I may jump on that too but the field is a little small at the moment. If we can get 15 in the C then with a few mins to go, maybe…. but i’m still favouring the 13:15 race.

Scaredypants i was in your race but i was so short of time i missed start off, i caught you up at the bottom of the first hill but i had expanded so much energy i was fading

Odd, every other **** dropped me on the hill (took 8 sec off my PB, still out of the back 🙁 )

Have a good race !

I just have water and don’t really eat on the turbo, but then I only tend to ride up to 2 hours, any longer then I might have a Cliff bar or something.

I also tend to ride without anything to eat, so lunch at 12.30ish, ride at 6-7pm. I might occasionally have a cereal bar or something just before if I’m feeling hungry.

Think I’ll blast it home and try to nip into the 17:05 WBR hilly race tonight. Field looked small this morning, but it’s the only one I can squeeze in today, need to be back out the door by 18:30 🙄

A great cagey battle going on RIGHT NOW, involving blader and bigfoot

Weeksy TTing, bit like me earlier – crack on mate !

Mine turned into a massive battle of wills. The guys in my class were just WAY quicker than me. I’m starting to feel more like a D than a C.

I ended up with 2.5 laps TTing it, 1 of them was slow as hell and putting out about 180w average, i’d lost the plot completely. Last lap i put in closer to 2.4-2.5 average and got my head back, but i was fighting not to bail out early for a lot of the race.

Tough day at the office today.

That was a tough race, bigfoot and the other 2 cat A riders did me in the sprint for the line. It was a weird race as through the sandy bit was always fast and virtually every little hill/bump had me pulling over 500w as everyone sprinted up them and elsewhere was just a nice fast cruising pace. I didnt notice anyone going off the front but i think 1 B rider managed to slip away so i think i have silver, cant get on to ZP at the minute.

I ended up with 2.5 laps TTing it

I very rarely do this unless the field is really small or I feel I’ve actually got a shot of catching up with the group in front. I’d much rather slow down & recover until someone catches me up, then share the work (or just draft them 🙂 ). Probably won’t lose any places that way, plus it’s less soul destroying!

I was 7th of 7 🙂

there was no-one to wait for 🙂

Fair enough, nothing for it but head down in that case!! It’s both good (from a race integrity POV) and bad (because you can’t catch a tow from a random!) that there’s now the option for rides/races to “turn off” non-participating riders!

Is ZP down as i cant seem to get on it?

Same here buddy.

Finding my actual results hard to take at the moment. Back in May/June i was finishing races with 290w average, now i’m struggling to finish at 250w. Is that my weight which is 4kg up, is that my fitness or is that the 29er instead of the roadie…. I wish i had the answer…. But when i ride outdoors i feel my fitness is right up where i need and expect it to be.. So i don’t think my fitness is a complete disaster.
I’m trying not to dwell on it, but it’s not easy.

Doesn’t make the racing less fun though 🙂 You just race who’s around you… Sadly, today the field was small, but i have my lad for Footy training tonight, so no window to race.

Well done to all 3 – weeksy in particular; that’s a hard game to play

I’d much rather slow down & recover until someone catches me up, then share the work

I did that in my race – we paired up and caught the lad ahead but I knew I was dead in the water as they were both much faster up the hills. Right enough, they blew me away and raced it out for the place, nearly a minute up on me. I think that tactic only works best if you’re good up the hills

(yep, zp down here too)

every little hill/bump had me pulling over 500w as everyone sprinted up them

think that’s what I need to learn

236 points: http://www.cycligentrankings.com/vcr/client/result/12101/27632/lifetime/all/1/1/0/0/1/1

Woo.

I think that’ll get me a promo to elite 🙂

We had a weird one in Cs.

