Viewing 40 posts - 12,001 through 12,040 (of 15,383 total)
  • Zwift, my journey, my weight and my fitness.
  • weeksy
    Full Member

    I only started it on the back of Crosshairs stuff it wasn’t really meant to turn into the all encompassing Zwift thread, but i’m not unhappy with the fact it has. I’ve absolutely enjoyed seeing peoples results, both racing and training, the peaks and troughs that mirror my own experiences too day to day. Some weeks you’re flying, then 2 weeks later you’re 30w down getting dropped, but no idea why. It’s a weird thing and i’m 100% sure in my own world i have no idea when these good/bad days are coming or why.

    I’m still just as into Zwift as i was back when i first gave it a go, but back then there was less in the way of racing, now, you can get a race almost every 15 mins it seems. Just a question of picking one that suits your timings.

    I’ve still not really done the training rides, structure etc, but that’s not Zwifts fault, that’s just me. But the racing gives me something to try for, something to push for and something of a goal… I want to find a sodding podium again that’s for sure. But winter makes them harder as a load of racers turn up who’ve not raced for many months, add them to the newbies and you’re stuffed in C.
    People come in, do 3 races and get bumped to B…. but in them 3 races, they’re too strong to stay with as a C…. it’s common for sure.

    n0b0dy0ftheg0at
    Free Member

    @Kryton57 If I was targetting a specific power over a specific duration on the turbo in Zwift, I’d create a custom ERG workout in Zwift, starting with a warmup and then 5mins of 320W… You either succeed or fail!

    You could do a ramp-step 5mins instead, starting just below your target at say 300W and then +10W every 1min, like it was a mini negative-split TT.

    I wasn’t targetting specific figures, but last winter I sometimes climbed the mostly steady gradient of Stelvio Pass in RGT, changing to the next hardest sproket every ~5mins to try and improve my 20min MAP… The longer I continued, the higher my 20mn MAP was, sometimes just managing to push myself beyond 25mins to exhaustion.

    w00dster
    Full Member

    For those looking at structured training, a bit of feedback from me on one of the plans.
    I’m currently doing the 4 week FTP Booster….But its going to take me longer than 4 weeks to complete, more likely to be 6 weeks. Just really doing it for a bit of structure and experience with a Zwift plan, not really expecting to make massive improvements but would still like to think there will be some.
    There is only 1 rest day per week in the plan, which I understand why as its supposed to be intense and only lasting 4 weeks.
    I started it on the 29th October and as of the 13th October I’m just about to do complete Week 2 day 2. This has included 2 outdoor rides in that time, as my group rides are fast (in relative terms) I always rest on the day before. The day after is also a killer as my legs are normally done in.
    The workouts have been very do-able. Almost sweetspot. I’ve completed each one and each interval at the correct power/cadence. The second week appears to have just gotten harder. I am finding it a bit fatiguing doing 3 days back to back.
    The plan is to complete this before the 10th December, take a good few days off, then start an FTP test week, ending in the FTP Test. Then start the crit crusher plan from January. With the January and February weather I’ll be less inclined to go for a group ride on a Sunday and just use the trainer following the plan as close as possible. Hoping to be fit enough to race again next Spring. But I will need to do some fast groups rides towards March.
    As mentioned previously I use a Wattbike Pro, probably should have bought an Atom, but I didn’t. I’m still not 100% sure that the drafting is working for me. As an example during a ride yesterday (not training) I was doing over 3w/kg and the guys near me sat at 2.4, soon as I drop to their w/kg and wait for someone to go past I get dropped – back up to 3/wkg again and then I sit in the pack but with everyone else doing less power/kg. I’m on a normal carbon bike but have got the 50mm carbon wheels.
    I’ve used Sufferfest for years, moved to Zwift just to freshen up my training. The workouts are very similar, but the different “view” and also the incentives are helping me keep motivated. Incentives being level up to unlock new bikes/wheels etc. Being a fairly newbie I’m only on Level 8.

