19:45 Lamb chop for me, i’m remembering how to suffer on the turbo.

I’d already commuted and felt super slow on the way in and much better on the way home. Having spent about an hour wandering round the house conflicted about what to do, wearing both bibshorts and pajamas I decided that the turbo should win out over the 12% russian imperial stout that honest brew had delivered today.

Jumped on the bike with the traditional <5 mins to the start and fired up mindhunter on Netflix (it’s ace, if a little, nay, very disturbing). I’m embracing being a B on Zwiftpower, it’s proper boarder line but i’m a legit B (95% of 20min 296watts / 3.95wkg)

These chop races are brilliant, there’s hardly anything else on the menu that makes people push as hard as you can as a group – There were a good 8 of us taking turns on the front pushing 300+ averages and 450+ pulls, it’s a strange strain when you’re not used to that, nice little intervals 😀

Came in 17th or something in the end, too many pulls on the front and nowt left for the sprint, but we held off the A group by 14 seconds, the winner of that was 5w/kg for the 53 minutes, machine.

https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=248885

Cracking fun and an FTP bump to 311, despite it not feeling like it

So, hour power. Zwift or velopark?

Nicely done scaled! I was 53 in same race. Dropped on the descent 10k’s in as per usual and then formed up with a small mix of B’s and a couple of C’s we caught. Actually managed to time using the featherweight power-up to ‘win’ the group sprint at end too 🙂
Really enjoy the chop races!

Nice work scaled. Love the pursuit race format.

After a bit of a barren spell I’ve final got a good result to report. 3 evil laps of Harrogate and I managed to walk away with the bronze right on the line. Very, very happy with that result.

The start wasn’t too high paced which suited me as I’d only got on the bike 5 minutes before. The B pack numbered the As so I was expecting it to be tight. Lap one rolled off at a decent pace but the group stuck mostly together till the KOM. This trimmed the numbers some what but there was still a decent group size. Little gaps kept opening on the ramps to the end of the lap but never developed into a break.

Lap two was more interesting, a few of us started to explore with little gaps off the front. By the uphill after the main down this was clearly starting to get to some riders and by the second time up the KOM we had trimmed a fair few more. By the sprint the first 10 had nearly got away but the case group closed back up before the lap ended (shame as one of the riders I wanted to drop had got on the wrong side of the gap).

Onto lap three. I was starting to feel the effort now but was really enjoying it. Had to close up a few gaps as some of the dangerous stronger riders looked like they might be trying something and in turn tried a few things myself. The KOM again trimmed the group down to 7 or 8. I was nearly done but still had one last play. I’ve had got results from going long in the past and went for it again. I was never going to escape the A+ rider as he’s a machine but the two of us so nearly gapped the rest.of the lead group. Just didn’t work but worth a try. I think it paid back in the sprint though as several riders dropped on the ramp before the last 300. I was pretty much done now but dug deep and just sneaked past 2 riders on the line to get the trophy.

With my wife out tonight I hung around for a bit more suffering and did an extra 2 1/2 laps of the full circuit including some decent lactic threshold efforts up the hills (I’ve not done enough of these recently and have suffered for it). A nice brucie bonus on this was taking the Harrogate 5 lap KOM in Strava. Wonder how long I’ll keep hold of that as realistically you’d need to be racing to have a high enough pace to trouble it.

All in a good night I’m the loft.
https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=249294

“legit” B :0)
Well you were congtas on being a A again.

Well, going to free ride the Epic KOM today for the first time.

Part of the (very…) long term plan to unlock the Tron bike and start doing the occasional race too…. Though that’s not going to be pleasant.

Weight is the best it’s been in years and fitness, though still low compared to most on Zwift, is getting there gradually.

Bumped into Alexleigh off here last night riding up Epic KOM reverse.

Got my new kickr got it all hooked up – its not been a good year in the garage – first the telly then the kickr – its insulation has been much improved and its no longer even cold/cold damp in there its actually reasonably plesent ….. (spray insulated roof and rubber tiled the floor + fitted some patio doors so get solar gain in the day)

45k of the pretzel loop last night in Z2 – so Epic KOM reverse , radio mast (hit 100kph badge on the way down) then Zwift KOM each way. and climbed back to the bridge for EPIC KOM forwards and it was bed time so canned it.

