Zwift, my journey, my weight and my fitness.

Your sprinting power will be much higher with a real PM than with virtual power. Virtual power is just based on steady state wheel speed and doesn't take into account the power you're putting down to accelerate.

Before the power spikes problem started with it I could get in the same ballpark with the Snap but as you say, it took a few seconds to respond. I used to start sprinting with 15seconds to go and then die 100m after the start line 😀

This 8pm TT should be interesting for me then... Watopia flat.. So suiting me about as well as it can.

Being only a 10 miler i should be done in <30 mins i guess. So i'm going to attempt to sit at 2.8/2.9w/kg for the race distance and just bury myself.

Weeksy- good luck on your goal. I'm still not down to 14stone lol.
I do think you will struggle to maintain your power alongside such extreme weight loss though- I think just being fat(ter) puts down free watts. (And I say that based on my own descent from 15st7 this year)

I know you are excited to have access to power and w/kg and all the other data but you should chill a little and work on all aspects of your fitness. Your turbo makes it hard to vary pace I know but if you ride at a steady output all the time, then you won't develop the short duration power for blipping up small climbs etc.

Train your weaknesses- race your (turbo's) strengths 😉

@crosshair according to Zwift/Tacx Vortex (I don't have a fancy power meter) my 5s is 1217w and I'm apparently an A (still not convinced this is correct).

Tonight, if all goes well, I'm planning on sitting at 90% which will hopefully leave me enough juice for a sprint finish. 😆

I know you are excited to have access to power and w/kg and all the other data but you should chill a little and work on all aspects of your fitness. Your turbo makes it hard to vary pace I know but if you ride at a steady output all the time, then you won't develop the short duration power for blipping up small climbs etc.

Train your weaknesses- race your (turbo's) strengths

The thing is, i do that. Just not indoors in Zwift land. I do that outside. Outside is where my true variable resistance and power surge rides come into effect, where i get the up/down spikes in HR and effort.

You're correct though in the context of Zwift land that i very rarely do th altering of power and it's something i should work on.

As to maintaining power, this riding never really set out in that context anyway, it started off as a journey for dropping the weight, not actually for making some sort of cat rider... Although the side benefits of it are that of course as i get lighter and train more, i am of course getting fitter and faster within there. But if i drop 10% of power, that's fine, i can live with that. As long as by June i can be at or around 14st 0, then i'm all good with it.

NathB KISS TT is that? It's on the TT bike (you have to select it pre race) so no drafting of course. My biggest tip would be to NOT pace it like a real TT. Watopia flat has those few little kickers that really pay back a hard effort so save a little all the way and then attack the ramps like your life depends on it.
My FTHR is 177bpm but I generally ride Zwift TT's at 165ish on the flats in order to hit 190bpm up the few small climbs then recover on the next flat.
(But then I'm 90kg so a steadier effort may suit you better?)

The joy of being young eh CH !

It depends Weeksy what percentage of your mileage is outside. If 6 out of 7 weekly hours are spent at one rpm and one power output, it will affect your outdoor riding too.

I think you should ask Father Xmas for a Smart trainer 😉 😀

Um- no! I get trounced by more 40 somethings than 30 something's when I go racing 😀

[quote=MSP ]Does anyone have some sort of cheap out front mount for an iphone that doesn't need a case that is meant to be permanent.

i glued a garmin fitting onto the back of an iphone case.

I think you should ask Father Xmas for a Smart trainer

I think the 1098S trumps the smart trainer mate. I don't ask the wife for anything more than £50, so that's not going to be getting me a smart trainer by any stretch of the imagination.

I could of course buy the cheap Tacx from Halfords, but TBH at the moment with needing some bits for the Ducati, i really ought not to.

At the moment i'm going 5 out of 7.5 indoors, the other 2.5 is outdoors.

I know it comes over as completely single power/consistency, but of course it's not exactly, yesterdays race i had times at 300w when feeling good, 200w when feeling bad and struggling... so it's up and down, but not in the same extent as an outdoors blast of course.

crosshair
NathB KISS TT is that? It's on the TT bike (you have to select it pre race) so no drafting of course. My biggest tip would be to NOT pace it like a real TT. Watopia flat has those few little kickers that really pay back a hard effort so save a little all the way and then attack the ramps like your life depends on it.
My FTHR is 177bpm but I generally ride Zwift TT's at 165ish on the flats in order to hit 190bpm up the few small climbs then recover on the next flat.
(But then I'm 90kg so a steadier effort may suit you better?)

Yeah the KISS TT, ah good shout about the TT bike!

