STW Zwift Race Series 3 – Winter

There was a culpable omission from my little race report (especially as I had a front row seat for some of it): that was a great win by @benman. It took him more than one attack to get clear, it regrouped several times, and his preferred terrain came early where it was least helpful. Very impressive.

Really suffering today, legs are in bits and desperately trying not to eat all the biscuits in the house.

Will add my thanks to @robbo1234biking for organising, if I wasn’t signed up to race I would have just sat on the sofa last night feeling fed up with everything, so this race series is really helping me mentally. Hopefully when the weather/lockdown situation improves it will have helped my fitness too.

Just to give Robbo a bigger ego boost…I can highly recommend the workout series that Robbo has set up for myself, Stumpy and Rob every Monday and Friday early doors. I really noticed a difference last night in keeping the power down for longer and I’m pushing higher numbers in all of my recent ZP events, so something is working. Psychologically it helps to know what power I am able to hold in the workouts and for how long.

So, if you can make the workout sessions, it helps!! 6-45am Monday and Friday.

Robbo… are you able to share the workout at all?
email it perhaps? can it work that way?!

DrP

I would be interested in this too if poss!! 😃

Also keen on the training, can the session be joined, if i can get out of bed

@Drp @zilog6128 @karnali

Happy to share the workouts. Disclaimer: I am not a coach – I have just found this works for me over the past 18 months of getting interested in cycling training but didn’t find any of the Zwift/TrainerRoad offerings fitted in with what I wanted to do outside of structured training.

It is 2 sessions a week – one on SS and one focussing on VO2 max. We currently do them 6.45am on Monday’s and Friday’s. It is in 6 week blocks so 5 weeks on with a recovery week which will be less intense (but also allow for races). The current block is likely the easiest with the aim to progress to over/unders on the next block.

I am happy to share the workouts. You just need to place them in your username folder on your Zwift directory assuming that you are using a laptop. They are .fit files so I would have to email them out.

If you can make the sessions that is great. If you want to join in PM your email address and I will send out the workouts and I will add you onto the invite list. We have elastic band on so we all stay together and each session is adjusted to your own FTP so we work to different power figures but the same comparative frequency. If you cant make the sessions then I am still happy to share the workouts for you to complete at a time to suit you.

Monday morning SS work is a great way to start the week to be honest – it sets you up for the week ahead in a positive mindest (assuming you work Mon-Fri!).

So, I did my first ever Crit with a visit to Downtown Dolphin. That was double bad news.

Firstly I’ve learned that flat Crits just aren’t my strong point. And secondly it wrung an FTP increase out of me.

So @robbo1234biking please put me down for 280W.

Well done @J-R on the increase! Good fun those crits ain’t they?

They are evil and with sprint and fast lap points available next week even more evil.

Congrats on the increase @j-r.

Congrats on the increase j-r (he says rubbing his hands in glee!!)

Robbo, not sure if you noticed my increase. 266, not as much as j-r’s, but an increase is an increase.

Got FTP increases for J-R and w00dster and weight decreases for DrP.

It will be 5 second gaps on the handicap this week – needs to be pretty tight as the whole field is pretty close this week. The fast guys will be a few seconds a lap quicker but that is all. You wont get the big gaps we got on the TT as the hill was such a big differentiator.

Lots of people doing Crits this week as well which is good to see. The addition of the Crit and the TT has encouraged people to try some new stuff on Zwift which cant be a bad thing!

Absolutely. Like who in their right mind would do a MTB TT or Crit!:)

I’ll be riding Tue. Although not racing. Don’t worry about a handicap for me, I won’t be threatening a point. Which is s shame as the legs feel great and I think I’d do better in this one than any other.

@weeksy. Good to see you were back in the saddle today.

Thanks matey. First time back and feel ok. Back to work next week too. Well, back to the sofa.

@robbo1234biking – would you mind updating my stats for this week’s handicaps?

Not a massive change, but my weight has changed – now 74kg.

