time for a decent outdoors ride, so I jumped on and killed myself, high hr, consistently high, the some minor surges, but minor rests, on the MTB you get far longer to rest, but on zwift racing its just endless effort.
I kind of got frustrated in my race as I eased off 15s too early as my arse needed a rest, but I lost 4s in a heartbeat, I thought I'd crested the hill but I misjudged it. The tow was then gone and so was I!
But I finished a sweaty pouring mess!

Tomorrow is QECP. If anyone is reading this and fancies showing me round for 55 min it would be great

I tried a TT, didn't really like it, really pleased with my consistency and figures, but much more dull than a race

I guess i just didn't get any of the group benefits, it was very mildly more interesting than doing a 'normal' turbo session, but I raced myself, which isn't as much fun! A guy did a crazy negative split too, could see him catching me the whole of the second lap, but knew I was going as hard as I could! Definitely prefer the drafting, once you get the hang of it.

Racing outdoors wasn't appealing so tried my first race ever this morning, the ZHR masters. Rather enjoyed it. Start wasn't as mental as I expected, maybe masters is more sedate 🙂 Got a bit out of position going into the hill on the last lap (hilly route) which lead to the winning gap, rode to the finish in a group of two with a real life club mate who did me for 2nd in the sprint. Might try that again sometime.

Did the WBR race this morning, more people in it than i expected. I couldnt be bothered to hammer out the start as i am on a new bike so unsure of the set up and i only joined with seconds to spare so no warm up. I just stayed with what ever group was nearby, it contained about 6 riders and was a good pace. It was all set up for a sprint finish so i waited till the last second and went for it, turns out it was a sprint from a long way out but managed to overtake them all in the last 50m and win by 0.2s, epic timing but i was a bit of a sweaty mess.
Seems like i got the bike set up bang on without really checking anything, i am sure a little tweak will be had further down the line.

Excellent

Okay I fancy a race.

Kiss Pacific at 2:10pm, wish me luck 🙂