You can add in a manual entry in Strava too

“rode XYZ race, ZXY distance”

It doesn’t give you records, segments etc, but it still counts if you care about overall miles ridden for the year.

Thanks for the heads up on that – I didn’t know you could do that. I tried to upload it, but got an error saying ‘the .fit file was malformed’ or somesuch! Doesn’t matter really, just encourages me to look out for a cheap new PC as a dedicated Zwift machine.

Don’t get a new one – see this thread – the one i’ve built is working a treat.

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/building-a-pc-from-second-hand-parts-zwift

Gavin that’s exactly my experience with the lag and I’ve got a decent computer so must be the connection? Or is that normal? I’m on anywhere between 4-8Mb/s and it it can’t uploading and downloading that much data so it should be fine I think. It’s bloody frustrating though when you know you have the legs but get dropped because you mis-time the effort.

Normal, no. There is a fraction of a second/second when i hit a hill as the resistance auto adjust etc.

no worse than that though

Things I learnt today.

1) I’m not a morning person
2) 4 laps of volcano is a bloody long way
3) If you’re going to go, GO!
4) 7km is a long, long way solo.

That was my first race that’s not gone down to a sprint finish, or at least where i’ve been sprinting trying to catch the guy in front. No way was I making up 25+ seconds in 6km when he’s knocking out 4+ W/KG. I managed to hold the two riders behind at ~20 after dropping them with 7km to go.

Dunno what it was but I didn’t feel great today, sounds weird but after talking to Daz about bad knees I’m considering wearing knee warmers on the turbo. I don’t think how fast i cool down in the cold is doing my joints any favours.

https://www.strava.com/activities/1293695843/overview

Hi Dazh, yes a slow connection AND a really old Macbook is not a great combo. Luckily I can use a good Windows laptop on a few nights a week, and the difference is massive. I’m running nothing on the Macbook other than Zwift, but the graphics card is obsolete, so despite having upped the RAM it can’t cope.

I’ll take a look at some secondhand options. At the moment, I’m looking at a reconditioned all-in-one PC for under £400 which has an Intel i5 with 16GB RAM.

apple tv + cheap tv?

apple tv + cheap tv?

I thought of that, but I’ve got a Bkool Smart Pro trainer, which doesn’t work on iOS fully (the ERG mode doesn’t work over Bluetooth with Zwift), so I have to use Ant+,hence why I’m leaning towards a cheap PC. Unless anyone knows of another way with iPhone/iPad?

i think you can get a ANT+/BLE bridge devices.

on a side note, anyone using mobile link noticed that the map view absolutely hammers the battery. I could see the battery % ticking down last night, changed to the data view and it slowed right down

under £400 which has an Intel i5 with 16GB RAM

Focus on the graphics card, much more important than the processor which doesn’t make much odds. Type the numbers in the name of the graphics card into the search bar here: https://zwiftalizer.com/benchmarks (e.g to find the GTX 1050Ti, type in 1050)

That’ll give you a good idea of frame rate – you want 30+

Weeksy, how many fresh 30 second efforts do you do a week? None.
If you only ever ride horseguards hill half-fu**ed then your body is never going to adapt to riding up it faster.

You know the answer you just don’t like it. It’s pure and simply about applying yourself.

You said ages ago that one session short hard hill repeats a week wouldn’t be a chore and you haven’t bothered doing any.

Your body adapts quickly to these efforts- you just need to make an effort first 😆

You said ages ago that one session short hard hill repeats a week wouldn’t be a chore and you haven’t bothered doing any.

In my defence, i have been outdoors more than usual this month, so less Zwifting than usual. 🙂

Question though. How will hitting HG Hill fresh help when i’m not fresh during the race ?

Question though. How will hitting HG Hill fresh help when i’m not fresh during the race ?

Come on Weeksy, CH has gone to great lengths to explain this (many many times). I have a feeling you are just winding him up now 🙂

One lap race at 5:15. It’ll be interesting to see how the staggered start affects the race. I can normally hang with the mid pack Bs on a 1 lap flat.

Come on Weeksy, CH has gone to great lengths to explain this (many many times). I have a feeling you are just winding him up now

I know but i’m still not convinced in many ways. Even at hitting HG Hill 100% at low HR, i’m not convinced i can get the sort of power figures needed. So am i simply trying to get something that’s never going to be possible for me anyway.

Anyway… lets move on….

1 lap flat…. you should be running pretty well based upon your power/performance we usually see from you. Being Watopia though it’s going to be a long slog up that final hill with them putting out 5w/kg+ i rekon, so you’ll need to be hitting it hard.

For you, i’d do a warm up and hope to snag an aero to use just before the sprint, maybe on the way up out of the tunnel, then pray you get a feather on the sprint banner just before the climb.

Because to get your body to adapt to riding at say 500w for 30 seconds 5 times in a race, you need to expose it to riding at 500w for 30 seconds at all first and that requires you to be fresh.

It’s the exposure that creates the adaptation.

I will get to it, honest. As you can imagine, i’m a bit busy at the moment, but Thurs or Fri i’ll have a crack at it on Volcano CCW as that’s a decent enough kicker.

