I really should try a race! I’ve got one week of the 10-12wk FTP builder left. Once that’s out the way, I’ll have a few days rest, do a new FTP test & then perhaps look to enter a race.

I’ve lost a few pounds, so need to update my profile for max performance!

LOL you know something, i actually thought about it…. After a rest day though yesterday, as always my legs feel worse again lol.  I’m not convinced i can cope with 1 race, let alone 2 !

I’ll have a few days rest, do a new FTP test

There race I did last night (my first) put my Zwift FTP by 30watts and I only did the test last week. Somehow I pushed myself harder so well worth doing !!!

I could do with a Bikeradar race to get in the competition so might join in that 13:30 one. Only issue is i’m at the physios at 11, in my head it’s all going to be nice heat laps and ultrasound.  In reality i’m going to be taking a  load of painkillers before hand and then they’re going to mash my muscles into a pump.

Thought I’d do that 13.30 BikeRadar race too, so we’ve potentially got a little STW contingent!

Double post

I could do with a Bikeradar race to get in the competition so might join in that 13:30 one. Only issue is i’m at the physios at 11, in my head it’s all going to be nice heat laps and ultrasound.  In reality i’m going to be taking a  load of painkillers before hand and then they’re going to mash my muscles into a pump.

Now there’s a race report I can’t wait to read.

Ah excellent boys…. I’ll wait then 🙂

See you out there…

I just did the 08:45 BikeRadar Mission Race which was 5 laps of Richmond flat. I entered group B and was using the inRide module on my Kinetic Rock and Roll trainer for the first time to give actual calculated power reading. I couldn’t hold the usual fast group off the front but managed to settle into a decent sized group of about 15 riders and was rolling along really well for 3 laps. Then halfway round the 3rd lap I accidentally touched my keyboard and brought up a Windows menu which obscured half the screen. I leant over to cancel it with the mouse and by the time I completed that (a matter of seconds) I had dropped off the back of the group.

I redlined to get back on but was knackered by the time I got near and couldn’t sustain it so was forced to drop back. I ITT’d to the finish and still got a half-decent result but finished a good two minutes behind the group I was in. A good demonstration of the time and power drafting a group can save you as if I needed it!

Also, is it just me or does anyone else find the 1% cobbled section hard going? :o)

Good luck to the rest of you in the later BikeRadar race!

Awwwww crap, i hate it when outside factors influence your final position etc… It can be very frustrating. I imagine it happens in the real world too when riders get punctures/mechs/crashes etc in real life Crits.

I must say I’ve only raced Richmond once and I hated it, far too flat, and I was a lot fitter then! How long is the “Richmond Flat Roads” lap? Do I assume it’s just the Richmond Flat 3 mile lap?

It was my own stupd fault really. I did think later the tactic I should have employed was sprint off the front of the group, fix the problem and then get back on. But in the heat of the moment… Something to consider for the future!

Njee, yes, sounds about right….

1:30 it is!

Although this will be a recovery ride.

I’ll chuck out maximum watts out of the blocks to see what happens and then die off gracefully to the back… 🙂

Yup, recvoery ride, that’s my excuse too when Njee wipes the floor with me…

urrently on 3rd warm up lap, not got a PU though yet for race start

I tried the evr race at 11 as i am not that familiar with the course plus its hard hanging on on the flat course. Well it hurt a lot trying to hang on on the UCI course too, the first  58 secs was me at 430w trying to stay with the front group and then for a few miles it was 330w. It settled down to a meagre 290w+ just to stay with the group and then the series of hills towards the end of the first lap ripped it all apart. I was flying up all of them sometimes close to 500w and i still got dropped and ended up in the 2nd group of mainly B’s and a few A’s. Thankfully this group was going round at around 250w so i was able to recover as i was pretty tired. We went all the way to the end but i couldnt be bothered to sprint as i thought we were well down the field, it turns out we were the lead B’s and i had coasted over the line to 5th, stupid man i am! I was only 8 secs behind the winner. That is quite a tough course and i am still suffering with the lurgy so pleased with result and averaged 280w for the race.

Good luck with the race guys! I really must get my arse in gear lol, haven’t Zwifted for a few weeks now!

They need to sort out of kind of proper spectator mode – you can bodge in by “riding with” someone then quickly clicking on their name to set the camera to follow them… would be great if there was an option though to always display the rider name above them, it’s impossible to tell what’s going on otherwise really, especially in races like this one where everyone is assigned the same kit!

ARGGHHHHHHH

Lost them on the run up to the line on lap 5…. suddenly i’m 3s down on the STW massive along with a bunch of 20+, then i’m 7s… it’s all over… TT’d the last lap, but overtook 1 guy who died more than me.

Nice work Magneto and Njee 🙂

That Magnetised dog aint no D! Saw you go hard off the start so went with you and for about 30 seconds I thought we might actually make that stick 😀

Came in 3rd but not sure about the top 2, they were knocking out 6.5w/kg for a looooong time so i gave up chasing them

Yup, recvoery ride, that’s my excuse too when Njee wipes the floor with me…

As you saw it’s not me you have to worry about 🙂

Remind me who K.Barrett is!? 3rd in As I believe, great result! Held the lead bunch until the end of lap 1, then got together with Batman(!) and Magnetodog (the non D!) for a couple of laps until Weeksy’s group came up, then held them. Was toast for the sprint, so rolled in. Bloody hard isn’t it Richmond, just so flat!? I’m (still) not heavy enough!

Lol @ him being a D. Putting out 3+ everywhere!

You did great njee. Well done

Scaled is our resident superstar!

Your 1st on ZP!

I was on a recovery ride 🙂 plan was a silly start and then fade apart from pride that would have happened.

Part from got my HR to 193! this time, which considering my max is 180 is going some….