Thanks, to get the FTHR is it FTP HR x.95? So mine would be 184x.95? [url= ](From the FTP test)[/url] I'm 70kg at the moment, used to be 95kg then went too extreme at 65kg and then food happened ha. 😆 *

[i]*Apologies if it comes across as a humble brag, it's just the first time I've had these kind of numbers to look at.[/i]

No I think 20minute FTP test HR = FTHR

... middle weight bloke ... frequently had 50 plus miles ride at or just above 20mph average ....
I'm usually low cat c 2.6/7 w/kg which I think is about correct.

There's some element of that that totally doesn't compute.
An average size bloke will need to put out near enough 200W to maintain 20mph on the flat, so some part of middle weight or a 2.6W FTP is quite badly out.

Thanks, to get the FTHR is it FTP HR x.95? So mine would be 184x.95?

Meh, who needs to spend £200 on a Wahoo station when you can knock one up out of a few cut-offs and half a dozen screws

[URL= http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg167/weeksy59/IMG_20161130_124257_zpscrr7m489.jp g" target="_blank">http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg167/weeksy59/IMG_20161130_124257_zpscrr7m489.jp g"/> [/IMG][/URL]

No I think 20minute FTP test HR = FTHR

I'd say if you take the average of the 10 to 15 minute section you'll be about right.

Meh, who needs to spend £200 on a Wahoo station when you can knock one up out of a few cut-offs and half a dozen screws

🙂 Had something very similar in mind! (That is pretty high up, though probably fairly typical given how people usually sit on the bike while on the turbo. Something to keep in mind when considering specificity of training.)

You'll need to be clearer in your challenge caller but I think you may be calling me fat and in comparison to most cycling types you could be correct 89kg/183cm.

My average power for the 5 hours of PRL was 200, I think we even had a discussion on here about the requirement before that event and concluded it needed to be 210 to go sub 5 hours.

The 2.7 w/kg calculation for zwift will be something like 260w x 0.95 / 89kg which seems to be correct and not at odds with 210 needed for the few hours of a 50 miler?

I'll test it later tonight, but i'm thinking it's not a million miles away. I won't use it for water/drinks/towels etc, that will just go on the workbench next to it, it's purely so i can watch the ride as i'm going without having my head turned half way to the right.

Meh, who needs to spend £200 on a Wahoo station when you can knock one up out of a few cut-offs and half a dozen screws

my laptop sits on top of a toolbox on top of the tumbledryer...

That garage is way too tidy, if I could find a decent photo hosting site I would show what it should look like 🙂

I could have positioned bike so the laptop was on the workbench straight on, but i thought it may be a little far away from the front end as the wheel gets in the way then, using this plan i can get the bars right up to the front if i want to.

That garage is way too tidy, if I could find a decent photo hosting site I would show what it should look like

Well no... as i've been cleaning the Ducati, the polish containers are not aligned, the drill bag wouldn't be there, the GT-85 is not straight and the labels on the grease are incorrectly rotated.

Lastly, the wifes shoes should not be on the open tool box.

You'll need to be clearer in your challenge caller but I think you may be calling me fat and in comparison to most cycling types you could be correct 89kg/183cm.

Lol, no, I wasn't trying to call you fat - I was merely pointing out something of a discrepancy - could have been a faulty FTP test for all I knew.

Anyway, mystery solved at 89kg i'd definitely not describe you as 'middle weight bloke' (which i'd describe as 70-80kg). Clearly being quite tall will make you heavier than average even with an average build.

Well recovered, this is November so bread and potato eating season 😉

I use a Tacx tablet holder (my setup is a few pages back) it's very neat: [url= ]PIC[/url]

I just tried to compare my Zwift power to real power... well according to strava - there's a rather large discrepancy! 😆

In the new year I'm definitely going to rent a power meter for a month or so to compare - purely to satisfy my curiosity!

nathb, you on the Zwift iOS trial?

No, I use an app called Teamviewer which displays/allows me to use my pc on the iPad. Zwift is running on my desktop upstairs, everything is connected via bluetooth on my mobile.

Cunning.

Well thought I'd see how well it worked with VNC to the iPad. Not nearly quick enough 🙁

That's odd, my teamviewer is very smooth. Maybe freezes for a second every 10 mins or so? Teamviewer adjusts the quality for the connection, so if someone starts downloading something it reduces to the quality slightly (barely notice).

This is how it looks: [url= ]Clicky[/url] (bike boxes have gone now 🙂 )

LOL the bike boxes were the least of my troubles !

