Zwift, my journey, my weight and my fitness.

Dedicated bike :)…..*

* Sounds significantly posher than -put my 15 year old bike on the turbo when the new one arrived.

Front wheel ? Errrrrm lost me ? Flat from sitting on the floor ?

I use an old wheel with no tyre.

I’d avoid putting a high end bike on the turbo full stop, if i could help it, but if that was all i had to hand it’s not that big of a deal. It’s not like it’s going to break, but you can put a load of power through the frame which is immobilised, and some folk do massive turbo miles.

I guess by flatspot he means if you do 1000 miles on the turbo bike with the front wheel never moving or changing position, would it go out of true or the spoke tension deteriorate. IDK.

Exactly!

Well the race didn’t go too bad really. I set of hard and stuck with the lead group occasionally being able to lead. The power was high however before we even hit the first climb and although I was able to keep up on the first half I run out of steam and crossed over the top in about 18th. I spent the next 3/4 lap with another guy who didn’t do much pulling and then a group caught us up/ @mrhoppy was doing the same race and was in that group and messaged me telling me to drop back.

I dropped back into the group and on the second approach to the climb some more riders got away. The climb was a struggle again but got over it in about 25th with a couple of other guys. Stuck with them until the end and found enough for a mil sprint to beat them on the line to come 23rd out of 80 on Zwift.

I came in 9th on Zwiftpower and got best power records for everything apart from 15s power and a NP of 289W. It was hard but really enjoyed and happy with how it went. The structured training is making a massive difference in being able to hold the power down for a decent period and still have something in the tank at the end. The commutes and sunday hills are letting me find my limits on the various hills of Watopia and others.

Well done to Mr Hoppy who came in a few seconds back.

First experience in C – will try again but a lot tougher than D. The first couple of guys (not included in ZP) were sandbagging as the winner was over 30 seconds clear of the next guy.

@kelvinshuffle you’ve done well to find a direto in stock. Someone (I think Brian but it could be Phil?) on the TTT team rides a drivo 1 I think. Kickr core is in stock at bike24 but would blow your budget (hang on, and direct from zwift in stock
and cheaper but still 699).

I paid less for a graded (but perfect except the packaging) direto x from Germany than your direto 1 price. Worth keeping an eye on. The Saris H3 price from Germany is also pretty tempting, especially if you are (as I think you are) a user of erg mode.

Nice one Robbo 🙂 Good report too.

Ordered the Drivo 1, know paid a bit over the odds but two punctures in two days and bunch of cut outs when riding near when in racing winning position tipped me into to the “need to sort now” rather than wait a while for a good deal.

Partially humble brag but have recently won a couple of A cat races on the Alpe and feel mega cheeky that it’s likely partially down to an over generous turbo so needed to sort at some point sooner rather than later.

I’ve been calibrating the Flow regularly so hope I’m only 10-15 watts lower rather than 20-30 which seems possible! Fingers crossed

My wheel on trainer was reading about 10% higher than my Elite Direto. It does mean it takes a while to beat some past records as you have to gain quite a bit to achieve this.

Looks like the new belt I fitted to my Direto last Nov is reading ~7% higher power than my 4iiii crank meter, will be intresting to see how they compare after swapping out the chain and mech, which have Muc Off Ceramic Wet black gunk on them.

I rarely use the Direto’s power these days, even though it gives smoother adjustments during ERG workouts.

Yeah def what I’m expecting, my only small glimmer of hope is apparently the Flow was more accurate at low wheel speeds and most of my decent efforts were grinding up hill, but fully expect to be brought down to earth with a mega bump!

I had the same when I changed over to the Direto, but I was coming from a wheel on dumb trainer which had definitely been flattering my results. I love the Direto, so much better for getting the power down, I wouldn’t ever go back to a wheel on trainer.

@Robbo – Great result in the race (and MrHoppy!!). I need to get back into racing and my have to join you at some point, not sure if I would have finished that far up the field though. I need some structured workout plans too, to help build my stamina in races, I need to look into that.

