Zwift, my journey, my weight and my fitness.

Full prl in 5.5 hours and fasted blimey that’s some going. I start to feel somewhat ill after an hour and half fasted.

I think that’s fairly short compared to some of Andy’s IRL rides😮 Still, doing it fasted is something else. Chapeau

Back on today. Almost did a race but realized with 20s before the start my HRM wasn’t paired, tried to pair in time but failed. Was only 1 lap of Innsbruck but my boy Figg was racing too so would’ve been cool

Arguably it’s a good thing though as I’m not convinced I should be at flat out effort just yet.

https://zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=1915406

Enjoyed this mornings race, a nice win in C. But not ridden that course for AGES and was great to race something different that suits my riding profile. Dictated the pace a few times and tried to split the big group i was in, but they kept coming back. It was interesting though to try and push on up Horseguards hill each time to try and hold/gain position, it’s a layout i’ve often blown races on just on that particular little incline, but yesterday, i was OK, i was right in there. I then came around the roundabout in 3rd place with a Van draft, but even though my 30s power was decent enough i simply don’t have enough of a sprint.

good work weeksy – you’re obviously back fit again

… and still secretly a B 😂✋👊

LOL i wish mate… on both sides.. I’m still 10-20w down on my best days, but that’s sometimes skewed by the racing, yesterday i was on power, off power, cruise, then power…. it wasn’t a consistent power effort you get in some races, my HR was lower than usual so clearly that race suited me, i guess it was helped with a few lighter riders in there. I was happy though when i tried to split it up and was able to hold the power for a decent effort.

As for B…. man i wish, i’d love to race consistently in B, but i’m VERY much a 1 trick pony when it comes to racing….

nice ride @weeksy, great to see you not just winning but trying to dictate the racing as well.

I had an idea of a group cat and mouse race up the Alpe, for some time in the future, which would act as pacing ride for people to achieve their own target times.

So could set of in 3 or 4 bands of times which would result in hopefully the majority of riders to come together at the summit.

Ie 1hr target riders depart at the first meet up time let’s say 9am
55 min target riders at 9.05
50mins target riders at 9.10.

Could be split to more time options if there was a larger number of riders but the above could work as 3 meet up rides or just roll out at 5 min intervals with the same steady paced neutralised leadin to the alpe start.

Just an idea for those that might like to improve their Alpe time by way of some added help from riding in a group with a touch of competition.

Is there a new Zwift racing thread?

I don’t often scan the Zwift forums, but earlier I saw this thread about testing of a new race auto-categorisation system by organised by WTRL.

https://forums.zwift.com/t/autocategorization-test-events-faq

Don’t know if there are spaces left, but there’s an event tonight at 1930. 3 laps of Watopia Hilly Reverse.

You need to be signed up on Zwiftpower and WTRL, it looks at your recent race data and assigns you to a group.

I’m a very low end ZP catB on a rare good day these days, system put me in cat4 of 6, if I was to enter.

Would have taken a look at that other than having beasted myself in one of the crit city races earlier this afternoon and small matter of a football match kicking off shortly.

Yeah I saw the test events. Great move IMO.
I did a bit of climbing today as I’ve got Snowdon coming up so need to do some climbs for a while.

Anyone joining the quadruple header Zwift Insider tiny races that start at 0900?

All done by 1000.

Two custom distance today on Serpentine 8 and London loop, 5.5/6Km respectively.

Another series of four at 1500 this afternoon.

Would have gone with that if it was tomorrow. Might manage the afternoon ones but I’ve packing of a bike to do today

I’m planning to do the 3pm ones. In B (thanks auto cat).

I did the 4 last weekend on 3pm. But this weekend I was busy.

Great races last weekend but I was toast in race 4 I must admit

I got third in race 2 today but was toast in race 3. Family still away next week so will try again.

B pack speed is s.l.o.w even in these events (not that that helped get good placings).

I barely managed races 2 and 4 at pre-illness recovery pace this morning, thought I was going to do races 1 and 3 in the afternoon, but I went out and did more than the hour I expected.

Hopefully these continue into winter, decent sized fields for what can be good little z5 blasts. Just need my legs to come back over the next couple of weeks or so, or for my CE pen allocation to drop from B, although I don’t think post-illness resets are an option yet.

They definitely make interval training more fun 🤪.

Found the kiss 100 B a 2:15 if anyone fancies it (hangover put paid to outdoors for me as I didn’t want to drive).

17.05 sorry nixie

It was brutal. I’m now googling ways to stop the rapidly onsetting cramp.

If it helps @nixie I rode to the pub for Sunday lunch and back, no cramp. So I’m going to guess one or all of deep fried cheese, belly pork and lemon tart fended off the cramp, maybe try those?

🤪 I’d love too. Went for heavily salted chips, recovery drink, oj and a banana. Pub lunch would have been preferred.

With my Stages SB20 immanent is Zwift still the way to go? As it’s nearly summer it will be a lunchtime pootle until the winter as i’ll spend most of the time outside until winter comes again.

Since we’ve all cancelled Zwift now, can you still ride the Alpe Du Zwift on the free 25K miles? Will it save the ride properly? If it does, I guess doing the Alpe twice a month could be good for free

That should still work. In fact, if you don’t save the ride and keep it open then you can ride “indefinitely”.