Y.Yass was over 2 mins down on our group of 5, that turned into a group of 2…. Suddenly, Yass was averaging 3.9w/kg+ for the next 30 mins ! and ended up destroying me and the Danish guy, then the guy who was 1min 30 ahead of the Dane who by then was 45s clear of me.. lol…. I can see Yass getting a DQ.
Then again, there’s another 2-3 in the Cat who may be on for a DQ too. There was some cracking banter

“Oi ..GUTS, why are you attacking everyone with 30km to go”
GUTS replied with “If you keep sitting on my wheel, i’ll attack you”
Their reply was “That’s ridiculous…”
“No guys, that’s racing”… Was his reply to that.

But then in the end GUTS destroyed them all to win the Cat… but it was proper funny. Weirdly, at this stage i was sitting comfortably in the little group, my HR was floating around 160bpm, but we hit the kick after the sprint, just before roller coaster, and BOOM ! I was instantly destroyed, i mean losing 15s+ on the hill ! I think i was sticking out about 3.5w/kg and they’re up around 5.0s ! Meh, i don’t have 5.0 in me these days…

You could if you allowed your body to rest and rebuild.

Racing each day is unsustainable.

But you know this and we’ve had this conversation many times 😆

Not racing every day. I’ve had 3 complete rest days along with 3 days of outdoors this month up to now. Admittedly 1 of them days was 5+ hours on the local trails, but i’m not racing constantly that’s for sure.

Just looking on strava at some of the segments for that race and each uphill sprint was just shy of 500w avg over the 30 second segment, i felt like i did that over every roller! At one point on the big climb i was pulling 8w/kg and still lost a few seconds on the climb, some serious mountain goats out there.

My problem with that is that the Isaac gives me knee issues. So really jumping on it is a terrible idea, i had them when i was using it on the road, i had them when i was using it on Zwift, but i don’t get them on the Parkwood. So the Issac is pretty much out of the discussion. But i know when riding it, you seem to be able to power along in a gear a lot easier. Could that be just the riding position, could that be the tyre which is this one ?
http://www.halfords.com/cycling/bike-parts/bike-tyres/halfords-semi-slick-bike-tyre-700x35c

Will the tyre actually make a difference ? I don’t honestly know… I tried to put the Conti GP 4000 on but there was no way. I was debating picking one of these up http://www.halfords.com/cycling/bike-parts/bike-tyres/kenda-k193-kwest-bike-tyre-700x35c Which looks a lot smoother and can if the blurb is correct, be run at a higher pressure than the 80ish i have in the other one.. I wonder if it’s worth trying just to even thing up a little ? Or am i just clutching at straws lol.

How is the isaac set up compared to the Parkwood? Is it worth taking measurements of all the key points.

Ideally you should be running a turbo specific tyre: https://www.jejamescycles.com/tacx-trainer-tyre-road-700x23c-rjr2117.html?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI8I7AhM_t1gIV1rgbCh1ygQpXEAkYASABEgJkSvD_BwE

It’s a softer compound so will get destroyed on tarmac.

It sounds like you just need to invest a little time in setting the isaac up properly. As above I’d take key measurements from the parkwood and work from there.

My data for the race shows it was just 13 big efforts and some easy riding in between with HR below 120 a few times. Didn’t really enjoy it, the field was too small and every attempt at a breakaway was chased down rather than joined. If Zwiftpower is down then no points for it although I doubt if there would be many for such a small race and no chance to catch Nathan’s recent score.

National TT champs at Thruxton on Sunday, so that was probably my last Zwift of the week.

Turbo tyre ain’t going to fit on my MTB rims. Tried that.

Can’t really go for the wheel either as its campag.

Its been setup as close as possible to my standard but for whatever reason I still get knee issues.

weeksy, I thought you had a kickr ? (wheel-off)

Bigfoot – there was some cruising in there for sure but every ramp required a fair amount of effort. My heart rate never really got below 143 but then again i am only a cat B so not really as fit as yourself. It was a small field but i kinda enjoyed the tussle of the hill sprints.

I can see Yass getting a DQ

so, the only way is up ??

Well this all may sound a little mental, but gives me some fun in the afternoon. Went and pulled the rear wheel out of the Isaac and fitted it into the Parkwood.

