kind of saw that coming sorry! I guess it’s hard to benchmark if you don’t race road bikes outside too?

No need to apologise mate, in just about every post I said i was doubting the numbers so suspected it was coming too!

I’m really struggling for time at the moment, having to do the nursery run has stopped my extended commutes (other than the one where we go down the canal for a mile so he can see the boats and the geese). I had all my kit, inc. laptop, water bottle and cycling kit laid out by the front door ready to hit the garage at 0530 so I could get an hour in but nope, 2 of the 3 kids were up and about by 0545. By the time it gets to 8ish when the kids are in bed again i’m bloody knackered.

On the plus side, I did finally get out on the mountain bike 😀

Feel your pain with children cutting into bike time. That’s the reason I’m using zwift at all and even then I’ve missed lots of rides I wanted to do when they didn’t go to bed quietly. Joys of young children! Good thing the monsters are also entertaining :D.

After 8pm is Daddy time in the garage for me. It makes the PRL100 workouts that last 2hrs really late.

I managed to exceed my target weight of 90kg (I’m 192cm tall), unfortunately it was not achieved by hard work or dieting. Food Poisoning is not a pleasant way to lose 4kg in 2 days. For the rest of the week my body was using it’s reserves for fuel. Dropped down to 88.5kg and a week and a half later I am back to 90kg, and trying to maintain this.

For the first time in 20 years I can fit comfortably into 34 inch waist jeans.

Just realised that the workout plan I was following (PRL100 one where they work out the timings) finishes 1 week after the event. That’s clever, that is. Back to the workouts that I select myself, which are harder anyway.

Had a ride with weeksy on zwift so just for a bit of fun we had a sprint to the finish line. It was a pretty close contest but what struck me was that even in top gear and spinning very very fast (not sure you could spin much faster) it only registered a max output of 885w. How is it possible to have a 1200w+ sprint? Only way i can see it happening is either using bigger gears (i run a compact) or my set up is wholly inaccurate when giving it some berries (this is a distinct possibility).

Weeksy – thanks for sprint sessions,not much in those. I didnt manage the race as i lost all network so thank goodness i did those sprints with you. In a fit of anger i deleted our ride but have managed to recover it and load it in to strava. I managed 885w max, what did you do?

it only registered a max output of 885w. How is it possible to have a 1200w+ sprint?

Trainers have a maximum power output, a Kickr will record up to 2000 watts, a Kickr Snap will allow up to 1500 watts, a Tacx Satori tops out at 950 watts, so it may be that your trainer simply won’t register above a certain level.

In sprint 1 where i led you out, you were showing 11.3w/kg  when you passed me.

In sprint 2 I was hitting 743w. That’s about my limit. I was maxed out in gears at 112rpm.

My trainer has a limit of 800w so is my 885w just a guess by the trainer or zwift. Could this be an excuse to upgrade my tacx, i think it might. I am clearly a powerful fat middle aged man who can go beyond smart tech, thats seems like a new opening statement for my CV.

weeksy – my cadence was showing as 130 but i think once i go berserk it becomes very inaccurate.

Did 6 lap race on classique course today and managed to stay with the A group all the way to the end but it was tough. I finished at the back of the bunch sprint but managed to avg 28.1mph and 285w avg. The figures that really stood out were for Horseguards hill in which i had to go up it at over 500w for every lap just to stay in touch, I even had to do a pr (avg 539w) on lap 5 just to stay in the bunch, it was a very quick A group today.

Usual story today, 1 lap London greater hilly.

Cruised along in bunch of B and Cs for the first 20 min which is flat, rarely seeing more than 155bpm.

12 in our group as we hit Leith Hill. I was sitting in 2nd but due to weight that was destined to fail. Stayed with them for about 3 min and then fell off. My personal challenge was to stay ahead of 1 rider in the group, I managed 2. Closest guy crested 7s behind me and next guy 32s. Neither could close that on the way down and I cruised to the line for 15/40. Lots of PRs on the climb by a decent margin, so happy with that. Worked hard but was never going to suit me with that layout.

