Zwift, my journey, my weight and my fitness.

Finally someone showed me today how to get to the challenge section. So I’ve started the quest for the Tron bike.

Sadly, according to Zwift, I’ve got 144,000m of climbing done on Zwift, but none of that counts ha ha

Think i may jump on the 12:20 today for 1 lap of greater london flat.

https://zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=1348772

Not sure my stretched hamstring will agree, but only one way to find out.

It’s lucky Crosshair doesn’t come here any more to tell me “i told you so” as he’d be abusing the beejayzus out of me today.

https://zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=1348772

I’ve been struggling with riding and racing for months now, and i do mean months. Getting the power, getting the HR to respond and to hold and getting anything even half useful as a result. I’ve had a couple of short <20min races where i’ve managed a half reasonable result but possibly as much luck as it was form.

For the last 10 days though i’ve been injured after a crash which meant 5 full days off the bike and a couple of easy days until today. Yesterday i was still not 100% in terms of ‘ouch’ from the bruise but it didn’t seem to be affecting the riding and my 1min power was pretty decent.

So i jumped on a Greater London Flat race today and gave it a whirl. It went really well straight from the off and i settled in nicely. On the first small kicker i pushed the power up to split the group a bit which worked OK and we dumped 5-6 guys out… we almost split the group in 1/2 but a couple of strong guys dragged the 2nd half back in, which was a shame.

Onto the underpass i was still sitting in the lead group which is nice as the 2% incline before it often sees me struggle. Out of the underpass it’s 5% kick up and i got it really nicely…. That then settles to flat and then a draggy 3% for a bit, both of these is where i’ve seen many many races end for me. But the power was there even though i hit a new max HR in my history of 185bpm. I was clearly right on the limit, but settled back in after than and was in the lead group until 400m to go. Sadly the sprint left me with nothing in the HR or the legs, so i just rolled in for a decent finish. But DAMN it was nice to be back.

Was it all because i’ve rested and recovered for 5-8 days…. probably, very very probably.

Crosshair may not be as daft as we think 😉

Well done Weeksy, some good positives there! I always need a rest day or two and often see better results straight after it.

Nice one @weeksy. I remember the conversation about recovery. Whether by accident or design it definitely works.

I might drop over and see him tomorrow as me and my lad are over his way, just for a laugh 🙂

He’s mostly doing some weird kayak sea thing these days.

Moan alert..

Zwift races are becoming a little rubbish nowadays. Since the first stw series I’ve not done much cycling at all and fitness had fallen off a cliff. In the last few weeks I’ve entered a few c races to get myself back into it, and I’ve taken an absolute battering.

Today’s example, I did 50 min at a very modest average of 225 watts. The winner at cat c put out 4.6w/kg! I’m fairly light so can usually hold.my own on the climbs but on the first up hill bit I went out the back putting out over 4w/kg.

On the road I came 9th out of 60 odd. Check zwift power and to add insult to injury I got disqualified from results despite only putting out 3.4 w/kg for 50 min.

If I entered a cat b race I would get absolutely brutalized. I struggle with cat c, yet get disqualified.

Nonsense..

Well I decided as part of my effort to recover some of my form that I’d jump on the tdz today.
I forgot how much longer than it is London flat always seems.

Set off at a steady pace rather than a full race start, given the numbers I figured I’d fall in with a similar bunch soon enough.

By about 4 minutes I got with a decent group. The lead in took me by surprise as ever, 8 minutes before I started lap 1 which is always a bit depressing! Pushed on for the first 20 minutes, wanted to try for a decent 20 minute power at least – hoped to get somewhere near where I should be for the full distance once I’m back to where I should be.
Annoyingly I clicked past the breakdown in zwift so will have to check ZP in due course. Also it seems Endomondo no longer functions on android so I need to find something else to show my live avg power – any suggestions?

Managed to keep with my group the whole way round, everyone seemed to flag a little in lap 2 but then some fresh legs found the front in lap 3 and started to stretch the group a bit and push on the inclines, took a few kicks to get back on but stuck with them to the end.

3rd time out of the tunnel was enough to make me whimper – the screen pretty much turned green as seemingly everyone else in the group had a feather, I got back on at the top but didn’t have the heart left for a proper sprint at the end, I think I probably had the legs for it just not the will, though lap three was a new sprint pb for me on that course any how.