No change to my FTP.

Dunno if that will affect things, but thought it worth mentioning.

Good to see the recovery is going well @weeksy

@stumpy01 will update the weight for you.

2 people with weight losses this week – clearly some have their eye on the climb at the end of Keith hill after party!

2 people with weight losses this week – clearly some have their eye on the climb at the end of Keith hill after party!

I’d forgotten about that!
Chub club and the shock of an XL label 🤣 are the main motivators for me!!

The Wispa i just nicked out of my daughter’s treat tin probably wasn’t a great idea!

Great to see you back @weeksy …just take your time!

Gave Repack Ridge a go as a warm up before my TdZ Stage 4 ride today. Got 8min 20 and 9 stars so I am top of the leaderboard!

Can I ask what steering set up people are using for repack ridge? I currently have nothing so would I just need a phone mount for my bars? What do you need under your front wheel?

I have something like this for mounting my phone to the handlebar but it came for free with something my wife brought for running with.

Byking Bike phone holder, 360° rotatable universal bicycle phone mount for smartphones up to 6.7″, phone holder for bike motorbike scooter trolley, silicon anti-shake https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B08BK43YSX/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_fabc_fpedGbKCD7104

But anyway of mourning your phone you can come up with. You only need small movements of the handlebars.

I have an Elite Sterzo (the dumb one) under the front wheel but i got it not for steering but for a bit more movement on the front end after I snapped some stem bolts attempting a sprint. Prior to that I had a couple of goes by pumping up the front tyre pretty high and putting a glass chopping board under the front wheel as it was low enough friction to turn the handlebars the small amount that you need.

Did Repack Ridge myself this afternoon as well. Timed at 6.53 and 7 stars. Room for improvement. Steering setup: Rubber phone mount on bars. Birdseye potato waffle cardboard box (empty and flat) with baking paper on top. Works a treat:)

Good effort @slowpuncheur. That is quite a steep hill at the end! Couldnt even give me an hour at the top of the leadboard!

Did Repack Ridge myself this afternoon as well. Timed at 6.53 and 7 stars.

Impressive! Given the momentum loss if you don’t get a clean line, you should have an even better time without too much trouble.

Handicaps for Tuesday.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1QPxMGqez2VsN-4mD17f90t06NzqSLMMoGe4cUEK1E3U/edit#gid=132045316

Cheers Robbo, that’s going to interesting on Tuesday.

It will need a early break away for the big hitters to have a chance of making enough back on the handicap. I foresee some massive watt bombs are going to be dropped up that short climb.

I’m not sure there are enough to get away. Going to be basically a TT level effort again to try and break the tow.

Sorry I’m a bit late Robbo but I’ve just completed another half monty ramp test and my ftp came out at 240W so up by 10 from 3 weeks ago. Weight is now 74kg so another kilo lost too. I had planned to do the test on Saturday but had not sufficiently recovered from Thursdays tt!

Did repack tonight while testing new drive chain. Clocked a ‘super fast’ 12.40 with 3.5 stars. It’s basically uncontrollable on a rocker plate with the companion app.

@drew will double check your handicap for tomorrow night later.

Nixie – not that it matters that much but can you put a bit of wood between the plates on both sides to get rid of the rocking effect?

Yeap going to try that for the next attempt. It was a really weird experience. Sometimes turning the bars worked just fine, sometimes you could steerer using body weight movement on the rocker alone. Then other times I full explored the limits of the road, including inside the cliff face (where I found a plant growing :D).

8 or 12?

Description says 12, but companion says 8

8 laps. Got a bit overexcited at first and thought about making it 12!

Mmmm 8. Lol mmmm

12 works for me 😋.

It’ll be more like 9… the start is just after the lap counter, so you basically do 2 laps to register the first!

DrP

I think it still counts that lap from the pens as one of the laps DrP – at least the total race length indicates that anyway.

I feel like a longer steadier race would suit me better tonight – not sure I am suited to 20 mins of all out racing!