Loving the thread resurrection. I need to get it all set up again. Can’t go out riding much now but indoors? Doable.👍

No longer just weather dependent for me as I’ll sometimes do a Zwift session if I’m pushed for time

Mine is permanently set up, though I’m currently using Tacx rather than Zwift. I’d already stopped using the latter before the recent price hike. I find it handy for workouts as it’s easier to monitor and conform to power requirements indoors without traffic, hills etc. I’m also enjoying just using it in “ride” mode. It’s like touring various part of the real world rather than the cartoon world of Zwift.

scotroutes
Full Member
Mine is permanently set up,

Mine should be but the room has somehow morphed into an “assorted hobby storage area.”😑

Still doing two two-hour Zone 2 sessions a week with Coco, now have the  Dauphine to watch at the same time. And yes permanently set up (Ti bike to avoid the corrosion, maybe). The group rides at XXX W/kg have been my revelation. I alternate between Kickr and Rollers. The great garage roller injury of 2023 has healed (fell onto a spare chainset lying at 45 degrees. Chicks dig Zwift scars).

Having not needed the hybrid for commuting since covid in late September ’22, it has rarely been disconnected from the Saris H3. One less thing to faff with before a turbo ride, but I still manage to miss some events, the biggest cause being under-estimating how long the Surface Pro 4 takes to load up Zwift and get to the world/pen!

Just like outdoors, I’ve been very focussed on zones 1 and 2 since March, with my backside starting to tolerate 1.5-2 hour turbo rides for first time in over two years. I quite like beaming between a number of robopacer groups. Another option I look for is “rubberband” group rides, looking at the schedule at https://zwifthacks.com/app/events/?key=621b895261613 (clicking cycling; ride; plus rubberband from “rules” tab).

jonjones262: re. trial- you can do it but you don’t get route badges.  Once the 25km ends you get a warning/nag to subscribe but finish your session.

Stopped my sub in May.  Riding outdoors more and dabbling with IndieVelo now.  I do miss the Zwift social scene and race series though.

Yeah I’m doing most of my riding outdoors now but still enjoying 1 or 2 races on Zwift per week so will probably continue membership. Have about 3 weeks of “cheap” membership left to decide 😂 Ironically (with the price rise & weather improving!) the race scene is better than it’s ever been – it’s just a shame most of it has to be organised/run by 3rd party groups which makes it clunky, and a bit of legwork required to find some of the race series! Zwift are teasing “something new” on the 12th (in addition to the small new route expansion) although somehow I doubt it will be a properly integrated racing system!!

I do want to give IndieVelo a try although the ATV app is paid member only at the moment so would have to set up a computer in the pain cave first! Sounds good though, and sounds like they have the racing aspect sorted.

Still Zwift for me and still racing badly in C. My power is down on my best, my HR isn’t quite ‘there’ but i really enjoy the races so i’ll keep paying. I’m often sitting there and then just think “maybe i’ll see what races there are” and next thing i’ve jumped on and done one. It’s just some calories with a bit of interest too. Sure i could go outside, but i don’t always want to, sometimes i want a bit of indoor fun racing..

Sadly due to Zwift dynamics in races it’s getting impossible to break away almost. A group of 4 split off in our race yesterday, but that was the 4th break and i believe 3 of them made it stick, but they needed 4.5+ w/kg for 3 mins to get a 10s gap over the bunch. I was tempted to go with them, but there’s been a fair bit of riding lately and i knew i didn’t have that level of power to stay out.

Also still zwift for me, I’m getting enough usage to make it worth the cost and I still enjoy the races. My gut feeling is that packs have got a bit lazier recently (in B) and very few do anything other than wait for the sprint. I got called as a ‘cheetah’ the other week (by someone who’s ZP history is literally full of gold and silver) because I tried to ride off the front (stayed away till 100m from the finish! grr). Getting away is hard though, I managed it in a mixed race but only because one of the A’s bridged when I was 5s off the front then did the majority of the pulling while I recovered.

Sadly due to Zwift dynamics in races it’s getting impossible to break away almost.

hard but far from impossible! (probably the same as IRL racing!) Me and another fella managed it yesterday. You just have to go very hard on a climb (doesn’t have to be a massive one!) unexpectedly and/or deploy a power-up – if the rest don’t follow immediately the gap can grow very quickly (keeping the gap is the really hard part especially if there’s just two of you!!) You can’t just do it on the flat though, the draft is just too strong for that to work I agree (except if you use a Burrito!)

very few do anything other than wait for the sprint

not that I race in B but I much prefer points races over FAL for this reason! Also adds a lot of extra strategy.

Needed one of those Power Ups on Tuesday Cat 3 race! it’s very hard to get away in real life too 😀 . Guy who did, managed 450W for three laps, so the numbers on Zwift are not unreasonable. I may need some more weight doping though.

 I much prefer points races over FAL for this reason!

They can be better yes but also often involve a Z2 cruise between segments. Though when on courses like Rolling Highlands it doesn’t seem to happen 😜.

oooooh…

Zwift Ride Indoor Smart Bike Announced

I quite like that (when a frame only option arrives). Would sort the current pain of moving bikes around for the 3 of us using zwift).