It goes off your Zwift Power profile, presuming you have one?

It goes off your Zwift Power profile, presuming you have one?

i do but its been dormant for a while. i was a strong C at best back then. by no means an A.

Started the “TT Tune-up” plan on Zwift on Monday, as a first attempt at structured training, that will hopefully make me less carp at my supposed strength according to my https://power-meter.cc/home power profile.

Three ERG sessions in and the blandness of the sessions so far are already starting to test my resolve a tad, really hoping they mix up the power requirements and durations a bit ASAP, it would also be nice to have an average heart rate higher than 127bpm and more than a few seconds in z4!

The Direto’s power meter is under-reading by ~25W even at sub 150W compared to my 4iiii, something I’ve suspected for a while, must do a “calibration” (offset, it does no calibration as such) test and confirm the number is way below the factory figure and contact Elite for a proper video of how to adjust belt tension to get those offset figures matching again. In April 2018, just after buying the 4iiii, the power figures very closely matched.

My Direto really does not do short (~10sec) power intervals very well at all. Might be belt tension, might be because I’m using the 4iiii, might be because I haven’t reordered the cassette sprockets on the Direto’s cassette so I’m using 34/16 for ERG mode instead of the normal 34/18 (due to snapped cable and adjusting rear mech screw limits).

Might have to throw a small race or TT soon, maybe even a radical hill interval ride outdoors, just to keep me interested and also burn a few more Calories… Threatening to head back above 80Kg after the two week gluttony!

Well I was very happy to get an upgrade to my FTP tonight. 250W on Zwift, 240 from Garmin (off the same sensors.. it’s all so hooky). I like the group rides that go up a big blooming hill (reverse KOM to Radio Tower tonight) as that suits what I’m okay at. Flat rides I can just hang on. Hilly up and down get dropped line a stone!

Less happy I think I’ve broken my third Flux. Making a noise like a bearing has expired. This one has only done 500k! Going to drop it back and ask for something else of a similar price. If they’ll go for that (Cycle Republic) – any recommendations?

Maybe the Elite Drivo? It should give you a much more accurate power meter and a better max slope emulation than a Direto.

Is anyone doing ‘Dirt Destroyer’ ? It seems to be turning me into some sort of leg-pressing beast?

The Direto’s power meter is under-reading by ~25W

😆

id bet £100 that the 4iiii over reads

The Direto’s power meter is under-reading by ~25W

😆

id bet £100 that the 4iiii over reads

Well I did an offset test yesterday after using the Elite app for ~11mins, 6330 vs 6336 on the sticker from the factory setup. That’s enough difference to warrant a belt re-tension to get accurate readings. 😉

The 4iiii has been great for ~20 months, the only time it gave really wacky readings was when it was running on cr2032 fumes on Nov 1st, when suddenly I appeared to be a world class cyclist for an afternoon doing a hard solo training ride. 😆

Started the “TT Tune-up” plan on Zwift on Monday, as a first attempt at structured training, that will hopefully make me less carp at my supposed strength according to my https://power-meter.cc/home power profile.

Where’d you get the “tt is your strength” bit from that site?

Started the “TT Tune-up” plan on Zwift on Monday, as a first attempt at structured training, that will hopefully make me less carp at my supposed strength according to my https://power-meter.cc/home power profile.

Where’d you get the “tt is your strength” bit from that site?

On the “power profile” page, up the top it shows your CP5; CP60; CP300; FTP on a basic graph, with flat/up-sloping/down-sloping/inverted v clickable links. Up-sloping is TTer.

Reluctantly entered the 1630 Flying Cheetah’s Race Of Truth TT, just over 49Km at Volcano Flat. I’ve not done any 20min power efforts for over three weeks until today.

It’s blatantly a 60min+ race. My best 60mins in 2019 was 255W in Feb, in summer 2018 was 253W. I did 254W in the 29th Nov 2019 Flying Cheetah’s TT event.

I put on a bit over Xmas, but got things under control this last week, so I weighed myself today and adjusted my Zwift weight to 79.5Kg.

95% of my recent best 20mins is 273W. It’s always been way higher than my 60min efforts.

This means I was just under 3.2W/Kg for a 60min effort, so I enter as C.

