Another enjoyable race with the C’s yesterday 🙂
https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=230105
Think I’ll have a go at the Watopia waistband TT at 16.00.

WKG series round 1 today, TT on the Bologna course, 270W only good enough for 23rd in C

If it rains as forecast tomorrow will be looking for a 2-3 hour ride on Zwift.

I’m gonna go for a 6am start 2-3hr Z2 ride up epic Kom/radio mast /zwift Kom and volcano tomorrow. Should finish off my level 12 quest and my Everest challenge.

Off out this afternoon to get the wife signed up and try her out on tick tock or somewhere else flat.

This is why we ended up buying a kickr and converting the garage into a pain cave as we now have a 3month old so we can’t just disappear as we used to.

I’ve had enough of inside and racing. Even if wet, I’m going outside

Aye well I’m glad I held back last couple of days I had a lovely 4 hour ride on the mtb across the hill tops this morning in the sun with incrwdible views. ….even if I did forget my Garmin , lose my phone in an ptb at the most inaccessible point and have to go for a run.

Felt the benifit of my zwift training for sure the climb up hill of fare felt easy.

Like death warmed up today, had a massive sleep-in by my standards until 1000 and been completely bunged up all day, worst the lurgy has been over the past week by some margin. I only have Saturdays off once every four weeks due to shift rota, but the amount of times when I’ve been unwell, nursing an injury and/or it’s been raining cats and dogs is unreal.

Can’t even see myself doing a short gentle turbo ride today. 🙁

Enjoyed that!
https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=228627
First time I’ve done a ‘gridded’ TT too 🙂

So noting the deluge and flood warnings around Andover this morning I abandoned the Gorrick Cool Marathon and to get some beer credits in for later, entered the Team Italy Specialissima Race this morning.  As I’ve trained for 4hr events all year I wasn’t expecting to perform well in a crit.

It wasn’t particularly fast with me averaging 3.1w/KG but was the London Flat which of course kicks up before turning right onto the Pall Mall sprint, in hindsight with my poor climbing I perhaps should have gone early as the group were shelling out on the exit from the Tunnel each lap, I know they’d be a push there.

Anyway, I stayed with the group all race so I was pleased tactically, avoiding leading out even during one bizarre slow down to about 130w.  Pace went up on the last lap so I readied myself.  Out of the tunnel pretty much all the way to the pall mall turn was about 330w, I do have a good 15s sprint so waited to the green line (which I timed early as 10-14s from the line and right in my sprint ball park) & kicked, but but stomach rolled and the peaks watts just wasn’t there.   Still, I managed to bag a Bronze in category and 10th overall. yay.

https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=230880

With a bit of practice I might get ok at this 😀

I did Muir and mountain early doors on my own rocking out to some classic rock in the garage.

Got the Kom jersey on titans grove reverse and then climbed the epic Kom in Z2 till the last 500m when i realised I was getting a 2min pr

Bloody cold in the garage today. Started off doing first 10 mins in my padded shirt and that’s why I sprinted titans grove to get warm. Fans were not really required till after the German village on epic Kom.

I was on my way to Gorrick Cool Challenge and my car broke down 😩 Just waiting In a lay-by for Dad to bring me a new battery.
Might have to do a full Pretzel later to make up for the fact I’m fully carb loaded with nowhere to go 🤣

Gah! Bad luck Crosshair.   I too was working off a large crab focused breakfast….

End of season for me now, so I. Starting a few beers early when the rugby starts at. 11:45.  I might do some evening Zwift races / challenges for fun over the next few weeks to get some multi zone intensity in while I’m resting…

I’ve had the spanners out, cleaning, sorting, retaping wheels and fitting new tyres etc. Legs are feeling delicate today, so we’re on a rest day now

Second week back on Zwift and 6 races completed. Very slowly the watts are increasing to where they were before the layoff .. and I lost 1kg this week so fingers crossed that makes a difference.

The 11.10am 3R Sand & Sequoias 23k race today. Fast start as typical; I managed to stay with the front group until the start of the climb 10k in. From there I dropped back to settle with a group of chasing B-cats – who were chasing the chase group up ahead.
Once or twice I was almost dropped before the top of the climb, having never done this course before it was lucky that I had taken a look beforehand to see how long the climb was; I was on my limit and would have eased off if I didnt know how close to the top I was … stayed with the group and rode in on the back with nothing in legs to sprint.

