Soldato
- Joined
- 17 Sep 2006
- Posts
- 4,281
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- Gloucestershire
Get an Ant+ dongle and use that (if you can obviously). Much more reliable than BT
The Indoor Riding/ Zwift/ TrainerRoad etc. Thread
- Thread starter randomshenans
- Start date
Soldato
- Joined
- 23 Nov 2004
- Posts
- 10,648
Not been on zwift for a while but I run it on my desktop. An old R9 290, fx 5350 six core and 16gb ram and it runs sweet at 1680x1050.
£100-120 off members market 2.5 years ago. Best VFM card at the time and probably still is for zwift.
My CPU runs hot as it’s 100% load all the time when gaming. I took the side panel and just leant it on the case for now. Not sure if a newer one would help. I have an old style case with PSU at the top too... maybe I’d be up for new case, mobo, cpu and ram all in one go £££
I’ve had a couple of power drops from the trainer recently. Like one every 5 hours of riding. Resistance doesn’t change, just no power displayed on Zwift, comes back after 3-5 seconds. I’ve always been free riding luckily, but not sure why it does it as I’ve changed nothing.
Rubbish, think it's something unique to your setup? Any searches for support seem to point towards their Facebook community pages but I don't see any responses from them on there. Just wonder if worth posting and others may chime in, else try and contact RGT as there could be something obvious/known they'll throw back your way.
HAha and so it should on that setup! Although good point, I think I've got an old R9 280 or similar which works just it's missing a heatsink. Could then throw that into the Q6660 I have with 6GB ram. Anyone running it on Windows 7? Think that's the only windows retail licence I have spare. This has to be a no/low cost project as else I'll just spend £150 on a 4K AppleTV and have no setup/install times and issues. Except of course wanting to use ANT+ and not BT but meh.
Weird, everything else ok - other sensors drop too or just trainer? Worth checking firmware and any updates for it. Also switch it to BT/ANT+ whichever it's curently not on and try it. Think most people find switching trainers to ANT+ and everything else on BT generally irons out any signal issues?
From my recent experience I recommend having trainer separate to everything else.
I had everything on ANT and it was getting very annoying with dropouts.... moved my Kickr to BT by itself and HRM/cadence on ANT. I've not had a single dropout in over 3 months now!
2 other lads on my team done exactly this and echo exactly the same as me. Zero drops since.
I had everything on ANT and it was getting very annoying with dropouts.... moved my Kickr to BT by itself and HRM/cadence on ANT. I've not had a single dropout in over 3 months now!
2 other lads on my team done exactly this and echo exactly the same as me. Zero drops since.
Can you pair the Tickr via BT to companion app and then to Zwift? Then just have your trainer on ANT by itself?
I would recommend that if possible. I wouldn't pair your trainer over BT to the Companion app because the Companion app is a steaming pile of turd.
My laptop I use for Zwift has onboard BT hence I put trainer on that by itself and then HRM/cadence to the ANT dongle in USB port.
When using Zwift, I pair my Tacx Bushido to my Apple TV via Bluetooth (only problem in over year has been the occasional flake out of cadence reporting) ... For RGT, I have to do this via my phone which can do either ANT or BT.
Maybe I'll try and see if it will register via ANT and whether that makes any difference.
I suppose the main irritation is that - as I only use these systems for interval training that lasts 15-30 minutes - Zwift just works, whereas RGT requires I spend almost 20-30% of my workout futzing about with the phone... All the while having to pedal because the Bushido is self-powered!
Maybe I'll try and see if it will register via ANT and whether that makes any difference.
I suppose the main irritation is that - as I only use these systems for interval training that lasts 15-30 minutes - Zwift just works, whereas RGT requires I spend almost 20-30% of my workout futzing about with the phone... All the while having to pedal because the Bushido is self-powered!
Good times, did a 3R interval/workout tonight. Efforts not too difficult, probably about the right level for me really.
Sore leg after the first one but went away, if I’d done a race I’d probably have popped and wouldn’t have had as good a workout. This was a decent hour with efforts/recovery and a blast at the end.
