The Indoor Riding/ Zwift/ TrainerRoad etc. Thread

Soldato
Joined
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Yesterday was a particularly leg burning day; Team Scream (awesome new TTT video on Sufferfest) plus the goddawful Half is Easy.

I have never wanted to do TTT as much as after that video though. Loved it.

TQzLid3.jpg

The support helped :).
Forgot to comment - love this picture!

Can totally relate - there's many times I'm turbo'ing weekend mornings and the other half and my little guy come to see me on their way back from walking the dog. Most of the time my guy is on his trike (which he loves) - so won't be long until he's riding around! (or on Zwift next to me!?) :D

It really is. I'm considering getting an Ant+ dongle for my phone so that I can have TR on my phone and then Zwift on the Apple TV via Bluetooth. My Vectors can do BT/Ant+ simultaneously, as can my Wahoo TICKR HR monitor. For next winter I think I might take the plunge and buy a proper 'smart' trainer as I'm really enjoying training indoors this year.
Good stuff - you should be spoilt for choice then.

Really not much new in the trainer space this season, just rehashed/re-releases (the Kickr Core the only new trainer of note). Not sure what we'll see in 2019/20. Probably nothing new from Wahoo or Tacx anyway - except the 'trainer bike' releases as I think that will be the market they're concentrating on.

What a difference. Tis lovely plus Evans have me a heafty discount for coming back 3 times and all the bother.

Excuse the filthy battered bike.

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Great result and glad you like it - although 'lovely' is not one of the words I would describe the feeling when hitting a large gradient with it on Zwift for the first time. That power ramp is BRUTAL! I'd got far too used to the slow power curve of my Vortex so had my trainer difficulty ramped right up, the first couple of times it felt like a hitting a wall! Brutal! Dropped resistance back down to the 'usual' (Zwift default) of 50% and am back up to around 75/80% now for racing (generally leave it set there as I don't free ride hills for recovery & have enough gears on the bike for easy pedalling).

Never apologise for the dirty bike, especially a Crux! They should be dirty! :D

Went with the Bushido in the end for the top-end power tolerance (part-time weightlifter means my 1-5s output is pretty high)... will see what happens!

Thanks for the suggestions above!
They're a very solid unit, you won't have any build issues, but if your peak power and kicks are that big (1000W+) you'll get lots of wheel slip. May not be an issue for you as general riding around Zwift you won't be peaking like that, but intervals in a training session you may. I would still get some slip on my Vortex when sprinting at 800w. Ramping up rather than kicking solves it.

I don't follow this. I turbo because I'm time poor and more able to put in short hard efforts. I also actually enjoy it. I guess its the same reason I don't run to music whereas most people can't stand it.

In fact I actually love the new sufferfest app, with their novid workouts. Just me, the bike, and the graphs. Turn those pedals baby.
Horses for courses! I found TR 'boring' specifically because of that, there was no distraction and no immersion. I could do the sessions but really didn't enjoy them, so didn't 'want' to ride them.

For me 'Sufferfest' is very much the traditional way they started - immersive great videos to really make you dig deep suffering harder than you would without. Without that, TR is a better platform. They're closing the gap now, but personally I feel they should continue to concentrate on more of the earlier content - as that's what made them different. Drive their own niche in the market and make it grow. Some of my earlier highest HR's are from Sufferfest (saw over 200bpm, once!) and only recently has my Zwift racing sprinting got my HR to the same levels (190bpm+).

What's everyone's plans now TdZ is over? I found it a great way to kick myself back into some kinda fitness so really need to continue that. So for me that's 2 Zwift races per week, minimum!

Although may go easier this week as got a bit of a bout of 'not feeling 100%'. Hope it's just a bit of left over from the cold weather and recovery from big increase in training load. Might get to do the club ride on saturday too - if the weather gods deem me worthy!
 
Soldato
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Outa nowhere I am likely riding in this Kiss Community League that will run alongside the Super League.
aka, the diddy league one step below the proper league :p

I was speaking to Ed Laverack about it and he's gave me the (very little) details for it that exist currently. It should start in the next couple of weeks after Zwift decided to postpone and plan it a bit better.
Wahoo/Cycling Hub have started a team with Ed Laverack, Cam Jeffers and Steve Lampier etc. Looks to be a Canyon team also in the making so I am sceptical about it being "community" and all a bit too talented for me :p

Pre-league race on Thursday night at 20:00 UK time. I think it will be live stream and have the commentator guy and all sorts so have a look about for info on it this Thursday if you want to watch me get dropped up the Innsbruck climb. If I get any more info I will let you know of course.
 
