Zwift meetups and social rides ?

I’m an idiot and need to practice…

Fair enough.

I have a Mountain Mayhem entry for this year (well carried over from last year) but I cant see it going ahead still. it was cancelled in Feb last year due to insurance reasons and with them not opening schools until March I don’t think they will have time to organise it.

That thought was also in my head but I had some reassurance by watching a few videos etc. The most efficient setting is medium softness, too much rocking becomes counter productive for saddle soreness. I don’t think the side to side swaying effect is as dramatic as you might think so hopefully not to much lateral movement on the front wheel.

My other query is about how much more raised the front block might need to be and the resulting stableness. Apparently the rockers not that deep and some people don’t even use a front block and simply adjust the saddle angle, I don’t think I would like the feeling of being pitched forward.

I’ve had a flat front tyre, a 38 cx tyre, so once a stick a tube in that should help lift it 7 or 8mm. So I’m thinking new set up will be thin yoga style rubber Matt under the rocker and trainer, then my thick rug that I’ve been using under the bike and front wheel, tyre inflated on wheel block.

In any case it should stop the effect I’ve been getting when sprinting or climbing out of the saddle with effort of gradually edging the whole trainer on top of the rug from the far edge of the room until I’m hitting the tv unit with the front wheel. This also has the effect of slowly moving out of reach of a nearby unit housing my phone, snacks and extra drink supply’s.

I have a Mountain Mayhem entry for this year (well carried over from last year) but I cant see it going ahead

I’ve a suspicion I’m going to end up deferring again but it won’t do me any harm to work on the theory I’m going.

I’ll be happy to finish last, so long as I manage to complete it I’ll be chuffed.

(it’s really not my sort of thing, my entry is the MTB equivalent of a 3am drunken ebay purchase)

@zilog6128 – thanks for the advice, maybe I’ll leave it for this evening then and get used to it over the weekend

I tries a diy rocker plate using tennis balls (just trainer and rear wheel as above) and didn’t like it. Found it lowered my power for some reason, maybe by 6-7%? Was cheap and cheerful but tried various numbers of balls to increase stiffness etc. but sacked it off in the end. I’m sure those using vibration dampers and with fore and aft movement will be loads better.

Muke looks like a decent set up and good to know it’s working good for you. As I said movement wise apparently not rocking too much is better for the backside. I watched a video of this tech nerd analysing pressure points and degrees of pressure over the saddle during various degrees of movement from rigid to soft/lots of movement and the sweet spot had a modest amount of movement. The joys of lockdown.

I completed the three sisters route (badge) earlier, going steady on epic and hitting volcano a bit harder, got a new pub at 7.39 around 30/40 sec improvement. Felt a little knackered 5 minutes in and lost power until the final steeper part of the climb so expect I can get nearer to 7 minutes riding volcano kom on its own.

Only a couple of hilly rides from the Tron bike, way overdue as I’ve probably done the required climbing x 3. however I didn’t know you had to select the challenge I presumed it would be tallying it up in the background and would automatically be awarded.

Hopefully get out for a short ride tomorrow but still toiling with the moral issues of doing a 40/50 mile at the moment.

Maybe a rest or jump on the tdz Saturday and join you guys on Ian’s ride on Sunday morning.

Confusing ourselves here aren’t we!!

So I believe a few of us are doing the TDZ ride in Innsbruuk at 8am on Saturday…. I need to start at that time to be done by my daughter’s zoom ballet session!

Then sunday I’ve popped in a longer sunday hills… Big Mountain loop…. join for as long as you have spare I guess!

I’ve just jumped off the turbo.. Did a VO2 workout for an hour (as well as ticking off teh Serpantine 8 route)..then as i rode past the AdZ turning I thought I’d give the first few corners a go at 100% trainer setting…I got a bit carried away, and just rode the whole thing at a lowish power/HR in prep for next Sunday… stayed at HR <140, and power about 215/220.. got up in jsut under 62 minutes, which bodes well. Didn’t feel i was stressing myself at any point, which is positive.
I’m definitely going to need to stick on the 30t cassette though… 34/28 isn’t quite low enough!

