The Indoor Riding/ Zwift/ TrainerRoad etc. Thread

[AndyCr15]

A lot of racers use 25-40% slope feel. I used 33% for Bologna, but then I only have use of 16T sprocket with 34/50 rings.

I was at about 75% but I think my wheel was slipping on the trainer, so I dropped it down to about 25% instead for Bologna....

 

[GSVBagpuss]

There’s clearly nothing Zwift can do to force everyone to have the same difficulty with all the options of trainers out there but I can see the advantage of flattering the slopes and turning it into a TT effort

Ugh New York next, I never enjoy this course. I may do the race just to avoid the “virtual” climbs

 

[xdcx]

To be honest with you, at around 45-50% trainer difficulty I find myself using very similar gearing to what I do outside on 5-9% climbs. There is no way of making it a black and white sort of subject with the different trainers, gears, abilities and opinion out there.

Bologna is funny doing 90kmh around those bends on way down the hill.

Yet another stage plagued by cheats though. It has never been this bad in this game.

 

[bimbleuk]

Bologna is funny doing 90kmh around those bends on way down the hill.

Yet another stage plagued by cheats though. It has never been this bad in this game.

Broke 100 kph on the way down so another achievement added.

Cheating in any form of online "gaming" has just become the norm now so I just set myself some goals on an event like this. Either aiming to be in a certain percentage for my class or maybe making up places on climbs as I'm not particularly fast on the flats.

The early morning Vikings rides have been a good motivator for me recently.

 

[dodg3rman]

Stage 5 short done this morning , a rolling course with one small climb so it didnt break the groups apart too much. 67/500 which i'm happy with as it was mixed cat and im only C

Kept my HR ave under 150 too so very happy all round

 

[Roady]

I was just thinking I didn't know the course and hadn't ridden it, but if it's been there that long I must have, just don't recall it?!

Totally failed to get on and ride it... So Stage 4 I'll have to do on a catchup! Just annoying the 3 ride days fell over a weekend and a monday. Ah well.

I've always left the trainer on 100%, yes its hard but never seen the point of reducing it. its not as though you can do that out on real roads.

You can, it's called an ebike!

Great ride again buddy! Good work on the climb too!

There’s clearly nothing Zwift can do to force everyone to have the same difficulty

Of course there is! ERG trainers, so enforce 100% realism on races! It's well within their control as it's within their software. It's client/user side but able to 'change' server side output (or more accurately the ERG controls sent to the trainer from the server). The realism slider wasn't there at the start, it was added in.

Force people to standardise their setups if they want to compete more accurately rather than trying to cater to all... But we all know they won't do that. Although would be nice if they could implement something like that for the 'official' race kinda stuff. The Nationals and things like the Zwift Olympics would be/will be a joke if they where/are not able to standardise things. While they're there they need to come up with some rules and set some groundwork over what is acceptable... I still think it a little unfair what happened with Cam Jeffers, but one good thing is he did set a prescedent so it won't happen again.

Yet another stage plagued by cheats though. It has never been this bad in this game.

TdZ has always been bad for it. No admins. Far more riders.

The early morning Vikings rides have been a good motivator for me recently.

Which ones are those? Good group. I ended up in a Valhalla 100 ride one sunday morning (late join failed so I missed my usual 3R 100km) and the course for it was brutal for a 100km ride. 4 or 5 laps of Greater London, including x5 Box Hill.

 

[UTmaniac]

Bit gutted they didn't choose Grand Central for the New York race event, not that my legs feel too good today after yesterday's workout and doing a novel 8-lap TT race at Downtown Dolphin a short while later.

 

[bimbleuk]

Which ones are those? Good group. I ended up in a Valhalla 100 ride one sunday morning (late join failed so I missed my usual 3R 100km) and the course for it was brutal for a 100km ride. 4 or 5 laps of Greater London, including x5 Box Hill.

Yeah it's the Valhalla ride group from Sweden and they do 2-3 early rides each week. Even earlier for us so currently 05:00am but the groups are growing to nearly 300 on a regular basis. Called the Fat Burn so medium intensity and depending on the leader sprints are mixed in. Good group to ride with though as I usually literally jump from bed to the bike so I don't think about how cold it is in the living room!

 

[Roady]

Yeah it's the Valhalla ride group from Sweden and they do 2-3 early rides each week. Even earlier for us so currently 05:00am but the groups are growing to nearly 300 on a regular basis. Called the Fat Burn so medium intensity and depending on the leader sprints are mixed in. Good group to ride with though as I usually literally jump from bed to the bike so I don't think about how cold it is in the living room!