First proper effort in months that hasn’t seen me choking part way round which is a bit of a win, similar power over the course to last night too, so feel like there is progress being made.

I did the TdZ B route which was two laps of the Volcano flat. Went of hard abd found myself about 150 out of 1500. Was a good solid effort and my racing has definatley improved. I did get dropped from that group though and ended up floating around the 200’s. I had a strong finish and managed to get a sprint together beating 3 people on the line. I came 209 out 1500 on the road and 142 out 780 on Zwift so that was a pretty decent results really. A good 35 min work out and doubt I will do 25K that quick again!

Is ZP not working properly either? Last 4 race I havent got the full power breakdown with 20m, 5m power etc and no normalized power.

Delay of between 48 hours and 10 days. They appear, eventually

I’ve nothing showing for last night or today power wise. I wonder if it’s to do with the volume of folks on the tdz? It often takes a few days for things to catch up when there are a lot of results to process.

Nearly didn’t bother doing anything on a bike after last night, had a very lazy leave day and swapped PJs for bib shorts and serious slippers after 1800 for a recovery ride on TDZ Volcano Flat using the join late feature. 😆

Hoping to do something more structured tomorrow!

I’ve got my TdZ London ride in the morning at 7am, not sure if I’ll have full power at that time but I’ll give it a good shot, I do not think I’ll be worrying your numbers though @dangeourbrain

Danger, no. It’s been semi broken fir 3-4 weeks now

Probably to do with Zwift now running it…

New incoming Zwift beast. I wanted some bigger gearing and there was no way to get it without swapping bikes

Is that a triple on the front?

Probably to do with Zwift now running it…

Don’t be silly. The first real impact of that will be ui improvements, like needing to log out and back in to view results from another event.

@weeksy very nice but isn’t red a faster colour?

Is that a triple on the front?

Yeah i ideally wanted only a double, but no biggy.

Well I jumped on the TdZ long ride this morning. No real warm up and straight into it, crazy fast from the off and I found myself at the pointy end. That didn’t last long and I was quickly dispatched halfway through the first lap as the pace wasn’t sustainable for me.
It began to fracture quite a bit with riders in small groups all over the place. I managed to get into a decent one which was going along at a rapid pace and we kept picking off riders. For the second and third lap it was a case of holding the group and applying speed when they did to avoid being dropped.
All went well until leaving the underpass for the final time and the afterburners were lit, I held as long as I could but got dumped hitting the mall with a couple of others. I went for it in the final sprint and beat them over the line.

Not a bad effort for 7am but I’m sure it would have been easier with a decent warm up or later in the day when the legs had been moving.

Managed under the hour which was the target, a 58:58

Yeah bit early for me that, but sounds like you had fun 🙂

All went well until leaving the underpass for the final time and the afterburners were lit, I held as long as I could but got dumped hitting the mall with a couple of others. I went for it in the final sprint and beat them over the line.

Yeah, it was certainly a race that wasn’t a race wasn’t it?

They always are Brian, unless you just decide to pootle on your own and don’t try to get involved in the main action.

Feels like TDZ has gone backwards, last January there were specific race stage events, now when so many are in lockdown we’re back to social rides where some decide to race.

@weeksy great ride in the crit on Tuesday. And it was good to see you riding (and in the chat) in the STW race that evening. Hope the next few weeks go OK for you.

First time I can remember actually racing against another STW team member!
https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=1464987
Good effort by Paulo Paino whoever you are 😊

How did Yorkshire go this morning?

I decided I had absolutely nothing better to do with the rest of my day so I may as well do my ride a bit later than first thing.

Shorter ride was over in a flash. Me and @Oopnorth agreed we’d take it easy but ended up in sub 50th place so of course we pressed on a bit! I had a ANT drop out for 11s and lost the group just after Kirky joined us and I guess he pulled them along for a bit as I sat up and waited for the group behind to catch me. They weren’t much use and I ended up dragging them around the second lap. Managed to see @Oopnorth by the last hill, dropped the group but couldn’t reel him in. All over by 9am. I like that course. Might ride it again once my new USB extension lead arrives!

Yeah it was a good one…had a go at ot in places but more chilled in others, I didn’t really want to go full race mode this morning.
Set off and met up with @slowpuncheur quite early, the kirky joined us a bit further up the road.
I decided to push on the main hill to test the legs then off the gas again after.
All went well and it was a good start to the day. Even decided to have a mini race right at the end up the final drag with a couple of riders around me.

