Viewing 40 posts - 11,241 through 11,280 (of 15,383 total)
  • Zwift, my journey, my weight and my fitness.
  • dirtyrider
    Free Member

    wrote a long post and it lost it,

    not much on Zwift lately, been outside, got 2nd in the local xc/cx race, up from 3rd 2 weeks ago, about 30-40 seconds behind the winner,

    also did Tour of the Peaks Sportive (114 miles & 3500m climbing) done this in the past 2 years, and both were around 8 hours moving, did it in 7 hours 3 this, pr up more or less anything apart from Winnats which i did 5 years ago, although i was a minute quicker than last year,

    NP was 234w for the lot,

    i feel about as good as i did pre 2015 injury, hich is a nice feeling, but ive done loads less miles for the same fitness level, just zwift races and hill, living in flat Lincolnshire, doing climbing on zwift seems to have helped massively

    nathb
    Free Member

    My direto just died, contacted support and have to send them a video of the issue.

    How’s Elites warranty generally?

    nixie
    Full Member

    Supposed to be good. Where did you buy it as it may be easier to return there.

    What died?

    Fresh Goods Friday 696: The Middling Edition

    Fresh Goods Friday 696: The Middlin...
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    weeksy
    Full Member

    Frustrating as always today.

    https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=191078

    Lap 1 I was nearly falling asleep, even though I was in the lead group. I was putting the power down fairly well. Then as we came over the line there’s a small climb on the reverse, that sent the pace up and I needed 450w to hang in. Then into the rollers I was trying to power/ease and save but I messed it up and found myself 1m off the back, then 2 sec, then I’d blown it! Sodding hell.
    In all honesty I couldn’t have hung in after the pace change but I’d have got near the end of the lap as it flattens for a while after that.

    I had 35s on the guy behind, another guy was 27s in front. Both were sticking down 3w/kg roughly as was I. Over the next 10 mins I lost 10s on the guy ahead, even though I closed him by 4s at one stage, I pulled out 10 on the guy chasing me.
    In the last 5km I lost another 15s to the guy ahead and 10s to the guy closing in on me, but I was ok and watching the gap and pacing myself to the end.
    Overall I was happy, with this week having several outdoor rides, some kom and a few trophies, along with a decent 12 hours riding this week, I can’t be expecting miracles when racing back to back days

    Outdoors tomorrow either solo or with my lad, not sure yet.

    i_like_food
    Full Member

    I was in the same race @weeksy. Been on Zwift for a while but generally just go to Wattopia and do 2 reps up the big climb. Thought I’d try a race…

    I found it mega hard to back off when drafting. I have a dumb turbo and get power from my SRM so not sure if that changes things but drafting seems to make FA difference to my effort/power. As a result I yo-yo up and down the group like an overexcited puppy.

    You were right about the first lap, quiet steady all things considered. But when you got popped off the group I was absolutely hanging on for dear life then it all seemed to back off and then people were waiting for the gallop (through which i mainly went backwards).

    A good smash fest though.

    weeksy
    Full Member

    It’s funny at times like that as I was looking at a few power numbers of the riders ahead and thinking, “damn I’d have been ok there”
    It’s them little surges at 400w that get me, if the race sits at 280w all the way I’m golden. But when it kicks up I’m in trouble.

    Well done then matey, whoever you were. Lol.

    nixie
    Full Member

    Yeah those 400w surges are killers 🤢. I can sit at 280-310 ish for a while but anything sustained at 400w and I’m in trouble. Have taken to surging and micro resting at times.