Yeah I've a Zwift friend who rides with/for them. But 5am is a bit early for me! Only 'early' ride I do is the 3R 100km at 7:30am on sunday and even than sometimes I miss the start. But I do have to get kitted up, out to my garage and then set things up (laptop etc). My wake up is generally the same time as whenever our 2.5 year old decides...!

Cold living room?! I'd dream of that warmth! There's times I'll be riding in sub zero in my garage... Two thermal jerseys, arm & leg warmers and a hat over sweatbands are my usual. I have even been known to ride in full fingered gloves, face buff & overshoes...!

 

[Roady]

Ruined myself on Stage 5 last night.

Something weird going on with my trainer made hills seem too 'easy', but I would rapidly drop speed on screen and I just couldn't put any sustained power down. Like ERG was slipping. Annoying but obviously didn't really notice until half way through the first ride...

There just didn't seem to be enough resistance even when changing up a few gears. Shouldn't be able to ride liberty hill towards the top of my cassette in the big ring at this cadence and wattages: https://www.strava.com/activities/3054732048/analysis/162/640

https://www.strava.com/activities/3054487027
I'd already missed the long ride start so jumped in the short ride. With the trainer issue and very average legs I got bored and dropped off to try and sort it out, before then then ride the long ride.

https://www.strava.com/activities/3054732048
21 miles of hell for me. Trainer still not quite right, but slightly better than it was. Legs would just not switch on after the earlier efforts. HR sky high and even riding at what should be tempo for me just couldn't get it down. Cadence kept slipping too and I constantly found myself grinding when I'm so used to spinning. Really compounded things with the trainer and my mindset - I got to the half way point after losing ~120 places and nearly jacked it in. In an effort to find my legs I just gave up chasing any kind of position and just settled down into my endurance type effort, HR still all over the place but at least my legs felt a little better towards the end. Was still pedalling squares more than I should've and it was a horrible route/course to have a bad day/bad legs. But it's done now.

84 TSS from those 2 rides, coupled with commuting & the tank made it a 117 TSS day, not wonder I'm aching today...

How to win an A CAT race: https://www.strava.com/activities/3054199918/analysis/1122/2252

 

[Lethal`]

Decided to try out indoor cycling again... on the wattbike in work's gym. So sweaty! It's far too warm in there. I brought my MTB shoes in so I could clip in and the bike's are pretty neat. I just picked a random workout on Wattbike Hub and roughly setup the bike.

I figure it's useful to have the option when weather or work commitments make getting out hard. I can just go in the middle of the day for an hour and then at least I'm turning over the legs and not spending 3+ days off the bike. I'm going to have to spend some time digging into the pedal effectiveness data. Don't understand it yet.

 

[SoliD]

Stage 5 NYC done, did the long route and was 2nd for a bit as I was doing an FTP setting thing where I was max for the first 3 minutes, pushing 400+w for that amount of time with everyone just casually sitting there! Find I just use Zwift for monitoring and to keep my eyes on something else as I put a film on the big screen. Enjoyable way to pass the time though and the ramps etc make it so much more engaging even if I'm not watching the gradients etc rather than just a static resistance it makes my body think a little!

 

[Roady]

Decided to try out indoor cycling again... on the wattbike in work's gym. So sweaty! It's far too warm in there. I brought my MTB shoes in so I could clip in and the bike's are pretty neat. I just picked a random workout on Wattbike Hub and roughly setup the bike.

Nice to have that option! Good to see the data from it, actually really interesting on how it's presented by the bike/on their system. I never saw that when I used one but it was several years ago now...

Stage 5 NYC done, did the long route and was 2nd for a bit as I was doing an FTP setting thing where I was max for the first 3 minutes, pushing 400+w for that amount of time with everyone just casually sitting there! Find I just use Zwift for monitoring and to keep my eyes on something else as I put a film on the big screen. Enjoyable way to pass the time though and the ramps etc make it so much more engaging even if I'm not watching the gradients etc rather than just a static resistance it makes my body think a little!

Yeah the hilly NYC courses are really fun, I really enjoy them but not that one on Tuesday. Your start was awesome but that tempo afterwards really ruined any impressive time, especially as the FTP effort later looked very strong! Just think how easy you rode the earlier section... I was in Z4 the whole damn thing and a couple of mins behind you lol

But equally I'm really ashamed of my 1hr 5mins+ and must ride it again, I'm over 10 minutes slower than my PR and that ride was the slowest I've ever done that route - even the times not racing it, riding it in group rides! Oh dear #badday

@Shadowness put a mega time in on it, even faster than @xdcx !