May do the 6pm Hare & Hounds race his evening.

Well, I hauled myself around the Pretzel yesterday evening. It’s funny- there’s no way I could contemplate doing 2h40 on the turbo for the sake of it. But going ‘somewhere’ and following a route meant it flew by pretty quickly.

Of course, there’s a few moments of coasting which would be silly in say a TR workout. ‘Now hold zero watts for three minutes!’ 🤣

What is stupid though- is that I had planned on doing the Gorrick @ 255np. And had 100g carbs per hour and a camelbac and 1 bottle lined up.
Yet I just assumed I’d hold the same power and get round for a similar duration in dining room heat with just one bottle of squash 🤦🏻‍♂️
Partly because I wanted to redress the kcal problem for the day I guess but still- it’s no wonder I felt like junk coming up the reverse epic KOM.

To add to my frustration, I looked at my pb from 2018. 270w np and 23mins faster 🤣

Still a way to go with the training then 🤦🏻‍♂️

KISS tomorrow and I fear the scales may tell me I’m now a B 😩 (They did this AM but I’m going to double check 🤣)

I dream of being a B again lol.

However
1. My 89kg is currently very very optimistic. But it’s my incentive leaving it there to get back down to it
2. My power is 20+ watts down on what I’d need.

So bloody well done.

Did you see Nath is playing again!!

Yes, he did gym + running + 330w Zwift effort yesterday 💪🏻

Meanwhile- I must have been dehydrated yesterday as +2lb this AM to remain a 3.1 C cat rider 😎

I must have been dehydrated yesterday

Best time to weigh yourself 🙂 Only chance i have of ever seeing 14st 0 again is to be dehydrated beyond all comprehension 🙂

You don’t have to be a B until Zpower tells you you are.
I’m flirting with upgrade at 3.13wkg but I’ve not gone over 3.2 yet with any results. Kinda hoping I can keep myself fatigued enough to stay under until the end of the Dirt Cup Series. This week shouldn’t be a problem with a vague cold.
Most of my rivals have been upgraded so far :0)

You do really Tom because most race cats are ftp/kg. If you get your AP anywhere near that in an actual race then you’re almost definitely sandbagging. (Unless it’s a TT).

Don’t forget, you get 3 chances too don’t forget. You can hit above your 3.2 for 2 races, as long as your 3rd gives you an average of the 3 below 3.2, you’re still in C

I’m currently at 3.17 W/Kg on ZP, think I am now a couple of Kg lighter than my Zwift weight. Not going to update weight until/if I get bumped to B, is that cheating?

Kinda… but i get it 100%. It’s so so so much better to be battling for C at the pointy end, than being destroyed within the first part of the race against Bs. I was there for a while with 3.23 as my Zwift average, but in simple terms, i’d be destroyed in B and either last or certainly in the last 3…. It made no difference to my racing tactics as i spent all my time racing with the same C riders I’d been racing against.

Yep, I tried a couple of B races to see how I would get on. First sign of any hill and I am down to a solo TT, managed ok for 1st 20 minutes on flat but after that started to drop off the pace, no fun. From memory only bothered to finish 1 of the 4 B races I tried.

https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=231861

Anyone up for the 5pm around Fugit ?

2 flatish laps… I’m thinking i may go a bit tactical today.

All depends on the weather locally as i’m hoping to take the KTM out, but if not, then maybe the 5pm… other option is the 3pm TT i blew up in last week and try to set my tempo better.

It’s why the mass start races are kind of best really. You end up racing with whoever is most accurately described as your fair competition on any given day.

I’ve generally been racing for position V B riders lately. Sadly that position after the sift would be around mid pack in B.

I’ll upgrade myself once my weight levels out at a genuine B.

I sit the other way and think you should set the correct weight and take the upgrade (if it happens) instead of sandbagging. The are loads of complaints about above power riders sandbagging, including on this thread. Riding with false weight is just another facet of this. Yeah it sucks being dropped and having to TT however you can avoid this to some extent by not doing races where the pens are separated. If found that it didn’t take long before I could hang on for a little longer, then occasionally get to the end with the lead group.

