Zwift, my journey, my weight and my fitness.

@savoyad nice one, I am in! forecast looks more sensible for this week 😃

@savoyad – thanks, I’ve entered

Signed up

Interesting that the France ‘GPS’ map is New Caledonia rather than mainland France.

Always thought it was a bit odd that the only mainland Europe map was Innsbruck; no Cote d’Azur/Mallorca/Ardennes…

I’m away at FoD with Katy Curd on Thursday for training for my boy, so I’m a no for the event

Interesting that the France ‘GPS’ map is New Caledonia rather than mainland France.

I think they’ve done that as the maps are meant to “represent” the roads of mainland France rather than being more exact copies e.g. the London map.

Im in for TTT, with one thing or another not managed to get on the bike for just over a week so this may hurt even more than usual haha!

I don’t think I’ll be able to make this weeks TTT – I’ll sign up last minute if I’m back in time.

https://zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=918577 @1210

Bit unique, 5 laps of Grand Central reverse, oof! 😮

Just thought I’d add my little titbit to the thread as reading about you all improving over the years gave me the impetus to get a basic turbo setup just before lockdown. Only a cheap turbo with a speed/cadence sensor and a HRM with my commuter bike on it but it was A: all I could afford to risk if I didn’t like it and B: was all that was available!

Anyway, found I got into it really quickly and after doing a few random sessions and tweaking my setup (turbo tyre, bigger front ring and a cheap front mech as a chain device) I decided to do the Absa Cape Epic series of sessions as they fit in with my goal of doing the SDW again this year. The aim was to coe out the end with better stamina and have more punch up the climbs without blowing up.

Without going into boring details I did a FTP test at the beginning and have just done one this morning after doing all the sessions. Gone from 195w to 230! That’s a massive 17% improvement over the 3 months. While the number may not be 100% accurate due to my setup the result should be consistent so I’m very happy. I have noticed that I’m much better getting up the climbs, I’m less tired after a ride and I can keep an effort going for much longer on the same route I’ve been riding during lockdown. The big test will be when I can get out in the big hills next week, see how I fare on routes I’ve done lots of times before but the signs are looking good!

So as was the initial purpose of this thread, it had motivated me to get on the turbo and do some structured training and it has worked. The question now is will I want to resume it when the winter comes round and, more importantly, will I want to upgrade my setup to a smart trainer etc? Time will tell!

Well done Reluctantjumper! Good improvements.

If you do come back in Winter, I’d recommend a smart trainer as it takes it to another level and you really feel the hills, I started on a “dumb” trainer like you and moving over (I’m now on direct drive) was a huge improvement. One thing I would say, the dumb trainer didn’t give accurate readings compared to the smart trainer, but like you say it would be consistent as you started on the same setup.

Well done!! I’ve been doing Zwift on and off for a few years, definitely helps massively with fitness. However I’ve really gotten into it during lockdown especially with the STW meet-ups & TTT, probably fitter now than I’ve ever been (which is great as I’m 40 this month 😂)

One thing with the FTP tests though is that you get better at doing them, so the increase might not really be that much. I actually much prefer now doing a TT than an FTP test, definitely gives me more motivation. The Fast Fridays Bologna TT being my favourite as that is approx 20 mins. (Zwift will automatically recalculate your FTP after a race if it thinks you deserve it!)

Yes, you definitely want a smart trainer! They add so much too Zwift. And join the STW meet-ups if you don’t do them already!

Some TTT details for tomorrow.

Our start delay is 3.5 minutes. So we must be in the pen by 18:33 and then we are off 3.5 minutes later at 18:36:30. Phil, can you do the honours with the stopwatch?

The start sheet looks like this at the moment, 5 riders:
phil56
dangeourbrain
ljarch
zilog6128
savoyad

I think @IvanDobski threatened to think about making it 6 of us at the last minute. So there are still 2 or 3 places if anyone is keen to join us. Sign us is still open, category D here: https://www.zwift.com/events/view/922808

Let’s use discord as normal.

See you all in the pen!

👍

Thank you for organising again sir

I should be back in time for this so I’ve signed up and will hopefully see you on the start line.

I’ll do the team tt if there is a spot. What time is it, and what do i need to do to get involved.

4 laps of London classique at deeside and Moray firth race tonight.

Rode so hard my teeth hurt.

Weights coming down though

@tpbiker there’s one more spot. You are very welcome to join us.
There’s some slight admin hassle first time. It’s easy enough. But don’t do it at 6pm tomorrow…

First, enter the race. We are in category D here: https://www.zwift.com/events/view/922808 . The TTT doesn’t use the categories in the normal fashion, so enter D whatever cat you usually ride in.