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    weeksy
    Full Member

    what’s your weight and height in Zwift ?

    steve_b77
    Free Member

    what’s your weight and height in Zwift ?

    Now there’s a question!! It should come with the caveat of what is your height and weight in the real world too 😉

    weeksy
    Full Member

    LOL yes possibly…. but for example my 11 year old has massive issues with staying with people when drafting, because he’s only 40 odd KG….so he’s only putting out 120w, but that’s 2.5w/kg… But sitting in a draft even though your W/KG is close, doesn’t actually work as your actual W are so low…. Which could explain mateys ?

    Kryton57
    Full Member

    but that’s 2.5w/kg…

    3w/kg, good grief he’s doping already 😉

    weeksy
    Full Member

    3w/kg, good grief he’s doping already

    LOL i ought to check actually as i think the lowest weight Zwift allows was 45kg.. i’m not actually sure what he weighs currently…. But he’s far from winning races due to stamina so it’s no biggy.
    I did notice the other day when ‘helping’ him for a lap on the La Guardia loop just how easy life is at 45kg in D… LOL… I could stick out 6w/kg at will just to pass time 😀

    nixie
    Full Member

    @w00dster if you drop to their wattages then they will be going faster because of the draft. You can be 2-3k down as they come past which causes an instant gap. You need to keep power higher so they slip past slowly and only reduce once you are in their draft. Same if your pack is trying to work hard. You keep the power up till the next rider rotates through and you’ve caught the draft.

    w00dster
    Full Member

    Thanks Nixie. Will keep practicing the drafting. I guess it’s a balancing act that I’ve not yet mastered.
    Weeksy, I’m 174cms and 69kgs. FTP is 252. I’ve had most of the year off, was still riding socially and not in anyway focused.
    According to Strava summit I’ve increased my fitness 386% over the last 3 months. (Started training again in September)

    steve_b77
    Free Member

    because he’s only 40 odd KG….so he’s only putting out 120w

    I was chatting with another parent at a CX race last weekend, I’d be intrigued to see what my eldest puts out, he’s only 7 1/2 and weighs about 28kg but on his last crit race he averaged 28kph for the 20mins. Might stick him on the trainer and see what he gets.

    weeksy
    Full Member

    I’d be intrigued to see what my eldest puts out, he’s only 7 1/2 and weighs about 28kg but on his last crit race he averaged 28kph for the 20mins. Might stick him on the trainer and see what he gets

    I’m lucky that my lad can stick my 29er turbo wheel in as he’s running a 27.5 frame. He can his 300-350w at his max, but over a race he’ll average 120-130w. I don’t know how much he loses through his rear suspension, but would be interesting if we could lock it out, which we cannot.

    Kryton57
    Full Member

    If I was targetting a specific power over a specific duration on the turbo in Zwift, I’d create a custom ERG workout in Zwift, starting with a warmup and then 5mins of 320W… You either succeed or fail!

    Thanks – I have created the whole thing as a workout but the 6 x 10s sprints before can’t be in ERG mode as I’d never turn the pedals.     I’m just going to have to knuckle down in a big gear.

    weeksy
    Full Member

    Meh. Sand and sequoias, usual story.

    Went hard out the gate and first km and a bit, held the lead group, stayed in there for 10km and we had a small split. By the turn towards Titans we had 1min on the group behind.
    How hard can it be to hold that. Well for me, impossible.
    Ended up getting passed by loads and loads, finished 3 min behind lead C’s. Meh, I’m bloody crap on hills. Love to know how/why!

    n0b0dy0ftheg0at
    Free Member

    Do you know your current Lactate Threshold Heart Rate @weeksy ?

    I can’t see your ride through the latest STW Strava rides, but I’d hazard a guess from your race report on Zwiftpower that the high power 90sec start compared to your 90 day best put you into the red and you never recovered, come the Titans climb your legs and heart were wrecked.

    weeksy
    Full Member

    No idea. Never tested anything, ever.

