The starts are an issue for me as well. I did the SZR autumn series road to ruins race. 80+ Cs in it and over 200 overall.

Worked really hard off the start and still got left behind. I caught a large number of riders up the hill and got into a group of 8 or so. Felt really good coming out of the ruins circuit and the group splintered up the hill out with three of us left. Stayed with them until the little rise in the volcano when they got a break. Tried to get back and thought I was going to at one point, but to no avail. 47th out of 61 listed.

Really pleased with the result as I beat my best time around that course and was 1 watt off my ftp according to zwift power.

I away for a couple of weeks now which is a bit of a bugger as I was just feeling like I was heading in the right direction.

https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=91593

Did the SZR joyride C group which was 3 laps of the flat course.

Joyride my arse! I was still a bit sore after a 50k hill ride on the weekend and fell off the back with half a lap to go when the pace went up to over 3.0w/kg. Even then I smashed several PBs according to strava.

Day off tomorrow and then will probably do the road to ruins SZR autumn race the following day.

Yeah clearly Zwift don’t care about the sandbaggers *sigh*

I am lining up one of the 78k challenges over the weekend. Not sure about three laps up the UCI hill though!

6:00 zwift academy race for me. Totally stuffed up the start and didnt go with one of the quicker groups. Managed to get on to a faster group the first time up the hill. Then got dropped by them when I wasn’t paying attention (never try to plug your laptop charger in during a race).

Eventually got caught by another group and stayed with them, doing most of the work I might add, until the last time up the hill when I managed to drop them all but one who caught me on the downhill. From there it was a race to the finish but he got away from me with 800m to go and there was nothing I could do about it.

Got 13th in C but a bit peeved with the results as the top 3 should have been DQ’D or moved up a grade. Good work out though.

https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=88355

Enjoying the write ups and some great results.

Well for reasons I won’t bore you with I did my first race in ages today. It the Italian gladiators race, 1 lap of the UCI short course. Small field with  6 in C. Two of them took off at the start and I passed the third one at the start of the climb. Surprisingly I passed 2 Bs up the hill as well.

One B caught me at the bottom of the descent and then rode with me to the finish. I could tell he was cruising and knowing I’d get smashed in a sprint I had a crack from a k out… And promptly died. He flew past me with 200m to go.

I actually won C grade and was right on the 3.1w/kg threshold. The other two ahead of me must have been DQ’D. I was knackered afterwards but was happy with it as a first up race. I really need to get some endurance rides in as I have only been doing 45min to an hour. It showed.

Nothing race wise on so I did the UCI lap which was a grunt of a climb. Starts off fine at 5-8% with a few cheeky 10-12% bits thrown in when you don’t expect it. The one part that was a bit of a shock was that 8% climb around the back of the town. Not great when you have already worked hard up the hill!

Great course though and a solid 45-50min workout. I really liked it.

“my wahoo cadence sensor doesnt seem to be registering correctly on zwift, keeps saying i am doing over 150rpm. Logged a called with zwift as it seems to work perfectly fine when out with my elemnt. Anyone else having trouble?”

Might be a coincidence but I did a couple of laps around greater London yesterday including the Mall sprint section twice. First time I cruised through at roughly 170w in about 15 sec. Second time I cranked it up and was hitting about 420w by the end and was slower!

My overall distance and time seemed about right though. My cadence was what I would have expected although I have had the odd crazy reading in the past.

Amgen Tour of California stage 2 mountain 8.

230 started. I settled into the second bunch and actually found the pace ok even though it was up near my threshold and I have had an awful cold for the best part of a week.

Hit the epic Kom in 78th and slowly picked off a few to get to 57th at the top which became 46th at the top of the radio tower. I ended up on my own again on the way down and was passed by three early on. I was still feeling pretty good and had a 30 second lead over the next group of three.

6k to go and the road flattened out and my lead dropped to 20 sec. I thought sod this your going to have to work for it and started to dig in. 3k to go and it was down to 15 sec and one guy left the other two behind. 2k and it was 9 sec. I really started to push and hit the last k with the lead still 9 sec. 400 to go and still 9 sec and I started to wind it up. 100 to go and it 5 sec. I really flogged myself and was almost heaving on the line but beat the guy by 4sec. I then went outside and coughed up a lung.

Ended up 49th overall. I took 40 seconds off my epic Kom pb and 30 seconds off my radio tower pb and set records on a whole lot of strava segments. I need to be sick more often.

I just get my FTP from riding around. Zwift actually tells you when you’ve increased it. Don’t ask me how accurate it is however.

I am not a real cyclist though. I’m just in this for the endorphins. Saying that it is nice to see improvement and I do feel stronger when riding outside.

Me too. I enjoy reading what others are doing. I always seem to learn something.

Today I learnt if i buy a fan I can race twice in a day!