Well thought I'd see how well it worked with VNC to the iPad. Not nearly quick enough

Anyone doing the SZR race @ 6 tonight? (Mountain 8 )

Ah right, team viewer seems to work well but switches the resolution on the mac to something much lower, and hence not needing as much bandwidth. Might give that a try.

zilog6128
Anyone doing the SZR race @ 6 tonight? (Mountain 8 )

I think there is a couple of us doing the KISS TT at 8pm.

mrblobby
Ah right, team viewer seems to work well but switches the resolution on the mac to something much lower, and hence not needing as much bandwidth. Might give that a try.

You can amend it to native in the settings if you require.

I will be giving the KISS TT race a go tonight. I think it will be the first time I have used the TT bike since they removed the draft affect. Interesting to see how it goes...

I've never used it... i'm not sure i can get used to the aero bars !

Im thinking about giving this a first go tonight. Thinking about the Dutch National Criterium race at 1900.

One quick question though...I now have the Elite Misuro sensor that plugs into my Elite Volano trainer. It's picking up the power from the sensor and relaying it to my Garmin and TrainerRoad but it's not displaying virtual speed...does anyone know if it's supposed to first of all and if so am I doing something wrong? Also, do I need the virtual speed to be working for it to work on Zwift or will the software take care of all that??

Gaz, I think that unit sends the power data it calculates direct (via ANT+) to Zwift. Zwift then turns that power into your speed on Zwift. I would imagine Trainer Road will work the same way. No idea on what it transmit to Garmin?

Traineroad gives wheel speed, it doesn't adjust speed/distance according to the virtual terrain (on a dumb trainer).

EVR tonight, if I do any that is.

Gaz, I think that unit sends the power data it calculates direct (via ANT+) to Zwift. Zwift then turns that power into your speed on Zwift. I would imagine Trainer Road will work the same way. No idea on what it transmit to Garmin?

Yeah I think i've only noticed it on my Garmin because TrainRoad doesnt display speed on the screen

Traineroad gives wheel speed, it doesn't adjust speed/distance according to the virtual terrain (on a dumb trainer).

The difference here is because there is no rear wheel and so therefore no (magnetic) speed sensor rotating.

Okay signing on in 18 mins 😆

Good luck Nathb 🙂

I'm joining the Vision Bootcamp ride and will be on Discord. I'm on a recovery spin tonight but want to listen to Nathan Guerras great insights.

So I led for about a minute, then I think 5-7 overtook and then I didn't see anyone until the finish line 😆
According to strava it was 21:39. Where/how do I check the official results?

Improved my FTP too apparently, by a whole watt.

Zwiftpower.com

Wow, I was up in the 26 min mark

Tough race, went off OK, found some power 15 min in, lost it, sank at 20 and was recaught by 2 guys who I'd passed 3 miles earlier in the final mile. They were putting out 3.2 and I couldn't pull them back.
I was actually considering bailing pre ride as I was feeling tired in my 10 min warm up and lacking power, so was really Dealer called and said its fixed, kill switch was on and charging me £90 to drop back. with how I did considering.

Rest day tomorrow, honestly, really.

The first few minutes didn't seem too bad, then it was pain and suffering for the last 20 minutes. I think I finished in just over 24 mins. Just over the C limits.

The TT format made a nice change. Normally you can get a rest for a few seconds here and there by sitting in a group, that was full beans the whole way around.

Glad that was only a 10 and not a 25.

22:43 according to strava and hr a couple of beats below max for the whole ride. No Zwifting tomorrow after that ride.

Good work boys! Some fast lads in here!

Lol there's a D, Luke sullivan, has his weight at 40kg and 4.9w/kg lol. A D, lol.

I was on there earlier doing a workout and saw someone chatting to a certain 'weeksy'. 🙂

Okay I found it on Zwiftpower. Just finished updating my user id and connecting it to strava, hopefully it's all working now and you can click on my name. Just noticed my W/KG, hope I don't get DQ'd?!

I was refusing to let that Cat B overtake me, probably at the expense of being able to commute to work on the bike in the morning! 😳

I think that was me saying Weeksy Adam 🙂

6th, top ride fella.

I'm confused by the winner of D. He put out way less power than all the guys behind him. I can't see how on a TT bike?

Weeksy- you can't trust a lot of that data until it's showing as 'finalised'.

Thanks mate, nice ride too!

Not sure why my 15sec burst has been highlighted and 9th hasn't? I was following crosshair's advice. 😆

That page is a minefield of numbers, you literally could spend days analysing it..

Great ride Nathb! You can't get DQ'd as such from A's but they sometimes ask for verification if you go over 5w/kg. That may come down a smidge when ZP verifies the results through Strava- mine always does.
Also, they will expect higher power in a short TT event.