    But based upon common sense and previous racing I’d say 173-174 if that means, where can you hold without blowing yourself out the water.

    Whilst the start was tough and fast, it wasn’t until 10km in that I hit that HR at all.
    Strangely, Mondays race I averaged 176bpm, today I only maxed at 175. Some days you have more than others I guess.

    No biggy, all good fun.

    tomlevell
    Full Member

    Not enough watts.
    HTH
    HAND
    ;0)

    tomlevell
    Full Member

    More seriously give up clinging onto the front group and work on bashing people further down the field uphill.
    Or find some races that are split with a C only category.

    w00dster
    Full Member

    Today’s training session was horrendous, or at least part of it. I’ve never been good at high power intervals, 45 seconds at 6.7 watts/kg for 6 intervals, followed by 8 minutes just below FTP. The 8 miles was actually reasonably comfortable, but the 45 second intervals were just horrible.
    As soon as I hit a certain heart rate I immediately drop off. But it’s all fairly close. In the 45 second intervals my heart rate peaked at 172(ish) but I sat fairly comfortable at 160 doing the 8 minute threshold session.

    Kryton57
    Full Member

    Well I messed that up.  With a prior 5min indoor max of 295w and an outdoor max of 320w (I know, with an FTP of 281 its a mystery to me also), for some reason I ignored ‘goat and my own instincts and started – on the turbo – with an average of 300 in mind to push on at the end.  3 mins in and I gagged, paused a bit and started again at 420w, 4 mins gagged, paused bit and finished at 420w.

    A badly managed and uneven 5 mins with an average of 295w.   I should have negative split – which works for me –  and started 280-300-320 and pushed to the end.

    Balls.  Ah well, I’ll try again in 8 weeks.

    weeksy
    Full Member

    More seriously give up clinging onto the front group and work on bashing people further down the field uphill.

    I know I know. First 5km I was over 300w. Which basically as above, too hard too fast. Meh. Been there more than once lol

    n0b0dy0ftheg0at
    Free Member

    Six laps of Grand Central before dinner, focussing on the ramps up the reverse KOM (moreso during the first 3 laps, then mix of recovery and moderate efforts) has left me feeling ready for bed before 2000!

    34/16 @ 80% slope and later ~50% slope up those ramps is nasty, in my modest MAMIL world.

    There’s always next time Kryton57, I’d love to be ~65Kg (your weight?) rather than my pleasantly surprising 80Kg after my North Wales break (I was ~83Kg a week before I went up) and knocking out ~320W for 5mins… ~4W/Kg for 5mins is me on a very good day!

    Something I did last winter to try and improve my 2min MAP was choose my target power (400W) and do multiple 400W ~1min intervals per session and then gradually build up the interval durations while reducing the frequency of repeats over a few weeks.

    Kryton57
    Full Member

    I’m 79.5kg ‘goat 🙁 and although it’s good for Weeksy the fact he’s riding at 300w for 5km depresses me a bit.  It’s a real chink in my armour.  However, better to be matching my 5 min PB at the beginning of the new season training and the end of off season, than later because this means I can improve it.

    But then, I can ride at 240w for four hours on a turbo in Erg mode.  Odd isn’t it.

    weeksy
    Full Member

    Yeah but the world falls apart after that and as soon as we got to a hill you’d disappear!

    tomlevell
    Full Member

    Long one tonight just over an hour on “out and back again”. Raced that way too. Not too fast out of the start then STEADY. Short kicks up the little risers on the way to the Volcano. At the sprint I’d planned an attack through the sprint and up the hill to the esses. Others had the same idea so I went with them to try and spread some panic. Last time out up the Volcano I dropped myself over the top but held on in a faster time tonight. Job done really as I’m not getting dropped up reverse KOM or on the flat from there. Kicked hard up the Reverse KOM but it all stayed together and slowed down again for the last 4km. My main competitor Nic was marking me all the way round and it felt like team mates were putting the hurt on on all the risers. I saw him drop a ghost with 400m to go but failed to react fast enough and didn’t go all in until 250m to go. Dumb as due to the relatively sensible pace I forgot that I’d have a bigger sprint left. Which I did and broke my 1min and 15s records in Zwift races. 4th over the line I think but Zwift failed and a few didn’t finish so I’m 2nd in the race but Nic was either 1st or 2nd. Happend in the earlier race too.
    https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=248547

    n0b0dy0ftheg0at
    Free Member

    A memory fail by me Kryton57, had it in my head you were ~15Kg lighter than me from your recent post of a (1min sprint?) way higher than I can muster, rather than very similar weight.