Occasionally struggled to hit the power bang on as depends how much draft/gearing you get, either need to get on top of the gear by pushing bit hard, or really spin it up 105-110rpm which is a touch high.
Race at the end & this lady just disappeared up the volcano climb, almost 6wkg! I was in the main group managing about 4.5-5w (7 min power PR for me on the trainer up the climb).
Sore leg after the first one but went away, if I’d done a race I’d probably have popped and wouldn’t have had as good a workout. This was a decent hour with efforts/recovery and a blast at the end.
Occasionally struggled to hit the power bang on as depends how much draft/gearing you get, either need to get on top of the gear by pushing bit hard, or really spin it up 105-110rpm which is a touch high.
Race at the end & this lady just disappeared up the volcano climb, almost 6wkg! I was in the main group managing about 4.5-5w (7 min power PR for me on the trainer up the climb).
Turbocharged last night was good... But 'interesting'! 
https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=962056
https://www.strava.com/activities/3797735556
I'd scouted around the route as wasn't familiar with it as I hardly ever race on Richmond. Not many people in 3R even knew the circuit and how it generally raced...
Busy chatting on the 3R race Facebook channel and although warmed up I totally missed my usual big push out the gate and just ramped up surfing the tails of the group as it formed. Nothing massive and the group formed quite quickly. Quite a big one of 25-30 riders. Zooming into the first sprint I knew it came after the hairpin but wasn't prepared for the couple of (or was it 1) roundabouts, a turn and seeing the Sprint banner from the other side, so when I spotted the markings on the road I was just drifting back from the front of the group so quite badly timed & placed. Didn't make the top 10 for that one, think maybe 12th. The next lap sprint came and I'd put an effort into holding wheels earlier into the hairpin so it was quite a late effort when I was already hurting. 8th. Team Cryo-gen had around 10 in the front group of 25 riders and several of them where big sprinters. Leaving it late wasn't working for me as I just hadn't got a big enough kick/surge. So lap 3 came and I went long, as a couple of riders went off the front before the hairpin, I kicked off the front to bridge up to them, soft pedalled a few then pushed on past them after the hairpin. The chase behind came strong, bridging 3-4s before I'd barely had time to kick, so I kinda got swamped across the line coming in 5th.
I'm quite surprised I managed to recover from that effort as it was about the max I've done in the middle of a race (knowing I had to continue riding). Kicking at 500W to break from the group, surge at 350W and then another sprint with a kick towards 600W. All within a minute. My highest HR (187bpm) for a while too. Lap 4 came around fast, me still struggling to recover after the previous lap. Things split in towards the hairpin so I'd put a couple of gap closing efforts in but had nothing massive to spend on the sprint. Was outside the top 10 but not sure how far, maybe 12th-14th kinda place. No points. Last lap and sprint came fast again and I was badly placed again for it although quite a few riders seemed to drop speed into it, leading me to going quite late but no massive numbers, maybe around 12th again. So no points. I'd kinda resolved to sit in for it anyway.
For some reason I thought there was a sprint after the downhill towards Libby. There was a bit of a race into the top of the downhill which I think will have caught a few out. I half expected it so helped to drive the pace along as I was ready for MY MASTER PLAN! Hard over the top and sit in, get into aero tuck and recover recover recover! Kick in the middle and recover recover again. It worked well and now I felt like I had some good legs for the final ramps. Perfect! The first bit of gradient alongside the train tracks started to string things out so I put some push into it as my teammate (who is U16 and really light) was ready to go so I started to set things up for him pushing the front a little. What I didn't realise was that these two TINY little bumps where the lumps I'd seen on other riders and the course profile. When actually riding it I didn't consider these big enough to even show on the route profile... WHOOPS! So also being unfamiliar with Richmond meant that the push into Libby I thought was a bit of a surge into the first of the lumps so I just went with the flow as things stretched out further... My teammate went off the front with 1 other and dropped a few riders who'd also clipped off the front with him. I was with 3-4 other riders as we chased them down as things split the remainder of the group. The tight right hander has a slight ease as it then swings left and I'd dropped most of those around me. I didn't push on, just holding distance to the couple of riders I could see in front through the corner. I was saving myself for the main climb... (haha!). The last ramp towards the summit I just continued the effort, not kicking as I was half expecting a sprint soon afterwards and another climb to come afterwards... Imagine my surprise when the scoreboard popped up on screen! I half thought it was a bug and was ready to dismiss it and push on, but behind I could see other riders W/KG drop as they eased and knew it was the end. Whoops!