After reading the latest reports I almost don’t want to post this as it is nothing on that scale (well done to guys!).

WBR 1 lap London Loop.  Entered B. 32 at the start and I decided to have a crack at seeing how long I could stay in the lead group.  That was 1.5k.

Then I ended up in no mans land (again) so set my self a goal to stay over 200w on the flat to Box Hill.  Managed that and then got caught by a group of two at the start of the hill.  Stayed with them the whole way up and was just outside my PB at the top.  Passed them both on the second wee hill and then decided to flog myself down the hill to see how long I could hold them out.  They caught me at the escalator and I managed to get another lead there.  Then they passed me again.  I was 210-220w to the finish and just a few metres back.  I ended up 15/15 in B with a 3.3w/kg average with a time that would have got me 2nd in C.

For some reason I am filtered out of the results for using Zpower and not wearing a HR monitor.  I have a smart trainer so I am not sure what is going on there.  Overall though pretty happy especially with keeping my pace up (for me) on the flat as I spent most of that on my own.

A rainy day so I decided to tackle the AdZ for the first time. So I had some company I did ToW stage 3. What I didn’t realise was that was going to add another 9k on. Music on and I was ready to go.

31 at the start and I settled in to a group of 8 after the first couple of k. The pace wasn’t on which I figured was because everyone knew what was coming up. 8 became 3 on the climb to the jungle and then 2 at the start of the alps climb. After a few hundred metres I was on my own when the guy I was with fell behind. After the first couple of way points I was a minute ahead of the next guy and a minute and a half behind the bloke in front of me and 7th overall.

Then I realised I was catching the guy in front quite dramatically and actually caught him halfway up. He had two goes at dropping me but I got back on. Then he tried a third time and the elastic snapped.

Worked reasonably hard to the finish but in hindsight probably treated the climb with a bit too much respect. Finished 7th in 81min and did the AdZ in 53:41. Also got a small ftp increase to 238w although I do think it’s not that realistic doing it on a climb.

Good fun though.

Ok scratch that they have appeared

Anyone else having trouble finding the tour of watopia events on the companion app? I am using iOS and they don’t seem to be there.

Did the Pack social ride on the greatest London loop reverse which was the first one I had done in ages. About 150 in it. For the first 5k everyone stayed together but once we hit Keith hill gaps started to appear.

It did not help the ride leader had “sweeper” in his name. He was at the back most of the way and asking people to stay with the leader. I could not figure out for the first half of the race where the leader was until I realised it was him.

The ride was advertised as a 2-2.2 w/kg which has normally meant about 2.5-2.7 for me but today that seemed about right. I even had to slow down at times and at one point turned the fan off as I was getting cold!

I finished in a group of 75-100 or so with the rest having gone off the front at various stages. It turned out to be an hours ride and I didn’t have time for the after party back up Keith hill. All in all a nice recovery ride.

PS I normally read this thread on my phone. At one point it was up to page 220 or so and then changed to page 199. Now it is now back up to page 224. Weird.

ToW stage 6 here as well.

After last week’s debacle when I hit the wall my goal was to finish without outside assistance.

Started off 319 in it and for once it didn’t seem like a mad start. 97th at the start of the epic Kom in a group of 9. It was a really big group to start but the front of it split off pretty quickly.

At the hill it ended up single file pretty quick. I rode a pretty steady 3.5 to 4 w/kg to the radio tower and then backed off a bit as I was starting to feel it. At the top of the radio tower I was 58th.

I was on my own on the way down when a group of 5 caught me with 10k to go. We caught a couple of other guys as well.  They spat me out with 5k left. I spent that trying to keep the guy 20sec behind me, behind me. Managed that and finished 61st I think. I was almost dry retching at the end.

My ftp even went up to 232 watts so stoked.

I am enjoying everyone’s write ups. Some awesome performances there.

Edit: I was 62nd. It says my average power was 213w so not sure how my ftp has gone up.

1:35.01 to beat here Paul which I can’t imagine will be much of a problem for you. Judging by other results it looks like I lost 3-4 min in the last 10k or so.

I had also lost 2.5kg when I got on the scales this morning.

Excellent stuff Weeksy.

I am Carbo loading (with beer).

“Ah sod it. I’m going to do the 10am at a fairly sedate pace”

Ha ha that’s what I said…

Did ToW stage 5, the three sisters. 174 in it.

Started well and was 72nd at the bottom of the first hill but was up to 52nd at the top in what turned out to be my 3rd best time ever. Got into a group of 9 and we stayed together until the start of the epic Kom. By the time we got to the village I was up to 46th. Stayed there until the radio tower. Got to the top of the epic Kom in my second best time ever. Started the radio tower and was up to 38th by the top.

By this time I was really thinking this is going well. Started the downhill and was pretty much solo to the volcano turn off. With about 10k to go all of a sudden I really started to feel it. By the time I got to the volcano climb I was on fumes. My son poked his head in the garage and I sent him off the find me sugar as I was really struggling.

