I just had a good ride with the herd tonight

Iron fist was deployed and it was good.

Fence was dropped for the sprints Nd then put back on a suitable time after to allow soft pedaling bringing the group back together. Most folk understood it.

Those that didn’t got binned.

Was enjoyable.

Going to get back into Zwift to help push on from the modest base fitness that I have now
Was doing ok at the turn of the year- went from c to b, and enjoyed the racing

Never got back after a dose of flu in Feb

Will start again, hopefully I can go back to C

Did Off the MAAp Tour Stage 4 – jumped on in a rush an got to mile 16/20 when the Zwift app told me my free trial had expired. Must have cancelled the sub. Anyway worked well with a small group to that point and averaged about 3 w/kg, for the most part the pace was comfortable. Will renew subs and get back out soon.

Did the sufferfest 4dp test a couple of days ago, just to get an idea of what to work on, probably 90% of my riding this year has been full gas zwift races/local xc races and hard solo rides, and feel ive plateaued,

It seemed to suggest im a sprinter (i dont feel i am) – suggested sessions for that, and it suggested targeting 5 minute to help nudge up FTP from below

So whats the best way of integrating some actual targeted training when mixed with real life/kids/work/ when time crunched?

Are 2/3 targeted hour sessions instead of zwift races a week worth it when combined with outdoor riding and the odd zwift race?

“Emily’s Short Mix” is a great 30mins workout if you are short on time.

https://whatsonzwift.com/workouts/less-than-an-hour-to-burn/emilys-short-mix/

The beauty of these Zwift workouts is you can easily adjust them on the fly by +/-10% during the session, or simply fudge the FTP in your profile to make things more easy or hard.

~6 weeks ago I pretended I still had an FTP of 300W, just like I had at the very start of March before lurgy knocked me for six, to do Emily’s Short Mix. The final power stint had me right on the limit, but the unexpected bonus was that the final 20mins of intervals averaged ~284W and gave me an improved actual FTP figure at the time https://www.strava.com/activities/2452780239/analysis/419/1619

Unfortunately, that was the last relatively big sustained 20min effort I’ve done due to injury and now isn’t valid to base an estimated FTP on, as it was over 6 weeks ago.

It’s valid if you think it is still about right. You might get caught out if you try doing intervals based on it.
I’m still working off my last test back in Aprilish. I’ve failed a couple of ramp tests as my heads not in it but TT powers suggest I’m sat at the same place so I’m sticking with it for now.
Not much I can do now to improve it anyway before hill climb season so will plug along as I have been chucking in interval sessions when I can. Get back into full structure in November.

Are 2/3 targeted hour sessions instead of zwift races a week worth it when combined with outdoor riding and the odd zwift race?

Yes if you can maintain it. If you are going to be working hard a couple of other times a week anyway maybe restrict it to 1. If you want to see real improvements knock the racing on the head and do proper recovery rides on your outside rides and 3 sets of intervals indoors a week.

Did zhrc sub 2.0 ride last night

It was chaos . No fence , no beacon rider and no sub 2.0 ride. It was more like 3 with a final sprint up Keith hill

You get caught up in it all. It wasn’t what I was needing 🙁

Glasgow green cycle club ride tonight.

Sub 3.0 propper group control and beacon.

Fence off for the sprints and quick regroup then finished with a 4km sprint.

Felt like a good session rather than a relentless kickin.

https://zwiftinsider.com/titans-grove-released/

New area officially released overnight, with four(?) official routes to use this new undulating, bendy ~9Km.

Can’t believe that once again I’m sat here on a day off, using the excuse of temps in the mid to high 20s Celcius (and also my sore knee) to not go for a real 2hr+ ride near Butser Hill…

The idea of simply riding Titans Grove on the Direto and knowing I have plenty of chilled water to hand and I can stop whenever I need to if my knee gets unhappy is very tempting!

I feel your pain Goat… I’m sitting here with my legs and knees feeling 2nd hand after Jedi yesterday and debating shooting on for pootle round. I really fancy a race but nothing really suiting my riding at the moment.