DrP

That sounds promising for your Everest, shows how light you are compared to some of us getting a relatively good time taking it steady at 215/220w.

If you can stick a nine to ten hour day on and off the bike I think you’ll be fine.

shows how light you are compared to some of us getting a relatively good time taking it steady at 215/220w

Very light!! I will have to do around 290w to break the hour, which is pretty hard for a big bloke 🙂
I might have to wait until you are dying later in your Everest attempt to match you up the Alpe

After Robbos torturous VO2 workout this morning (thanks Rob it hurt!), I decided to jump on the 8am crit with boost straight after. Knew it would be tough, I was going to ditch after first lap cos the legs were really tired…thought I’d push on and the boost helped on the hill to keep me at the front.
Managed to hold on until the last lap but one guy went off like a rocket at the beginning of the lap and no way my legs were going to catch him. Kept it going and held onto the group until they started to pull away on rollers…a half hearted sprint got me to third.

2nd on ZP, fast guy was not legit. I need to try one on fresh legs and try to get the win, its achievable.

See, told you! Nice one @oopnorth. Maybe try one of those anti-sandbagging crits? It would have slowed the flyer up and made it a better finish I guess.

@DrP what is your zwift username so i can follow and hopefully get an invite to sundays ride

@slowpuncheur I was hanging on at the end and had to really push to make sure I didn’t lose the group, another guy started his sprint in the middle of the rollers and I couldn’t quite get to him before the line, it would still have been second at best.

Good fun tho, I quite enjoy the crits but I’m not in the same level as @weeksy. I dont know the best way to save energy, etc, yet.

I’m not at the same level as Weeksy either so don’t worry about that 🙂

I did OK yesterday but faded at the end of lap 5-6 and got dropped on the rollers just before the last lap and then cruised a little for the final lap.

https://zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=1596179

My HRM is broken at the moment and doing ridiculous things which doesn’t help me, i’d rather leave it off completely, but then if i place, i get a DQ.

@karnali .. if you search “DrP STW” I should come up…

Cheers

DrP

thanks will do, I may try for teh tdz 8 am tomorrow and see if I see anyone

@oopnorth – well done for digging in & joining that crit race! Must have been tough after the workout.

Thinking about it, I might look to enter one of those crits semi-regularly. Seemed to hit all of my weak points in one race event 🙂 so would be a good fitness tool, I think.

The workout was great this morning. I went back in the house buzzing with energy (well, until I got to the stairs anyway).
It really is a great kick-start to the day…..and dunno if you’ve noticed there’s very little mention of the early hour these days – just get up & get on!!

Thinking about it, I might look to enter one of those crits semi-regularly. Seemed to hit all of my weak points in one race event 🙂 so would be a good fitness tool, I think.

I (think I 🤣) would be well up for a regular crit we could enter as a “team” of similar-ish ability peeps, wearing the same jersey and supporting each other in the race, either with tactics to some extent or just for moral support/motivation! Would have to be a weekend one though to give a bit of separation from Tues races & Thurs TTT.

@zilog6128 that’s a great idea and count me in. me and Robbo were saying earlier that there are quite a few crits on at the moment but not as many at the weekend, we would need to see what suits everyone. I’m sure we would smash it as a team, we need @weeksy to become our team manager 😉

Good to see you on the rise back Weeksy, I’m sure you will be back to full crit level before long.

I’m all over the idea of meeting up for Zwift Crits, apart from 1pm on a Monday i can do any time at all. Unlike most of you though, i’m very much a ‘daytime’ kind of rider.

I’m concentrating 50% of my time at the moment on rowing rather than riding for my indoors stuff, need to try and work on overall conditioning.

You should all enter this, a few laps of Downtown Dolphin finishing just in time to jump onto Sunday Hills for a spindown. I can’t make it I’m afraid: https://zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=1617536

45 laps! **** that!

14:45 Saturday arvo… Bell Lap, 8 lap.

