Zwift, my journey, my weight and my fitness.

Still need to get stage 5 done, finally headed out to Beacon Hill for one climb at ~1720 before a slight meander home for a ~28-mile round trip, so surreal heading out at that time and barely seeing any cars!

Don’t think i have much in the way of legs at the moment due to fatigue, but the 13:35 Crit Race is tempting me.

Well if I hate it I’m sending the not insubstantial bill for the smart trainer to three of you who shouldn’t have encouraged me

LOL send it over 🙂

died 6 laps into the 8. rubbish

Well if I hate it I’m sending the not insubstantial bill for the smart trainer to three of you who shouldn’t have encouraged me

You’ll probably be able to sell the thing on for a mahoosive profit. Apparently turbo trainers aren’t hanging around on the shelves at the moment and there’s every chance there’ll be a shortage before long. Who needs to stockpile toilet paper when you can buy 50 Kickrs?

Oh, and despite someone who’s stupid / motivated enough to kick themselves silly on a dumb trainer, I’d concur that a smart trainer plus the app of your choice is a proper game-changer.

died 6 laps into the 8. rubbish

Err, you won, sandbagging winner of C averaged 5W/Kg! https://zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=385763

Result not showing here. The figure doesn’t surprise me, it was damn fast !

2 mins from the gun on the cat c race..

Its true, i have been looking all over the web for a Kickr Core and they are all sold out with no proper ETA’s when they will be back in stock.
I managed to find a Kickr on CRC so went for that – A little more than i wanted to spend but should hopefully be good to play on and for fitness!

There’s such a huge discrepancy between the “on-the-road” results and those on zwift power.

On the road I came 65th-ish out of 190ish (cat c) so in the top 3rd.

On ZP I got promoted to 20th (yay!) out of 50 so now I’m effectively mid-pack (boo!).

It doesn’t make a huge difference at the time but if you were only racing those whose results would stand it would probably play out quite differently.

It doesn’t make a huge difference at the time but if you were only racing those whose results would stand it would probably play out quite differently.

That’s very true. I finished 21st on the road and got gold. Lol

People make the races a farce. 5w/kg is just daft in C races.

Been a bit lax the last couple days. Over indulged too, bit of comfort eating…

Doing Stage 5, 9.15pm tonight in D.

Looks short and sharp, not my favourite scenario!lol

So erm, when I sign up for zwift, is the done thing to sign up with my actual weight, my vanity (so – 3 or 4lb) weight or some other?

Actual weight for me. I weigh myself before wvery ride as I’m dieting it changes a bit.

I like to know whatever place I finish it it’s as “true” as it can be. Whether absolute last or a bit better.Lol Anything else and I’m just cheating myself and I know it.

That’s just me though…

Mine is pretty close, maybe 2lb out currently, but not much in it.

Weight helps/hurts you depending on layout.

Flatter 90kg is king, hilly 65kg you want. Hence why I mostly race flat

Keep mine at middle of floating weight (depending on time of day, food etc). So about 1 kg above lightest the scales report but less than the most.

Flatter 90kg is king, hilly 65kg you want. Hence why I mostly race flat

So 80 ish means I’m rubbish for both 😭

This feels like when I discovered I was the only person who didn’t use a mouse to play quake and I’ve not even had my ass handed to me yet.

Got an ftp increase in.Stage 5 which was nice.

239ftp now. I know, I know but it’s getting there.😁

Take any “marginal gains” you can fairly get! As regards weight, I use the numbers I see when weighing myself most days after sitting on the throne.

It might be over a week now since I last used the turbo, think I’ve been out everyday since Monday, anything from approx 30-105mins.

I’ve been out so little compared to normal over the last 10 days because of isolation, that some days it’s hard to judge if I still have possible mild COVID-19 symptoms, or I’m getting a late Seasonal Affective Disorder relapse.

But I shouldn’t complain too much, because although I’ve not felt it wise to do sustained efforts, at least I’ve been able to ride… My better half has had it quite bad, breathless while talking or simply walking from room to room.

239ftp now. I know, I know but it’s getting there.

Zwift told me I’d raised mine to a whopping 216w yesterday.
Quick question, I did a ride in Watopia yesterday, 25min climb up to a KOM, then it dropped and climbed again (why) anyway I looked at Strava segment and people I can put 2mins on over a 7min climb are getting up these climbs on Zwift only 30s or so slower than me. Is my set up borked or something?
Then races can anyone recommend a hilly one and how do the categories work? It seems 3w/kg is okish, for me 3.5 stings and 4 is about top end for 30s.

some days it’s hard to judge if I still have possible mild COVID-19 symptoms,

I keep getting a tight chest but I think thats stress.

Then races can anyone recommend a hilly one and how do the categories work? It seems 3w/kg is okish, for me 3.5 stings and 4 is about top end for 30s.

Looks like you are a C cat. Pushing 4wkg for only 30 seconds suggests bottom to middle of category too.

If you only pushing 216w then unless your under 60kg I wouldn’t be expecting much in a hilly race.

Start with very short flat races to build power and stamina first.

You shouldn’t weigh yourself so often as hydration and digestion causes fluctuation.  Once a week should be enough, some athletes use once a month.