Get back on the racing next week – plan is to try some longer hills. While I’m not the lightest so struggle on the medium hills – i seem to have staying power in the hills so where the lighter riders **** off at the start – i claw them back over time at my pace so on EPIC and AdZ Zpower seems to agree

I’m hoping for the 16:05 volcano flat. I quite like the course, so we’ll see how i go. Bit long for me to be in with a chance in the mix-up, but we’ll have a crack.

“legit” B :0)
Well you were congtas on being a A again.

Arse 😀

Had to do some work today so it’s fairly late race for a Friday evening, 7pm Friday Autumn Series Crit, 27 miles. I’m a bottom end B (3.5w/kg is a damn hard session for me), plus struggling with the drafting technique, going to give it a go and have a night off from structured training.

Another round of WKG winter league tonight, 2 laps of Yorkshire UCI, too hilly for me, will be happy with a top 15.

Is this mad?  Instead of a consistent interval on Sunday for my power test, I do an hour long race.

Thats gets the most from my legs as long as I don’t sit in for an hour?

True to form, less than a few mins to warmup before my 1303 Tempus Fugit TT, 10mins in thought I’d set off too hard… Kept the 50/16 gear turning but legs dying by ~20mins in, begging for it all to end during the final minute to finish in 25mins52secs.

Surprised I managed a best 20mins of 288W, just 1W down on 4th Oct… I’ll definitely take that after having a cold through most of Oct where I stayed well away from z3+ rides.

Hmm, Bologna TT later? Quicker on my Allez or Emonda than my Zwift TT frame, with that brutal hill.

Thursday evening and didn’t want a wet ride, so Long Sweetspot Workout. I love ERG# mode, except I finished it 30 minutes early (It’s 2:20) so as to spend some time with Mrs TiRed. Felt OK at 225 watts, but I’m running Q-rings, so cadence down on the TT bike.

I may do some races, but am not so excited – I prefer long steady efforts at 3 W/kg as that’s my target for next season. A boring target, but 3.2 W/kg for 12 hours would be a good result.

I ought to do another FTP test too, as my current one is very out of date. HR for power is looking better though, and that’s my real fitness measure.

#You get a lot of drafters in ERG mode and a lot of Ride Ons too it appears!

Well, got up to the radio tower for the first time. Highest gradient I’ve been up on Zwift and glad I didn’t remove the small ring on the turbo bike as I was thinking of going recently!😆

Can’t do Alpe Du Zwift yet as I’m only a lowly Level 11….

Had an Italian guy keeping pace with me up there which helped a lot. Lovely feeling jelly legs now which is quite satisfying.

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With all the talk of racing on here I thought I’d get in on the action so I took a half day off at work full of excitement.

I chose a relatively short race to get my eye in. I went to my shed (where my turbo is) about 20 minutes early to get warmed up etc

In summary, I would recommend the following go eat a bag of d*cks
– Apple, for not recognising my phone as a suitable hot spot connection, even though my phone had awesome signal
– TACX, for creating a turbo trainer which is programmed to think it is socially acceptable to disconnect while on zwift
– Three, for also loosing connection 20 seconds before race start
– Zwift, for being so addictive I’m ranting online because I couldn’t go on a virtual bike ride

I’ll be selling my kickr Snap soon if anyone is in the south east (Medway, Kent) and interested, by the way.

Got a great deal on a Core you see.

Only issue I had was the lock ring loosening after a ride so I just put some thread lock on it as suggested on here and all was good.

I even took a picture from Zwift to say how many miles is done on it. Can find if needed.

Mega mates rates for anyone from here. £200, picked up, it’s frigging immaculate and with box and manual etc. I look after my gear, mega ocd…

Pm me if anyone interested.

Not to be sold on for a profit though please! These do for about £320 online. Would like to see it go to a forum regular ONLY. That’s the only reason I’m putting it in this thread first! Hope the mods don’t mind.

7am 3r road to the sky group ride anyone ?

What’s 7am?

Good ride that. Good use of fence to keep it blobbed .

Fwarm up into road to ruins turn up the alpe irst half at 3w/kg then 3.5w/kg from turn 10 then chaos from turn 1 to top.

Any advice of racing Watopia flat please?   I’ve signed up for two races – one 40km and one 60km tomorrow afternoon.  I need to time an hours max power within them.   I’m concerned that I the former Ill fall short of the hour – so perhaps just TT hard after the finish to get my goal?  Or do the longer one which might mean I end up too easy across the space of an hour…?

