There’s some nice setups in this thread. And then there are the others 😉

I have that tabletop fan and the cheap-o wind turbine from Screwfix pointing upward. I was tempted by those vac-masters as I do run pretty hot. Don’t do any racing tho, so don’t really care about actual FTP as long as it’s going in the right direction. Opening the two windows and the door (to the right of the first photo) makes a big difference in winter as long as it’s not raining!

Use my old iMac as it’s going spare. Runs Ultra fine except when you’re on a group ride with lots going on and 100+ riders. Then it has a bit of a melt down. Sonos BT speaker works for me. Suspended membership in May, think I’ll be back on tonight. New interface looks a lot better, prob go training plan to ease myself back in.

Race in 15 mins with lots of riders. I’ll be in C

how was it Weeksy??

DrP

how was it Weeksy??

Usual story on Classique for me mate… Bit lacking in the last 2km. Once we hit that little kicker back up past the statues, i’m deep deep in the red and struggling…. I then stayed in until the last 300m and was doing OK, but as we get to the last 300m it all goes orange as everyone hits 9-10w/kg for the line… I struggle with knowing how/why i don’t have any sprint at all.. but the reality is, i don’t.

so finished 19th and 1.7s behind the winner… it’s funny that 1.7 sounds close, but it’s a whole different postcode.

It was my 4th race this week though, so i was happy enough.

I struggle with knowing how/why i don’t have any sprint at all.. but the reality is, i don’t.

I feel your pain… give me a long hard push up a hill and I can creep past one and all (fairly light, fairly good FTP), but the bigger boys always outsprint me!

I’m going to focus on teh sprint sessions in teh training plans more I think..

DrP

Thanks to the really helpful picture posting thread, here’s my pain cave.

I’m currently driving a 23” monitor from a laptop, but am tempted to go for a much bigger screen like some of the other setups. I currently mount the monitor quite low because I found I got neck pain if I spend ages bent over the bars looking upwards. But now I’m retired and don’t spend all day in front of a screen for work, I hope that problem will have disappeared.

I have a cheap fan on a stand behind me and a Screwfix fan on the ground in front. But in the winter I leave the room CH rad off and am happy riding with the window open a little and the Screwfix fan on full, the back fan is only needed in the summer when I’m riding IRL anyway.

Here’s mine:

I’m not allowed to cycle outside for a while (medical issue) so have been zwifting for a few months, 2 or 3 rides a week. Just started doing a few races.

Garage is a bit of a mess, but the rear panel of the kit car makes a good shelf for the fan.

Some nice set-ups here! I’ve just bought a Kickr Core and am about to start getting my set-up sorted. I was thinking of running Zwift on an old-ish Huawai P20 and linking to my TV via an HDMI cable. Will this work or will it be painfully slow? Trying to get it set-up on a bit of a budget!

I’m just getting back into it too. A month or two of injury, long holidays and a lot of excuses has seen my fitness fall off a cliff. Did a Cleveland Wheelers 12 mile TT tonight, and I was knackered. Shocking how fast you fall…

I was going to say our TT isn’t 12 miles or on a Tuesday then I remebered what thread I was reading…
Planning on more outdoor and TR only this winter.

Well got back on the electronic horse today. A few thoughts

1) the new UI is way better, I even like the “Space 1999” font

2) it’s still not very interesting doing group rides

3) Zwift fitness is a thing. 50 minutes of a ‘C’ group ride and I was blowing

4) My bottom hurts 😉

5) The game seems more stable. We have eeked a bit more bandwidth out of our SIM connection so I wonder if that’s helping.

Also forgot to turn the big fan onto full power. Was on the wrong side of sweaty-mess at the end.

I’ve also dived back on Zwift in the last week. Hit Stage 1 of the ZRacing series at lunch … oh man I forgot how much these hurt. I still seem to be at the pointy end of cat C mind which is a positive.

Hoping the STW series return, anyone know if Robbo is planning another season at all?

Did my first ever Zwift race yesterday – the Alpe du Zwift one at 5:30

Can definitely see the attrction, holds your attention much better than just picking a workout.

However, I suspect that my 1x42t set-up with a bar end shifter is going to be woefully inadequate in flatter races, and I can”t face riding up that bloody hill too often. Does anyone use a 1x set-up for racinng and if so, what size ring are you using?