I’ve been off the plans, but want to get back onto the structure, Anyone doing the “Zwift
Racing” training programme? looks like good plan with enough gaps to allow some proper races/outdoor riding as well

https://whatsonzwift.com/workouts/zwift-racing/

That might be just what I am looking for Kelvin, I might have a go at that and see how I get on.

I randomly attempted some of the workouts from the newish “Zwift Racing” plan last month…

Biggest tip is don’t do for example https://whatsonzwift.com/workouts/zwift-racing/week-5-4-new-york-grand-central-circuit/ on the Grand Central course, because the workout nothing like syncs with your position on the route and you end up doing your hardest intervals while descending! 😆

I’ve found https://whatsonzwift.com/workouts/zwift-racing/week-6-2-leg-openers/ quite descent for an ERG recovery ride.

I’ve enrolled for https://whatsonzwift.com/workouts/tt-tuneup/ again, even though I wonder if I should try something different despite my strength is allegedly being a poor TTer according to https://power-meter.cc/home , it gave me some good gains in Jan/Feb before losing the lot during a long drawn out mild COVID-19 episode.

Robbo put in a good effort, I couldn’t quite hang in with his group on the climb 1st time round but I collected up a decent bunch chasing back and could see I was hauling him in on the flat into lap 2. Glad you got the message, it was as much as I could get out as I was starting to blow again. 2nd time up the hill was better for me but still spat out the back again, and I didn’t quite have the legs to go full gas on the chase again.

I do seem to be getting a bum run of power ups in races though. My last crit city I got nothing but XPs, this one I got burritos.

@n0b0dy0ftheg0at So if doing the Zwift racing plan, should I just choose my own course to ride on, rather than they suggest for some of the days? I see they also use Watopia flat and the hilly route. Do none of them sync correctly?

When picking workouts is it best to use flat or hilly routes or does it not matter at all?

it is all in ERG mode isn’t it so it wont matter which course you choose, it will just simulate the effort of that course ignoring the on screen gradient etc. Cane be interesting as when I do my TR workouts sometimes I am doing 100W up a hill and 300W back down.

New Deeside league starts tonight.

2 laps sand & sequoias . Mass start all cats with prime at Kom and TT sprint counting towards your event points.

Zwift power driven league this time.

19:25.

Not my event….but the local club’s.

As Nixie will tell you you don’t need to win to do well on the league just be consistent.

Ride whatever course you fancy with ERG workouts, slope simulation is ignored even if it says “150W for 2mins” on the ~17% slope section of the Radio Tower climb.

Your speed will be affected by the gradients for better or worse, but that doesn’t matter, you are doing essentially interval training according to power.

I’ve been failing and bailing on too many rides lately, so did one of the Tour stages, 4 laps of the hilly course, just didn’t go off like a lunatic as usual, kept it sensible. Finished 265 our of 560, which was OK and exactly what i needed.

Good work weeksy – I didn’t realise that they were running during the week?

I was struggling at the end of last week. I bailed on a 1 hour workout about 35 mins in. The next day I decided to just do a 30 min workout and completed it which gave me some confidence back. Strange how the mind works as I did less work than the one I was disappointed in for not completing!

@kelvishuffle Even with a 20w loss of a new trainer I’d never of caught you on Monday up the Alpe. Dam you weightweenies *shakes fist across the internet* 😂

I’ve been back on the turbo more, with the crap weather these last couple of weeks. Just about mid pack B now. Last night the I was feeling fine, hanging front 1/4 up the Epic KOM and the turbo got too hot and shut down for 5 minutes. Ended up right at the back, slogging to make up spaces. Think the Flow needs to go, I’d love a direct drive trainer, but it’s hard to justify during summer. Maybe it’ll be an early Xmas gift to myself in October 😛

@Robbo They are running “discovery” rides during the week, essentially the 2 tour courses that the pros do on the previous weekend. This week its the KOM and the 4 lap Hilly, next week it will be the 2 new France courses. It gives you chance to ride everything, not just the one race on the weekend.