Four laps of Watopia hilly for me last night. First lap was painful. Got stuck in a gap and had to work really hard to catch the bunch ahead. This took till the volcano and hurt lots. Took till most of lap two to recover. Lap three on the hill before the bridge sprint I went hard till after the bridge and split the group up a bit. Tried the same on four but didn’t work again. Five us us left at the sprint which too my surprise (given we had picked up an A) I won. Third B again but a long way down on the first two who stayed with the leading A group. Did a fifth lap after to push me over 50k.

Going to rest till Thursday now. Wife is away so may try a long stint (2 hrs) or one of the mega loops. Think I’ll bust 300k this month!

Did the WBR Road To Sky Climbing Race the other day. It was brutal! Not only is it the Alp Du Zwift but you’ve got to get there too, via the Epic KOM! Had I known the profile beforehand I might have had second thoughts….

I’m too fat for the win here at 72kg, the winner being 56kg?! Anyway I’m happy with the result from essentially a 68 minute threshold test…

https://www.strava.com/activities/1643704624

All a bit meaningless without Zwiftpower though!!

Well done guys 🙂

Yeah the lack of ZP does make it all a bit ‘meh’. I’m still trying just as hard, but it’s nice to read the results and have a look at who etc and see if you can see what you need to push to the next level.  I’m hoping they get it sorted soon… but i’m not optimistic.

Yeah its a shame about ZP particularly as i seem to be in a rich vein of form.

Just did the 2 lap london loop race and managed a new PR for Box Hill of 6:33.8, that beats my best by 14s. Not sure where that puts me on the stw list but it still had me 17s behind the main A group, those guys are just too fast although i bet they dont weigh 80kg.

Really hope ZP is back soon!

Have signed on for the 8pm three loops tomorrow (assuming the terror sleeper goes down promotly)!

I finally got off my arse and got out to the garage instead of drinking beer and watching football. Pre baby i was a good couple of hundred km ahead of my annual goal, i’m not 350 behind.

Did the EVR race and entered as a B as I’ve still no real idea about my data. I spent quite a lot of time on the front before we hit box hill (schoolboy error) and the faster A’s just went flying off and had about 30 seconds on the me, then 5 secs back to the next A, I let off the gas on the descent and waited for him, then the rest of the group. We never saw the lead A’s again but it was a decent enough ride. I’d saved enough (and a feather) for the second climb of box hill but kept it until the escalator, dropped it there and basically sprinted up it as if it was the finishing line. By the time i’d run out of gas I had about 8 seconds on the chasing pack and they let me go to play cat and mouse. Cruised home for lead B but 4.2w/kg

I cruised round for a bit, checked the events and thought i’d have a go at ‘The Chop’ as an A. What a mistake that was 😀 Maybe nicely warmed up with fresh legs I could have given it a go. Looks like a good fun format though, maybe next week 😀

The really good news is that I seem to be getting the hang of using my gears inside. Leaves me just over 4.3 w/kg

Nice work.

What’s ‘the chop’?

They have staggered starts so the D group sets off first, then C,B then A.

Each group is trying to stay away from the group in front and not get caught by the one behind.

With 2x laps of box hill at race pace I just couldn’t hang on for more than about 20 mins but it was fun while it lasted.

Did the WBR 6 Laps Classique Flat Race last night. Legs felt really good even without a warmup. Decided the race was mine for the taking so I pretty much controlled it, kept the pace high for the first 2/3s and just sat with people up the incline as is normal on that course. Then I let a guy get away and then would bridge to him knocking a couple of people of each time, then I opened up the legs attacking in random places all over the place. Soon enough I’d whittled the group down from 15 or so to 3 and pretty sure they were hurting 😆 Finally I launched an attack from behind at the the top end of The Mall and no one could latch on 🙂

Havent gone into a race feeling that fresh or arrogant for a while haha.

https://www.strava.com/activities/1651518668

Oh man, i’m envious when i read reports like that… I tried a few times in the last few races in the same way.. but within my smaller B/C group, but i’m usually the one who pays the price in the end when we get a kicker and i get blown out the back. Damn the 89kg weight !