Finished over the line in 5th, with my Prime points (sprints) putting me in 9th. Quite happy with how that went, although disappointed in my sprint points a little think even though I messed up the finish got some big points from finishing it so high up. I'm still looking for that last sprint as can't understand where it was... After the climb over the line?! I didn't place in it so don't think it was...
Then we had a bunch of insulation put into the houses exterior walls, metal frame and foil backed foam and it really knocked the signal down further and along with the bad days/nights I'd see the occasional drop in Wifi signal too where I'd lose all riders on screen for a few seconds, then they'd come back. Usually only once or twice every few weeks so I kinda put up with it. Cheap laptop & cheap router with extra interference = problems. Now I've hooked another old router up as a hot-spot (old but has external aerials and always had a strong signal before) just for Zwifting it's working well...
Thanks for the W7 feedback.
https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=962056
https://www.strava.com/activities/3797735556
I'd scouted around the route as wasn't familiar with it as I hardly ever race on Richmond. Not many people in 3R even knew the circuit and how it generally raced...
Busy chatting on the 3R race Facebook channel and although warmed up I totally missed my usual big push out the gate and just ramped up surfing the tails of the group as it formed. Nothing massive and the group formed quite quickly. Quite a big one of 25-30 riders. Zooming into the first sprint I knew it came after the hairpin but wasn't prepared for the couple of (or was it 1) roundabouts, a turn and seeing the Sprint banner from the other side, so when I spotted the markings on the road I was just drifting back from the front of the group so quite badly timed & placed. Didn't make the top 10 for that one, think maybe 12th. The next lap sprint came and I'd put an effort into holding wheels earlier into the hairpin so it was quite a late effort when I was already hurting. 8th. Team Cryo-gen had around 10 in the front group of 25 riders and several of them where big sprinters. Leaving it late wasn't working for me as I just hadn't got a big enough kick/surge. So lap 3 came and I went long, as a couple of riders went off the front before the hairpin, I kicked off the front to bridge up to them, soft pedalled a few then pushed on past them after the hairpin. The chase behind came strong, bridging 3-4s before I'd barely had time to kick, so I kinda got swamped across the line coming in 5th.
I'm quite surprised I managed to recover from that effort as it was about the max I've done in the middle of a race (knowing I had to continue riding). Kicking at 500W to break from the group, surge at 350W and then another sprint with a kick towards 600W. All within a minute. My highest HR (187bpm) for a while too. Lap 4 came around fast, me still struggling to recover after the previous lap. Things split in towards the hairpin so I'd put a couple of gap closing efforts in but had nothing massive to spend on the sprint. Was outside the top 10 but not sure how far, maybe 12th-14th kinda place. No points. Last lap and sprint came fast again and I was badly placed again for it although quite a few riders seemed to drop speed into it, leading me to going quite late but no massive numbers, maybe around 12th again. So no points. I'd kinda resolved to sit in for it anyway.
For some reason I thought there was a sprint after the downhill towards Libby. There was a bit of a race into the top of the downhill which I think will have caught a few out. I half expected it so helped to drive the pace along as I was ready for MY MASTER PLAN! Hard over the top and sit in, get into aero tuck and recover recover recover! Kick in the middle and recover recover again. It worked well and now I felt like I had some good legs for the final ramps. Perfect! The first bit of gradient alongside the train tracks started to string things out so I put some push into it as my teammate (who is U16 and really light) was ready to go so I started to set things up for him pushing the front a little. What I didn't realise was that these two TINY little bumps where the lumps I'd seen on other riders and the course profile. When actually riding it I didn't consider these big enough to even show on the route profile... WHOOPS! So also being unfamiliar with Richmond meant that the push into Libby I thought was a bit of a surge into the first of the lumps so I just went with the flow as things stretched out further... My teammate went off the front with 1 other and dropped a few riders who'd also clipped off the front with him. I was with 3-4 other riders as we chased them down as things split the remainder of the group. The tight right hander has a slight ease as it then swings left and I'd dropped most of those around me. I didn't push on, just holding distance to the couple of riders I could see in front through the corner. I was saving myself for the main climb... (haha!). The last ramp towards the summit I just continued the effort, not kicking as I was half expecting a sprint soon afterwards and another climb to come afterwards... Imagine my surprise when the scoreboard popped up on screen! I half thought it was a bug and was ready to dismiss it and push on, but behind I could see other riders W/KG drop as they eased and knew it was the end. Whoops!
