Zwift, my journey, my weight and my fitness.

47 entrants ! Damn that's a decent field at the moment !

Joining weeksy??

not finishing work until 2.05 and need to drive home 🙁

Otherwise i'd have been in like a shot.

I'm looking at the 3pm but it only has 9 riders and not sure i can be bothered for a 9 rider race.

I also really ought to rest my legs.

Just switched it on to take a look - that's a fairly aggressive race

... and there's some rider on a workout smashing out 750w every now & then, to give people a wheel to chase ! 😆

5/40 on my first race in agesssss! https://zwiftpower.com/race.php?id=6385

Totally missed the 3 leaders pull away, otherwise I would have gone after them, definitely caught napping! Stuck in with the mini pack we had going on, doing more than my fair share at the front chasing "smith" for him later to be DQ'd 😆 , but getting better at drafting so that's a bonus.

I did what I do in real life, be as lazy as possible for as long as possible. Had a lazy spring finish and didn't see 4th place sneak past me very close to the line otherwise I would have put more effort in 😳

(No idea what's going on with my HR there, I think the battery needs changing...)

Good fun!

Zwift volcano flat again here. 3 laps.

Got in group and we were flying along. Dumped on lap 3 on the hill out of the village.... me and 2 others... couldn't hang on....

Stayed with them 2 and mullered them in a sprint.

Race time was over 2 mins quicker for me than on Tues !

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Nice one weeksy!

Saw your group fly past me when I was cooling down 🙂

Christ no wonder I got pipped at the line!!! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casper_von_Folsach

Zwift race results are bloody rubbish. Monday I seemed to finish 1km less than the only rider who finished actually rode. So today I rode further after race, but again I'm not convinced its going to work.

Christ no wonder I got pipped at the line!!!

He was probably on a zone 2 day 😉

Nathb - he was an Olympian nearly 5 years ago so he is probably all washed up and aged now and you are representing STW, this is not good enough and thus you have been removed from pudding duties tonight!

Good work Weeksy, not done a Volcano race before so hoping there is one tomorrow for me to have a crack at.

Totally missed the 3 leaders pull away, otherwise I would have gone after them

@mrblobby - look how much more effort I put in too, definitely not got this drafting thing honed in yet...

@blader1611 - sorry, next time I see him I'll put more effort in 😥

@scaredypants - that'd explain how quickly they pulled away from us then!!

I really do find it VERY hard to have rest days... I've ridden a fair bit this month, currently on 30 hours and 752Km. Which, depending on the next few days could end up being my highest mileage month of all time. Considering i've done a decent chunk of them mile outside this month too it's quite a bit for me. I've had 2 days off in the last fortnight, so this will be day 3.
But i REALLY want to get on and ride, legs don't feel too bad and i'm a bit bored and owed a lunch break from work... LOL.... It's HARD !

Weeksy i know what you mean. It was my rest day today so i did the KISS race this morning! Yet again another perfectly timed sprint at the end to beat the group i was riding with. I am a very below average cyclist but i do seem to have a knack of timing my sprint well and by the way i am a terrible sprinter too.

Had another go at a workout tonight (Hi Weeksy!) - better, but still can't work the "erg" thing properly (need to have a proper bugger about with settings, I think - as well as learning just to keep a steady pace and let the computer sort the resistance)

Did the EVR Asia Race (45 km) earlier. https://zwiftpower.com/race.php?id=6487

Completely messed up the start as only got on the bike with 30 seconds to go, it meant I had to put down power on cold legs which is never good for me! So yeah the other As pulled away without me, so played donkey for the B's, catching A cat stragglers along the way.

In the sprint finish I only managed to get 8th by milliseconds, although not according to zwiftpower. There's a HUGE delay in the Vortex's power to zwift (it was calibrated last night too). Definitely going to refit the power meter for future ones.

Worked quite hard:
1 hour = 285W
30 min = 304w
20 min = 313w

FTP is 315W...

[img] [/img]

I found massive lag with my Vortex too. Drafting was really tricky! Didn't have a power meter attached the time that I tried it. Might have another go in a few months.

