I know i’m over analysing things now 🙂

https://www.strava.com/activities/1987723004
and
https://www.strava.com/activities/2011827134

The difference between the two rides is quite large, not only is todays ride slower, but my HR in all the segments is higher, not just in them, but also on average. Today i averaged 6bpm more on average, the difference between 168bpm and 174bpm. Now that may not seem a lot, but 174 is right on he limit of working possible for me…. 168 however is reasonably comfortable a working effort.

I think i’m going to try some 200w 5 min sets tomorrow, with it set at FE-C and set without FE-C. I’m confused though if FE-C is correct, then why does Zwift keep changing me back out of it and into standard. Both modes seem to allow for hill resistance though that’s for sure.

I just took a whoppin from one scaredypants 😉

Got dropped on the first climb but ended up in a really lazy gruppetto minutes behind the main pack and ~30 secs ahead of scaredy’s bunch. we made it to the last lap picking up stragglers as we went but each one of them was toast, bar the scottish BRT lad who was prepared to do some work for us.

Got to the sprint and every man and his dog had a powerup except me 🙁 nowt in the legs and finished with a w/kg figure that would put me back in B.

I’ve lost about 3KG and about 50 watts in the last 6 weeks 🙁

@scaled. In the kiss race? Don’t think scardypants was in it. I was in the sprint with you (with an aero). Likewise in the power levels. After yesterday’s epic ride I could only manage 3.8w/kg. Do like that course though.

^^ That makes sense, sorry dude, i have a disconnect between forum names and zwift names!

Don’t think scardypants was in it

Agreed … and if I had been in it, I wouldn’t have been “in” it anyway

No worries. My group was prepared to work but wasn’t so good at staying together. I had nothing on the first climb so got dropped and was lucky to end up with another BRT rider. We worked together to catch a smaller group ahead and then stuck with them till we caught scaled’s group just before the sprint in the last lap. The aero really helped for the sprint and I timed its usage correctly for once. Disappointingly though was slower than the lead Bs. Kiss must have changed settings as I didn’t see the B’s on the road and normally you do.

Zwifting and trainers/Wahoo are a bit weird..

i did some spindowns today, i also did a workout i created with warm up, 260w for 5 mins, cool, then 260w for 5 mins… I tried with the setting on FE-C and without FE-C. They felt exactly the same and no differences in performances or effort etc.

I got a reply from Wahoo and basically they said whatever Spindowns i do go automatically into the 3rd party app.. in all honesty it was a very unconvincing reply LOL.

So i went back into Zwift, did a Spindown within the App and went for a race… 3 lap WBR of the Classique. If you know me and read my threads you’ll know i quite like this layout, usually go well but if it goes wrong, it’s Horseguards hill. The race went off at a bloody bonkers pace… I was sitting at about 400w+ and being destroyed ! sitting in about 70th out of 250…. As we got over onto the lap proper i quickly grasped that the As were gone… our group though had grown with some from ahead and some from behind into a massive group, 65th-85th at a rough guess. The pace at the front was bonkrs though…. Over the Horseguards on the first lap proper we were all together and i tried to settle the HR down to the Mall…. I just about managed it.
Onto lap 2 and it was going OK…. but as we hit the bit leading to HG hill i’d got my positioning all wrong and was sitting right at the back of the group…. damn…. I went all in for 450w+ and still got shelled out at the top… 2s down over the crest and down towards the hairpin “Pin it ” but pinning it wasn’t happening and even at 350w i was losing the bunch due to the blob/drafting. It was about then i thought about binning the race…
I looked back on the list and the guy behind was 11s down, but closing and holding 4.0w/kg… So i think “OK, lets grab his wheel” and i just about managed it.. Within about 1km we’d caught 2 others so we were a group of 4…. 1 B and 3 Cs…. Onto the last lap, i was fighting but struggling, they seemed to be doing better than me.
Up horseguards i used my feather but was just as much to hold on as it was to pull a gap… It worked well enough as 2 of the others were hitting 5w/kg so the feather kept me in there…
Up towards the Mall i waited as long as possible, the lead guy was sitting 4.2w/kg and i was 3.4 to sit in with him… he went i went. He went harder than me, but i was on the wheel at 600w… We both got killed by the guy behind, he came past with 1000w+ but the 4th guy died on his ar5e.

https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=108965

Not sure about that result LOL… i was behind loads of Cs… but i guess they all took a DQ or an upgrade… So it’s currently given me gold LOL. But more importantly is 276w all in… which is where i think i should/want to be. Don’t know really… bit weird all this, but a good fun race

Damn weeksy, that made my head hurt

Final paragraph and end result, though: 👍

Well that’ll teach me for not to properly read the race description. I entered the EVR Europe Race in NY tonight. First race for 2 winters. 48km and 1hr 25 later, I was dying on my arse but managed 7th in C’s. Couldn’t hold onto a group on the longer climb and ended up with an Irish lad who wasn’t for working together. He sacked it off after 2 laps so I spent 30km on my todd. Not sure why he didn’t work to close the gap but hey ho. I kept a 2 min gap to the group behind and got a ride off a few A’s who passed me. I’ll be more selective next time as the field wasn’t great and I didn’t know the course but it was definitely a workout. ZP bumped me to 2nd in C so my first cup. That’ll do for starters.