Soldato
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I'm sub'd to Ed's YT channel - great lad (I presently only go to youtube for David Goggins, Ed Laverack and Cycling Weekly vids.

Nothing like a bit of live streaming pressure huh?! :eek:
 
Soldato
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Ed is a nice lad. A good bit more down to earth than the rest of the guys I watch on YT sometimes.
Lawrence Carpenter, Francis Cade, Jasper Verkuijl are all good also. Jasper is Dutch and he cracks me up just his whole personality is great.
Cameron Jeffers is OK also but he grates on me a bit in all honesty.
Vegan Cyclist is a bit too American but he has some great videos. His one from couple days back "discipline over motivation" is absolutely awesome. Give that a watch!
 
Man of Honour
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@Roady - I don't generally "kick" so it's not necessarily too much of a worry (at this point... when I don't use Zwift, etc.), but thank you for the note, too (because I will no doubt get stuck in the "gear acquisition syndrome" mode once I get a bit more into this cycling thing)...
 
Soldato
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20,701
Location
England
Ed is a nice lad. A good bit more down to earth than the rest of the guys I watch on YT sometimes.
Lawrence Carpenter, Francis Cade, Jasper Verkuijl are all good also. Jasper is Dutch and he cracks me up just his whole personality is great.
Cameron Jeffers is OK also but he grates on me a bit in all honesty.
Vegan Cyclist is a bit too American but he has some great videos. His one from couple days back "discipline over motivation" is absolutely awesome. Give that a watch!

Ed is live streaming right now - he's busy hurting 230+ other riders right now. :p

I'll check some of those guys out once I'm done getting my head around David Goggins (who is almost certainly not actually a human being).
 
Soldato
Joined
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Hereford
Outa nowhere I am likely riding in this Kiss Community League that will run alongside the Super League.
aka, the diddy league one step below the proper league :p

I was speaking to Ed Laverack about it and he's gave me the (very little) details for it that exist currently. It should start in the next couple of weeks after Zwift decided to postpone and plan it a bit better.
Wahoo/Cycling Hub have started a team with Ed Laverack, Cam Jeffers and Steve Lampier etc. Looks to be a Canyon team also in the making so I am sceptical about it being "community" and all a bit too talented for me :p

Pre-league race on Thursday night at 20:00 UK time. I think it will be live stream and have the commentator guy and all sorts so have a look about for info on it this Thursday if you want to watch me get dropped up the Innsbruck climb. If I get any more info I will let you know of course.
Haha thrown in the deep end! You'll do fine mate but I'm expecting multiple posts in here from you for each race! ;)

Have you done a Zwift race series or ridden any of the popular 'Team' races at a popular time? Certainly worth doing to get an idea how some of the team guys ride together!? Who will you be riding for/with? Goodluck! :D

The 3R boys are generally on Discord/Teamspeak and often discussing tactics pre-race and even occasionally on Facebook on the days leading up (there's a race chat for all race members I've somehow ended up in after CVR). 3R are fairly poorly organised compared to some of the others - much more 'ad-hoc' as to who's riding in the team - basically decided on the night who turns up. I know DRAFT and TT1 have specific race 'teams' for certain series of races, where they'll actually train as a team various tactics. 3R have done it a few times and I've done 1 or two, generally practicing lead outs for sprints and small group efforts to organise chases etc. The lead outs where probably the most fun - it was the first time I'd seen someone turning out 15w/kg+ sprints, he did it 3-4 times and must have been in bits! Wasn't even sprinting against anyone! :o

The Ultimate Racing League they're riding has the CANYON team in there with Stevie Young riding who is a beast. The 3R guys have Matt Looker as the leader who you've probably ridden with/against/seen in the Tour de Zwift?! He's a nice guy and could be worth having a conversation with as he's lots of experience racing on Zwift.

