Currently following the Gravel Grinder ‘training’ plan to keep me fitter than fatter over winter. In week 3 of 12, and seems like it’s a workout every day which is a little tedious. Need my recovery days more than ever, but could do with a gap of two days from time to time.

Thanks for those who give me kudos. Weeksy, just one question: have you got zwift and your turbo next to your office desk??

Weeksy, just one question: have you got zwift and your turbo next to your office desk

Errrrm no, why do you ask?

https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=283691

Have been away for 3 days or so, heading back today we were earlier than planned so jumped on for the Crit race.

Went off the line well, sitting nicely with lead group after lap 1, into lap 2 and lost a second on them through no real reason but pulled it back on the whoops, then boom! Chain came off the front chainring again! Clearly the non N/W front Ring isn’t going to work out for me. Got it on in seconds but as I was in too high a gear it dropped as the crank counter rotated and by the time I got it on again I’d dropped from top 15 to 120th and over a minute down on the lead group!!!! Oh deary me. The next 10 mins were spent clawing back places with 350w for a bit, then resting for a minute as I caught groups and then kicking on again, Go up to 90th with that. Then the leaders came round to lap the little group I was in so I jumped on their group and made up another 20 places or so, but let them go as I was getting tired and jumped in the group behind who dragged me round for another lap until they’d finished and j was in 73rd. Had a group of 4 around me and beat them to the line for 71st place. Which is a bloody disaster. Especially as I was quicker on the last few laps than the guy ranked 5th overall in C, so looking where he was and I was, we gapped him in our group just on the final lap, so I’d gave fancied my chances against him and may have picked up ranking points. Grrr.

That’s it for racing for me now for a while, I’ll do 1 a month to keep my rankings, but gave to concentrate Von longer efforts for Belgium training now.
Disappointed

I’ve gone back to the 38t chainring on the front now for Zwifting, it’s also the same gearing I’ll use for Belgium so makes sense I guess. But does mean I’ll lose top end power in the races unless I can do it with higher cadence, we’ll see.

Rode the ZHR 100k 2.5w/kg today Sand and Sequoa’s.   One of the worst group rides I experienced tbh, as every group seemed to want to take the rollers uphills in Titans Grove at 3-4w/kg.  In the end I gave up and joined in as they seemed happy for me to lead them through Tempus Fugit at dead on 2.5w/kg.   Even the last 3km was a race-like lead in to the finish in TG which happily I timed right and lead the group over the line with a 750w sprint after 101k/2h 50m.

I’m tired though and doing the rides low carb or fasted so that was a tough ride.

Funny wee thing happened- I bought a Flux S back in July, and have only really started to use it in the past month or so.

Even when I bought it, I thought- this thing is noisier than I expected it to be. But hadn’t really much to compare it against.

Anyway….I noticed the other day that spin down was slower than I expected, and it had a faint smell of something unpleasant at higher speeds. Long story short- even though it was under warranty, I carefully took one side of the casing off for an inspection.

The fan which attaches to the flywheel is warping upwards between the 6 fasteners, and rubbing on the central steel frame. Bad move maybe but I removed the flywheel and took the fan off. Yes its under warranty but apparently Tacx aren’t great at fixing them.

All quiet and working well now.

All quiet and working well now.

I assume it’ll run a bit hot and strange things might happen to the resistance – maybe OK in a shed over winter

Spot of tech help please?

I have a tacx vortex smart, garmin cadence sensor and an ipad. Been working great in ERG mode, really pleased with it. Software ‘sets’ the power output, I ride at whatever cadence I can to maintain that power output.

However, I’ve started the “dirt destroyer” training plan. Within this, there are segments marked as free ride where rather than set a power, it asks me to see how hard I can ride at a fixed cadence (to built leg power).

I go through the line at 65rpm, and what I believe should happen is the trainer fights me as hard as it can until I can’t maintain cadence, ie the other way round to most segments.

However all that happens is that the resistance just turns off. I do my 1 minute “max effort” and it’s just me freewheeling the pedals round at 30w/65rpm.

It’s not speed – if I just try to spin faster it tells me to slow my legs down.