Finished over the line in 5th, with my Prime points (sprints) putting me in 9th. Quite happy with how that went, although disappointed in my sprint points a little think even though I messed up the finish got some big points from finishing it so high up. I'm still looking for that last sprint as can't understand where it was... After the climb over the line?! I didn't place in it so don't think it was...
Mine has been far more stable since I did this, but have still seen the occasional 'bad' day/night on it. Still not utterly convinced that quite a lot of my problems where not server side as usually other people also reported issues the same events/days.
Then we had a bunch of insulation put into the houses exterior walls, metal frame and foil backed foam and it really knocked the signal down further and along with the bad days/nights I'd see the occasional drop in Wifi signal too where I'd lose all riders on screen for a few seconds, then they'd come back. Usually only once or twice every few weeks so I kinda put up with it. Cheap laptop & cheap router with extra interference = problems. Now I've hooked another old router up as a hot-spot (old but has external aerials and always had a strong signal before) just for Zwifting it's working well...
My TICKR is 5-6 years old and does both BT and ANT+.
Thanks for the W7 feedback.
Partly why I've turned into quite a Zwift supporter. It has it's moments and they really don't help themselves with messing with the engine/features but the whole 'just generally works' thing is huge for me as a time pressured 'I never get to ride enough' individual. There's a lot else to go wrong with signals, equipment and all the different setups people have, never-mind a flaky/unstable engine and servers...I suppose the main irritation is that - as I only use these systems for interval training that lasts 15-30 minutes - Zwift just works, whereas RGT requires I spend almost 20-30% of my workout futzing about with the phone... All the while having to pedal because the Bushido is self-powered!
Haha nice, what was the session?
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Yeah, she's a beast. I'd heard the name and knew she was good but didn't realise. Looks like her Zwift isn't attached to Strava (where she rides under her other halfs name),so can't see her data from it.
51kg, CAT A & Former National Hill climb champ in 2016, so quite good at hills!
She's taken gold in both the Turbocharged womens rides so far...
51kg, CAT A & Former National Hill climb champ in 2016, so quite good at hills!
She's taken gold in both the Turbocharged womens rides so far...
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Yeah, she's a beast. I'd heard the name and knew she was good but didn't realise. Looks like her Zwift isn't attached to Strava (where she rides under her other halfs name),so can't see her data from it.
51kg, CAT A & Former National Hill climb champ in 2016, so quite good at hills!
She's taken gold in both the Turbocharged womens rides so far...
Within 10w of my FTP but almost 30kg lighter!Backed up with a short race tonight. Same as last week, the Evo CC sprint series. These are sub 20k races so 25 minutes approximately.
Almost no A grade riders this week but about 25 in B. Out the pen B is first but I knew A came through us after last week so no point going super hard. Stay towards the front of the bunch, but only one from A came over and that was the group formed.
With it being B grade the pace wasn’t as smoking as when it was A/B mixed. Around 10-15 seconds a lap slower, I could sit on below my limit and recover.
Hard up the slight incline the end of each lap as expected with gradual loss of riders. I made it hard the next to last lap and split the bunch with one guy coming over the top of me so knew he was going good, this thinned it to ten riders, I’d be happy with around 5th usually.
Sit on the group the whole last lap as nobody is trying anything so easy pedalling. Surge through the pack at the base of the climb everything going good, get over the top, little further back than maybe I wanted but I hadn’t gone super deep, so keep the power on for the slight grade let up, reel people in and then launch a longer sprint from 300m out. End up going toe to toe with the same bloke from the previous lap, with him just pipping me on the line for the win.