    Until my power meter gave some crazy high figures recently that I hope were down to a dying battery, https://power-meter.cc/home had me down as a “Time trialist” (and a very modest one at that, 285W for final 20mins of two lap Sand And Sequoias, having taken first lap very conservatively… Must be nearly 6 weeks ago now so needs retesting).

    The conflict is I love attacking hills as best I can, but we have no hills near Southampton that are long enough to take me 20min+ to climb on a good day and things went wrong last Friday on so many levels to get from Prestatyn to Denbigh to climb the ~6.9 mile ~1250 feet cat2 Road To Hell climb which resulted in abandonment until next spring/summer!

    Losing ~3Kg recently and doing some respectable times last weekend on some Prestatyn climbs on the fatbike, has given me a new drive to try and get back to sub 75Kg again and try to get an estimated FTP over the 300W threshold, after what had been a challenging year for me on the bike since very early March.

    crosshair
    Free Member

    1000 posts of ride reports and 11000 posts of Weeksy asking and then ignoring why he’s ‘rubbish at hills’ 🤣🤣

    @kryton interestingly, my pb 5 min power is from the TR ramp test. +20w on my best 5 min power in a crit.
    Might be worth a shot at seeing if it improves on what you did?

    weeksy
    Full Member

    I think it’s genetics lol.

    I’m so far beyond caring though now, I only enter ones with hills if they suit my times, I know I’ll never fly up them.
    I can’t even use weight as an excuse as 2 of the guys who stuffed me were a chunk heavier than I am.

    crosshair
    Free Member

    Yeah, you’re lighter than me on Zwift too 🤣

    (Actually you prob are in real life again after this last two weeks but only by a lb!)

    The improvements would come quickly if you trained it a little. 1 session a week of hill reps up the little KOM would sort you out 💪🏻

    weeksy
    Full Member

    Well I’m at 14st 10 now on actual scales, which is down from 15st 10 this time in Sept, so more than happy with that, still planning on seeing low 14s by the time we head to Belgium. Ideally 14 0.

    crosshair
    Free Member

    Yeah that’ll be good. I’m hovering around 14stone 12.
    Got zero motivation again right now so not really worried.

    Wanted to race this evening but not keen on Yorkshire.

    nixie
    Full Member

    Why ever not 😀 3 laps of Harrogate never hurt anyone that badly 🤮! I’m going for it as nothing better to do this evening. Was thinking of also doing the 2 laps of Innsbruck ring at 9:05 but something don’t think I’ll be finished in time. Might have a go at getting the MTB instead as my after ride ride.

    Kryton57
    Full Member

    lighter than me from your recent post of a (1min sprint?)

    No, I’ve never been lower than 76kg.  My sprint & endurance power is OK, its the middle bit I suffer from which is why I now race longer events rather than the more punchy XCO.  5s = 1299w, 10s=1089w, 30s = 692w, 1 min 420w.

    tomlevell
    Full Member

    We had legit C who was 101kG last night. Bit worried he might have a good sprint so tried reasonably hard to shed him on the Reverse KOM. He got distanced briefly but got back on then proceeded to go back to the front and push on. Luckily he didn’t have a sprint.

    nixie
    Full Member

    Not much in the way of ride reports from me recently. Partially from not doing much and partially from not wanting to post another story about getting dropped.