What am I doing wrong? Why is it not ramping the resistance right up for me to work against?

The last two group rides I’ve done have been amusing for different reasons. First was a FriYay fearless ride. I did a few of these last year and enjoyed them. Meant to be 2.5-2.7. It ended up being 2.9 for me almost from the off. There was so much bitching on the chat (massive group 200+) but pace kept getting pushed.

I managed 45 mins which considering I was nursing a hangover and had ridden quite a lot over Xmas I was happy with. Maybe it was a one off, but odd that even with a ride leader it never get close to the advertised rate on the flat. On the short hills, it was just mental!

Tonight I joined the SAS sub 2.5 ride as we rode Brechfa red and black yesterday which is a big day out on the MTBs. Just wanted to spin the tiredness out of my legs. No ride leader turned up. Mild Anarchy then prevailed 😉 It wasn’t mad but I don’t think it dropped below 2.5 all the way round then with about 4 mins to go, it just all went off.

I managed 18th out of 80 in my Cat which considering I had come in with the idea of taking it easy I’m sort of happy with. Not that I was racing…

I really must try a race one day..

@snotrag try changing to a harder gear you will see you will be putting out more watts at 65rpm.

When not in erg mode you need to use gears to vary your power:cadence.

I’m in the hardest gear possible! It’s still in ERG mode – the software has jsut wound the resistance right down!?

For sections marked as free ride within a structured workout the workout should automatically disable erg mode and then re-engage erg mode for the next section that has a specified Watts.

Is this on one specific workout?

Maybe you could create your own custom workout in Zwift with a free ride section and see if you still experience same behaviour.

I have a tacx vortex smart, garmin cadence sensor and an ipad. Been working great in ERG mode, really pleased with it. Software ‘sets’ the power output, I ride at whatever cadence I can to maintain that power output.

Does it work as a controllable trainer if you’re just pottering around on Zwift – ie: does the resistance go up on hills? Is it paired as a controllable trainer?

Right. Time to renew my sub for the next 3 months and get winter fit. Is there anything I need to know since last April? I know there are a few new tracks but hopefully the general experience is much the same?

Looking forward to joining this community again. Ride on.

Not a lot to know, new courses, new short Crit racing layouts, but same old stuff basically.

New to the wholw zwift thing, but am using it as part of my recovery from a hip replacement. So far have an old (20+ years) hardtail hooked up to a Tacx Vortex and have just started the FTP builder training plan. Two sessions in so far, feels i have a lot to learn, especially with regard to the social aspects. Some people have given me a thumbs up and ‘Ride on’ but not sure how to reply and/or do the same for others etc. Looking forward to see if my fitness increases as i progress.
I feel i might ‘Spin-out’ with the gearing i have at some point, is this why most people use road bikes?

Hi, Does anybody know if its possible to run Zwift as a spectator, to let me see if it will run on my Windows laptop? (it seems too low spec, but I’d like to test it).
I’ve downloaded, installed, and logged in, but cant seem to get any further.
Thanks.

You watch other riders to see if your computer is up to it. I did this before i subscribed as i wanted a bit of preview.

But how?

What did you see after logging in?

It should have a massive button that says ‘just watch’

If I click the desktop icon, I get a splash screen pop up, and I click “lets go”. Then it minimizes to system tray, and thats it. I think I have to conclude the laptop cant run it.

I got around the computer issue with an old Apple iPhone Se, plugged into a TV with a £15 adapter. Works a treat.

I got around the computer issue with an old Apple iPhone Se, plugged into a TV with a £15 adapter. Works a treat.

ooh, interesting…so you use bluetooth to connect to the trainer? Which trainer, if you dont mind me asking?

Yes Bluetooth to the Tacx flow trainer.

Thanks. 🙂

No problem, also works on my Motorola but I don’t have a way to connect it to the TV, so I use that to run Zwift companion, so I can pause a workout, send message etc without getting off the bike.

Did my first Zwift race in ages last night. I made use of the free 25km to do one of the new crit layouts. It was 8 laps of the Downtown Dolphin course. That is quite a sharp kick up on the cobbled section.