16:30 Sat arvo…. Dolphin

11:45 Sunday .. Bell
12:30 Sunday …. Dopphin

I’ll race any of them 🙂

heck, i’ll even race today even though i’m a bit tired.

I agree wholeheartedly with Robbo…I’m dying at 6 to 8 laps 😀

Week days are a no for me as I’m going into work, not at home. Weekends I’ll try join most times but prefer mornings or evenings as I’m usually busy late mornings / afternoons.

that there are quite a few crits on at the moment but not as many at the weekend

yeah as Weeksy as posted, seem to be quite a few… anti-sandbag (which might be best avoided!!) @ 7.30am, boost @ 8.00, both again at lunchtime, afternoon & evening, and various other non-ZHQ crits throughout the day.

I’m very flexible this weekend as nothing else set in stone, morning or lunchtime probably better on a regular basis but again probably pretty flexible (although unlikely to want to do a weekend evening, that’s beer time 😎 🍻)

I don’t mind jumping up to B even though i’ll be crucified if it means we can all race together (for 1-2 laps anyway)

I’m not sure you realised I was kidding. That isn’t really a race is it, it’s some kind of weird group therapy.

88kms on the crit circuit? No wonder there’s only 4 entries on ZP! I’ll sign up for a short Crit blast on Team STW. Weekends or weekday lunchtimes are best for me. I’m keen to learn the ways of the crit from My Miyagi/@weeksy…’patience young grasshopper’ 🙂

I don’t mind jumping up to B even though i’ll be crucified if it means we can all race together

I’d probably be racing as a C… tried B before in crits, even though technically I fit the w/kg criteria given it’s a shorter race, just got spat out the back after a lap because it’s full of sandbagging As!! 🤣

perfect 🙂 i think Danger would get the cone of shame in C though as would Dr P.

I think I’ve seen some crits where all cats go together, but I may just be making that up.

I’m happy to try a B cat if needed, but it will be purely helping with drafts for a number of laps, I won’t be able to hold the front all the way I guess.

Boost is interesting but you need to work out where you are going to charge it as it can take -100w away whilst it charges, that can mean you can lose the group if not careful. I also found out this morning you can double charge it, so it can be used twice before having to redo it, helpful in the last lap where you can use it on both the hill and the final run in over the rollers to the line.

I think I’ve seen some crits where all cats go together, but I may just be making that up.

had a quick look and couldn’t see any! No reason why there couldn’t be separate B & C “teams” though, if there were enough people interested!

I’ve seen a few where it’s a free for all yes. But admittedly i feel far more at home in an all C race. But understand that doesn’t work for all. We could arguably enter as a B squad in B and a C squad in C if we got enough though.

I’ve seen a few where it’s a free for all yes.

would be happy with a free-for-all if there’s one at an appropriate time! Either way really! Just need someone to pick a race that’s convenient and go from there…

Ill join in if someone decides a time/day to join an event and it doesn’t clash with my super busy social life at the moment 😉

14:45 Saturday arvo… Bell Lap, 8 lap.

16:30 Sat arvo…. Dolphin

Pick one…. i’ll be about for either.

Saturday
14:45 is 8 laps for Cs or Bs
16:30 is 6 laps for Cs and 8 laps for Bs

perfect 🙂 i think Danger would get the cone of shame

At the moment he’s not so sure! (Tuesday would have seen me in C power!)

I’ve no idea how the cone works to be honest, is it just a graphic thing, does it throttle speed etc?

I’ve no issue with being dqd here and there if there’s a bunch of us racing, that said I don’t want to be doing it twice a day.

Cone of shame throttles speed yes…. dramatically so.

My lad had to up his weight from 45/55kg to keep away from the cone of shame.

I did the Newbury Velo crit last Friday (18.35) – that was a free for all, and they didn’t seem to care too much about the Cats in the results either

Saturday I am going to do Oban Loop on the other app between a coat of paint on the walls.

Sunday will be tentative based on how I feel after decorating might take a rare Sunday rest day, as tomorrow ride will complete all my month goals.

Then next Sunday we have @DrP vEveresting support ride