The Indoor Riding/ Zwift/ TrainerRoad etc. Thread

I’ve been using Xert for a few months now. The UI is harder than trainer road and the app is poor compared to the website (which is needed for planning future rides). The workouts themselves are balanced though and if you can do a 3/3.5 workout, then you will be able to complete that in all forms (short high intensity, 2 hour ride with intervals..etc. A nice feature is it will map the intensity that should be covered in difference zones and it will count all power data rides. So the Zwift race can replace the high intensity workout. I haven’t used the auto tool to map weeks in advance yet (partly as my schedule varies) so have been picking a workout the day before.

I’ve being upping my training volume and intensity since September and my predicted FTP has risen and dropped some weight, though weirdly has dropped the last 3-4 workouts despite not being ill. I decided to attempt the alpe du zwift yesterday to beat my target of sub 50 minutes (likely 2 year target). Previous best in August was 50:49 with 313W 83kg. I dropped to 79.9kg and manage 320W for a completion time of 47:49, which was slightly unbelievable as I thought it would have been in the 49 minute region.

The weight loss certainly helped, but the power gains are greater than I had with TrainerRoad. Anyone else using Xert?

 
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Vandle said:
Was pleasing to see the lad that won the race where a bunch of us got DQ’d from and booted out of C a few weeks back was 20th. Feel like I hate the fella even though I’ve never met him or know anything about him. Probably just a normal bloke, juggling work, family life, booze and a bad diet like the rest of us.

It’s only my second race since I moved up to B, missed the TTT last week as was in Sydney for work. I’ve had a 13th and now a 10th. I feel given my age and body weight that’s about as good as I’m ever going to get but tbh I thought that this time last year when I was barely holding wheels in C so you never know.

I may look for another team in 2026 though, we race Tuesday nights at 7:30. Time doesn’t really work for me. 6am better, 5:30pm would be ideal as will have an excuse to leave work early :D
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I always say to my guys - Never 'trust' anything you see, on Zwift and especially in ZRL! It being the 'biggest Zwift backed' race series on the platform brings a lot of riders in who don't do much other racing so are incorrectly categorised... Or just plain fibbing about their stats!

There was an 'incident' a couple of years ago when someone 50-60kg was putting 20w/kg sprints again and again to win races. It was so obviously weight doping. A couple of years after that there was huge uproar in D when this 70+ and 45kg Grandma was doing 3.2 w/kg averages and able to stay in D cat (due to her weight). Sure enough smashed everyone and won many times while still doing 11w/kg sprints at that weight. It took multiple rounds of her riding what was probably a miscalibrated trainer until WTRL eventually put in verification steps, then sure enough she vanished (probably actually calibrated or replaced her faulty equipment).

Those timeslots are UK or AUS? The Race3R teams I help captain/admin are all 6-8pm UK. There wasn't much call for earlier - too many popular morning group training rides. Majority of our riders are EU+UK but a few others scattered around - got a handful of West-coast US as the rides are then lunchtime. I do know EVO have a more split club over some early UK timeslots around 5.30-8am, but not many evening timeslots with them. Think their couple are 6pm. I do some TTT's with them, the team I ride with at 8.30pm UK has a couple of AUS/NZ riders and they'll be riding early at say 5.30am - but with the time differences think there are actually 2-3 hours between them sometimes.

How did Tuesday's Scratch race go? Great managed effort from my guys, 6 of us together at base of NYC KOM towards the back of the group (none of us climbers), then 5 of us finishing within 12s of each other for 20th, 21st, 22nd, 24th, 28th & 32nd. So we came away with 4th on the night, but beat our main opposition and moved ourselves into 3rd overall! :cool:

PikeyPriest said:
Anyone else using Xert?
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I did 30 days of it many moons ago, liked the concept of the 'smart' training where it took other riding you'd done into account and then managed the next training session to balance things - this was even before AI times. But it was a neat and pretty good even back then - although clunky to get sessions into Zwift
 
Roady said:
Those timeslots are UK or AUS? The Race3R teams I help captain/admin are all 6-8pm UK. There wasn't much call for earlier - too many popular morning group training rides. Majority of our riders are EU+UK but a few others scattered around - got a handful of West-coast US as the rides are then lunchtime. I do know EVO have a more split club over some early UK timeslots around 5.30-8am, but not many evening timeslots with them. Think their couple are 6pm. I do some TTT's with them, the team I ride with at 8.30pm UK has a couple of AUS/NZ riders and they'll be riding early at say 5.30am - but with the time differences think there are actually 2-3 hours between them sometimes.
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Australia Eastern time, Sydney & Melbourne. When you move one way, we move the other a week or two later. Current time diff is 11 hours, it'll go to 10 in March for a few weeks then to 9, then 10 then 11 as the cycle completes so not ideal either.

