FTP workout on Zwift, and Wahoo KICKR in erg mode. Went off far to hard to hold 320 Watts, but eased back. I then validate against road and TT races.

As it was sunny i went out for a quick hour…. I thought, 22, 23km, should be OK….

https://www.strava.com/activities/1492913291

69km later and 3+ hours… .oops.

Tired, you’re literally the last person I would have imagined Zwifting haha.

I did the dirty last night**: https://www.strava.com/activities/1493187444

**Took a lot of effort to do that at the gym ha.

P.s. This seems a bit of a “bargain”?? https://www.athleteshop.co.uk/elite-direto-smart-b-trainer-power-mtr-interactive?utm_source=idealo&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=idealoUK&utm_content=20190-5RWKOBQTNRCGS&kwd_id=20190-5RWKOBQTNRCGS

Did the wbr this morning with Bigfoot from here so i had an incentive to try and stay with the A group. It was a strange race as it wasnt fast on the flats but quite quick on all the ramps. Bigfoot put a big burst in on the first lap which i just about managed to hold on but we were a very small group so you had to stay in touch. I more than held my own on all the little climbs and with the slow pace on flats (250w ish) i was able to recover enough between the big efforts. All down to a sprint finish but i had no power up so get left behind a little. I ended up 4th overall and SILVER in B group but all 5 of us in the lead group finished within 1.88s of each other so close race. Bigfoot actually finished behind me but i suspect the race was too slow for him plus i dont think he was really trying judging by his hr, he normally rides away from me.

is anyone else not getting many power ups? The last 12 i have gone through i got 9 points and only 3 actual PU. In the Richmond race last week i went through 6 consecutive points power ups.

Edit: results table only has the five of us on it! Everyone else is filtered.

Nice one blader and that DIrecto is a proper bargain, tempted but with the new baby <1 month away I fear I may incur levels of wrath that i’m not prepared for…

Had a good one last night though, https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=53881 – WBR 2 Lap Greater London Flat decent sized field and pretty much everyone stuck together in a group for the first 3/4 of a lap, i put a few little digs in off the front but nobody seemed particularly interested in joining me then I saw someone head off up the road while I wasn’t paying attention. Huge effort to get on his wheel to then see that she was on a TT bike and zwiftpowering it at 6+ w/kg, nobody else had bridged so i dropped back into the pack that i’d put about 6 seconds into breaking away, nevermind!

There was another little break but we got hoovered up by the blob so me and my breakaway buddy brought a little pain to the groupo and put in a couple of 5+w/kg pulls on the front, fair play to the bloke with a 5.5 5 min power, he is nearly 20kg lighter than me though, the group was hurting but still together, it’s so hard to break the draft on that course. It’s obvious with 8km to go that it’s going to go down to the sprint.

4km to go, I’d seen Adam Zimmerman go charging off the front in a load of CVR races then sit up straight away again so thought i’d have a bit of fun and kept dropping bombs, pleasant unexpected side effect was people started throwing down their PUs worried that they were going to miss a break, I had a draft in my pocket so just kept my powder dry, I did that another 3 times, on the last one, with just over a km to go someone drops an aero and goes flying past just as i was throttling back, I jumped, hit the draft and sat on while he worked his arse off! We put about 5s into everyone else and I could see that he was dying pretty hard and was never going to make it to the line so kicked on with 300 to go and took it by a second.

Tour of wattopia AdZ this morning was a bit of a rude awakening after that 😛

Scaled, great write up, that sounded like a very fun race. I wish i had the fitness/ability to start messing with the field. I tried it once and it was a slow painful death to mid table obscurity as my legs gave up the fight.

Did the Tour of Watopia Stage 3 event at 6am this morning up to the top of Alpe Du Zwift.  It was horrible. 87 minutes of climbing ball ache.

First ride up AdZ and I could not push a decent cadence or wattage, hopefully other attempts will not be as bad once I get to know the climb a littel better and manage the run more efficiently.

Thankfully that Stage is the only one I have not done so I am hoping it will be plain sailing from here on apart from the Pretzel, that stage will also require a little effort.

ADZ at 6am sounds like torture so good effort on your part DM52.

What takes the wind out of your sails is having completed the previous stage and getting an ftp bump the very next session I am sure Zwift would be questioning it based on today’s episode.

Still looking forward to Stage 4 to prove I am worthy of the ftp bump and I was just let down by my porky weight on the climb.

Hi all, New to swift but had a 6 races now winning 3 (hilly ones as I can climb ok) 2 of which resulted in me being bumped up from D to C and from C to B. Just came second in the B’s to someone with 4.2 average so guess they will be bumped up.

I’ve enjoyed reading through many of the race reports on this thread and believe it has helped me to go into races knowing a little of what might happen such as full gas for the first minute or more! So thanks to all.

Quick question, it was mentioned above by scaled that he could see the rider he was chasing was ZP. How do you see this? I’ve burnt quite a few matches chasing riders who are later dq’d.

Quick question, it was mentioned above by scaled that he could see the rider he was chasing was ZP. How do you see this?