So 80 ish means I’m rubbish for both

ive recently dropped down to 74kg and when I changed this in Zwift From 75kg last week I immediately noticed a difference in my climbing whereas all the way from 80 to 75 I never really noticed.  I wonder if a sub 75kg weight affects the Zwift algorithm in a slightly larger and perceptible way.

Due to the current issues and in lieu of real races I’m now targeted on a Sunday race every fortnight from 12th ApriI.  I haven’t raced on Zwift for about a year now so it’s going to be interesting!  My coach did some maths based on my real life race output vs w/kg vs others Zwiftpower results and he reckons top 10 B is easily achievable for me – I’m not so sure!

I always put true weight, I’m doing this for me so want to see my true performance and if that means at the back or slow on the hills, then I know what I need to do to improve.

I don’t see the point of dropping weight or categories just to win races, it’s a false victory in a virtual world.

My weight is currently going down as part of this training on zwift, 10kg down so far, so any gains (or should that be losses?) I’m really benefiting from by getting faster or by recently hitting cat C. Those are my victories.

Quick question, I did a ride in Watopia yesterday, 25min climb up to a KOM, then it dropped and climbed again (why) anyway I looked at Strava segment and people I can put 2mins on over a 7min climb are getting up these climbs on Zwift only 30s or so slower than me. Is my set up borked or something?

Without a comparison tool like a PM or a 2nd turbo to compare with, it’s impossible to say.

But Swift isn’t like real life. It’s algorithms are a bit skewed in various ways. I’ve ridden with people I’m quicker than outdoors and found it hard, I’ve beaten a mate on just about every segment who’d destroy me outside.

Don’t forget, yours may be accurate and theirs not. But it’s tough to say.

My coach did some maths based on my real life race output vs w/kg vs others Zwiftpower results and he reckons top 10 B is easily achievable for me – I’m not so sure

Based on my perception of your output, I’d agree.

@Weeksy actually can I ask for your knowledgable advice on this; he told me to enter as a C first race but expect to bumped up – would doing that once cause alarm bells at Zwift HQ?

I think he said it to aid my mentality tbh, in that I’d react better to being bumped up than smacked down.

If you only pushing 216w then unless your under 60kg I wouldn’t be expecting much in a hilly race.

I’ve only Zwifted 3 times! Never looked at power before. Weigh 71kg currently.

I’ll give a c a go.
Another question, yesterday I was descending the 30min climb from the control tower thing I was still having to pedal quite hard to keep moving, is that normal?

No alarm bells, it’s impossible to know unless you know, so the only way to find out is to try.

It’s going to boil down to route for you and distance. A lot of Zwift races are 20-40 mins, I don’t know how much you can suffer in that time. I think if you pick a decent length one like say 2 laps London loop, you’d go better as it’s an hour or so.

What can you average w/kg for 45 min?

Another question, yesterday I was descending the 30min climb from the control tower thing I was still having to pedal quite hard to keep moving, is that normal?

No. Are you sure as it has dips and peaks on it?

If I was going 85kmp down and stopped pedalling it slowed dramatically, obviously I expect to have to pedal up the rises. On that stw group ride the other day I was doing 200w keeping up with the 2 riders I found downhill.

What can you average w/kg for 45 min?

About 3.6w/kg non adrenaline.   But my forte and training is for longer outdoor races – 4 hours plus – so in Zwift I’d expect to underperform based on stats for a Crit style race.  I’m an “endurance” not power style rider as I have top end issues eg I can sustain 3wkg for 4 hours but 4.2wkg for 5 minutes.  Then skewed by a 15wkg sprint lol.

I’ll be looking for the longest race I can find on the day.

Did you stop pedalling completely? you have to have a cadence of zero to get into the super tuck

You shouldn’t weigh yourself so often as hydration and digestion causes fluctuation

I can see your point, I just weigh for often for general trend, I was 75.5Kg yesterday and today I’m 76.4Kg. We had a fairly big Mexican birthday meal last night including tortillas crisps, which will soak up plenty of extra fluid, so I’m not panicking! 😉

@kryton57 Going from memory, your FTP was quite similar to mine IIRC based on 95% of 20mins MAPS, 280W+ (mine has dropped from 297 to 282 and will drop further due to giving up regular sustained efforts since 27th Feb, depressing, but hey ho). Let’s say 280W, at 74Kg, that’s ~3.8W/Kg… Way over the 3.2W/Kg threshold for C and you would likely be DQed.

For those trying to make turbo riding more like outdoors, https://www.rgtcycling.com/ tells you the overall weight of you and the virtual bike, so you could fudge the values to get a figure closer to your real bike with water etc. you take with you and then get more accurate figures for hill efforts.

Anagallis are you on a smart trainer? I know when I had a dumb trainer I had to always pedal.

Now I’m on a direct drive trainer I can simply stop pedalling on the steep downs and it my avatar goes into a tuck position and keeps the speed. I’m not sure if this is the same with a smart trainer that requires a rear wheel.

Did you stop pedalling completely? you have to have a cadence of zero to get into the super tuck

Maybe not, I’ll try.

Anagallis are you on a smart trainer?

Yep a taxc flux s i think its called

Just been fiddling with the app for taxc and it has a calibration, maybe I should do that!

Let’s say 280W

well, 267w at 73.5kg this morning.  I’ll sign on as B I think.