Cheers for clarifying oop north…

I’ve got the invite from Robbo for Sun morning.

Well I’ve signed on for all three weekend rides though doubt I’ll make all three. Depends on what the better half has planned for me much as anything.

I’ve signed on for all three and will try and make all three, at least that’s my thinking at the moment, need a rest day tomorrow so glad there wasn’t an invite in their for tomorrow as I’d have tried to make it, and really need a day off! The Saturday one looks a toughie!

I’m thinking of a figure of 8 ride in the morning Forge if you fancy it?? Haha

Saturday is going to really hurt, the Alpe is hard enough on it’s own, but following the KOM…ouch! For sure I wont be getting a PB 🤣🤣

@opp north I am all good for not riding tomorrow I’d pass in Figure of 8 🤣🤣

Is there a way to find my previous times on climbs like the Alpe as I’ve not done that climb for ages, not that I expect a PB based on the route but you never know 😉

ETA – Just found PB in Zwift Power

Just think of it as a tapering event for Tuesday!

https://zwiftinsider.com/watopia/

You can use Zwift insider to click on the route and then they have links to the segments in Strava to get previous times. That is assuming you use Strava!

No I don’t use Strava any more just Garmin, I have though found what I need in Zwiftpower though only from events…..

I don’t Straaaavaaa! 😁

The way I see it, the hills can only feel easier after Saturday, so Tuesday should be a breeze! 🤣🤣🤣

My hope is I get sorted with whatever was messing with my cadence prior to Tuesday. I think I need to check the trainer difficulty, I can’t be doing with another crazy rpm session like this week’s rides (having looked my “very spinny” climb in innsbruck Yesterday morning was 168 in 48:11 which is, frankly, very silly, indeed)

Are you using a seperate cadence sensor Brian or the inbuilt one? If so it might be worth trying a seperate one as I found the in built one caused issues as it would deviate wildly and the trainer wouldn’t know how to react to the cadence changes.

Generally the inbuilt – though mainly as it there or there abouts agreed with the external one when I tried that (and my legs) and was one less thing to faff with.

Odd thing on Tuesday is it seemed to sort its self, ended up with 85 rpm average which is a bit high for me – I tend to churn not spin – but not too bad, was just down right odd off the start, as if I were in erg or something.

Mostly yesterday morning seemed OK if a bit spinny, just up the incline where I’d normally push hard I was spinning like mad with relatively low resistance in the pedals.

It’s not the first time it’s happened mind and I did wonder following weeksy’s comments on the other thread if my trainer is pairing through the companion app or some such silliness on occasion and throwing a bit of a wobbly.

Either way, it’s all good, I really could do with learning to sit at 90rpm in a lower gear instead of dumping straight down the block and pounding along at 60-70 anyway so maybe zwift has realised this and just decided to train me like it or no.

You’ve not got the trainer difficulty turned right down or off have you? I tried a race with it off and it was horrible. I had to change up a gear when I went up hills to be able to generate more power.

For the TTT tonight my average cadence was 96 – I couldn’t settle into a gear towards the end for some reason. I needed a gear between the two that I had!

You’ve not got the trainer difficulty turned right down or off have you?

Not deliberately! I’d say not though on the simple basis I ran out of legs to chase down the hill on Tuesday and with the difficulty down I should still be able to pedal as normal and not spin out on the down slope. (my first thought was I was on the small ring but obviously a quick visual discounted that.)

As I say its happened before on and off, usually its sorted by the next ride though, – sort of like there’s a gap between the zwift and elite updates messing up the input/output (though I doubt that’s it).

It’ll all come good in the end anyhow I’m sure.

(I did once try the difficulty right down and it was awful, like riding a dumb trainer really, also right up and it was laughable, a 5% incline felt near vertical, the alp on that would be comedy gold)

See if it works in the morning then Brian!

Did a practice ride up the Epic KOM at lunch time whislt doing a TR workout – averaged around 200W I reckon and took 38 mins for the KOM. I am planning on averaging about 220W tomorrow – put that into best bike split and it came out at 2hrs 35mins for the ride so hopefully our estimate is about right! Certainly wont be racing over the first two climbs and will see what I have left for the Alpe!

Steady efforts tomorrow Robbo, I need to keep some in the tank to get up the Alpe, I want to complete not burn out.

At least on this route there is no radio tower!

Huge respect for that one today chaps, it was tough! 1700m of climbing.

I had thoughts of going for a pb at the bottom of the Alpe but that went out of the window when I died halfway up! After that it was just a mental challenge to hit the top.

I’m wasted…time for rest and hopefully I’m good for tomorrow. Well done!

That was pretty horrible for the last 30 minutes. I was just trying to survive. If I suggest one of those silly routes again just tell me to shut up!

I thought taking it easy up the first climb would give me something on the alpe but I was still struggling. Prob need to fuel better for a ride like that I think – maybe stop for a picnic halfway up the alpe!

Still only 300m of climbing tomorrow and a nice quick route!

I have got a 24” monitor to run Zwift on now so can use a dual screen layout so I had Zwift gps running on the second screen but it was only showing me so I couldn’t track the others.

Yeah I think fuelling was my issue too. Fasted is only good for so long…I had a gel and even considered a second one Haha

Reckon we could do the pretzel…its only the KOM twice…no alpe. But mega Pretzel etc is a no.