Nathb- it highlights the highest figure in each column, it doesn't 'mean' anything.

The only figure that matters was the 2 blokes 2s in front of me at the end!

@Weeksy- you've changed man 😀 Imagine your response to me a year ago about a post like that 😉

My first go at TT on zwift, think I prefer racing as that was hard. Weeksy I rode with you for a bit at the start but couldn't stay with you ended up finishing about 40 seconds behind you, only my second race at c

@Weeksy- you've changed man Imagine your response to me a year ago about a post like that

The competitive streak has never left me.. 🙂

Nice one Jakey, C is certainly a step up in speed/effort to maintain that's for sure.

Legs are toast this morning, so resting today.. Then out in the frosty hills tomorrow, so likely yo e Sunday before i Zwift again now.

Nice ride Jakey.

Looking forward to trying a race on Zwift next week, not sure which yet. That was good fun. My only gripe is that it wasn't really clear to me how far in front the next guy was, or am I missing something?

My legs are a little stiff today, but still attempting to commute in (pottering - no sprinting/racing) and may go for a 10 mile very gentle Zwift session later (sub 120bpm). Resting tomorrow!!

Surprised there isn't a STW team set up?

How is it not clear NAth?

On the RHS you have a list of people.... when in a race they're the ONLY people. All non-racers don't appear in your list. It shows the time ahead and beahind

1s is about 18-20m distance wise behind.

Surprised there isn't a STW team set up?

just had a look and the only way I can see you set one up, is to put a team name in your profile and if enough people join you, its a 'team'. not sure of the benefit really?

its a 'team'. not sure of the benefit really?

I guess if you were all racing at a similar speed and in same Cat then you could use a bit of tactics helping eachother along. But i doubt with STW you'd get that very often as it seems quite a spread of ability on here up to now.

weeksy
How is it not clear NAth?

On the RHS you have a list of people.... when in a race they're the ONLY people. All non-racers don't appear in your list. It shows the time ahead and beahind

1s is about 18-20m distance wise behind.

Ah my bad, I thought it was displaying everyone. There was a few times in the race where there was only 2-3 people being displayed so I had no idea where I was.

Probably a limitation of using the iPad - the RH info is small.

There was a few times in the race where there was only 2-3 people being displayed so I had no idea where I was.

if my wifi connection in the shed is struggling then everyone around will suddenly dissapear and the list shrink to 2/3 people.

Yeah i think we all get that, sometimes people drop off my list who i know are behind and then 20-30s later they appear again in the list... sometimes like above i get a very small list for a short while.

Ah I see, thanks guys!

Not going to lie it was a slow commute in this morning. 😳

Just browsing for a friend and spotted two things:
[url= https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/offer-listing/B00KX6G186/ref=olp_f_used?ie=UTF8&f_used=true&f_usedAcceptable=true&f_usedGood=true&f_usedLikeNew=true&f_usedVeryGood=true&mv_size_name=all ]Vittoria Zafiro Pro Turbo Tyre[/url] picked an open box 700c one up this morning for £2.30 for the missus' bike.
[url= http://www.halfords.com/cycling/turbo-trainers/trainers/tacx-flow-t2240-smart-turbo-trainer ]Tacx Flow is down to £189[/url]

anyone doing the ZTR race @ 6.30pm?

Zilog, any sign of your Neo? It's been less than a week but I'm getting impatient now 🙂

nah. going outside on a real bike...

@mrblobby http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/tacx-neo-interactive-t2800-ex-display/rp-prod145359

£837 with BC discount? 😆

Might join the 6:45pm PAC Social Ride.

Zilog, any sign of your Neo? It's been less than a week but I'm getting impatient now

£837 with BC discount?

£837 for a trainer which you can replicate the effect of with your gear lever 😉

Don't get me wrong, I can see the attraction, but its still a lot of money for an indoor trainer. Could buy left side PM for 2 bikes with change left over for that much.

I couldn't do the Dutch National Team Crit last night as I couldn't use Watopia as a course. When I used Zwift ages ago, I used the little cheat to have London as the course everyday rather than it changing. I couldn't remember how to edit it back so I went for a tough solo Zwift ride around London instead 🙁

I've now managed to change the setting back to normal so I think I'm going to join the OZ recovery ride tonight. Anyone else in for this one?

£837 for a trainer which you can replicate the effect of with your gear lever

gazhurst

I've now managed to change the setting back to normal so I think I'm going to join the OZ recovery ride tonight. Anyone else in for this one?

I was split between this one and the PAC Social Ride.

I'm confused by it though, the map is on London today but the route for that ride says "Watopia Flat Route"??