Depends what we’re classing as sandbagging, Crosshair for example could use his dehydrated weight and be a B or his fat i’ve just eaten half a cow weight and be a C… It depends if we’re talking the difference between real and maybe weight of being 10kg or 1kg…. 1kg ain’t sandbagging…. 10kg clearly is.

Yeah, it takes a load of faff to changing the weights on Zwift, Strava, MFP and TR so I only do it once I’ve settled at a weight for a few days at a time. I was quite reluctant to let go of my PB lowest the other year mind you 😇

Yes no maybe. I work on the Zpower ranking as it gives an actual method of calculating it rather than a training number.
If you blow through the limit then you are upgraded if you just sneak above then you aren’t straight away.
I’m not sandbagging in the sense I could go much harder. Of course I could always try and push the pace on the front of the group but I’d only drop myself.
If you look at my tested FTP number then I’m currently just above the limit but actually running at that wattage for 45 minutes plus it’s unlikely. My auto Zwift FTP calculation has me just below the 3.2 from one of the recent races.

When Zpower upgrades me I’ll happily go and take bottom half in B races but until then I’ll remain a favourite in C races. It’s not like I’m sweeping gold cups every race. Just one silver cup out of 3 this season. There’s experience to be gained at the front of races to put into play in B races when I get my FTP up towards 4.

IT’s funny, i was chatting to this fella on the forum today via private message, he was asking if i’m coming for a rematch as we had a few challenges back when i was faster

He’s basically the C god

https://www.zwiftpower.com/profile.php?z=62302

But his power/watts are not all that… It’s just how he seems to make the power, he’s a cruise, boom, cruise, boom kind of rider and very very effective at hiding in the bunch and has a cracking burst of power at the end when needed. He’s a very very good C.

Back when I used to race in the real world we called them sandbaggers.

The guy who did enough to do well would win a couple of key races seemingly easily but not well enough to go to expert …consistantly year on year

The thing is, they are generally pack races. With drafting.
To race and place effectively, your average power (/kg) should be low and your normalised power (/kg) should be high- because the selections take place on the climbs, during strong attacks and in the sprints.

The cat boundaries are based on average power so already very generous.

Even more so when they are defined as FTP/kg.

As I say- all the ambiguity as discussed here, just goes to show why mass start is really the only valid solution for fair racing.

(And that’s without even touching on the uselessness of w/kg in the first place 🤣)

@weeksy “IT’s funny, i was chatting to this fella on the forum today via private message, he was asking if i’m coming for a rematch as we had a few challenges back when i was faster

He’s basically the C god

https://www.zwiftpower.com/profile.php?z=62302

But his power/watts are not all that… It’s just how he seems to make the power, he’s a cruise, boom, cruise, boom kind of rider and very very effective at hiding in the bunch and has a cracking burst of power at the end when needed. He’s a very very good C.“

👍🏻 He proves the ap/np point exactly. The normalised power for 10 of his last 11 wins has been over 3.2 w/kg. That’s what wins races.

I knew who that was going to be without even clicking the link. They should ride B in my view. If your basically winning every race in the cat then your too strong for that cat. I suspect they would actually do OK in B inf they tried.

Going back to weight a small amount which you would deem float weight is fine. Mine is set like that. Declared 76 but float between 75 and 77 constantly depending on loading and unloading state. When your getting into the 5KG out range then its getting dodgy. I know some racers who go on the scales every race which is auto uploaded to their profile.

At the moment I like the mass starts for different reasons, namely that I get to do some attacks in those where the pure A events its normally fingernails.

https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=231852

3pm TT race, 45s quicker than last week. Went easier at start and pushed to the end this time.

Nice effort. Looks like your output was more consistent.

Yeah that was my goal, not to die at half way. I did have a bit of a slump in power I think about mid way, but held it together and got back on it at the end. Happy enough as far as performances go.

So just tentatively starting my Zwift Journey here, a few days into the 4wk FTP builder, starting from a low w/kg here of 1.9.

Obviously hoping that might be a little higher once I get through that programme but any advice for getting into the races at the E/D level, spose it’s all similar to some extent.

What’s your weight? If you can race at 1.9 and are below 100kg, you should find a few people at the very least to play with.

90 at the mo