I even considered a Ventoux again but I’ve now firmly parked that one again after this morning.

Biggest climb done for a while I went on to get 47 miles and 1890m/6200ft climbing done all in, wanted to hit 100miles for the month so that’s done.

Mega Pretzel is similar climbing today but more distance so I reckon that is in scope for a cold winters morning maybe a later start for that.

I felt good on the climb not my fastest but it wasn’t horrid on reflection, bit of pain 2/3rd up but nice and consistent and picked my av wattage back up on the last 4 or so corners. Was less painful than it was the last time and we did a bit before it.

Fueling is important and I think many forget that an indoor ride is still going to need fueling like an outdoor ride it’s still burning calories, I’ve been bitten by poor fueling and energy loss so I do keep an eye on that. During todays ride I had 2 x Gels, 1 mini bag of skittles and a banana, having had Porridge and Banana at breakfast before it.

See that’s probably where I’m failing…I got to the bottom of the Alpe on just a coffee, then a gel. I probably need more solid food inside.

It is something I have spent a bit of time looking at and I notice the difference in performance as well as what I ate the day before has an impact like big lunch light dinner not great really for a longer ride by that for me be 90+ mins

But we are all different and you have to find what works, that ride we just did is well over a 1000 calories burnt one gel is around 90 cal’s so that delta has to come from somewhere and we did over 2hrs, you can do a good 1hr fasted over that need to look at something on the way to top up, at least for me.

I guess I was a bit deceived by how good the legs felt in the sequoias and the KOM, that’s why I thought I had trainer issues…the alpe told me it wasn’t the trainer Haha

Tomorrow I’ll bring food

LOL the Alpe is a good climb to see how your doing :).

Tomorrow is less climbing fortunately, I have a SIS delivery due today so will be stocked up and ready.

Though as it’s flatter I’ll have to see if I can keep up as the flats seem to be my issue, happy with hills need more work on the flat!

OK.. anyone up for MEGA PRETZEL on Thursday? After school drop off start..circa 0915?

DrP

Not sure if you’re trolling DrP after what I said about Mega Pretzel above….

Anyway I have an excuse…I’m at work 🙂

I couldn’t do Thursday, if my mate isn’t Riding Friday I might give that a go as a plan b.

Nah.. no troll!
I don’t work Thursday, so will be a nice way to try to get fitness back!

100 ish km, with 1800m climbing… I’ll prob stop for a sandwich halfway! Hopefully won’t stop through boredom, hence wanting company!

DrP

Good effort gents, didn’t fancy that one this morning, might have a go next Saturday.

Neil

Cheers fellas, I’m glad I didn’t google Quatch Quest before I started riding or I might have stayed in bed, but glad to have tickets that one off. Knees hurt a bit so might have to miss tomorrow morning’s ride, but hope to made the late afternoon one.

Good luck with that one Neil, a word of warning…all feels fine until you get halfway up the alpe and your world falls apart hahaha 😉

well done Nick for earlier! I think i’m still going to have a crack at tomorrow morning, hopefully the pace won’t be crazy, I can always bail if needed.

Cheers my problem is I always start of to quick, at least it misses out the radio tower, can’t make tomorrow afternoon as either at Swinley or Surrey hills.

Neil

I am tentatively in for the ride tomorrow DrP, I have half an idea to do something ill-thought-out and join The Herd ride up Vent top before.

Thursday is a no for me. Have to work I am afraid!

Legs are feeling ok now so should be good for the morning. Won’t push it too hard though. Maybe attack the volcano but we will see. Weeksy should be driving the pace!

Nick flew up alpe du Zwift in the second half. I think I must have had about a minute on him in the first theee quarters but then could see him catching quickly and there was nothing I could do about it!

Robbo, Coffee and the realisation that I was running out of time (to take my son to lose 0-4 at football). Didn’t you stop for a minute for something? Don’t think I would have caught you otherwise.

Can’t believe how much I died second half, at the bottom of the Alpe I felt fresh and was flying but by corner 10 I was going backwards and just struggling holding 200w at times.

Maybe I just went off too hard, or as mentioned above I just didn’t have enough food to keep the effort going. Looking forward to the morning for more, at least it’s not much climbing but not sure if I’ll have speed for flats.

I’ll be on the morning ride I think though a third evening ride on reflection be a bit much & I was a optimistic on that so after the morning ride going to rest up 🙂

Sorry to ditch folks, trying a reinstall now but I can’t see it completing the updates in time to get back on the ride.

That’s a fair awful start to a Sunday but at least that’s my cardio done for the day!

Definitely something zwift related, there’s no way I should be spinning out in 48:11,i tried the elite app again straight after, resistance is about where it should be and I’m sitting roughly where I’d expect on power and cadence.

Will see if I can get on when the reinstall is finished and if not I’ll go rooting on the loft for the external cadence sensor though as I say, there’s obviously an issue in the reading on Zwift being high rather than the output from the turbo.

I didn’t come play. Still trying to recover from crashing and lots of delicate parts still. Saving it for Tues

You do right weeksy – some Timo discretion is the better part of valour.

That and we all need be on best form for Robbo’s Races.