Worked quite hard:

Only done one zwift race but it definitely felt tougher than the avg watts suggest (which I expected as I'm not that good at coping with the big over/under efforts you get in that sort of racing.) I was also expecting that to be reflected in quite a big gap between avg and NP power but it was surprisingly only about 5 watts.

Btw, why is it that on Zwiftpower I only get a 20 min power and not the 5, 1, and 15s? (e.g. 3rd line on this one [url= https://www.zwiftpower.com/race.php?id=6376 ]here)[/url] Is it something in Strava that's not set up properly?

Sometimes it just takes a few hours etc bfore all data is imported in.

Thanks weeksy. Odd that it has 20 but not the others.

Edit... seems to be a bit of a match between those that have the power profile stuff on ZwiftPower and those that are strava premium members. Is that it?

I'm not a premium Strava but i do have a Zpower profile created and associated.

Btw, why is it that on Zwiftpower I only get a 20 min power and not the 5, 1, and 15s? (e.g. 3rd line on this one here) Is it something in Strava that's not set up properly?

From that screenshot it looks like the strava account is not registered against ZP looking at the others in tha race with missing data that seems to be constant.

Doh! I'd put my Strava ID in the Zwift ID field in my profile. What a nincompoop 😳

Due to the first rain we've had in 2 months I used Zwift twice this week, both times in was a workout. Yesterday's should have been a race but for some reason it didn't take me to the start line with a few minutes to go, really annoying as I got on early so had a boring 25 minute warm-up waiting for it. Did the 30 minute workout after which was OK on the legs but had me hyperventilating. I didn't read the plan correctly, I was gasping at the end of the first 370w x 1 minute block but was expecting at least a minute steady before the next, I was still gasping when the next block started 30 seconds later!
Related to comments above the trainer (Tacx Flow) does not respond quickly in ERG mode so the 750w x10s blocks means I can't get up to power until 5s in (but then have 5s after but in means I don't get a full star).

mrblobby - Do you have an account on ZwiftPower? Not sure but you might need to link ZP and your Stava account.

@mrblobby - how do you "verify" for those masters races ?
I like the idea of age grp races but I have nothing in real life to vouch for who I am (beyond strava rides)

Did the zwift race today and was pretty comfortable throughout but i was in a large group all setting up for a sprint finish. My recently required skill (ok it pure bloody luck) of timing my sprint to perfection was going to be tested today with i think at least 8 of us contesting it, i went for it just over 300m out and was probably the first to wind it up. Well lady luck was with me again as i powered all the way to the line to win with a couple of tenths to spare. I officially now go by the name of sprint king!

blimey, blader - congratulations

what power are you producing at the end of a race ? Me, lucky to muster 600w as a 15 second average if it's been a fast (or climby) race

Not sure to be honest scaredypants, i am normally head down looking at the floor. How can i find out?

Only way I know is to look at the screen and average it in my head - I suppose strava would tell you too

head down

<ahem>

Wow what a race. Just simply astounding.

5 laps London classique kiss europe

Epic 15 man battle for the full 5 laps. Not sure where I ended up in the sprint. But what a race. There were 12 Bs and 3 Cs in the group. Every time I thought I'd dropped the main C, a guy called Broski, suddenly he was back.
We bunched up again after a small split on horse guards hill and all came onto the straight together. It was chaos. Broski went at 500m. I was waiting until 250 but kicked after him, I was pulling 600+w to the line but although I closed right up on him, I missed out.
I had nothing left thought. Lots of 'awesome' and 'puke' text chat after race tells me that we all enjoyed it.

Oh man. It looks like Broski is a DQ on first count. That would be very unfair

https://www.zwiftpower.com/race.php?id=6509

Well done Weeksy...I'm busy looking for a BroskiBeat joke

I did the 7.30 XRS - field was a bit too small really. Lost the lead group after a couple of laps and ended up just 3 of us, mixing in with the odd free rider moving at similar speeds every now & then, so not that much drafting on offer

Last 2 laps, one of those two got away (I didnt see him go in a bunch of other riders but it'd have hurt to chase him) and I rode in with a "cissy girly" who then mercilessly kicked my arse in the sprint (i.e. she had one and I didn't)

My HR was over 160 throughout and maxed at 170 which I've not actually reached before. I am ****ed !