(also: stealth wtd ad for a 10spd SRAM double tap shifter)

I’ve had a couple of goes with a pace partner this week. Definitely an improvement on group rides! But annoying that you don’t get much chance to warm up.
Also scarily easy to get dropped- which helps keep your focus.

90 mins following a z2 pace partner is about a billion times more interesting than a TR z2 workout that’s for sure! And the result almost identical. (Slightly above, slightly below and ultimately averaging on your chosen wattage).
The lighter PP on a slightly hilly route helped that effect. Whereas the heavier one on a flatter route have a flatter power profile.

The lack of warm up is the only real negative to the pace partner. A nice addition would be pedal assist a a gradual reduction for 5 minutes.

I’ve been using the pace partners for pre event warmup and training. Also do intervals by dropping back and sprinting back on (or go off the front and recover while group catches).

You can just Free Ride the course where your desired PP is then wait for them to come round before joining them. Obviously works best on shorter circuits.

They’ve at least added the facility to be able to see where the PP is on the course now, it was almost impossible before – handy if you’re trying to complete the badge for that course too and don’t want to join them they’ve already just cross the finish.

Here’s my current setup. Thinking of adding a kickr fan to replace the silver gym fan as it is noisy.

Short sub 20min events, sometimes with custom finishes and multiple races within the hour, do seem to gaining popularity of late in terms of number of events and number of riders.

Team Electric Spirit lunch sprints at 1215 mon-fri still going.
Mini Mountain Massiff TT is now a double-header with 30mins between race starts at 1200 and 1815 on Thurs (did 3 yesterday).
Zwift Insider quadruple-header with 15mins between race starts still going on Sat, starting 0900 and 1500 BST (hoping to attempt more than one after work tomorrow afternoon for a first time).
etc.

Am i the only one who spunked a load of cash on the Wahoo fan…..

i’ve got one, and the desk, but they don’t really play together do they, the desk blocks the air flow as per DCRainmaker

did you know you can control it with a Wahoo head unit?

@n0b0dy0ftheg0at what cat. Hoping to join the 4 B events tomorrow afternoon.

did you know you can control it with a Wahoo head unit?

Is there any setting other than full for fans?

@nixie C for now.

Does anyone use a 1x set-up for racinng and if so, what size ring are you using?

Yes, same as you 42T ring. Mostly use gears 10/11

Do you adjust the trainer difficulty at all?

No, 50%.

That gives me 300w at 78 cadence on flat.

Was just wondering if you ran out gears on the downhills. My understanding of the trainer difficulty is that by reducing it, you reduce the differences, but not the effort required.

Will see how I get on. Cheers!

Am i the only one who spunked a load of cash on the Wahoo fan…..

I’ve just put the bike back on the trainer and will be seeing how much my FTP has dropped tonight!

Defo gonna start Zwift racing properly, i did one Cat C last year and managed to win it!

I’m thinking of getting one if that helps!

Would you recommend one?
I’m a bit concerned that I don’t have enough room to get it the right distance in front of me.

Just the right thread to get me back on the indoor trainer.

My setup, with no prizes to what I’ll be doing in ten minutes or so.

Even have the obligatory STW Lego on display.

Behind the bike for good measure is another toy with some inspiration that I need to use more.

Think I finally cracked uploading pictures after years of posting here…

Elite Smart Trainer, Apple TV 4K, 42 inch TV and 20 inch fan.

Managed to do last winter by copying training rides from the internet, YT or blogs and adjusting the trainer resistance via the Elite App. Didnt fancy that this year so have picked up the Apple Tv, TV stand and set up a spare TV I had in the loft.

Question for those using Zwift, do you guys do your recovery rides in zwift and your zone 2 stuff? I MTB mainly so my outside rides count as my work outs and I’ll sit on the trainer for the above, I had a scan through Zwift but couldnt see any recovery or base stuff in there…although this may be because the Apple TV remote with the touch is god awful, I am already regretting not spending the extra on the newer one with better remote!

I do my zone 2 stuff on zwift. Tend to join an appropriate pace partner instead of a workout.