Secondly, you need to tag yourself as a member of the team in zwiftpower. Go to zwiftpower –> zwift profile –> Settings, and add (STW) to the end of your Rider Name. There’s no need to touch your rider name in zwift itself. The magic happens in zwiftpower. Your zwiftpower profile might need activating properly to do this. Instructions are here: https://support.zwift.com/en_us/connecting-to-zwiftpower-SyldRc_4H

Thirdly, get access to the discord server so we can communicate. Click here https://discord.gg/jmvdUa We use the STW voice channel and it’s best to set up Push to Talk otherwise everyone hears you panting for an hour. I use my phone with earphones. I’m not sure what the others do. Anyway, if this doesn’t work, don’t panic. It’s better with than without though.

Finally, know what you are doing at the start of the race! It’s a bit weird. Enter the pen like normal, by 6.33. But when it says go, do precisely the opposite. Stop pedalling. Otherwise you cross the start line prematurely. Instead, sit there and wait for our start time. Tomorrow that’s 3.5 minutes after GO!, so 6.33.30pm. Someone (Phil) will count us down over discord. THEN you can go!

After that, just pedal along. We try and stay together. You’ll get the picture pretty quick.

It’s way simpler than I’ve made it sound. Maybe see you in the pen?

Don’t make the same mistake I did on my first time trail

I sellotaped a Biro to the saddle

I totally misunderstood the ‘sitting in the pen’ instructions. 👍👍

I’ve dropped below 80kg for the first time in about 10 years. It’s been up and down over the past couple of years, but I’ve probably dropped about 9 kilos since April. I had an aim of getting to this weight, as a target. But I’m still packing a bit of wobble around the middle. So I might see if I can get a couple of extra kg off.

Right, so I’ve registered with zwift power. My I’d is Tim Payne7783(STW). Is that correct, or Do I need to remove the brackets?

I’m assuming then I just go to event at 6.30 and wait for everyone to start yeah? I’ve also joined the discord chat thingy..

Few other questions…what kind of pace will we be going at. Reason I ask is that I tend to do tts on zwift on my proper tt bike.. and my power is awful when I’m on it. Probably even more so now I’ve just had a bike fit and no idea what power I can put out now. So basically if there is an expectation of going fast I can just chuck the road bike on the turbo and instantly be 30 watts better off.

Pace is largely decided at the rear for us Tim so don’t worry about that, it’s about the craic, so we’re all good if we get to the end having enjoyed it.

Name looks OK to me.

Yeah 6.30 in the pen then, STOP pedaling with a minute to go then wait for our MC to shout go basically, unfortunately we don’t get the fancy travelator thing you do in prop TTs so it’s a bit more adhoc.

Oh and don’t worry about positioning and turns etc too much, the main thing is to sit in the draft if you’re not on the front and that works fine in a blob, it doesn’t need a line, even if that does look nicer.

I just wrote and somehow lost a reply to Tim. @dangeourbrain’s is better than my effort though, so what he said basically. Your name is definitely fine.

Don’t forget Bumblebee kit 👍👍 🐝

Oh and there’s an update so if you’ve not been on for a while may need an extra min or two

Definitely a good workout tonight, seemed tough! Frustrating with those passing teams playing silly buggers though, was only coasting at a couple of points when they slowed right down immediately after coming through. Good ride all. Nice debut TP, good work on the hills, just gotta avoid leaving us all behind next time 😂

I realised I was going to spend the next lap and a half yoyo-ing back and forth so just pulled the pin to save holding everyone else back. Very generous of me I think you’ll agree!

I should have followed your lead Ivan just didn’t have the legs tonight found it much harder than usual. Good ride everyone thanks for organising Adam.

Thanks for organising. My start was a bit of a disaster as my power meter had gone to sleep after not pedalling for 3 min in the pen, so I had to burst myself to get back on before we’d even started!

During the races I normaly do i just sit in the pack the whole time, so find it hard to judge when you are trying to take a dig in front. What i was finding is i was sitting 2nd or 3rd wheel busting my balls to get to the front, and then as soon as I managed to get to the front id just zoom off leaving a gap. In real life you slow down when off the front but today I appeared to speed up??

Didn’t help that at one point my friggin anti virus popped up on screen..I had to smash myself to get a wee gap, jump off the bike to grab mouse, then back on before I lost your wheels..

Good workout though

Enjoyed it tonight, I wasn’t firing on all cylinders and my discipline was shocking but felt strong and it was good fun as usual.