First cup, well done sir 🙂 they’re all hard work to earn irrespective of how many races you’ve entered 🙂

Rest day today, so 53km later at 220w average I’ve done stage 1 of the tour of London.

Wasn’t quite what I had in mind today.

Weeksy – i did the london stage this morning and was going to use it as a warm up for the mgcc pursuit race. I got sucked in to the lead group but i didnt help in any way and i didnt bother with a sprint at the end. I went too fast to be considered anything like a warm up and finished 10th out of 362! I did the pursuit race straight after and ended up destroying all the B’s and finished 2nd overall in the race,about 5 secs behind some featherweight chinese guy. No idea where my legs appeared from but i held on to some pretty hefty attacks and left a group of 9 B’s in fairly short time to latch on to the A group. May be i should double race more often.

That’s beast like! You crazy boy. Did you do 2 laps or 4 in tour?

Only did the 2 lapper, not enough time for 4. I think it was just one of those days when it all comes together

Also did 2 lap ToL at a very gentle pace as warm up to WBR 1 lap classique. Not sure I will complete the tour as I can see some pub visits getting in the way.

Has anyone experienced any power dropouts since the last update? I am on a gen 2 KIckr and have experienced dropouts in last 5 Zwift sessions. Prior to update not had a dropout since I bought usb extension lead over 2 years ago. Drop out seems to occur about 10 minutes into the session. Have a dedicated laptop for Zwift so nothing has changed on the HW front.

Nothing here. All good on my Snap.

20:25 WBR Innsbruckring Flat Race 4 Lapper this evening, was with the front main group through most of the first lap, and got distracted towards the end as was waiting for a text of the mrs to say she’d got to work ok, they got a gap on me, 5 seconds, tried to close it for a minute, but no chance, left me 20 seconds up on those behind, took them half a lap or so to catch me, ended in a group of 5 for a lap, 2 left up the hill, got caught by a big group, stayed with them for a bit, got dropped at the top of the hill on the down, finished solo 30 seconds back on a group of 10, and 30 seconds up and anyone behind,

felt disappointed at the end, however, i did the same race at the end of September and i did 258w for 20 minutes and my HR was sky-high, and this race was 285w, so ill take some solace in that

Results here 19/32 in B

285 is awesome power mate. Nice work. Sometimes races make us happy, sometimes we’re disappointed, even when the results are better lol. All part of being human.

I’ve got stage 2 of the tour planned for 9am. Won’t be going nuts due to distance and climbs.

Well that was horrific !

Anyone want to swap their Kickr for my neo? Or buy my neo?

I’m training for a big ride over the Pyrenees next year so have just ordered a Kickr climb (on special offer) so need to get a compatible trainer.

Willing to sell the neo for £575 with an 11 speed Shimano cassette fitted if anyone interested

Back on the wagon. Two laps of Innsbruck yesterday to fill in for too busy to get outside. I’ve done longer rides, but two hours is perfectly fine. Three really needs rollers, but my single sided Favero doesn’t talk nicely to iOS via Bluetooth.

Anybody using a surface go/pro with ANT dongle? That would work.

Oh and a fixed 100 miles on the road in the cold today. Much more like it!

I been completing the Wahoo Climb Mission all week, so first race today.
La Bicicletta Toronto Zwift Donut race – 2 laps of London and Fox hill.
The first time up Fox Hill be dropped the hanger ons to have a group of about 10 as we descended; on second time up Fox Hill I decided to try thin it out a bit more by upping the pace so everyone had to put a big effort in. By time I got to top I had put 17 seconds on the chasing group and with 6 miles to finish … 4 of them chased and I managed to hold on and finish 6 seconds clear.
The week of climbing alpe du Zwift certainly helped today.

TOur of London Stage 3 today then.

Not actually sure when I’m going to ride it though, i’ve got 7pm and 8pm penciled in currently, but could easily be 6pm… Xmas shopping after work with my boy and collecting Hope Pro4’s for myself. But should be home by 6pm, if so, i’ll likely ride it then.
7 laps of the Classique, although in reverse, not sure i’ve ever ridden the reverse layout of it. But these Tour Events have been useful as i’m riding longer distances than usual on them, more distance, more time, can’t hurt leading up to Xmas.

That seems like a LOT of up Mooman. Weirdly i seem like riding on Zwift is harder than outdoors when going up… maybe it’s the speed… Maybe outdoors i just cruise up, then on Zwift i try harder… Don’t know really…weird.

I find Alpe du zwift is really good to tempo and gauge your effort. Whenever I race a hilly course I inevitably get dropped from front group on the last climb. It was nice to actually have the strength on last climb to take the lead and be the one splintering the group …. the Alpe is definitely good strength training.

Day 3 of the tour, classique reverse, so suits my profile more.