They don’t have the little ziggy zaggy, lightning bolt type icon by their w/kg figure on the right of the screen or by their power output if you click on their name. Means they’re using a dumb trainer with a guesstimated power output based on a notional curve for that trainer and a speed sensor.

Sometimes the output is close to believable, sometimes it’s just ridiculous. See also: claimed Zwift weights, uncalibrated trainers etc… 🙂

Ah right, thanks 😊

Well I’m not sure what happened there.  Did Stage 3. New bike on the trainer – did a 10min warm up and then calibrated as normal. Felt ok for the first part of the ride-maybe a bit sluggish but thought it was just my legs but as soon as I hit ADZ I was struggling big time.

HR says I was working hard, legs felt like they were working hard, and the swimming pool I was creating says I was definitely working hard, but in places I was struggling to put out more than 150W.  12mins down on my PR up the climb.

Really hope I just need to do advanced calibration again.

MrPH something doesnt sound right there, 12 mins down on a PR is not even close. I think even i would notice that kind of differential in my effort so if are working hard it would suggest something isnt quite right with your trainer. May be look for an update or recalibrate or just try again tomorrow on the assumption it was just having a hissy fit today.

Just did the 8pm ToW stage 3, with 1003 other wager zwifters. Clearly the eagerness waned when we all saw ADZ come into view, with 200 dropping out pretty zwiftly (see what I did there). I wasn’t in the mood for ADZ but managed to grind out a 10 minutes quicker time than my first attempt, doing it in 64 minutes. However it was more satisfying to round the last turn before the winner crossed the line.

A few last gasp surges from others pushed me from 276 to 280 (or there-abouts), but having started in around 400th, I had a good, hard workout.

I did my first attempt at ADZ this evening, 75.39, my av HR was 150 so will push a bit harder next time. Not sure I’ll be doing it much though, I prefer the epic climb, the gradient changes make it more interesting. Perhaps if I was lighter and fitter I’d think differently

Also in the 8pm ToW Stage 3 last night. Set off round the volcano at too high a pace really, due to setting off from the line later than most due to my HRM not being recognised. Gave up on the tech and started to play catchup.

Zwift wasn’t telling me what position I was in, or the other riders around me in the ride, so a lot of guess work as to pace. Started the jungle loop with a reasonably fast group, who kept on surging. Probably a good warmup for the climb though.

Started the big hill with 350w in my head, which by turn 10 was 370-380w. Managed to hold pace steady all the way to turn 1 (with the odd surge around a few of the hairpins) with 500m to go I decided to raise the effort and was peaking over 550w for about 200m, before I had to drop back to a sensible pace (slow).

I like the fact there are always people to use as targets to catch on a climb like that. Definitely passed a lot more people on the second half of the climb. Ended up with a AdZ time of 49:13 which was a few minutes faster than my previous best.

Crossed the line, and Zwift decided to show me everyone around, so spent a good part of the descent giving ride-ons due to not being able to on the way up.

Tour of Fire and Ice time was 1:12:18 and ZP has me in 34th place. For a heavy bloke that makes me very happy.

I really should start my RideLondon training, but I have a lot of fun on these events.

Might have done the 8pm ToW and crept in under the first 500 🙁

Nice to hear that 200 dropped out thou.

Oddly enough my average HR was 152 so I think I was pacing it slightly too slow…its a grim thing thou.

I noticed when looking for an event that an STWer Copping was entered onto the 09:15 WBR 1 lap flat reverse in C… So i thought “Yeah, i’ll have some of that”..

Sadly i don’t think he turned up !  Too late, i was in the pen and ready.

Off we went, not crazy hard, a goood 370-380w saw me in 3rd in C with 1/2 in touch… Sadly, again, we’d been penned way behind the Bs and they were 9s ahead by the time we went over the line and up the first little incline… That’s not going to happen. 9 of us in a group and i felt great, through the roller coaster and me and 4 others were getting on with it…. I was going 300w in many places and pushing on at times, little kicks here and there. Over the village sprint we’d got it down to 4 riders…. Rider 4 was soon dumped on the flat after some sustained work by me and a C and a B.  Down through the underwater section and flat bit, i’m sitting with them 2 and happy enough, HR at 166 which is OK, onto the kick out of the tunnel and we dumped the B… He was gone… but the other C was strong and hit an aero… i had an aero but was saving it for the line… we were still 1.7km from the finish, so i thought i’d claw him back…. Sadly that’s not what happened, he had 3s on me now and i was putting out 380w… push push…. but he was only 0.1w/kg lower than me…. I hit my aero at 900m and i got to within a second or so of him, but we were only 200m from the line, he was up around 6w/g and i wasn’t going to close that.

So i rolled over the line for a 7th out of 26 and 2nd in C… Damn… Thought i had that one !

Oh man, i left my legs on AdZ yesterday! The slightest of headwinds on this mornings commute and i felt like i was going backwards.

Hoping to do TdW stage 4 tomorrow at 8am if anyone fancies it.

Weeksy that would have been me.