Ed is a nice lad. A good bit more down to earth than the rest of the guys I watch on YT sometimes.
Lawrence Carpenter, Francis Cade, Jasper Verkuijl are all good also. Jasper is Dutch and he cracks me up just his whole personality is great.
Cameron Jeffers is OK also but he grates on me a bit in all honesty.
Vegan Cyclist is a bit too American but he has some great videos. His one from couple days back "discipline over motivation" is absolutely awesome. Give that a watch!
Ed is great, can come across as a bit of a 'know it all' on his videos but is actually pretty down to earth. Not much of a sense of humour mind you! I don't quite know where Cameron Jeffers came from and how/why he has such a following. Everyone seems to be in love with him and he's an ok rider - nothing special in my opinion but I don't know the guy. Just don't quite understand the cult following and gushing over him! :rolleyes:

Vegan Cyclist? That's not that durianrider idiot is it? Can occasionally be a fun watch but the guy is a dick! :o

The whatever zone bench marking :eek:

Never been able to get our the saddle on other trainers. This is quite confidence inspiring :cool:

pWzcdVu.jpg
Whatever zone? Tidy setup but looks a little too much like a smart bedroom! Prepared for the smell of stale sweat and moisture lots of Zwifting can cause? I actually setup a dehumidifier when I turbo'd inside a couple of years back. Still caused lots of condensation/dampness! But maybe that's just me - sweating buckets! :D

My setup is far more ghetto (in the garage):
zeGWSWh.jpg
FTusZmM.jpg

Loving having my big 36" screen after 4 years of using a 19"! :cool:
 
Soldato
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@Roady I won't be racing the Kiss thing tonight as I am ill yet again :( I was dying yesterday and hoped to feel OK today but I am still suffering and no way I could manage it this evening.

Vegan Cyclist isn't that durianrider you mention. I googled durianrider as never heard of it/him and vegan cyclist is a different person - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpn6aFvwAI_hK9WuHcdvQGA

I honestly know very little about leagues/teams on Zwift mate. I don't know any of the names you mention I only really know of the DRAFT team because Gavin is a local to me so I see him post about it on facebook and things like that.
Just looking to get stuck in. I won't stand a chance in flats/sprints as these guys can do huge watts but on anything with decent climbs I will be up there. Tonight would have been ideal as 2x innsbruck climb. My typical luck being ill, yet again!! :(
 
Soldato
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Ah gutted, get well soon buddy!

You really should get involved with some of the more general race clubs and their rides, rather than suddenly jumping into a pro league! You have very little Zwift race experience thus far. I know you're pro but...! ;)

One of the Race3R guys is similarly light to you & a beast on hills - 55kg & FTP of 248w. I know Ross hasn't got 285w FTP like you, but checking through his results you'll see how he does in the usual Zwift club races (look for TT1 Team Races and the Ultimate Race League, also CVR a year ago). Could be worth having a chat with him as well to see how being a lighter rider he finds things - pretty sure I've got him on Facebook and could hook you up if you want? He's a nice guy! :)

Also bear in mind there's not loads of races specific for climbers, most Zwift racers were generally over weight middle aged men before they got into Zwifting & cycling the last couple of years (rather than Golf). :D
 
Man of Honour
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Finally got the Bushido rigged up this morning and did my first 2km on Zwift... I can see why people complain about its addictiveness!

Pairing across Bluetooth on Zwift for Android is a bit ropey, however: when it worked, it was flawless... just took 5/6 attempts to get there.
 
Soldato
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Speaking of FTP tests, I had my first go at one this year. Thought I would be in good form as I've been off the bike for a few days. Within 5 minutes I knew I didn't have the legs, so I just did intervals instead. Next time.......

97f37a1ecd5e28b118ba1c157d89840d-full.jpg
 
Soldato
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Scotland
I used TrainerRoads ramp test to set my ftp for winter training. It was way less taxing, mentally and physically, than a proper test. I guess I’ll find out how accurate it is in the Spring since I’ve based all my winter training around it!
 
Soldato
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Yesterday was a particularly leg burning day; Team Scream (awesome new TTT video on Sufferfest) plus the goddawful Half is Easy.

I have never wanted to do TTT as much as after that video though. Loved it.

The support helped :).

First test of the new Sufferfest app on Sunday morning. They've finally gone to full screen (rather than bordered) video which is ace on a big TV. Team Scream is a great session - pushes you hard throughout and the penultimate interval requires some hard core grovelling but you know the end is very close so can see it out. Quality soundtrack as well.
 
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