At about this point a procession of the guys I had passed earlier started passing me again. After the first couple I was beyond caring. Within 5k I was down to 55th. I ended up riding with one guy who had caught me to the finish. I can only assume he was as shot to bits as me.

I crawled over the line. Despite totally losing the plot I still beat my pb by 3min although it was half an hour before I had the energy to move. Shattered.

Maybe doing this after racing yesterday was not one of my better ideas.

Your right there Blader. Thankfully I never did the dumb trainer thing.

Also I forgot to say cheers Scaredy for the ride on!

I did Warriors racing league this morning. One lap of the figure 8. Entered C with 8 others. I ended up in a group of five after the start which splintered after 5k on the first hill.  From there I TT’d the last 25k on my own. Finished about a minute twenty down on the guy ahead of me and three minutes ahead of the next group.

Probably didn’t go off hard enough at the start although judging by the results the only decent group was about 5 min ahead of me so I wouldn’t have kept up anyway.

Finished sixth out of seven in C and managed to average 3w/kg so pretty happy with that. It is bloody hard on your own.

Well I did a race today as well, totally by accident. I had had a rubbish nights sleep to the point I almost didn’t get up.  Dragged myself out of bed and found it was Richmond. I decided to have an easy bimble around the flat course when I saw SZR had a group ride. This is rather unusual as normally at this time there are no event options. I tried to join it and although the app said I had joined it didn’t take me to the start.

Thinking I had a problem I decided to try and join the next event which was a WBR 1 lap race. Not only did I join it took me straight to the start!

Although I didn’t feel the best I decided to do mainly as I couldn’t figure out how to quit out of it. I had entered C. Off we went and I hit 250 to 280 watts for the first k or so and ended up in a group of 12.

Normally after about 5k I am hanging on but surprisingly that wasn’t the case this time. The pace was quite solid but felt reasonably comfortable which shocked me somewhat.

I decided my goal was to stay with the group until the hills and then see what happened. One or two guys tried to break away but we reeled them in.

We hit the hills and I hit 4w/kg and dropped everyone but 2 who were just ahead of me. We got caught by another guy at the bottom of 2nd hill. The first two guys took off and I dropped the new guy and caught the other 2 at the top. Worked really hard to the last hill and passed the other two guys. Caught a couple of stragglers up the last hill but then on the flat bit got passed by the same two guys again. I just couldn’t catch them.

Ended up 6th, took a minute off my pb for the lap and averaged 3.1w/kg which was a record for me in a race. I am stoked. All the hill work I have been doing is paying off.  Interestingly Weeksy I was 4 seconds slower than you but clearly in a tougher race 😉

PS Tiger really liked the box hill video. I never realised cars were allowed on it.

In have spent the last couple of months just riding hills to try and get stronger.  It seems to be working. I am aiming to do that for the rest of this month and then try some races.

I also have the problem that I generally ride first thing in the morning before work and at the moment there don’t seem to be any races on that work for me time wise.

I have also been doing a bit outside including one 55km ride around some hills on my mountain bike. My son and I are doing a team duathlon at the end of May. He running, me on the bike.  I’ve never ridden in a race before and I am a bit nervous as it is a tough course.

“Sometimes i wonder what some of us fat lads could be if we could drop 20kg and lose no power LOL 🙂”

For the first time in my life I’ve been wondering what I could be if I gained 20kg!😀

I hit a bit of a milestone today. I rode over the mountain route and was told my ftp had increased to 222 watts. This puts me into the B category for races.

I am not sure increasing my ftp on a hilly ride is a true reflection of my abilities though and at 222 watts I am under no illusions as to where I will finish in a race 😏

Congrats Weeksy that is a great achievement!

Blader and Scaled those times up box hill are epic. I’d need a Lance Armstrong scale drug intervention to get even close.

I am still doing hill work to try and get stronger for racing. On the weekend I did 65k of the pretzel which at 2 hours and 20 min was my longest time ever on a turbo. It was 26 degrees in the garage and even after going through 4 water bottles I lost 1.5 kilos on that ride. I was soaking wet at the end. The missus said it looked like I’d been swimming.

Before anyone asks it was raining outside.

I could do with a Bikeradar race to get in the competition so might join in that 13:30 one. Only issue is i’m at the physios at 11, in my head it’s all going to be nice heat laps and ultrasound.  In reality i’m going to be taking a  load of painkillers before hand and then they’re going to mash my muscles into a pump.

Now there’s a race report I can’t wait to read.

Well I learnt a valuable lesson last night. My ant+ dongle started playing up and when I looked at the extension cable the end was rusted up!

Obviously I had managed to sweat all over it which was a real surprise as I thought I had it a decent distance from me. Luckily the cable seems to have taken the brunt of the sweat and the ant + still works.