Dunno what it was but I didn’t feel great today

Says the man knocking out a 320w average over 50k 😀

AND a really old Macbook

Hmmm my macbook is 4 years old now so maybe that’s the problem. Seems to cope ok though. I think I just need to get more used to the changes in pace and be able to judge them better. Also not using a trainer with adjustable resistance so don’t have that automatic kick when the gradient increases.

Ahem, my Macbook is an original Pro from 2007 (albeit with upgraded RAM and SSD), but its massively underpowered (a bit like me!) 😳

Your body adapts quickly to these efforts- you just need to make an effort first

Weeksy – you know I race outdoors already. I’m in my 5th week of my first experience of fully coached training. On my first week, I struggled to complete 6 x 1 minute at 340w. I have a heavy week this week – but yesterday I knocked out 15 x 30s at 840w, and today 15 x 1 min at 350w.

I moaned at my coach that the earlier intervals were too hard an expectation, and that some of my sessions -Z2’s – were too easy.

Today I was humbled to admit I was wrong, have proven to adapted and hopefully sit here far more capable in just 5 weeks.

Go hard, rest, adapt – it works.

https://cvrworldcup.com/cvr-league/

Ooo! Frank is splashing the cash again. Looks like an interesting series for the new year.

That was bloody hard work. My avg according to ZP For that race was 346w. That means I’m just under 3.2w/kg. Finished 10th in C but looks like quite a few of them are over 3.2 limit so might finish higher up in the final results.

Aaarrrrrhhhhhhh……

WTF is up with Zwift today? tried to join 4 races and failed each time, and now just missed the Kiss race!

Phew, was going to join that one but didn’t quite make it anyway

I did the KISS 8pm race. In quite a big group that just seemed to stay together. Thanks for the thumbs up ‘Scaredypants’.

Finally managed to get onto a WBR training ride with a good group, still annoyed I missed the Kiss race though 😡

Lol weeksy!!!! You know what the answer is, Poor CH is stuck on repeat – that ol vinyl not going to keep playing for much longer 😆

Answer is one of these:

Regarding a pc, I just picked up a PC capable of running Zwift on high settings for under 100: http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/building-a-pc-from-second-hand-parts-zwift

It entertains me to think of him being that GiF who smashes it’s head against the keyboard until it explodes 🙂

To be fair to him, he’s trying to explain the difference between playing with Zwift and training properly to improve. See Nates post.

Doing what you are doing will keep you fit to a point, its your choice of course. 🙂

Sounds like we need a good old-fashioned dance-off to settle this. Just like Stiffler in American Pie 3.

LOL the problem with that is that CH could destroy me without ever leaving Z2 now. Gone are the days of 3 years back where i made the bugger work hard and push himself. Long gone.

I picked up another +3 on CVR, which means I’m at +61 for the month of November…. Which is by a LOT my best ever month. So i’ve nearly cancelled out 2 of my previous DNFs now…. Phew. I’m not convinced i can make it back to 1000 points by Xmas, but i’ll have a try of course.. I’ll need some courses to suit my riding for that. Esepcially now the format has changed.
Looking at the points from the race, it seems they’re now 100% split after the split starting intervals.
http://www.zwiftrankings.com/vcr/client/result/29357/44603/2017r12/all/6/1/0/0/1/1

So for the C guys there’s i guess a lot less points on offer. Which is OK and fine, i’ll just battle for the few points i can realistically pick up now. But may require a little more thought into which races and when.

Kryton57 – Member
To be fair to him, he’s trying to explain the difference between playing with Zwift and training properly to improve. See Nates post.

Doing what you are doing will keep you fit to a point, its your choice of course

I totally get that, honestly i do. But i simply don’t have the desire, willpower and ability to do day after day of targetted training. I have tried with using the 1 lappers to focus on pushing past my current Zones and into the Over/Under territory indirectly. OBviously though due to the nature of racing, you’re never exactly sure when the overs will come or when the unders will and for how long, so it’s not exactly structured in the same way as a training plan.
The massive difference for me is that if i don’t race, i’m unlikely to Zwift nearly as hard or nearly as often.

My results are by luck or judgement getting a little closer to where i want to be again… I expect it’s more luck 🙂

SO who’s playing today, who’s training, who’s racing ?

I’m looking potentially at Sydkysten Cycling at 4.30pm which is 6 laps of Volcano CCW… That seem an interesting option potentially. Split start with 1 min intervals for it. But only currently a fairly small field.

The only one with a decent sized field is the 18:00 SZR Autumn race which currently has 98 total and 32 in C. But it’s Taco Tuesday at home with the wife and boy… so i’m unlikely to break that (Yes i know it’s Wed)

The CHOP race at 19:00 could be interesting, that’s completely the reverse to usual with the D’s setting off at 19:00 and the Cs off at 19:04, then 19:07 for the Bs and 19:08 for the As…. The plan is that the Ds hold off the Cs, who hold off the Bs, who hold off the As LOL. That could be quite interesting…but straight after Taco Tuesday…. Barf !