Roady said:
How did Tuesday's Scratch race go? Great managed effort from my guys, 6 of us together at base of NYC KOM towards the back of the group (none of us climbers), then 5 of us finishing within 12s of each other for 20th, 21st, 22nd, 24th, 28th & 32nd. So we came away with 4th on the night, but beat our main opposition and moved ourselves into 3rd overall! :cool:
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I didn't race, had a bit of man flu on the Saturday evening and was still sick by Tuesday. Looking at the results, I felt I would have done ok. Was going to do it on my upgraded Aethos to gain a few seconds on the lighter guys up the last KOM.
 
Quite enjoying Join.cc just wish they had a website, which I’d apparently on the way. I was going to jump back on trainer road as I not long finished my month trial.

Then I just had a email from join for 50% off. £50 for a year of adaptive training both indoors and out felt like an absolute steal

I can give month trials now if anyone wants to dabble
 
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Funny timing. I got that email earlier as I trialled it, but never actually got around to using it.

Wondering whether to switch from TR to join. Struggling to get the discount to work, as I had an account before.
 
Shadowness said:
Funny timing. I got that email earlier as I trialled it, but never actually got around to using it.

Wondering whether to switch from TR to join. Struggling to get the discount to work, as I had an account before.
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I really like the website of TR but it’s not enough to sway me from £50 a year to the £160ish that TR would be.

Speaking for myself neither platform is going to turn me into a world tour contender but I just want something relatively adaptive and with decent options inside and out. Join offers that so it’s a bargain in my mind
 
Junglist said:
Quite enjoying Join.cc just wish they had a website, which I’d apparently on the way. I was going to jump back on trainer road as I not long finished my month trial.

Then I just had a email from join for 50% off. £50 for a year of adaptive training both indoors and out felt like an absolute steal

I can give month trials now if anyone wants to dabble
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go on, I've got an account just now with 8 days, may as well bump up to 1 month to try it
 
Hopefully you get on with it because that half price deal feels like theft.

It doesn’t feel like it has quite as many workouts as TR but how many do you really need?
 
Junglist said:
Hopefully you get on with it because that half price deal feels like theft.

It doesn’t feel like it has quite as many workouts as TR but how many do you really need?
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I’ve learned that I’m not a fan of long sessions on trainer so a good 45-60min is perfect. Hoping to try it this weekend
 
Well it's telling me I'm an unfit, fat and lazy ******* who shouldn't do more than 3 days in a row so it's given me a rest day. Bevel also says I'm overtraining... so I may ignore both and do a endurance ride for 30 minutes to at least do something (and get my vitality points)

I do like how you can change your availability each week and it sorts it out for you.
 
Junglist said:
Well it's telling me I'm an unfit, fat and lazy ******* who shouldn't do more than 3 days in a row so it's given me a rest day. Bevel also says I'm overtraining... so I may ignore both and do a endurance ride for 30 minutes to at least do something (and get my vitality points)

I do like how you can change your availability each week and it sorts it out for you.
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lol..

the availability is one feature I like about it, we'll see how well it works in practice but I prefer the idea of that compared to set days a week..
 
Junglist said:
it's telling me I'm an unfit, fat and lazy *******
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I mean, we could have done this for you. How much do you pay? :cry:

To be serious though, I was surprised how easily TR would tell me I should have a rest day. Like, every Sunday I shouldn't be riding according to TR (after 50 to 70 miles on Saturday). It did make me wonder if I might overdo it at times.
 
AndyCr15 said:
I mean, we could have done this for you. How much do you pay? :cry:

To be serious though, I was surprised how easily TR would tell me I should have a rest day. Like, every Sunday I shouldn't be riding according to TR (after 50 to 70 miles on Saturday). It did make me wonder if I might overdo it at times.
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Apparently too much :D

I found TR would quickly go amber and red whenever I got too ambitious. Usually in the summer when we'd have lots of nice days and I couldn't/didn't want to stop.

edit: Aethos fully levelled a few days ago. Now level 2 on my Allez Sprint. Once this is done I can use the free Venge then need to save up the 10m drops for the Specialized Halo bike.
 
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Junglist said:
Apparently too much :D

I found TR would quickly go amber and red whenever I got too ambitious. Usually in the summer when we'd have lots of nice days and I couldn't/didn't want to stop.

edit: Aethos fully levelled a few days ago. Now level 2 on my Allez Sprint. Once this is done I can use the free Venge then need to save up the 10m drops for the Specialized Halo bike.
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You got that Tron bike yet?
 
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