I then surprisingly proceed to set new power bests for everything I did in today’s TT above 40mins, 273W for 60mins and 272W for the complete ~76min event…

UPG disqualified! 😆

https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=296311

One thing the direto is not good at is short intervals. Think the issue is it can’t adjust quick enough. I just avoid workouts with tiny spikes now.

I’ll see what Cycle Republic will offer – assuming Zyro Fisher (the importer) will approve a swap. They seem to have quite a few different smart trainers in there. They had a Elite set up (not sure which one) so that’s certainly an option.

Cycle Republic in Southampton has a direto on demo.

One thing the direto is not good at is short intervals. Think the issue is it can’t adjust quick enough. I just avoid workouts with tiny spikes now.

To be fair, that’s something of an issue with most smart trainers, even the top-end ones, though they tend to be a little better. The Sufferfest suggests that some of their more jagged, sprint-orientated sessions are ridden in level mode because of this. It’s a fine line between adjusting power targets responsively and upping the target so quickly that you basically hit a wall and can’t turn the pedals.

It’s not an “issue” at all, it’s by design.  If a smart trainer spiked to power instantly your legs – depending on the power of the interval – would likely hit a wall which you couldn’t overcome and of which sudden force could even create an injury.

if you’re concerned just start you interval a few seconds earlier in anticipation.

#n0b0dy0ftheg0at well done nice to beat records. Well rested? Looking at your profile you were a B anyway so would have been disqualifeid anyway.

It’s been a light week until yesterday, the TT Tune-up plan week 1 seemed very easy/dull, ~50 TSS per session and very little z3+.

Seems silly for me to have entered B yesterday when I have a history of never exceeding 3.2W/Kg over an hour until yesterday’s even, indoors or out, over the past ~13 months with power meters.

I just find it odd this happened after the definite power variance between the Direto and 4iiii this week, but the Direto offset is lower than factory and so is reading low… Maybe the 4iiii is reading high! 😆

It’s not an “issue” at all, it’s by design. If a smart trainer spiked to power instantly your legs – depending on the power of the interval – would likely hit a wall which you couldn’t overcome and of which sudden force could even create an injury.

I get that. I meant that it’s an ‘issue’ in the sense that if you’re executing a particularly spiky workout with lots of short duration, high power efforts with short rests then trying to use ERG mode is often problematic.

So it is an issue in that sense. If you have, say, a ten-second 500-watt effort with ten-second rest, by the time your trainer has actually ramped up to the required level for the effort, you’ve actually spent three seconds or so not at that level, so you’re only doing six seconds, say, at 500 watts. You can’t dodge that by starting earlier in ERG mode, you can by using level mode and building power before the actual effort starts so you’re spending a full ten seconds at 500 watts.

So what I’m saying is yes, this is how smart trainers work by design and necessity, but the issue I’m talking about, isn’t that and anticipating the start of the interval doesn’t actually help. I guess a trainer-specific workout could theoretically anticipate that by starting to build earlier, but different smart trainers have different levels of response. It’s easier to simply use level mode in that case, which is what the SF guys recommend for some of their workouts.

I guess a trainer-specific workout could theoretically anticipate that by starting to build earlier, but different smart trainers have different levels of response. It’s easier to simply use level mode in that case

Much easier IMO – I’m a user of an Elite trainer too and the ramp-up is quite gradual on it; might be different on a “stricter” machine, I guess. Standard mode suits me better

Seems silly for me to have entered B yesterday when I have a history of never exceeding 3.2W/Kg over an hour until yesterday’s even, indoors or out, over the past ~13 months with power meters.

It’s not about the hour though. The categories are based on your FTP which is based on 95% of your best 20 minutes. In theory that number should be sustainable for an hour but everyone is different and the range is suggested from 40 minutes to over an hour that this could be sustained.

Racing out of category in a TT isn’t really an issue for the other riders. In bunch racing it is. I’d have ignored you if we were both in C as live data would tell me your a B racing out of category but others wouldn’t and will end up influencing what thry do during the race as they think you’re a C.

Sure BWG.  A Scardypants says short spiky intervals are far better on level mode.   My 10s sprints are targetted at 1450w god knows how that’d feel in ERG mode!

My 10s sprints are targetted at 1450w god knows how that’d feel in ERG mode!