I’m signed up again for the 8am Tour on Saturday, looks a fairly flat one with a couple of smallish hills. Was also thinking of doing the 4 lap Hilly this week, but 4 laps……

Looks like there are a few of us on the 8am Saturday one, not that you’ll be able to tell for the sea of identikit people. It’ll be mental fast though with that draft on a course that flat.

I am doing 8 am Saturday as well as long as the iPad can cope with the number of users. Looking forward to riding somewhere new.

I’m not sure whether to treat this one as a race or to just take in the new scenery and enjoy the route….
I’ll keep an eye out for you both but I’m sure I won’t see you in about 5000 riders…

Saw quite a few of you guys there tonight.

Cheers for popping in in sure Simon appreciates it.

Much easier to keep zwift on side as an event organiser if you have good turn outs.

Some sprint on the line Gary. Im sure I saw 13w/kg from you

Jumped into the Deeside event. Will try and do the series.
Blew it after Titans as let a gap open up 3 seconds and we couldn’t close it. Went a bit hard over the top but nobody else going for points.
Sprint for 3rd and put my biggest numbers ever but got rolled by 2 others on the line. Went 50m too early.
Shame 2 got away and got pulled away by some Bs.
https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=936411

Thems the breaks in mass starts.

Next week is 12 laps crit city no double draft.

Yes not complaining abuot the Bs annoyed with myself for letting the gap open up.
Ooh 12 hill sprints :0)

Should suit me.

Team Time Trial news for tomorrow, 6.30pm. 2 laps of Sand And Sequoias (nice and familiar for anyone who just rode the Deeside race).

We have a start time: 18:33 PLUS 5 minutes, so 18:38:00

But we have…ONLY TWO riders signed up, @phil56 and @dangeourbrain. I can’t ride tomorrow. We need at least one more, preferably more.

Sign up to category D here: https://www.zwift.com/events/view/938647

I’ll keep an eye on the start list and post an update again tomorrow.

Can’t do tomorrow unfortunately.

Thks for posting that event up trail_rat, enjoyed it – good to race with you.

Second time up Titans was always going to ask me some questions and so it proved – couldn’t make the selection, wd Phil for crushing it up there and contesting things at the line.

Guess I’m not experienced with the prime strategy as looking at the results it seems like I misjudged things. Was certain there were some Bs in the lead gp on the road so there was no point laying down a sprint when we came to it second lap – don’t recall seeing anyone going really serious at it in our group. But on zp we were in fact the lead B group at that time, so it would have been a good idea to contest things.

Wd Tomlevell – third is a strong result regardless if two guys slipped away.

ZP Live worked well for keeping tabs.
1 C slipped into the lead group off the line but got spat pretty quick so it was generally a steady race. Even steadier once I missed the next split and then sat up for the next group to catch.
Tried to split the group up out of the desert then on Titans second lap. Succeeded but only took 1 C with me so we got pulled back pretty quick after the descent.

Lost some decent points getting beaten in the sprint.

I raced a points race on Crit City last week. In C just rolling to the front on each climb nets decent points. No point in going silly hard on the first few laps trying to win the sprint though.

Wow, massive massive field for todays Chop race at 10:10am. Not sure why though, but loads and loads in it… So i think i may give it a try and see if i can hold on for a bit.

aye youd have thought it was a track sprint once we got off the titans grove section.

no one wanted to go , Stuart (an in real life team mate almost perfectly matched power wise and the same weight) went for a break and he was having a go at me for bringing you guys back….. this aint no team event 😀

Then in the sprint i knew you were big power , i knew he was big power so i had to go early as i dont have that big power

Didnt go early enough 😀

Blimey, almost 300 Bs now for that 1010 Lamb Chop, time to set turbo up I think!

If it stays with only you and I Phil do you fancy picking up one of the ITT instead? There’s a BC one in London and another on ticktock or a race proper on two laps of Harrogate all at 18.30 too.

(or we could just do a two man effort on the TTT mind, I don’t think the results will count but I don’t suppose that matters really)