I’ve been using it because we have a 5 day old baby.

I feel entirely justified.

Much easier to justify to Mrs t-r that I’m nipping out to the shed for an hour knowing she can call me back at any time than a ride miles away from the house where she would be on her own….at this stage.

I’ve done nothing for over a week. SDW attempt tomorrow so unlikely to be back on till next week.

My last Zwift ride for 2 weeks today, social one as i’m still getting tired calves every day at the moment. Then off to France for 2 weeks and taking the HT also so it needs prepping, checking an sorting for the trip etc. Need to change the gearing too as it’s got a 38T on the front currently which it won’t need for some of the riding in France that’s for sure !

I’ve signed up for the Tempus Fugit TT tonight

Quite like the zwift TTs

Did Bologna TT the other day. Fair chunk of climbing for only 8km.

Looks perfect that, apart from timings, it’s either not long after my tea or a very late tea on my own, neither of which are ideal for me.

I got upset with Zwift this weekend.  Sat on the turbo for 2hrs in Z3 and entered a 2.5-3 3/kg ZHR 100k event, only to watch the blob pulling 4 to 4.5w/kg on climbs.  Judging by the messaging a few weaker riders and some people such as me that were in it for consistency were dropped and fed up they missed a group ride / opportunity to draft.

I rode with a second group until they started to chase as if it were s race then completed an hour solo.  I guess this is what happens when there isn’t a ride leader / beacon to marshal things

I’ll be cooking tea afterwards.

I imagine it’ll only be half an hour or so

I also swapped out my old salvage laptop(pre I series processor so slow) I was using for a really cheap recon dell optiplex (120 quid) and now there’s so much detail I’ve never seen before in the world’s.

TT was good. Works well as a format on zwift.

Unfortunantly the 4 folk Infront of me were no shows so I had no one to chase.

Held a steady 290 ISH for 26 minutes and change. for 6th.

Let’s try for a repeat in tomorrow night’s old school club 5tt. No aero allowed. Taking the fixie.

I’m not sure what the world is coming too, think I’m about to buy a month of Zwift in August, to try and keep my fitness revival going while we seem to be moving into a rubbish wet period of late summer and I’ve got a bit of time off work during the next few weeks. 😮

Already used all my free trial 25Km per account for August and ended up resorting to doing a 20min FTP effort on the Elite Turbo App last night… Which is fine as a one-off, but my god, it’s so boring compared to the likes of Virtugo; RGT; Zwift etc.

I did half a b cat race with tired this morning.

Didn’t realise all groups went together so burnt a few matches early on.

Was quite happy when an unavoidable work call came through 🙂

Will be doing that again . Was quite fun.

Not as enjoyable for me as TT though

I’ve been back on Zwift recently due to the crap weather and my fan in the garage has finally died.

I quite like the look of the Wahoo Headwind but it’s a bit pricey.

Anyone use one? Is it worth the money?

The other option is one of these:

Vacmaster Air Mover | High Power, Energy Efficient Turbo Fan/Blower/Dryer https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B06WRV12HM/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_X.huDbT1GFPF2

Seems well regarded on the Trainer Road forum

Is anyone doing the Zwift Acadamey this year? I am planning on starting it tomorrow or Thursday (a bit behind as I was in New Orleans for work last week but it is more flexible this year). Doesn’t seem that hard to graduate (8 workouts and 4 group rides or races before 29th September) and for every 10 graduates a bike will be donated by Zwift to an African charity so worth doing if you are looking to Zwift and want a bit more focus. Going to start with a ramp test as my FTP is 269 but sure I must have lost a bit of top end so suspect I will come in lower than that.

Not for me. Life is getting in the way a little at the moment as we frantically try to tidy our house up to sell it. Can’t paint and zwift at the same time!

Not for me. Life is getting in the way a little at the moment as we frantically try to tidy our house up to sell it. Can’t paint and zwift at the same time!