I’m thinking of deferring to the 40km.   Only 5 riders entered currently though.

I’d welcome any thoughts

@Krypton57 Going off my TT yesterday afternoon https://www.strava.com/activities/2866389432/analysis/1/1548 using Zwift TT bike and Zipp 808 wheels, maybe swap to some non-aero wheels and do Tempus Fugit twice? I’d guess you are expecting ~230-260W, so with the turnaround loop at each end of the course, that should be close to an hour.

Personally, I wouldn’t choose a race to try and evaluate any MAP interval, unless you stick to your goal of a sustained power level… Which means ditching the crazy z5+ starts and any other power bazooka efforts that those racing may launch.

Hmm.  I think maybe you are right.  I thought the race effort would spur me on a bit.  I already know I can complete an hours z3 at 235w and I like TF.  Maybe 30 mins at Z3 with the last 30 mins incrementally 5 minute 5w increases with a final emptying of the tank with 10 to go until death as a negative split is the way to go.

Go ride road to the sky.

Use the lead in as warm up. And ride to top .

That will be c. 1hr to the top with no where to hide.

Did the Friday Night Crit (B) race last night. 5 laps of Innsbruck. Only managed 4 and a half – couldn’t face the hill for a last time. Bit cr@p of me really.
Got dropped towards the end of the first lap, was in a group of about 10 with only two of us doing the work. Every time we got to the main hill for some reason some of the riders tried to drop the group.
Our group whittled down to 6, no real cohesion, again 3 of the guys would put the hurt on on the climb and try and drop us. I tried to keep the pace on during the flats, but no one else wanted to work, dropped our pace down significantly for a lap with no one else working (probably about 200/210 watts). I couldn’t break away as the guys would just sit behind me.
Averaged 244 watts, just below my FTP, which isn’t bad considering the mid race plateau.
One of the guys was saying on chat that to stay in the front group you need to be averaging about 3.8 w/kg and be able to do the climb each lap at 7w/kg.
I can sit comfortably at 3.5 or 3.6w/k, but really struggle when going over 6/wkg for over a minute, then immediately settling back into 3.6w/kg.

The trick with that climb is to hold an extra few seconds at the top. It builds your speed up quicker so you can take it easier going down. Often gaps people as well.

Sand and sequoias today as it was the only race time that suited me.

TT style race, tried to start slower and not go all in, which seemed to help in the climb of Titans and the rollers etc. Highest position in leader board I saw was 77/240 ended up 90/240

https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=247569

Overall was a decent result and effort

Just seen we entered thar same TT @weeksy (I was on mobile app and could barely see any data besides my power and hrm!) and wondered how you approached it… Did you threaten your pb up Titans KOM?

Literally only just got set up ten seconds before the start, so no warmup at all and no idea how my legs felt after yesterday’s TT, with same forced 50/16 gear (still not replaced that snapped gear cable) and 100% slope feel. My power through Fuego Flats was much closer to 250W than the 300W yesterday despite same gear and slope, not sure if that was cadence/weaker legs/belt on Direto needs tightening a little, but this kept my heart mostly below 160bpm (my lthr is 165-170ish) until the bump before Titans incline. Gearing and slope meant I had to hit up to 420W to get up some of those short steep rollers, sending my heart to 179bpm before a slight drop down Titans descent to finish as my power dropped back to 250Wish.

Went better than I expected after yesterday, 288W vs 270W for best 20mins.

Trying to motivate myself to now have a short, very gentle ride outdoors on the Wazoo before sunset threatens!

P.S. Saw I put @Krypton57 instead of @Kryton57 on earlier post, sorry! 😉

28s behind my best up kom.

Can’t do Alpe Du Zwift yet as I’m only a lowly Level 11….

Join any race that goes up the Alpe and it unlocks for you.

^^Joining any race that goes up there will probably result in a very sweaty and painful death for me.😆

I’ll be chuffed to just give up it without stopping during a free ride up it to be honest.

Happy with how my fitness and weight is coming on though and I’m planning on doing more group rides and then some races.

Finally getting the hang of drafting and truly appreciating it’s positive effects. I practice drafting on the free rides I do as in the races I did in the past I just yo- yo’ed off the back all the time due to the power lag. Getting the hang of it better now along with the merits of the power ups.