Must admit, ZP being down isn’t helping as it’s very easy to bail now

Not zwifted or raced for a good few months now! Really sucks that ZP has succumbed to what looks like a GDPR balls up/apathy from Zwift with no real road map for getting it back… have CVR somehow managed to work around this or is their racing league borked too?

NIce. Also envious! Damn those laps were quick!! I’d love to put in some attacks to split things up but for the most part I’m struggling to hang on let alone attack (the ones I tried in the last race cost lots).

Think CVR is also dead!

Nah, CVR is alive and kicking.

They were lucky really in that they were in post season already so all the races were just a heads up race between two people.

Next week is the live CVR final in Vancouver, folks who won their brackets are all flying in and zwiftpower in an arena 😁😁

I saw Blader was racing in the CHOP race in B… so jumped in C.

I then realised it was a handicap race ! We went off before them, they have to catch us.

Stayed in group for all 5 laps, but got dropped on Horseguards and Solo’d to the end. Blader passed me with 300m to go with the lead B group. I was all in and dead by then…. If i thought a bit i possibly could have stayed ahead with a massive push from 1km out, but i honestly thought i had the Bs beaten.. i never.

Good effort and training though 🙂

Next week is the live CVR final in Vancouver, folks who won their brackets are all flying in and zwiftpower in an arena

that actually does sound pretty cool (although tbh if I could afford to travel to Canada for cycling I would most definitely not be doing it inside lol) but presumably they are stuffed still wrt to starting a new season if they were using ZP to crunch the numbers?

Good work all.

Just restarting again after a short break, main race of the year at Glentress 7 and a small minor op, and I’m sure my FTP will be down a bit and I’m still in recovery mode so I’ve put my FTP down on Zwift and am letting it go up as it pleases. Tootling round Zwift at 170 to 200 watts at the moment. Zwift FTP now reading 206 against what I last tested at 272. It’ll give me some motivation to work a bit harder when I can but I’m only expecting to be 10 watts or so down anyway,

I’ll retest on Trainerroad and use that when doing sessions.

Planning on doing a few races in a few weeks so hopefully ZP will be back.

I didnt realise you were in that race weeksy. We were a very fast B group today, the A group got nowhere near us. I ended up averaging 283w for that race which was only 2 less than yesterday which was riding with the fast A group. The C group must have been quick as well as i dont think we caught all of them.

You caught very few of them mate, they crossed the line about 30s ahead of you mostly. It was only on the last H-G hill that we split from 30 or so in the group. Apparently there’s results etc on FB, but as i don’t do FB i have no idea about that. The thoughts were that the majority of our group would be DQ’d on power. I was on the edge at 3.0w/kg at the end, so they must have been over mostly that’s for sure.

Weeksy – i dont think we gained anything on the last lap as i think we were same distance behind at the end of lap 4. I am not bothered about the results at the minute, i find if i finish with an average that is around my sweetspot then i know i have gone all out. My ftp is 312w so 283w for the Chop is about right. It was nice to be in a large group again,its been a bit sparse of late.

Same as you really. I was just happy to last the 5 laps at pace. I’ve been a bit weak lately and bailing out of rides that i should arguably be finishing instead, but i’ve been putting in possibly too many racey type rides to be sustainable. My average was 260w and with an FTP recently of 278w, then i’m right in the ‘good damn hard work’ zone. As i say, i was a little disappointed to get dropped at the end of lap5, but if it was a ZP race, maybe i’d have managed to stay in.. but i was not going to be any use to the group as i was sitting on the back, not pushing off the front as i did earlier in the event…

Ouch three loops is hard in the second half! Stuck with the pack to Leith hill. This broke things up a bit. Ended up on my own by the top. There was one other B who was also dropped about 30s ahead. Pretty sure they waited for me before Box Hill however I didn’t wait for them after the second switch back and put the hammer down. Had 10s by the banner and 20 by the time the road turned down. This stretched to 1 minute by the bottom of the hill by which point they had given up. Cruised to the end.

