Last week I felt strong, although would've been nice to get in more than 1 midweek session. Although the only race I did on Wednesday I struggled a little, but that was due to the race rather than anything else.
https://www.strava.com/activities/2994017853
I made the early split but the first group burned me a bit too much, as they where pushing 3+ turns and 4+ surges up the ramps, also not enough of a group to recover at tempo, I eased off the back and the chasing group was even stronger! Knew I couldn't sustain it so actually sat up rather than slog away solo like I normally would until the next group came along. I just knew there where not many racing so it would be a pretty boring solo effort. Decided to drop and find another ride (looking for the Crit circuit) but drew a blank.
https://www.strava.com/activities/2997226157
So I joined a climbing training ride, but only did the first interval as I ran out of time. Quite a good session but found it boring as nobody else 'chatting'. I think I've become a chatterbox lol. Considering the earlier race effort power levels felt good. Went pretty deep
holding my (probably incorrectly set slightly high) FTP effort but felt I could sustain it longer if required. HR right up higher than it should be, but felt sustainable.
Rode outside on a social club ride Saturday. Not a huge hard ride as spent 3/4 of it 'sweeping' a slow rider. I don't just do it on Zwift!
https://www.strava.com/activities/3006158847
Then jumped into TdZ last night. Went full fat for the long group ride. Brutal ride, found myself shelled from group after group after making one of the front ones. They where happily pulling at 3+ so could sit in at 2.5-2.7 yet some of the surges at 5+ where hurting me. I held back a little ramping and holding 4w/kg but burned myself doing so while also getting gapped, part of that probably due to the fatigue from the day before. Eventually settled into 3 different groups, rolling good turns but each got split either by catching groups in front (I'd got shelled from before) so the strong riders sprinted across the closing gap killing the group, or again when a strong group from behind came through it would take the strong couple of riders and shell the rest of us.
Still Leith hill came along and I found myself easily one of the strongest around these same groups. Distancing most of the riders from the last couple of groups by the village, including multiple names I recognised as strong riders from earlier who'd dropped me. Some quality sustained threshold up Leith, holding 2.7/3.0/3.2 on the different gradients actually felt managable but I knew the length of it so didn't really go too deep just kept the gear turning. A couple of the dips/eases off I actually lost out on a few spaces as I dropped speed on them rather than surging like I normally would (and did for some), trying to manage my effort a little. Still quality threshold, I went from top 200 from the frantic start, down to about 360 by the base of the climb, then finished in 300 or something. 202 on ZP.
You go over the hill which is 20-30 seconds over threshold, then have to keep the power on for another 10 seconds or so depending on where you are in the pack. Then you hit some downhill rollers where you need to pay attention as it can split here.
Damn, ok that does sound hard! I hadn't appreciated the hill was that long, so it's a bit more than a 'bump'!
Have still not ridden it...
That's the tough thing about these bigger races full of hitters.
That's the thing, there's just so many of those big hitters around these days. Also Zwift races being generally very biased towards power riders, rather than lighter riders...
I took it easy tonight and just did a short one. Got passed by Mrs OMS I think going up Box Hill.
Box hill 'taking is easy'?! Always find that one hard no matter how I climb it. Think it just doesn't suit me - the constant gradient just makes it so much of a drain for me. Climbs with a changing gradient suit me more...
No bad thing, if she can keep up with
@One More Solo !
Just bought a smart trainer, Elite suito and its bloody brutal compared to road riding.
Haha, what are you finding hard? No/very little easy pedalling? Verify your calibration/spindown etc with your trainer. You ride with power outside? It's hard to directly compare - most riders will find themselves with a 'better' FTP outside. Comparing power meter measurements is also a little like comparing Apples and Oranges.
I’m still confused by TdZ2020 - why trumpet the race option and then make it 6 miles of flat? Maybe it’s an easy way to ease newer riders into racing. I’ll be doing the group rides for sure which will be hard anyway
Yup, the group rides are generally harder courses/routes. The race routes did seem to match those 'popular' race routes used, which are generally flat courses. It's a very 'Zwift' thing to do - don't forget the most popular races & series are not organised by Zwift. Some of even the better routes/courses have been suggested by the community before Zwift added them in as such.
Leith hill last night was good fun - a great introduction! Quite glad they chose it over Box (although surprised).
Discovered something had been rubbing against my inner thigh and drawn blood.
One way to lower your lactate...!
. Anyhow ended up in the lead group and tried to hang as long as possible even though my legs felt goodish I was blowing up the ramp. Ended up staying with lead group but only had enough for a last 1km ramp up of sorts with no kick left as my HR was up to 160 and didnt feel like killing myself. 9th place for cat C and 3rd on ZP but a pleasant surprise was a back to back FTP increase (up to 255).