Really loving Zwift these days to the point I can’t be asked to go out in the crap weather on a real ride!

Just got into the races, and have crossed into C. Cant believe I will ever get to B, but it’s a long winter….

Starting to run out of ratio, running my Roadrat with 46/11 on a wheel on smart trainer.

Would going direct drive and rigid road frame get me some free watts?

Gearing chat is interesting. I’m a little stuck currently with gearing. 38T fits perfectly on the inner of the spider, giving a good chain line. If I fit the 42T on the inside I get very very little clearance in the frame. If I fit it on the outside I get a horrible chain line and the bike sound horrific. But I’d really like a bigger option than the 38T.

For short Zwift races or free ride training sessions that don’t go up longer steep (~7%+) climbs, approx sub 45mins, the 16T works for me with 34/50T rings with trainer difficulty (slope feel) somewhere in the 80-100% range with my direct drive turbo (direto).
But with ERG training sessions, Zwift and the turbo will give me a big power range in 16T with 34 ring depending upon cadence, approx 60-500W.

But outdoors, I currently have the 22T sprocket (moved from usual cassette position) on the rear wheel in my fixed rear mech position, although this is a work in progress! Ordinarily I’d head from home (Bitterne) to somewhere between Owslebury and Petersfield, typically climbing 1-6 cat4 climbs… But many of the cat4s have some 7%+ ramps, plus they’re are plenty of 100-200 foot climbs around that can hit up to ~15%. In addition, these rides are usually 2+ hours, so trying to find a sprocket that doesn’t slow me down too much on the flat without destroying already dead legs like today is a challenge!

ERG mode has been a blessing and a curse since my gear cable snapped, because it’s allowed me to train without getting the internally routed cable replaced.

I’m not happy.  a 2h workout out with – aside from the last 10 mins of recovery – my 1h test at the end.   Used Tempus Fugit as the course.  I had lots of niggly issue – dropped a bottle, twinge in my left quad and at some point in my calves also, had a strange out of breath moment half way in.   I decided to defer to my best method which is a negative split which worked better for me that the 5 min constant prior to this.

Nevertheless I felt I could not do much more – maybe a few more minutes at higher watts – to average only 239w / 3wkg, which is 10w below my PB which was set during a Zwift race.

Why is it you alway finish only to think Coulda Should Woulda..?  I didn’t end “dead” and therefore think I should have done more, but then again at the time I didn’t think I could.  🙁

a whole hour test? that seems bloody miserable, i couldn’t do that, not indoors, i can do it outdoors if i have a long flat kom but that’s just like a TT, not indoors, nope no way

just look for a flat race on zwift, my best power numbers have been on 3R Tempus Fugit Flat Race – 1 Lap (19.8km/12.3mi 20m), its got a 2km lead in so last a good stint over 20 mins, i think the motivation of people around you helps, just trying to hang the **** on

How often do you train to specifically improve your 1 hour power?

I know it’s something I rarely do, because outdoors that would mean up and down cat3/4 hills, but surprisingly I’ve come within 3W of my best turbo rides in 2018. While indoors, I rarely tackle Alpe Du Zwift and Ive not run RGT to tackle Stelvio Pass or Mont Ventoux since spring.

I focus far too much on my 20mins power to give me FTP estimates, which will get me up cat 4 and 3 climbs, but unless I change my focus I’m going to really struggle whenever I face my first outdoor cat2 or harder.

For the last 23 months of having a power meter, my best hour of power is way lower than 95% of my best 20mins, 254W Vs 298W (back in April/March respectively, recently 235/275 in October, all on turbo in freeride or race).

The only issue is getting over the monotony of plodding away at the same ballpark power for 60mins!

the alpe du zwift Saturday ride at 7am. Good group to ride with and the hour flies by.

Ha well it wasn’t easy.   I set up a workout with two back to back intervals – one at 235w and the other at 260w.  The first I rode fine, but the second I gradually stepped up the power but struggled around 254w despite finishing the last 5 mins at 300w.

Anyway, a 2 min test Tuesday then a 20 min test next week which I think will fly by after that one.

After that I’m into low carb base and core strength training.

Gearing wise I’ve a 52×11 top. I did swap to a 53t as I was running out of gears (50% trainer feel, direct drive). However since I switched to a higher rpm spin technique I don’t trouble the top gears and could probably get away with a 50t top.