Strangely KISS races don’t seem to show up as races for me at the moment. I don’t get a position or leader board at the end. Quite frustrating.

I think I might need to do some training instead of just racing. I added as steady 15km onto the race and practiced spinning at 90rpm for a good amount of that (then had a go at the mall sprint, 13s I think).

Nixie- KISS and ZP are closely related. They got Zwift to switch the leaderboard off a long time ago for their events to force people to check ZP (and of course aim for the higher level of accountability that goes with using it).

If they haven’t switched them back on again you’d hope it means they think a solution is forthcoming sooner rather than later 🤷🏻‍♂️

I don’t follow Zwift news like I used to but it feels like they’ve stagnated this year- everything has ground to a halt. I know the new world is coming soon but it feels there’s a million niggles they should have addressed by now that just roll on forever.

The only exciting news is that a little bit of world switching is finally going to commence with a Richmond Flat Crit Series… I’ll be up for that if it’s still running in the Autumn.

Flat/crit races are my favourite as they’re the most realistic to the real world IMO.

Im only racing to maintain some fitness & I’m not allowed to race outside until after our wedding in 3 weeks as I’ve gone passed the broken bones healing stage 😆 After the honeymoon I’m planning on getting back on TR, if ZP isn’t back then Zwift may get cancelled…

Half day at work today so hoping to get a race in later, see what’s flat 🙂

Thanks Crosshair, guess that also explains why they have an intro voice over that no one else does.

I quite like the challenge of the hills. Don’t really care for real world equivalence as I don’t ride road much.

Couple more podiums over the last couple of days.

I think Zwift racing is like the wild west at the moment, I got destroyed by a cat B earlier – he kept throwing attack after attack:

😆

Zwift racing as much as I can to keep my legs in the game over the next few weeks 🙂

CVR worrld cup is live on https://www.facebook.com/cvrworldcup/ or http://cycleview.tv

There’s some hardcore suffering going on today and tomorrow 😀

Stage 1 winner was Lionel Vujasen who averaged 6.2 w/kg (on a calibrated turbo and after being weighed in live) for a 14 minute TT, monster.

Was about to get in the shower last night after a spot of baling but decided I needed to be a bit more sweaty so headed down to the cellar. I haven’t been on Zwift since cancelling subs back at end of April but rememdered that youget 25kms free each month anyway so thought I would give it a go. Set it up, got on logged in… WBR 1 lap hilly starting in 5 mins. Hmm, why not?

Well started well enough, flew off the front with a couple of others in Group C and ended up in a 3 horse race up Fox hill. 1 rider got a 12 second lead by the top but I went over 2nd with an American hard on my tail. And so it continued. The other rider refused to take point, and the gap to the lead rider stayed pretty constant at around 12 seconds. If I slowed down then my follower slowed down too. He refused to give me a rest in his draught. Swine 🙂 Anyway, 1 km from the fish he kicks and goes and I just had nothing left to follow him. last I saw he was about 3 seconds behind the leader and gaining on him. I was happy to finish 3rd, 11 seconds down and over a minute ahead of 4th place. But Jeez was it hot. Forgot to take anything to drink so was screaming for the wife to bring me water as it was about 30 degrees in there and I was on the verge of passing out going up the hill!

Ah well, another week and I can do another 25km race

LOL good write up matey 🙂

Looks like ZP etc will be back soon.

There is now an opt in option for sharing on your profile page on the Zwift website under connections.

OOOOh nice 🙂