Fair play – before my week away I spent 2 weeks re-doing our kitchen so my cycling has been pretty low on the priority list for about a month now. Time to get back into it again for me!

Just started the Academy plan this week. Only done one workout and one group ride so far.

The group ride seemed a bit pointless as it just ended up as a race as any group ride on Zwift seems to end up!

Started a couple of plans in the last week and they both seemed poorly constructed.

They workout builder seems good though so may just do my own

I quite like the look of the Wahoo Headwind but it’s a bit pricey.

Anyone use one? Is it worth the money?

It’s very good in a directed, powerful sort of way. It’s also quite clever if you want to have a fan that’s controlled by your heart rate, but in reality I stick it on full for any sort of intense efforts and just leave it there. I have two other fans as well and despite the combined wind effects being quite impressive, in hot weather, I still overheat.

That’s because your body is pretty inefficient so you’re churning out 100w you’re also producing approximately 360w as waste heat at the same time, so at 300 watts, you’re producing something like 1200w of heat, like a small fan heater. In a confined space. Where the fan is essentially blowing warm air over you.

Anyway… I’d say it’s a pretty good turbo fan, but one of those carpet drier / industrial fans will probably do the same job, albeit not controlled by your heart rate, but then that’s of limited real world use, though it’s quite clever.

So yes and, erm, no.

Well I did the ramp test last night. My FTP was 242 so have lost about 27 from my previous highest but prob about where I am at the moment. Gives me a good base to work with before I start the Zwift academy.

Always good to know where you are. Hopefully the academy will get hat power back for you.

I did the test labs race last night. Ouch is all I can say!

I probably shouldn’t be doing anything too power intensive today after doing the Zwift Academy 2019 #7 VO2 Development last night, but I’m curious to see how the newish TT format works (setting riders off at time intervals) for some events…

Sucker for punishment at 1400, 10.9 miles of Tempus Fugit.

I not been riding inside or out very much at all the last 2 months. 1-2 rides a week at most.

So intend subscribing to Zwift again in September, and treating it as an alternative to the CX season … will be cheaper and with the guarantee of actually racing (conditions and mechanicals can mean starting a cx race quickly turn into a pointless exercise).

I am about 5lb heavier than my last Zwift race, so with lack of bike fitness, will be lucky to hang with the B riders for the first month or so. So there is the goal … back up to A before Xmas.

[url=https://postimages.org/]upload pictures url[/url]

Excuse the messy room. Its my hobby room and I have a few hobbies!

3 fans in use. 2 on floor and a third on wall than has 3 settings via a remote control.

Together they give a good spread of air onto my legs and chest/head.

As someone said though, I still get bloody hot. Without the fans though it would be terrible.

To me getting hot is part of the experience though. I get bloody hot when out doing “real” riding.

Doubled down on my stupidity and did that Giro Bologna TT for the first time since May, after doing the Tempus Fugit TT earlier… Forgot now brutal that final ~2Km climb is and my legs died, but lighter road bike and wheels got me up the whole TT a bit quicker.

I’ve got one of these 18″ gym fans. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Oypla-Electrical-Chrome-Speed-Standing/dp/B00HU3BF22/ works.well apart from the hottest days when I want more. I’ve got an old TV mounted on a wheeled stand and am considering adding a second fan to the top to improve coverage in and out of the saddle.

Evans have a couple of ex display headwinds for 152 quid each

Ouch!

Yeah, I’ll stick with my generic fans I think.👍

Good psa for those that want one though dirtyrider.

Oh, those Honeywell fans i have on the floor are at a good price at the moment.

3 speed settings, though I leave them at max. Wall mountable.

£23.99.

Honeywell HT900E Turbo Fan https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B001VEJFT6/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_-MYvDb22PXJMH

fwiw, ive had one of those Honeywell jobs for 2 years, and they do shift a lot of air,

Yep, those Honeywell’s do a good job, been running one myself for the turbo since last winter.

Did my first Zwift race in ages earlier, forgot just how nuts the starts are… Could you imagine that happening in an outdoor pro race?!