First issue, the spokes hit the caliper, ok, so removed the caliper 🙂 Yeah i know, all a bit drastic, but it’s only 2 bolts isn’t it 🙂

So i then got wheel on and a quick tweak of the barrel adjuster and i can get the gears i need. Some at the bigger sprockets are all over the place, but Zwifting only needs 3-4 gears for me and i can get all 4 of the smaller cogs with 1 press of the shifter each.

Did a quick test, but the only way to really try it is to ride in anger, so there’s a 4.05pm WBR 1 lap flat race. Obvioulsy being 1 lap it will skew my power outputs, but if i were to use an educated guess, using the current Parkwood wheel/tyre combo i’d be impressed if i could hit over 260w-270 average for the lap, so i’m going to experiment and see what i can hit.

Obviously my HR data will be high as it’s a 1 lap flat out effort…. but i’m hoping i should see something anyway.

It certainly ‘feels’ quicker… Although how much of that is in my head, who knows 🙂

weeksy, I thought you had a kickr ?

No, a Snap.

weeksy, I thought you had a kickr ?

No, a Snap.

SNAP !

Scaredypants – LOL.

weeksy i think you need to test it for a week to have any idea if it works.

b1gf00t – Points wise are you using http://www.cycligentrankings.com/vcr/client/home as this is what I was referring to. I guess because of the huge field & amount of DQ’s there was a hell of a lot of points up for grabs last night versus a normal race.

I think zwiftrankings feeds from Zwiftpower, but once it’s back up and running everything should just pull through?

I decided testing today after already racing, along with a 3-4 hour ride planned outside tomorrow was a silly idea. So testing can wait now

Thats a better idea weeksy.

I went out my mtb again this afternoon. I feel like I’ve let the side down. 🙂

Think I’m going to have a day off tomorrow. That’s everyday this week either turbo or mtb, and my legs felt very heavy this afternoon. Still felt strong, but it felt like a real effort to get myself to do it where normally it’s just instant.

Big ride on the mtb again Sunday then back on zwift Monday after work.

Could be the gearing on the parkwood weeksy. I used to struggle to generate the speed/power on zwift with a 38t big ring when I was using a 29er. It was a bit better with a 48t ring but the 53 or what ever it is now is spot on.

Weeksy, you can use ERG mode to test it. Set it up one way, do an advanced spin down then use the Wahoo App (don’t even need Zwift open) to set ERG mode to 200w.
Ride for five minutes. (It won’t matter what gear you use- the Turbo will adjust the resistance for you)

Then set it up the other way, do an advanced spin down and ride ERG mode at 200w again.

That should offer you some insight. If it feels the same, then it’s not a tyre/wheel/bike issue.

Weeksy, you can use ERG mode to test it. Set it up one way, do an advanced spin down then use the Wahoo App (don’t even need Zwift open) to set ERG mode to 200w.
Ride for five minutes. (It won’t matter what gear you use- the Turbo will adjust the resistance for you)

Then set it up the other way, do an advanced spin down and ride ERG mode at 200w again.

That should offer you some insight. If it feels the same, then it’s not a tyre/wheel/bike issue.

I’ve never used erg mode. I tried it when troubleshooting Snap issues, but my trainer wasn’t registering.

When I think back, my previous efforts on parkwood were down on the Isaac, but only by 10-15w on the race distances, currently I’m 40-45 down on them. So a decent chunk of it is down to me I think.
I’ll try it over weekend.

Here’s a physiological question some of you bright sparks might be able to answer.

Where is your power generated? I get that anaerobic fitness will let you sustain output for longer, but is pure power mostly down to the size of your leg muscles?

nathb, yes, those are the points I am chasing. I mainly ride in the daytime when there are less points around, and less to lose. The results from today have been captured by zwiftpower and will be revealed when it is up and running again, so I may gain a couple more points.

Yeah muggo – power is muscular (legs, arse, core a bit) but sustained power needs cardiovascular fitness