    I still don’t think I’ve got the hang of drafting. I always yo yo between the front and back of whatever group I’m in. Supposedly it’s a 20-30% reduction when in the draft but the only time.i notice it is when I have to produce it to stay attached!

    blader1611
    Free Member

    I raced against Mark Cavendish this morning and he was getting quite testy with some punchy attacks. I did the dirt sprintapooloza before the race which was a terrible idea considering i did 2 1000w sprints in that. The race itself was a watt bomb fest or felt like it to me. All climbs were full gas requiring nearly 600w to stay in touch. There were only me and 1 other B with the A group and Cav so i new i had at least silver in the bag. Some of the dirt team got wind of my race so they all fan viewed me and over discord kept the encouragement going,this really did help. Had to hit 700w on the hill to the volcano to keep on the wheels of cav who had gone ahead. With just less than a mile to go cav and the A group really wound it up which is far too early but i kinda hung on to a few wheels. What little sprint i had left gained me a few places but sadly Cav beat me by 3 secs though i did put quite a few A riders to the sword. I finished 6th overall beating 6 A riders and the other B i dropped by 10s so Gold for me. The race was brutal and i did fear i might break cat limits but actually the stats were lower than i thought, ended up at 3.8w/kg and 294w, surprising given how many times i saw orange numbers.

    scaredypants
    Full Member

    Question for you old hands:

    I’ve stopped my subscription for the summer but still go on occasionally and used up my monthly free 25km or whatever it is tonight. Once that had gone, seemed I could still ride and move my avatar, just that my “level” points count didn’t go up any more.

    Is that right – you can still go on and ride, just not race or add to your points? I’d assumed it’d boot me right off

    n0b0dy0ftheg0at
    Free Member

    I keep meaning to test how long you can keep riding after your monthly 25Km has been used, but I don’t think I’ve continued for more than ~1min.

    n0b0dy0ftheg0at
    Free Member

    Not long finished this Zwift ride https://www.strava.com/activities/2404484835 , where the 25Km trial distance ended at ~6.3Km (~19mins) into the ride. After clicking “not now” as regard signing up, I was able to carry on riding until my planned finish ~43Km (~1hr42mins). “Trial expired” in the auto-screenshot! 😆

    nixie
    Full Member

    Another Tuesday and another long KISS hilly race. Mountain figure 8 this time so the other way up the mountain from last week. I think I prefer this direction as there are some little rests as the road dips a bit. Again not a huge field 30 at the start 16 finishers on ZP. One thing I really like about the big climbing races is that the start is not so hectic. There were four BRT riders at the start and three of us were quite close for the first half of the climb. My target was to stay with the team admin as he is a slightly better rider than I am. Some how this time I was in better for and pulled away with the other BRT rider and one other. We dropped back from a couple of riders and them caught one back on the radio tower climb.

    Over the top I had kept a little effort in reserve to keep the pressure in down hill. So many seem to rest in aero tuck while I prefer to keep spinning and hit large efforts up the short drags. Not long into the descent this caused our group of four to split into two twos and by the bottom the cryogen A+ rider I was with and I had pulled a 15s gap. More importantly we were closing down the two riders ahead. We caught them about 2k before the Italian villas and then road as a four towards the end. I tried to get a gap on the post sprint climb but was closed down quickly. The normal cageyness followed until I broke ranks at 500m ish for a long effort. One other went with and unfortunately I got overhauled (not helped by cramping calves as I sprinted).

    Very happy with the results overall. I also got my first FTP increase for a very, very long time. Only 2W but now up to 325W. My lap time was 8 minutes better than last time on this route and there were loads of PBs on the climb (including the radio tower section).

    https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=192006

    FTP bump

    nixie
    Full Member

    I went racing again last night but took a break from the hills to do a flat crit. Not too much to say about this one. First three laps and the lead in had regular attacks which rapidly whittled all the non-A riders off the lead group. The pace stayed high till lap four when the group seemed to settle and rest. I tried to go longish as there were some decent sprinters but couldn’t get away. I did find a spare gear right at the end to just edge into fourth.

    https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=192372

    dirtyrider
    Free Member

    good effort, 2w is 2w

    nothing from me, feel absolutely knackered at the minute, stress, half term, houses etc, went out once last week, did good numbers, nipped out on the xc bike a couple of days ago and could barely be arsed to turn the pedals, cannot put my finger on it, just don’t feel right at the minute

    tomlevell
    Full Member

    Tried to do a ramp test last night. Not recoeverd fully, head not in it and quite warm.
    Still can’t complain won my outdoor A race last weekend thanks mainly to taking 2 fast friends :0)
    First and only ever probably podium.