 

[xdcx]

I had a nightmare on that one last night. My Kickr was no altering until 30 seconds after the fact. So on the climbs I was spinning away like it was a flat when we were going up 12% and then all of a sudden it would go insanely difficult.... then it would stay insanely difficult 30 seconds onto the flat/downhill after climbing

I got dropped on the KOM both times! says it all. Bloody technology been shafting me good and proper this past week and I've had enough tbh.

 

[SoliD]

I had to have a toilet half way through too, but I'm not that fussed where I placed just on there to keep the mind ticking over.

Managed to get an extra month off the code @Marzipanogram gave me as the code expired after a month, Zwift looked into it and just re-applied a whole 3 months. That should keep me going until the nicer weather! Unlikely to use the turbo much after April unless it's really bad.

 

[Roady]

I had a nightmare on that one last night. My Kickr was no altering until 30 seconds after the fact.

Funny you should say that, I had problems too and couldn't quite track it down. I had similar to you, but the resistance never kicked in, just slowed me on screen... So I was spinning away near the top of my 11-28 assette (in my 52T) on those ramps barely turning 220W.

I saw 1 other comment in the ride about someone having issues. Then have also seen 2 other rides from friends (+1 random ride title from same ride as me) who also had problems.

After all that I'm not convinced there's not a Zwift bug. Maybe due to the number of riders in these events.

Not that there should be! Looking at my data earlier the ride I was in for 2019 had 2300+ starters, with no issues, the one this week had less than 400...

I had to have a toilet half way through too, but I'm not that fussed where I placed just on there to keep the mind ticking over.

Managed to get an extra month off the code @Marzipanogram gave me as the code expired after a month, Zwift looked into it and just re-applied a whole 3 months. That should keep me going until the nicer weather! Unlikely to use the turbo much after April unless it's really bad.

I've used other stuff as distractions before (like watching rugby while just spinning away) but much of the time now there's so many group/training rides on there I'll just do those instead. I don't seem to need a distraction anymore on Zwift - the routes and landscape seem to be enough visual distraction for me, music is generally enough other distraction (currently Hardstyle, Dutch Techno & a bit of Jump up DNB). But I'm so low on mileage (+ time) I have no time for 'junk'/recovery miles anymore, I'm constantly battling to get volume in with the time I have.

 

[xdcx]

Sounds similar Roady. I think based on some of the slow downs/surges in the front group it was not just me affected as the blob seemed to run very, very odd at times. Guys ending up off the front at low wattage and then as you say putting out bigger numbers yet avatar is barely moving as folk ride away. I've always found NYC to be a bit off feeling all round but that last night was something else.

I've had some bad dropouts lately too. URL the other night I dropped all my sensors completely 25KM into the race.... ANT showed it was connected and looking for sensors but I had to quit the game client completely and start it up again before I could see any sensors via my ANT dongle.
It's either the game client or the ANT dongle but I've been plagued by dropouts either just power for 4-5 seconds and that's the total dropout and game restart situation happened twice now.... all since last Zwift patch. Prior to the last 2 patches I could honestly say I had never seen a sensor drop out at all.

 

[SoliD]

Oh talking of Ant+ I've managed to lose my usb stick, what is the best/cheapest thing I can get away with so I can get my HR reading as my Surface picks the Tacx up with the bluetooth.

 

[Shadowness]

@xdcx haha that was a great ride! I only realised it was you when I saw the names of the front such we were slowly catching. I knew you'd be a rocket up the climbs, so just did my best to stick with the bunch. I just couldn't hack the last digs and just got dropped. Somehow we all managed to regroup but I didn't have the legs for a sprint.
I almost wish it went on for another 10 mins or so as it would have been my PB 1 hour power. 347W for almost 50 mins was still a PB too. Just not enough to keep up with you lot weighing 10-20 kg less than me!

 

[xdcx]

@xdcx haha that was a great ride! I only realised it was you when I saw the names of the front such we were slowly catching. I knew you'd be a rocket up the climbs, so just did my best to stick with the bunch. I just couldn't hack the last digs and just got dropped. Somehow we all managed to regroup but I didn't have the legs for a sprint.
I almost wish it went on for another 10 mins or so as it would have been my PB 1 hour power. 347W for almost 50 mins was still a PB too. Just not enough to keep up with you lot weighing 10-20 kg less than me!

Wait, I didn't even realise we were in the same one until reading this post hahaha.
I got dropped twice on the climbs I was not pushing it. But then we got back on twice and I came what 3rd or something in the sprint.... it shows you how stupid this game is! Climber gets dropped twice on climb then mashes guys in the "sprint"

Good ride though man. I'm with you in wishing it went on another 10-15 mins but more so because it wasn't long enough a training sesh, I like to try get a good bit over the hour at z3/4