Did ToW 6pm yesterday, first time up AdZ for me, a very pedestrian 1:28.  Not sure that AdZ will be a regular route for me.

planned to do the 9:15 wbr but due to jet lag found myself still awake at 5am and my normal alarm clock (a 2 year old) somehow slept in until gone 9.

looking forward to rest of ToW, never done the Pretzel before so stage 7 will be something new.  By the looks of strava pretzel is tougher than fire and ice?

I am on the 6am TdW Stage 4 tomorrow.  The 8am one would make me too late for work.

It will be interesting as I span around the route this morning thinking there was something wrong with my legs they were moving that slow, I am sure tonights gym session will add some speed back in.

Weeksy that would have been me.

Ah right. No worries… I quite enjoyed it even though a small field..

Also most impressed that i hit 299w average on ZP (289 on Strava) and was highest average power in the field. If only i were 20kg less ! LOL.

I’ve had a bad weekend of bad food and no 5-2 last week as my boy was away and then we were away at hotel and Rockingham on a trackday.. However, at Rocki i saw a dozen mates who commented on how much weight i’d lost… So i’m a bit pleased by that 🙂

XC racing, well, i can’t say i’m as bothered as i was 3-4 weeks ago, i’m now simply thinking “Go enjoy riding round the woods as hard as i can” and the rest, well, we’ll see what happens.

I’m actually looking forward to the pretzel, I bottled out last time i was on a ride round there so I’ve got some unfinished business.

I would say AdZ is a harder climb even if the route is more climbing overall it’s much more spread out and shallower gradients (apart from the tower, obvs) so you get more of a draft off the group.

The best thing about the pretzel if you have not already scoped out the route is the nice surprise once you have completed the EPIC KOM reverse and discovering you are not having to climb up to the radio tower again.

I hit stage 3 last night as the lour of AdZ was just too great but took it easy as I can never get to sleep after a hard session. made it a little bit more fun by waiting until nearly everyone had set off and then seeing how many I could catch.  Started 877 and finished 470ish….9mins down on my best (1.04).  goal for the year is to go sub 60mins.

Love the pretzel but the ramp up to the radio tower kills me, it a challenge to even turn the pedals at some points.

Oh man, i left my legs on AdZ yesterday! The slightest of headwinds on this mornings commute and i felt like i was going backwards.

May also be able to relate to this..really would have preferred it on a wet weekend as opposed to a work evening.

Finally got around to doing AdZ last night, as there was no way I was heading outside when I got back from work.  I found it pretty realistic, even though it is about 10 years since I last rode AdH.  I actually found myself reminiscing quite a bit about which switchback was which, where the various cafes are etc.  Good fun!

Still planning todays ride…There’s the 4:00 tour of Watopia, but will that as usual just turn into a race…. ? If it will, then i may as well do the 4:05pm WBR 4 laps of CCW to get some points (or lose some CVR points) and enjoy the racing aspect…. Decisions decisions.

I actually found myself reminiscing quite a bit about which switchback was which, where the various cafes are etc.  Good fun!

Agreed, it’s a shame the scenery isn’t a vaguely accurate recreation, would have liked that. I kept thinking “oh I remember this bit, I think…”, and I only rode it 6 months ago!

Getting very bored of all the damn screenshots on the Zwift Riders FB group though!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBbQTnAOt4M (not sure if it has been posted before) is a good insight into the amount of work it took to create the AdZ climb.

Stage 4 of the tour completed this morning, tired legs and all it was a significantly better experience to Stage 3!

I did stage 4 this morning but i was 3 mins late and didnt have my shoes on so not a great start. Mind you it was quite an incentive to catch people so i decided to tempo at a strong pace and hammer it on the hills. I managed to go from 482nd to 101st which i was quite pleased with. If i hadnt wasted the first 5 mins i reckon i would have been top 20. Is there anyway on strava to get avg power data by eliminating the first few minutes?

on the power bit, use drag/drop type jobbie on the bit you want

Yeah, go into the ride, click on analysis then you can just drag across the time window to select a portion of the ride.

#sprintfinish

Managed to complete the AdZ last night for the first time without a sensor drop-out part way through the climb.

Really enjoyed it. Didn’t manage a sub 60 mins (63:36) as I took it too easy to start with as I had no idea of what was involved.

Def need to do again soon but don’t like not being able to sleep afterwards.

doing 2pm tour, but due to hills will be at back

Holy mother of ARRGGHHHH how tough !

https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=51552

I think i ended up 194th out of 520.

Worked DAMN hard.

https://www.strava.com/activities/1502260067

Strava has me with some PRs on the climbing.. Eeeeek

239w average and a HR average of 164. Wasn’t planning on quite that hard !

Isn’t funny how we all plan to take it easy but end up turning ourselves inside out. I have the lurgy so just wanted to work up a bit of a sweat to help me shift the lung batter and snot but ended up doing a huge turn, just cant help ourselves.

thanks for the strava advice guys, off to check my ride now.

If you have an airways infection below the neck, the last thing you should do is ride anything close to hard to try and clear it! 😉

My first ride since last September, tall or virtual.

Was a 12k WBR Sprint/ race.

Good news I’m consistent.

Bad news is I came last out of 56! Which is consistent! Lol 😆

Good to have broken my cheery again though. 😏