Reckon if we can get TP to do the hill pulls and rotate the front as we did a few weeks ago to maintain 40+ KPH we’ll be unstoppable I tell ye! unstoppable!! Unless we stop…

Cheers for the ride all. That was a lot warmer than I expected though, my office looks like it’s been hosed down!

Frustrating with those passing teams playing silly buggers though, was only coasting at a couple of points when they slowed right down immediately after coming through.

It really was, though I’m not entirely convinced there wasn’t something weird and buggy going on this evening.

Climbing out of the tunnel I was making time on the group who’d passed us and actually coasting up hill at one point.

There were a few times I tried to drop back to pick someone up and at barely above coasting I still seemed to be doing 30kph on the flat.

When Ivan dropped I over shot the group pulling back on which isn’t unusual but I went through like you were stationery, dropped to a dawdle and was still moving up the road. I could see phil’s numbers and he was pulling 2 or 3 times my effort and making no ground.

Other times I’d be pulling hard and seemingly standing still.

It’s almost as if I had about 10 minutes of lag.

Oh and it felt like the lap one took about an hour.

It’s almost as if I had about 10 minutes of lag.

I thought there was lag as well. As mentioned I’d be trying to come to front, sittimg in the draft putting out over 5 w/kg and struggling to come by, then all of a sudden I’d shoot forward and gap the group. Not ideal in a ttt format!

Where did we come overall?

Provisionally 95th out of 148 in Frappe. I’m actually pleasantly surprised by that given it felt pretty scrappy this evening and the hold up with those teams passing through or rather not passing.

That was a good ride. I hate passing other teams (and being passed) but I handled it a bit better than previously this week. The long drawn out pass cost us some time still.

We finished in 54:57, 40.6km/h. And overnight we are in provisional 95/149 in Frappe and 181/399 overall.

Next week is Sand and Sequoias twice, so 42km with the rolling Titans Grove KOM. It’s not steep, but it’s really irregular so that’ll be a nice challenge to stay together. It was showing 3 laps this morning, which would have been madness. I’ll get an entry in when they open.

I quite like that route and to be honest the hilly ones tend to suit us better, or at least they suit everyone else less 😉

Where do you get the fixture list @Savoyad? I can never find it. That S&S was the first TTT I did and the descent was hard to ride well as a group.

You might want to consider tagging all of your names (STW) in zwift if you’re not doing that – we could never be arsed, even with the same kit at first but it created some chaotic passing manoeuvres that can really bollox things up. I think if other riders see a block of names on the right hand side menu, all the same tag, it helps them process the approach and pass better.

Solid from my club tonight @53.59 after the inferno of last week which had me struggling. Not the most interesting course I guess but quite liked the 3 laps, seemed to get a good rhythm.

@dangeourbrain On the commute yesterday morning there were definitely some strange things going on with the resistance. When I hit the Richmond cobbled climbs on the 2-3% gradient it felt like I was spinning downhill and then it took a while to respond to the steeper portions as well. I think you mentioned on Tuesday you thought there was something wrong since the update. A lot of my other training rides are in ERG mode controlled by TrainerRoad so I don’t notice any issues.

Robbo, one of our team had that issue yesterday.  He had to drop of asking – how come you lot are riding at 350w for 20 mins?   I wish.

I quite like that route and to be honest the hilly ones tend to suit us better, or at least they suit everyone else less

I liked it and had an weird ride.  it felt like one of the easiest despite a Z5 training session the prior evening, and I cruised in at 3.5wkg average with more to give.

What i was finding is i was sitting 2nd or 3rd wheel busting my balls to get to the front, and then as soon as I managed to get to the front id just zoom off leaving a gap. In real life you slow down when off the front but today I appeared to speed up??

There’s always some lag when you put the power down and then again when you ease off so if you’re not used to it, you end up putting down too much power for too long which is probably why you were overshooting the front. It’s just one of the quirks of Zwift racing and something you get used to!

Where do you get the fixture list @Savoyad?

It’s here https://wtrl.racing/WTRL_events.php click on upcoming. It sometimes changes a little (gets easier than predicted, like when 2 laps of the Magnificent 8 became just 1 a few weeks back).

Yes, thanks for pointing out that the descent will be as complicated (as a team) as the climb next week, you are quite right. S&S is a fun course. I’ll be doing 2 lap races of it twice this week. It’s a smart choice for the TTT.

There are a few threads on the zwift forums complaining about weird behaviour since the last update. Dangeourbrain sounded completely bewildered at one point yesterday.