I’ll try a slightly different tune with some plain English 😆

You can only take out from your legs what you have previously put into them.
Train hard- race easy.

It doesn’t need to be hours of structure, plans, polarised riding or proper intervals Weeksy.

You want to ride a 30 second hill faster right? So all you have to do is ride up that hill faster 😆

It’s as simple as that. Ah but it’s not, because every time you reach the hill, you are already **** from keeping up with a group at close to your threshold.

If there was £50 riding on you posting a PB up it, would you
a) warm up for ten minutes then cruise gently to the bottom before smashing it hard
Or
b) do a flat out start three miles away, ride there as hard as you can and streak into it with your hr already through the roof

I bet you could start seeing improvements with just one 30minute session a week if you focused on riding up that hill repeatedly until you were cooked and rested the day after (it would take a couple of mins of rest to U turn to the bottom)

I used to lecture farm kids from the depths of the Forest of Dean so you’ll never break me 😆

I think I might try a WBR 4 lap race today. There’s a couple later on today so I should get in one or other.

There’s no point someone attempting something difficult if they don’t have the motivation to see it through.

No matter how many times you illustrate the benefits.

You want to ride a 30 second hill faster right? So all you have to do is ride up that hill faster

It’s as simple as that. Ah but it’s not, because every time you reach the hill, you are already **** from keeping up with a group at close to your threshold.

If there was £50 riding on you posting a PB up it, would you
a) warm up for ten minutes then cruise gently to the bottom before smashing it hard
Or
b) do a flat out start three miles away, ride there as hard as you can and streak into it with your hr already through the roof

I bet you could start seeing improvements with just one 30minute session a week if you focused on riding up that hill repeatedly until you were cooked and rested the day after (it would take a couple of mins of rest to U turn to the bottom)

That’s the bit that confuses me though at this stage. Hitting it fairly fresh and good to go on lap1, i’m fine, i’m right in the mix, i’m going up there close to 5.0w/kg and happily in the right zone… Even lap 2 i’m sitting in the hill and happy…. It’s only when we’re getting to 3-4 that i’m finding it an issue

So in my mind i struggle to work out how hitting the hill from an easy loop with a rest, a la intervals is actually going to help me… Whilst you think/know it will, my mind still can’t comprehend how.

I’m also wondering if i need to consider technique for it, click 1 gear harder, get out of the saddle and power it… or do what i’m usually doing and clicking 1 gear easier and spinning it…

The 4.30pm Volcano race today seems to be the chosen event now, which means 6 laps up the small 4-5% climb, that’s the one of course that also hits me hard when i’m playing… So maybe i’ll use tonight to try different gearing and see what results i do or don’t get.

Because the power is saved in your legs with two variables- watts and time.

When you hit the hill, you use different muscles and energy supplies to those that carry you along at threshold. More sugar, less oxygen and the fast twitch fibres with less stamina.

They need to be trained separately. The reason intervals / hill repeats work is because in an hour of training, you can spend probably 7-10minutes working at that intensity (30seconds hard, 2 minutes total rest) whereas in a race, you are only giving your fast twitch muscles 1x30second effort at the wattage you’d like to be riding up there at.

crosshair – Member
Because the power is saved in your legs with two variables- watts and time.

When you hit the hill, you use different muscles and energy supplies to those that carry you along at threshold. More sugar, less oxygen and the fast twitch fibres with less stamina.

They need to be trained separately. The reason intervals / hill repeats work is because in an hour of training, you can spend probably 7-10minutes working at that intensity (30seconds hard, 2 minutes total rest) whereas in a race, you are only giving your fast twitch muscles 1x30second effort at the wattage you’d like to be riding up there a

Yeah that makes sense 🙂

But…. Then when you ask for it next time a month later in a race scenario is it just going to be lacking again or is the thinking that now you’ve trained that type of muscle for that type of effort it will still work better when when you reach it 4 laps in at close to Max effort ?

I totally get that, honestly i do. But i simply don’t have the desire, willpower and ability to do day after day of targetted training.

Fair point.

To answer your last post weeksy – Google “periodisation”. You form/ability will go up, then down, then up in constant waves. But if you are constantly training and resting appropriately it’ll go up slightly more at the top of each wave.

It’s as much about timing.

Anyway, I shall be out doing 2 on, 1 off X 13 after lunch somewhere random…

Yes, your fast twitch muscles will have more stamina basically- more sugar left in their tank, more matches to burn.

The trouble is, to hold with the surges in a group race, you are constantly dipping into your fast twitch reserves to close gaps and counter moves.

That’s why they are f****d by the last few hills of the race.

You need to think of it as two systems-
1. Aerobic, heavy breathing, slow twitch muscles, fat burning.
2. Anaerobic, brace yourself, fast twitch muscles, sugar burning.

They both rely on each other though so if you constantly train one, then the other one will limit it. Thats when you plateau.

In terms of technique, power is how hard you push x how fast you spin so I would recommend for a thirty second effort going +10rpm on your normal cadence at least. Then you have to push less harder, use less Fast Twitch muscles and burn less sugar.