    I did have a fun outing in the Ultimate racing league this Tuesday though. 10 laps of Queen’s Highway, a route I’ve never ridden before. That’s an ace little lap for a crit, I’ll definitely be looking out for events using it in the future.

    This was a strong field so there was a simple plan. Hang on for as long as possible, no attacks and no going up front. Normally this means I get dropped on a ramp about half way through but Tuesday was different and I was in it till the end. The bit I really liked about the course is that you can drop a gear, raise the RPM and power into the two worst bits of climb (7% ramp and ramp to through the banner) then kind of coast through the second half without really having to hit it too hard (other than one lap where my timing was off and I had no choice but to go hard to close the gap). So pretty much a rinse and repeat lap after lap until the inevitable sprint. As I said the plan worked and I held on right till the end, only to make a stupid timing error making any kind of sprint pointless. To my surprise I came away with one of my stronger outputs for the duration at 4.3W/kg. Been a while since I’ve been able to do that outside a TT and more surprising given I basically soft pedalled down hill wherever possible.

    https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=248711

    As above heading back to Yorkshire tonight for 3 laps of torture. Would rather do the Lamb Chop race but that doesn’t fit well with kids bed time.

    trail_rat
    Free Member

    sterling service from Wahoo.

    obviously it shouldn’t have broke. but less than a week from reporting it broke I am in possession of a new one

    Be back on the bike tonight.

    crosshair
    Free Member

    Nice one @trail_rat mirrors my own experience. I’m on my second replacement in four years and just the same- I was barely without a trainer for a week each time. The first time they actually got me to buy a new one which they then instantly refunded and then I used the new box to send the old one back.
    The second time they switched it for a refurbished one.

    n0b0dy0ftheg0at
    Free Member

    @Kryton57 How often do you do z3+ turbo rides of ~30mins+?

    Besides possible power measurement variances between your turbo and outdoor power meter, I find it takes ~3 weeks of 3+ weekly turbo rides to get my body to adapt to indoor sessions and put out similar numbers to outdoor for the same heart rate, due to indoor heat stress.
    I tend to lose my indoor adaption if I don’t turbo for ~2 weeks, but otherwise, my power numbers are very similar indoor and out.

    Couldn’t connect to Zwift servers on game app or Companion app earlier with my mobile, ended up using the basic “level” resistance scale in the Elite app to do a very brief ~5min interval, recovery and then a ~1min interval… Legs weren’t happy after last night’s session and my hrm lost its pairing, might try and do some gentle riding in a while.

    Kryton57
    Full Member

    How often do you do z3+ turbo rides of ~30mins+?

    Bear in mind I’ve just come back from off season – a month – I was doing 2-3hr intervals at Z3.

    Besides possible power measurement variances between your turbo and outdoor power meter,

    I have a 4iii and have changed the offset so both display equal watts.

    indoor heat stress.

    I understand that principle, and this is why my indoor/outdoor is different.

    I tend to lose my indoor adaption if I don’t turbo for ~2 weeks,

    Yes I had this last year and I think that impacted my 5 min yesterday also.  Problem is I only had one shot…   ah well.

    dirtyrider
    Free Member

    frustrated, well sort of, was a decent race still. 6 lap classique flat at 14:05 today, big big crowd, always going to string out on the lead in up Northumberland Ave, too many A’s to try and stick with the front group, tried to bridge under the start banner, group had 4 seconds, no one came with me and i couldn’t close it down, so settled into the 2nd group, lap 1 was so slow, 241w, laps 2 & 3 much the same, ramped up on 4 and 6 was fast, usual sort of stuff, 20 in the group, we hoovered up some dropped B’s from the main group, some confusion in the chat when the distance increased when a couple started their sprint, been caught out here before so knew to hang on, i probably went 1 second too early in the sprint when we finally got there, maybe, maybe 2, i think i was the first to jump, and i went hard with 300m+ to go, I’m sure there was only 4 avatars in front of me through the line, holding some off, but i guess not everyone sees the same picture, 6 of us got the same time, another 4 a second less

    https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=249232

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