I kept up with the fastest group for the first lap even occasionally leading the group before I started dropping back. Did about 3-4 laps in between two groups before I dropped back into the group behind me. I think there was about 8 riders in it. We stayed together until the last lap when 2 riders got away on the cobbled section. I managed to stay with the others but was at the back of the group. Coming out of the last hairpin I put the power down and sprinted and managed to jump them all by the line. I think I came in 18th out of 50 (ZP has me as 6th out of the registered riders).

I haven’t been zwifting for a while instead doing about 3 months on TR and I have seen some big gains. Compared to all of 2019 my 10 to 25 minute power was up by approximately 20-25W which equates to about a 10% increase. My sprint has increased but only because I have a new turbo (direct drive rather than wheel on) which doesn’t max out at 800W so I am now able to exceed 1000W (although I only made it to 970 last night).

on Zwiftpower this was by far my strongest race setting best w/kg for 20m, 5m, 1m and 15s power to weight ratio. I also average 2.5 w/kg for the whole race. I was also able to sit above threshold for 50% of the time – my previous best was 30% so a big gain there as well.

It shows me that my time on TrainerRoad is working so going to continue down that route with the occasional ride on Zwift to compliment it. My old turbo seemed to over read my power as well so the directly comparable gains are probably even better than the numbers posted above.

Edit: Forgot to mention the new turbo (Elite Direto) is much better for Zwift as well. Previously I couldn’t feel the gradient changes a whole lot on the wheel on trainer and it was necessary to change gears but this was a lot better and therefore more challenging because of it.

Hmmm, put on approx 3kg since starting, belly is (slightly) smaller though. Still working my way through the FTP booster, middle of week 7 now.

First ride of new decade. Second Zwift race on the new Crit circuit. Entered 15 km B race. Sat in, felt comfortable, gave it a go at the end. 12th and top 25%. Averaged 4.0 W/kg which I’d like back as my FTP from 2018!

Race was full of ringers 😉

Rather enjoyed it. But got the same as I do week in, week out at Hillingdon. Need some hour races.

Did a quick Crit race today. Either my legs were cooked, the man lurgy hasn’t fully gone yet, or I’m missing the 42t ring as I thought.
Performance was decent enough but lost it in the last 1.5km where I’m normally quite strong on this layout. Just didn’t have anything when the pace picked up.
https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=292731

Much bigger field than this actually seems

So the turbo hasn’t got any funner…

so, ran it last night on my phone on 4G mounted on the bars. worked suprisingly well and only used ~40Mb of data for 30mins online.

apple watch fed HR straight in, and my kurt kinetic inride connected once i’d found a battery with some charge in…

anyone seen any free month codes around? I’m only planning on using it until my ankle gets better and I can run again.

That was so so so far into the depths of despair.

https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=296162

Ouch! I’d probably die. Flat out for me is something like 165bpm.

I set a PB for an 8 lap race, lol. In a 16 lap race!!!! Quicker than any of my previous 5 sprint races!!!!!

Did the first round of the 3R Ultimate Racing league this evening at Cat B, spent 45 mins at threshold (166 to 184) with an average of 173, maxing at 185. 3.5w/kg / 264w average for the whole thing, maxed at 671w in my lame ass sprint for 73rd. I think I’m dead 🤣🤣🤣

@weeksy

Interested about your heart rates mate.

Could you maintain such high average rates as that when you started on Zwift?

Much length of time over 175ish and I start to feel pretty unwell.lol

Just wondering if that might improve over time!

Cheers for feedback.

It’s pretty normal for me, my traces from racing CX and XC for the last 3 or 4 years are pretty much the same.

I didn’t think if you asked me before that race i could maintain such a rate.. maybe 3-4 beats lower i’d have said yes. What was exceptional last night was the time above 175… .Which seemed almost every second of it…. seeing 180 is usually my death sprint, but i was seeing that 8 laps in…. It was tough.

Regarding your actual question, i’d expect it to improve for people over time yes…

Tried to join a short crit race tonight but despite selecting D group, it put me in the A group. The pack dissapeared within about 50yds so I bailed out and decided to try alpe du Zwift instead.

That goes on a bit…

Cheers weeksy/ steve.👍