Just done a 13.1 mile TT, paced it brilliantly if I do say so myself (just -1% in the last half). Brutal though as I was fighting to keep my breakfast down, I'd only had it an hour or so earlier.

I was happy with the result of 3rd, until I saw the Zwiftpower results!?!?

https://zwiftpower.com/race.php?id=6663

120kg and it was up boxhill too. I'm claiming the victory 😆

LOL 542W but not on Strava and not on a smart trainer... Yeah, i'm not accepting that at all.

Awesome performance fella... Very impressive.

Sorry i didn't make it for the event, but i was a bit tired as by the time i saw you i was 50 mins into my ride and the plan was to stick to 120bpm max today... which i exceeded on the 2nd box climb anyway. But either way, i wasn't up for racing.

Speaking of which, i've now had 3 wins in C and 2 silvers, all in the last 8 races, so i'm guessing that despite the fact i've not actually broken the Cat boundaries, it's really time to move on and up out of the class. So from now on, i'll be setting my stall out in B cat.

Funnily too, the Isaac is coming back into my garage as the owner is having a clearout and getting rid of 4 tonnes of cycling stuff, one of them was going to be the Isaac, so he didn't want any cash for it, so would be rude for me not to take it. This does of course mean i'll be open again to using it out in the real world once i get it back. However, first i'll be sorting out the seatpost and i ideally want/need to keep both improving in fitness and also need to drop weight before you'll see me back out in a short circuit.
I'll keep an eye on the Racing thread and maybe sometime this year you'll see me pinning on a number again and jumping in there.

850km i rode in April, which is my lifetime longest... So i feel i'm certainly getting the quantity, although without the structure of CH etc.

Thanks weeksy!

Fibre grip will sort out your seatpost, and possibly a better seat clamp such as: http://www.wiggle.co.uk/bbb-bsp-80-the-strangler-seat-post-clamp/

I think you'd enjoy Hillingdon much more than Abington, it's more interesting and the group bunches up more. The "Big events" are getting good feedback from those taking part as well organised and safe too.

I'm sticking to Zwift for the short term, my racing career is on hold. 😆

As for structure.. I've kindly asked CH to help me pull together a plan, he seems to know his stuff 😆

Seatpost I'll get one of them doubles, grips post and frame in different diameters.

My issue with Hillingdon is handling. I'm not really a roadie. But then again, I'm not sure how many of them are either based upon threads!

We can convert you yet!! Just about holding your line and drafting as much as possible.

KISS race at 10am tomorrow is looking the favourite tomorrow.

Swapped from the Vortex to the 4iiii power meter - it's much quicker to react to changes in power and cadence. This enabled me to really nail down drafting which I think is reflected in these numbers:
https://zwiftpower.com/race.php?id=6711

Oh yeah, and my first victory this year! 😆

And my HR appears to now top out at 205 😯

Nice work!

Nice result Nathb, that looked like a close race.

I did my first TT race on zwift today and i am a bit confused. I thought it was judged on time after the warm up lap but the results look like the order in which we finished at the line( i finished 9th). I didnt gun it from the start as i thought there was little point, i guess i should have joined the discord channel to ask questions. Anyway i managed an avg of 280w/3.5w/kg and i think that also included the warm up lap , had a lond period of thigh burning i guess due to lack of draft. It felt a lot harder and longer than the 28km it was, pretty red faced and sweaty after that.

Thanks guys!

There are no warm up laps, it's just an oddity of Zwift. Soon as the counter hits -10 seconds gun it.

Anyone for the 4.15pm Watopia Hilly ? I want to enter as it suits my timings, but with very low Zwift numbers today on entries, i'm not sure i can be bothered.

You may be on your own
4 days of uninterrupted sunshine forecast for most of the UK.

Looking out the window, i thought i lived in the UK, but clearly not. It's overcast and looking windy as hell in Berks.