Pleased with that it was a ‘fun’ workout

 Magnetodog (the non D!)

I will change that from now but that was only my 2nd ever go so it would have been a bit billy big bolloxes to immediate rank myself a B

I’m (still) not heavy enough!

I am 🙂

No good on hills, not terrible on flat stuff

https://www.strava.com/segments/3915526 (filter by STW Zwifters) 🙂

Well done guys, good to see a few of you in one race. Scaled was actually the winner and now confirmed hero of this parish who now wears a large target on his back for all us fat middle aged guys to aim for, nice work Kai.

Richmond Flat is unforgiving in terms of recovery in the race and also if you slightly drop off a group there is no way back.

Average HR of 190bpm, max of 200. Got me a red box on ZP again! 😀

Tiger I’m giving away 20kg to you! I don’t feel so bad now!

Not sure about a target, not even a heat seeking missile can make up that sort of a gap from me to him. I’ll still need to dump another 10kg !

Well done Team STW and a win! Yay!

Like zilog6128 says, it  would be great if we could watch these races.

Wow tiger, the w/kg was impressive over 1 min but then i saw your weight!

i was really hurting, seeing that i’m giving away 20 odd KG to you might explain why I was suffering, that’s some serious power you’re putting out!

Njee – that’s me ^^

It is ‘cos I is fat! Legs like Wiggins, body like Biggins! (I also suspect my turbo is flattering me, it’s set up as per Zwift instructions though but I’d love one of those Kickr Snap things)

Lost 9kg so far this year but my massive aim is to lose another 14kg in the next few months while trying to keep the legs that have been powering a 16 stone chubster around.

Then I want to lap Swinley in around an hour, never beat the hour for a full lap,  and maybe get back to XC racing later in the year.

Zwift & STW Chub club to get me there, time to stop being fat and average.

Nice work everyone 👍🏻👍🏻

Almost enough excitement to drag myself out of Zwift Racing retirement 🤣

Hi all, thanks for starting and keeping this thread going; it’s been highly motivational and fun to read. My backstory: I bought a T2240 turbo and  joined zwift in December, then started the ftp 10/12 week builder beginning of Jan this year (lots of frustration getting it all configured; a big improvement in accuracy of cadence was switching from using the tacx cadence output, to my Wahoo SC cadence output and in terms of reliable signal, switching from Bluetooth to an ant+ dongle).

In between ftp sessions I’ve been entering events in group D to boost my ftp. Looking at my stats tonight, I’ve clocked 892km and ‘climbed’ 75% of the Everest challenge. I have dropped weight from 83kg to 72kg. I did my first ever ftp test beginning of Jan before starting the ftp builder and scored 171. As of this evening, I’m now up to 225w, with steady increases of around 6w, as judged by zwift, after events. I’ve settled on an ftp session or race every second day where possible.

In the last three A-D events, I’ve noticed a big improvement in fitness, and have progressed from 11th in group D (WBR event – those are so hard!) to fourth in some Danish event and then first in group D of an A-D Richmond event this evening. I was 1 min 36” ahead of second place and the result would’ve placed me top eleven in group C, so it’s time to move up a group.

This thread and zwift has boosted my enthusiasm to get back into xc racing IRL, so might try a Gorrick event soon.

It would be good to try out some zwift events where fellow STWers are also racing. How do you know when there’s another STWer in your event?

If you use the app you can see who’s entered any particular event.

You’ll either recognise names or more likely see “STW” in a username.

(well done on the fitness/weight !)

Great work doornot! Nice one.

Will we you at the back of B soon!

Doordonut very well done on the ftp increase and the loss of weight, that is some achievement, keep up the good work.

Gentle recovery today. Averaging about 140w tops. Bit dull but Zwift does make it bareable.

Urgh. Did the 100km Audax, 2.5-3.0 w/kg group. I’ve never had my quads cramp on the turbo before. Got dropped by my group halfway through the last lap when a bunch of people upped the pace to 4w/kg+.

2 x 20 sweet spot session yesterday probably didn’t help…

Wow 100km on a turbo 😳

Managed to hold on for a 3rd in B cat WBR 3 lap Hilly Reverse Race … I lost front group on 2nd lap, solo`d till 2-3 miles from finish … then got caught by group of 8-10 riders and lost my 2nd place!!

Can`t believe how fast fast time goes on the turbo nowadays!!

Just done my first (short) ftp test. Came in at 156W. I’ve no idea of if that’s good or bad for a 16 stone 41 yo that’s not properly exercised since last summer.

Also, really stupid <span style=”font-size: 0.8rem;”>question time – I assume at 103 kg that makes my W/kg 1.51?</span>

Yep, ~1.5W/Kg, going on that test result.

However, let me bore you with a little story… I tried the short FTP test on Zwift in mid Jan last month, my first ever, result was ~218W but I’d just done something like 8+ consecutive days of training (often up the Zwift big climbs). Since then, Zwift has used its automatic FTP estimates based on 20min rides to boost my FTP to ~238W and then 254W last week (which corresponds with the estimates that Strava Premium and cricklesorg.wordpress.com/ have given me).

Trying to judge what you are capable of when doing FTP tests for the first time isn’t easy, by all accounts. Being new to turbo trainers and the intense heat compared to outdoors, making a lesser indoor effort seem quite hard, compounds the issue. I spent a good couple of weeks very confused why my cat3/4 times in Zwift were way down on real ones and why my heart rate was much lower in Zwift, the answer was I had to mentally fight the sauna-esque conditions and sweating buckets compared to outside.

I’ve since gone a bit extreme and stopped using my ~20″ fan when Zwifting, imagining I’m riding on a hot and humid day up the likes of Harvesting Lane and “Bell Hill to the top” near Petersfield.