Went off quite hard, then just hung in mostly, was pretty tough going

https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=107789

50/240 on the road, 39th according to Zwift.

Well, that’s my 6 week FTP builder in the bag.. only missed one session and that was down to the crappy interface.

So, 30 sessions and 40 or so hours later I’ve gone from an FTP of 154W (a bit road-bike rusty and probably not that representative) and 2w/kg via 168w early on (probably more representative as a base) to 215W and 3w/kg today – a not inconsiderable improvement!

Suppose I can’t put off trying some races now..? 😀

Top of C group then👍

The races will bring you fitness on faster. Practicing your positioning will help your results.

Not sure 215w will get you top of C in many races to be honest…. maybe top5 though, the C guys are all pushing right on the boundaries for many races, right on the limit and not lightweights, so power plays a factor. I rekon to be at the pointy end i need to be putitng out 270w average for a C podium. Sure, some courses you may get away with less… but not so sure.
Looking quickly through 5-6 races there was only 1 race where a person with <220w got in the top 4….

I don’t expect to be at the top end to start with, but at least I should be able to feel competitive compared to where I was 6 weeks ago. I’ll be taking it easy and learning the maps / race-craft so I can be tactical rather than just trying to blast it the whole time.

Yeah you’ll get in the melting pot with it 🙂 You’ll need to be over FTP for the first minute to get position though… then settle in and see what it brings. The larger fields over winter will be good too 🙂

I rekon to be at the pointy end i need to be putitng out 270w average for a C podium.

I guess that comes down to weight. I average 270-280w and more often than not podium in the B category … thats with a 3.8-3.9w/kg.
I thought with a 3w/kg that would have been top of the category below mine??

We’ll soon find out I guess, but as we know, watts and w/kg are better/worse depending on the courses, imo you’ll need to be right on the 3.19 limit for wins mostly. The closer to DQ the better.

I’m fighting tired leg syndrome along with 3x box hill on stage 4 tomorrow, but home early and fancy a ride I must say.

Did the earlier Sydkysten Cycling – Carl Ras Race. That short little Kleiner Hügel climb is a killer to stay with the group!
Lose the group before they get to top and descend and you never get back on.

We lost the front group of A cats on the 2 nd climb up there. And just a group of about eight B cats then till we climbed it the last time .. just the 4 of us then to the finish; I was the only one who didnt have a TT bonus thing to press for the sprint .. the three of them out sprinted me to finish.

Although zwift power had me getting the bronze because one of them couldnt have been registered.

OUCH
Well that will teach me not to choose a race before getting on the bike! Basically left it a bit late so jumped on blind and chose the next race to start. What I didn’t realise was that Zwift will now place you in different worlds to do different races. Was happily warming up in Watopia and the next thing I was in the pit for a TT in New York. Not only a time trail, but a route that took in the KOM Arch 3 times!!! So my least favourite discipline, in my least favourite world on my least favourite course lol. Cue a LOT of sweating and some very sore legs. Did manage a sprint race to the line (that I lost) and some pretty good climbing power too so was probably a good work out. After the race I rolled down to the lower level and had a go at the NY Sprint. Imagine my surprise to find I was only the third to do it today (since it is not really open riding there I guess) and also the fastest. First time I have had a Green Jersey to wear in Zwift 🙂
Just checked my results, was 9th in B out of 26 B riders and 17th overall. So happy with that. Will check what I am letting myself in for next time though…..

Well, that didn’t go well.. maybe the “Road to Sky” (Alpe du Zwift) route was a tad ambitious for a first try! Started out ok but then started going backwards and ended up in a small, mid-pack group in no-mans-land.. bailed out once I started falling out of the back after about 15km (30 min) at threshold.

Struggled a bit with getting the group balance right – I was either on the front for long periods or playing catch up, rather than sitting in.

Maybe I should’ve eaten something before, maybe should’ve had a day off after my FTP test, maybe shouldn’t have recalibrated the turbo trainer, maybe should’ve tried harder..

Maybe you should have listened to your own advice lol

I’ll be taking it easy and learning the maps / race-craft so I can be tactical rather than just trying to blast it the whole time.

🙂

Respect for trying Alp du Zwift as your first race though….

The Alpe is a solid 50 mins even at your own solid pace … only done it once in a race and it was brutal; being in the wrong group – or even just staying in a group is horrendous when you having to keep closing the gap!

Good over-night write ups guys 🙂 Much appreciated.

Wasn’t sure i was going to make Stage 4 today, felt a bit rough last night with what felt like an oncoming cold… but happily this morning i’m feeling OK.
However, the plan today is not to even attempt to ‘race’ stage 4, it’s Box Hill X3, so couldn’t suit me less if it tried… So i’ll be sitting at 2.0w/kg mostly and trundling round for last place, treating it as a recovery/easy day. No point killing myself on a course i have no chance of anything more than a finish on.

Alpe for first race LOL… nice one 🙂

Alpe as a first race. Ouch. Road to sky is a good hour 10 minutes even if you can get up the alpe in 50.

I’ve done nothing for a week. Lost a bit of motivation.