I think you should give it a go 🙂

Tour de Zwift starts today, not sure if I’ve done a single ride/race in tdz events of 2018/19.

Shame on the group rides it seems you cannot combine doing an erg training session.

All a bit confusing how there are three different group ride routes for at least today’s stage in London, which are different to the short ~10 mile race on Classique route.

There’s some sort of points competition on Zwiftpower for the races, not sure if points are just for finishing in top 100 in the race you entered, or for just the top 100 times per category per stage from all race meets of each stage.

Did I read somewhere that the Tron bike is banned for this year’s tdz races, but ok for group rides?

Finished my first race today (TdZ)….f@&k me, that was hard.
73/93 – Cat D

P.s. I saw a Tron bike

I think you should give it a go

I like my kneecaps right where they are…

Those that know about training, should I be concerned by my low maximum heartrate?

https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=280850
In this race a few weeks ago I turned myself inside out and was nearly sick. Chest strap saw a max of 161 apparently.
On the MTB quite often I won’t see higher than 150ish. My resting average is 47 according to my Garmin.
Googling suggests all the way from genetics, everybody is different etc or big heart issues.

^ Those numbers are not a million miles different to mine. I bet you’d get higher outside rather than on a trainer though. Nothing to worry about IMO.

If you are concerned a quick trip to the docs will provide confidence.

Just checking in to say hello again – I finally drilled a small hole in the wall and ran a permanent power cable and network cable down to the shed… only to find that the network cable was too short so had to use my phone as a mobile hotspot anyway. But the shed’s now powered and has my bike set up on a turbo, and I’ve renewed the Zwift subscription so I _really_ need to make the time to get training. And maybe racing in the weird virtual elbows-less world. 😉

Maybe the 4iiii is reading high! 😆

nooooooo you don’t say 😆

n00b question, sorry – I’m sure the answer is somewhere in the 311 previous pages: if I enter a race on Zwiftpower (I’m looking at the ZHR Hare and Hounds on Weds 15th Jan at 17h30), and I enter as a Cat D, is the 2.5W/kg a maximum of the _average_ I ride at over the whole race? So I can sprint at whatever W/kg I can muster, but as long as my average over the race is below 2.5W/kg that’s the right category for me?

Pretty much yes.

^ Those numbers are not a million miles different to mine. I bet you’d get higher outside rather than on a trainer though. Nothing to worry about IMO.

Cheers, good to know I’m not the only one.

If you are concerned a quick trip to the docs will provide confidence.

Yeah, I really need to change my GP first. They’d probably send me to A+E going on past experience.
Cheers

@Pierre, pretty much yes but the actual calc is based on 95% of your best 20min average output. If you’ve never raced before then you won’t get a straight DQ. Just watch your Zwift power profile page and it will tell you which cat is right for you. It tends to update overnight so cat won’t be updated till the next day.

Anyone else in for the 16:45 Crit Race? Based upon recent performance from me I’m not expecting a podium. But I’ll have a damn fine try

Not for me. Still ill and not really feeling the races. Going to be doing the kraken later on though to test out my new rocker plate.

Bit of a daft race today in honesty. The usual bonkers start and a group of 19 of us pulled away from the rest.
Every time through the rollers after the line we’d dump a person or 2. So coming into the final lap we were a group of 8.
Into the rollers I was a bit too far back and I lost the wheel, along with 2 other guys, sadly for me they managed a spurt of 5+ and they actually pulled it back. Not sure if mine was the fault of too high a gear as I was in 44/11 but I couldn’t surge the pace. So I ended up 3s off them, then it was 4, 5, 6, game over. They were all at 5w/kg and the gap grew and grew in the last 800m.

However, despite being 8th, I still picked up a gold along with setting my best ever 8 lap Crit time. So all in all, a great day.
9 or so ZP points won’t be bad for the rankings too.

2 days enforced rest now coming up to recover.

Just signed in and the Zwift stage 1 race popped up. Hedged on D as I’m well down on where I was.

68th/130 by the tunnel despite being at 3Wkg. Backed off, sat in a group most of the way round but looks like I just squeaked over the limit at 2.6Wkg.

Anybody have any recommendations for anti vibration mat to put under the turbo?