    AD
    Full Member

    First Zwift race (not counting the Giro TT). 21st in a tight little group of riders so quite pleased with that!

    https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=192607

    Really daft question – looking at the numbers should I be entering as cat B normally?

    weeksy
    Full Member

    That was an event not a race as such. But yes, you’re a B based upon that.

    AD
    Full Member

    Thanks Weeksy – much appreciated!

    Fair point – it was an event – I should have been more specific 🙂

    weeksy
    Full Member

    Hey don’t get me wrong, a large majority of people race them…. i’ve raced many… but arguably they’re not actual races, so won’t count to your Zwift rankings within Zwiftpower for Cat allocation etc.

    AD
    Full Member

    I hope everyone else was racing it last night otherwise I’m in for a very rude awakening in my first ‘proper’ race 🙂

    nixie
    Full Member

    If it felt like you were going to die at the start they were racing.

    Did a one lap sprint last night after missing the KISS long race. Got a bronze but really the gold was in reach for once. I just miss timed my sprint. I’d been applying the pressure from the front on all the ramps which had whittled the pack down nicely.

    Noticed there was a stw rider in B as well. Was that you @AD?

    https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=193621

    weeksy
    Full Member

    They’re massive numbers in that race.. ! even AD at the low end of B was 300w !

    nixie
    Full Member

    Yeah pretty full on. I prefer the longer races but sometimes that different mind set of a 15 minute full on blat is fun. I was needimg 4.2 w/kg just to draft at times.

    AD
    Full Member

    @nixie – you’re right – that was me. Good craic but definitely a rude awakening 🙂

    nixie
    Full Member

    I didn’t see where your were in the event but if you managed to hold on to the ramp out if the tunnel you were doing well. If you stayed with it out of the tunnel then you should be ok with the normal start madness.

    Kryton57
    Full Member

    Jeez. Did the Kiss EU Long last night as a replacement for Wednesdays XC race that I couldn’t make.  I’ll qualify what I say next by the fact I discovered my specific XC Marathon training has removed my top end for shorter events, and I’m in the middle of a tough three week training plan – currently at the can’t stay awake beyond 9pm stage.

    Anyway, retrospectively the results showed I was racing all A’s and it was the New York circuit with the two big hills – not my strength.  The start was slow, a 350w 5min burst which I comfortably sat in the group.  Then it went up the first climb and I immediately couldn’t keep up.  I forgot myself tactically and neglected to use the right cadence which brings more power for me grinding away tying to keep up.  At the top of the first 5 min climb i’d lost 30s to the front 7 (of 13) and was in no mans Land with the rest 30s behind me.  And so it was for the next 70 mins.  The leader finished 11 mins ahead, one quit so I eventually finished 2 mins ahead of the guy behind me, in 6th.

    The results show everyone else got dumped, not sure why

    https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=194236

    It was a really tough gig, tiredness didn’t help and my head went down several times as I coasted and considered quitting, but my need for training commitment kept me going.  I also couldn’t get my HR up over 160, I usually race higher than that.  Anyway, I finished with a mere 247w average and 3.2wkg and got dumped into C by Zwiftpower 🙁

    Theres a lot to be said to for knowing the Zwift courses and how to race on Zwift in these, I definitely felt all of that plus tactical non-plus was an issue, essentially leading to a flawed 70 min TT .

    Anyway, a decent mid week workout!

    weeksy
    Full Member

    I’m off racing at the moment as i seem to have lost all my power, which i think was down to too much riding/racing.
    So a couple of easier rides this week followed by Alp D’zwift yesterday. Didn’t set the world on fire. For the climb i was setting my pace at pretty much 200w. Which gave me a HR of 136-145 depending on where i was and how it was… So a fairly cruisy ride. But i have the SDW next as my event to ride, so trying to concentrate upon a bit of that.

    p.s. well done Kryton, i saw when you were entering and thought it may be a lonely one.