Odd the Wahoo desk blocks the fan!
I’ve put a top-cap garmin mount on my turbo bike as even having my phone (with a garmin sticker thing) out front is enough to block airflow to my face significantly!

DrP

I do my zone 2 stuff on zwift. Tend to join an appropriate pace partner instead of a workout.

I’ve been interested in this, find it very hard to do recovery/endurance rides indoors, I think mainly because of the boredom (and the discomfort! Twiddling Z1 for an hour on the rollers actually gets uncomfortable after a while, too much weight through hands and bum instead of legs…).

Do you find it more bearable on Zwift? I wasn’t sure if having a virtual partner and some fancy graphics would make it any less boring once the novelty had worn off

I’ll be doing the 2nd race of the zwift racing series tonight, with Dino costume if there’s enough people in that race, without if not!

Hoping to better my last result and get into the mid-pack, last week I was 72nd of 102 (final results on zwiftpower).

Then my 2nd ramp test as part of the TrainerRoad plan, 6 weeks of sweet spot base has ended, another 6 weeks ahead with a bit more variety.

And yes, doing endurance/z2 stuff with a pace partner is much more bearable than without.

Yes find the pace partner more bearable. Maybe because its me rather the ERG controlling the power and paying attention so you don’t get dropped. The chat can sometime be good as well.

Do you find it more bearable on Zwift? I wasn’t sure if having a virtual partner and some fancy graphics would make it any less boring once the novelty had worn off

Yup…significantly…

Riding round with C Cadence pace partner seems to make time fly…
But as some have said… if you lose the group (i.e whilst texting!) then you REALLY gotta sprint to catch up!

DrP

But as some have said… if you lose the group (i.e whilst texting!) then you REALLY gotta sprint to catch up!

I’ve lost the group before and even doing massive watts they’re impossible to catch!

Still, shouldn’t be an issue if you’re using the PP for Z2 work, just requires a little concentration to stay with them. And you can still vary your output by leading off the front (less draft) or by hanging back when a sprint is coming up then going for that with the added draft from the ‘blob’.

Tried one of the Z Series races yesterday. Bloody hell! Hooked ;o)

1×42 was plenty and I dialled down the trainer difficulty to 30% to compensate for the variations in gradient. Seemed to work well but you don’t get that instant feedback that the gradient’s changing. Think I prefer the other extreme tbh and will try a 50t.

Barend shifter’s being replaced by an old double tap too.

Got caught out by the category enforcement as well. I haven’t tested since June and entered cat C thinking I’d be down on power. Combination of not being tactically aware enough yet and apparently not having lost power means it’s cat B for me next time!

Maybe because its me rather the ERG controlling the power and paying attention so you don’t get dropped.

Aha, this makes it even more attractive, I’d probably be doing it on dumb rollers so would be based off virtual power anyway (yes yes, I know all the drawbacks etc. but that’s just how I train). Might be reason enough to by a crank-arm power meter

I recently attempted to get back into zwift as my outdoor opportunities seem to be dwindling. However I cannot load the latest up date, I’ve tried several times and it’s either crashing or taking forever, I’ve removed the app and reinstalled and still can’t get it to work so held my subscription for now. In the mean time Ive tried other trainer apps like rouvvy and rcg but they just don’t same as good after a short try.

Anybody have any ideas of how to get zwift working again, I’ve never had an issue before.

Cycling wise I’ve gradually faded in fitness both endurance and FTP wise, my old shorter routes now feel twice as hard and are leaving me feeling knackered and I’m struggling to maintain 230/240 watts for any period of time. Well down from my old 327w whilst my weights increased.

Re the wahoo fan – it was a gift, i don’t think it is worth the money.

Yes any desk gets in the way of it, but I also could not get it far enough in front of me to be where i wanted the air flow, and its a stupidly fixed position.

I put it up on the wall pointing down, which is ok if you have a wall, and it works well enough, but I usually just use the other fan as that is simple voice activated ‘alexa, I’m dying here, get the fan on’.

I did the 4 ZI tiny races this Saturday, they were just right for me, somehow finishing 52nd in the league, a much coveted position, especially as ZP had me down as borderline c/d earlier this month.

I’ll be doing the stage 2 race at 5:10 most days this week to see if I can improve.