Yeah, it is a pretty reasonable course, not sure if fancy 9 laps or what ever it was they did at the end of the uci but one or two (even three at a push) makes for a nice run.

Bit of a disaster for me. Decided to do it as a recovery ride with my Garmin controlling erg mode and just set the watts very low and gradually ramped it up. The workout finished after 50mins and still had 7k to go. Switched back to Zwift controlling the trainer and spent 5 minutes trying to get out the pairing screen. Eventually got out and rode the rest at 200w ish finishing in 1hour 10mins. Still got a good recovery pace and ticked it off. Not one to do at low power though takes ages.

Yorkshire seemed a pretty good course today, climbs not too severe, I think it was a different course from our series one race, seemed to lack the leg snapper and the start was longer but less steep.

despite being on the first row in the Pen I got caught out messaging Robbo as the clock ticked to zero, I saw Paul’s name flash by so pressed on up the first long climb to try and catch up, took some bloody catching with big efforts on the next hill to finally catch his and Craig’s small group, then there was just Craig. I think we were hovering around 60th.

I pressed on a bit gradually gaining some ground but at the end of the first lap I caught 30th place and there was 30 second gap to a small group in front so thought there would be no chance of making much ground and with a larger group just 15/20 seconds back thought there would be more chance of being caught then two of us catching the guys in front. Anyway it transpired the guy I was with was in the same boat as me and had probably crept through the pack only to find himself in no mans land. He was happy to share the efforts and we pulled each other along and managed to reign in 5 others. we had a little sprint finish but he had a feather so dropped me on the sharp rise and I couldn’t quite catch up.

ZP shows as 13th lots of PBS, practically every climb and the sprint, 274w average wasn’t quite the steady ride I planned.

Looking forward to a much slower and relaxed pootle around New York tomorrow then a rest from the bike before Tuesday.

Yeah nice rest ride tomorrow with the group would be good.
I kept having a word with myself to chill as the urge to chase kept waving over me. At one point I was in 35th position and the group was starting to push so I backed off and dropped out.

To say I wasn’t pushing fully I still got a 257w average…more than I planned.

Well I decided to do Richmond mainly because I hate it, so figured it was the one I was most likely to be able to plod round.
Dropped into a group of about 100 riders at a steady 260w ish, it split up into a few smaller bunches over the course of the first lap so required a couple of pushes to get into the forward one.
Cleared the first set of cobbles in about 260th, made another 20 places by the line got to about 220th by the foot of the cobbles second time round then started to fall back from there. By the time I crossed the line I was 303rd I think. Was hard work talking my self out of making more of an effort, mainly that’s a surprise as I’m not sure I could have done much more.

On the up side, going a bit easier than usual gave me chance to think about why I dislike the course. I think it seems to have a lot more climbing than it’s 140m a lap suggests, it feels like a lot more than greatest London flat for instance though is actually 10m less. I think mainly though its that the 23rd Street and final climb appear from no where, (I think this is one of those oddities of zwift where sometimes you look like your going up hill despite it being -% and sometimes you look like you’re going down but it’s actually +5%), you get round the corner and wallop momentum vanishes and your spinny gear is now very difficult to turn. that and they seem to go on and on and on.

Still as a recovery that wasn’t too bad and now I really need a recovery.

Not looking forward to chasing DrP off the great glass elevator tomorrow.

I am going to join in with the New York ride in the morning. I’m working from home so unless I get called in I’ve no excuse not to get on the bike. I hope I can manage to keep up with the promised leisurely pace 🤔😂

had a month off, uni deadlines, Christmas and all that jazz, been struggling for motivation since New Years but seemed to be ready the last couple of days, so left it a couple more to make sure I was eager, was going to do a ramp test, but noticed a Crit, always a good test of the legs, 16:30 bell lap after a decent warm up, savage as expected, loads of people must have got a satori smart for Christmas 😂 managed to stay with th front group until about the last 500m and just couldn’t stay, a feather up the “hill” would have helped but didn’t get one, HR up, power down as to be expected, 187bpm av and 294w, so not horrendous, 11th in B on ZP, 6 above me over limits, had no sprint and was 2 seconds behind 10th and just kept ahead of 12th

https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=1477273

That’s good going after a month off!

2021-01-11_02-25-15 by Steve Weeks[/url], on Flickr