    Kryton57
    Full Member

    Yeah I kinda new what I was getting into but needed the duration, and that was the only race at the right time that’d give me that.

    Like you Weeksy I’ve got 6 hours at 210w (z2) to complete this weekend over 2 rides.

    nixie
    Full Member

    @Kryton57 Rising Empire really is an evil course, especially evil to TT.

    I’ve done two more races this week (after the short sprint on Tuesday) and have probably over done it a little :D. Still got an ‘easy’ weekend (Grand Rando gravel ride/bivi in the New forest,70 miles on Sat, 30 on Sunday) to recover with 😀 (and plenty of pub stops).

    Wednesday did the BRT TT on The Highline. I completely forgot that you have to go up the damn KOM on the lead in. Also forgot it was two laps not one and it nearly broke me when I realised it was 3 climb efforts not two as I’d been riding expecting two! I got silver in this race but was way behind the powerhouse in gold (4.9W/kg for pretty much the entire time!). I was reasonably happy with my effort, especially power up the climb, but was very suprised to find I’d only averaged 4.1W/kg for the whole event. Felt harder than that. https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=193880

    Last night I did the BRT crit, 8 laps of the volcano. This event was looking quite quiet until about 10 minutes before and I thought I should be able to place well or win it. Legs were tired so I was planning to try and escape off the front with a lap or so too go and TT to the end. Unfortunately it didn’t work out as the field got bigger and I didn’t have the legs to attempt an escape. I did however manage to hang on till the sprint but unsurprisingly could not produce the big power. Still was only a second back and never felt like I was going to be dropped. Its been a while since I raced the volcano and its easier than I remembered. https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=194219

    blader1611
    Free Member

    One of my fellow DIRT team riders has just informed me that i am currently ranked no.6 in B category. I have won quite a few races of late and in some big series too so i guess i got a good boost in rankings.

    weeksy
    Full Member

    You’ve been absolutely FLYING in just about everything you enter mate. Every time i look you seem to have won your event.

    nixie
    Full Member

    @blader1611 nice work, be seeing you in A soon I think :D.

    weeksy
    Full Member

    He wouldn’t struggle in A at all if i’m correct. He’s not the best A… but he’s far from a bad A.

    nixie
    Full Member

    Agreed, think he’d be a threat I’d want to stay away from!

    blader1611
    Free Member

    Thanks guys. I raced nixie before and got taught a lesson but thats what you gotta go through to get better. I think riding in a team has made a big difference. I will continue racing in B as its going really well in the Team Celebration series and in the TT on Thursdays but i think i will dabble in A when they come to an end. Some of those A riders though have eye popping stats. I raced with the no.1 rider in zwift last week and spoke to him (really nice guy) and he hit 18.4w/kg for 15s and he weighs 78kg! Suffice to say he beat me in that particular sprint.

    weeksy
    Full Member

    Another day, another climb for sdw prep. Today only 850m and again not a high pace but it’s all climbing

    nixie
    Full Member

    You doing the single or double weeksy. Hoping to get a single I’m myself this summer (west->east).

    Blader, I remember racing you but cannot find it in my history. Don’t remember being far ahead though.

    Some of the A/a+ stats are just plain scary. 350w FTP and 65kg! Eek.

    weeksy
    Full Member

    Just the single. I’m not convinced I have the double in me.

    weeksy
    Full Member

    Rachael Elliott, a British amateur racer, is one of the strongest women on Zwift. She has ridden more than 30,000 miles in her house. But the social aspect of indoor riding appeals as much as her many victories. Last February, she suffered a stroke while training on Zwift. Other users noticed she had stopped and helped raise the alarm. “I started getting dizzy during my warmup,” she says. “I remember getting off and lying on the floor thinking I was fainting, then reaching for my phone.”

    Elliott spent a month in hospital, where doctors said anything could have triggered the stroke. Zwifters sent her an iPad and under-desk pedals so that she could start riding again on the ward. She still has reduced vision; she can ride outside only on the back of a tandem

    Didn’t know that. Damn!

    Other than that, a decent article

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