So I need to get a longer cable and/or make sure the end is covered up.

And which only seems to happen if you edit your post…

Bloody hell well done blader!

My ride today was punctuated by a 5 minute + drop out just when I was three quarters of the way up Leith hill.  In the past when this has happened it has only taken a few seconds to kick back in. Today I discovered:

1. The clock continues ticking on a Kom even when you lose your connection.

2. Although in the game your overall elapsed time seems to stop during the drop out as you aren’t riding, at the end zwift adds the lost time back on. Strava doesn’t. So in strava I did 46 min and in zwift 53 min.

PS I do not like this new forum upgrade. You can’t seem to log in while in the thread from your phone. Also blader you have a terrible blue logo thing happening at the bottom of your post.

Edit: I have a horrible green logo thing happening at the bottom of mine!

And extra points for throwing up/falling off your trainer while sprinting/writhing in agony on the floor after the race/having your family question your sanity.

I have been enjoying the great outdoors the last few days. I know it’s been said before but zwift makes an amazing difference to your outdoor riding.

So I had this plan, ride hills for a month to get stronger and then look at racing again. So of course two weeks in I do the Tri4 Road to Ruins race. I sort of couldn’t resist as I have enjoyed riding that route and it is the first time I have seen a race on it at a time which suited me.

I was a bit concerned as the legs were a bit tired from the climbing (I was basically doing one day on, one day off during the week to allow for recovery). It was also 25 degrees in my garage so I was sweating buckets even on my 10 minute warm up. Therefore for a change I decided not to kill myself in the first 2-3k of the race. After a couple of k I got into a reasonable group and got to the bottom of the first hill in 56th overall. After a couple of hundred metres of climbing I was 44th. Unfortunately this meant I was on my own for most of the Jungle loop. I was dropped by one guy near the start of it and I was caught by a couple of guys on the loop but I caught and passed one other guy and then passed another guy on the climb out. I was on my own again until I caught another guy with about 6-7k to go and we rode the rest of it together. I got to the turn into the final straight to the finish and my stomach started heaving so I had to back off a bit. The other guy sprinted to the finish in the last few hundred metres but I decided not having to clean a mess off the floor was a higher priority. We managed to hold off a group who was 30 seconds behind us for the last 5k. I was shattered at the finish and was still sweating half an hour later!

The really cool thing is I got 5th in C, set new high average of 2.9 w/kg and according to Strava PR’d the climbs so the hill work seems to be paying off. I am really happy with how it went.

Agree re the group rides. It is really trial and error to find one that suits you. If they insist on sticking with W/kg then they should also give the weight of the leader so you can judge what to expect.

Alternatively an average speed would be a good indicator.

The one thing I like about group rides is I can practice staying in a bunch which I am still pretty rubbish at.

Brilliant dazh!

I am at the opposite end of the spectrum to some on here. Weight isn’t the issue but power out is. I have decided to do some work to get stronger for a bit which will mainly involve hill work (tron bike here I come) and then later some faster efforts. My main issue in racing seems to be I don’t have the strength to hold on to groups if the pace goes up even moderately especially in flat races.

You may get to enter an STW pursuit team 😀

Me too. Rode it from the box hill side (you turn right for Leith hill instead of left for box hill). The start is more of a gradual climb with some 5 to 7% gradients thrown in. When you get to the KOM section it rapidly turns into 9-12% right to the top. That section is shorter than the box hill KOM though. My time was about 90 seconds faster than my box hill pb without killing myself.

After a year of running my 5K time has gone down from 32 minutes to 25 minutes. This has happened with a very lax training schedule in which I probably get out about twice a week on average and with no other training involved. I’m considering upping the anti and going for a sub 20 minute time with a dedicated training program. How hard will this be for a 49 year old man ?

I’d suggest it is not that hard. I would simply up your runs to four or five times a week. Don’t worry about intervals as you do not have the running background to cope with them yet. Let your body get used to running regularly and your time will come down naturally anyway. 25 minutes off two runs per week is pretty good. You can reassess things once you have done say 8 to 12 weeks of this and then see how close to 20 minutes you are.

Age isn’t an issue. Last year I ran sub 20min at 49 years old on three to four hourly runs a week and no intervals. In my early forties I was running 35min for 10k and 75min for a half marathon (I was training more then). The key is to listen to your body.

Good luck!

Ah I didn’t realise the change was supposed to be Monday at 0400 gmt. The app looks like it is set for 24 hours later. Maybe the schedule page is wrong?

Also I think race organisers can now choose courses that are not the one featured. Therefore you may see the odd race on a different course.

The switchover is at 04:00 GMT. All the confusion is after that

Seems ok here on the mobile app (iOS) and in zwift power.

Rumour has it the London course will be getting its big new extension added this week.