Totally wiped, hardly able to pedal or do anything! Peak 1 minute power record for me of 6.4w/kg, probably went up into the volcano at 5-5.5, lifted to 4-4.5 Momentarily then opened out for the last 600m. It took a good 10-15 mins to feel back to normal. Check Strava, max HR 201, last minute at over 190 ah yes that explains it.
Almost no A grade riders this week but about 25 in B. Out the pen B is first but I knew A came through us after last week so no point going super hard. Stay towards the front of the bunch, but only one from A came over and that was the group formed.
With it being B grade the pace wasn’t as smoking as when it was A/B mixed. Around 10-15 seconds a lap slower, I could sit on below my limit and recover.
Hard up the slight incline the end of each lap as expected with gradual loss of riders. I made it hard the next to last lap and split the bunch with one guy coming over the top of me so knew he was going good, this thinned it to ten riders, I’d be happy with around 5th usually.
Sit on the group the whole last lap as nobody is trying anything so easy pedalling. Surge through the pack at the base of the climb everything going good, get over the top, little further back than maybe I wanted but I hadn’t gone super deep, so keep the power on for the slight grade let up, reel people in and then launch a longer sprint from 300m out. End up going toe to toe with the same bloke from the previous lap, with him just pipping me on the line for the win.
Totally wiped, hardly able to pedal or do anything! Peak 1 minute power record for me of 6.4w/kg, probably went up into the volcano at 5-5.5, lifted to 4-4.5 Momentarily then opened out for the last 600m. It took a good 10-15 mins to feel back to normal. Check Strava, max HR 201, last minute at over 190 ah yes that explains it.
Got promoted to CAT B after this one last night...! 
https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=966107
https://www.strava.com/activities/3806029468
WTRL TTT last night with the 3R Fall Out Boy team again. Brutal, but fantastic. Tonight's ride was on Innsbruckring with 3 climbs of the 'Legsnapper' (which has quite an apt name) and with the fast descent afterwards really makes a technical TTT course - mixed rider weights within a team really splitting them easily.
We where out quite early this time but had a couple of slower teams in front and our minute team were the 3R Team above us (3R 1Direction) where one of our usual leaders was riding this week... I went a little too hard ramping out the gate and buzzed the front but we got organised fast so the rotation started quite quickly. We had a new rider with us who didn't speak much english (nor have push to talk enabled on Discord)...
My first turn went well (75s @ 325w avg), quite smooth considering there was a slight ramp before it so I pushed early, but think that worked to my advantage as I generally shoot up on them anyway. New guy (Luka) finished his turn just before the climb, but when someone stronger pushed the pace on the front up it Luka blew up (could hear on Discord!) and couldn't hold the wheel. As it happened quite early we didn't ease too much for him, our group splitting a little over the top anyway (1 minute 13s @ 337w avg). My second pull was quite a bit easier than the first as all on a flat part of the course (60s @ 327w avg). My third pull came just before the climb, I paced it quite well (45s @ 320w avg), but half way up the climb we caught another team (Velo Raptors). Rather than easing (as WTRL rules are) a few of them pushed on, splitting their group and us with them. We had to ease to try and regroup so our second climb wasn't great (1 minute 24s @ 278w avg), as we did our minute team (3R 1Direction) came past and one of them got stuck riding with us - without realising he'd been dropped! Ooops! I managed to aero tuck the descent from this one and got some valuable recovery. Soon after the start of lap 3 we lost one of our best riders (Chris) to a disconnect, he chased hard solo but it took some before he reconnected, the gap at 17s and we'd just sped up after easing a little. As only 4 riders needed to cross the line and we had 5 we pushed on! We were all over the place that last lap, usually whoever was strongest sat on the front doing what they could while the rest of us just hung on rather than any real rotation. I did a bit of a turn coming up the slight incline but it was very measured (60s @ 278w) as was very near my limit at this point. As we hit the climb for the 3rd and last time for me it was just a case of hanging on (1 minute 14s @ 334w avg), we caught the troublesome Raptors team from earlier and blew past them quite early on, but the effort did begin to stretch our team out. Towards the top with some other scattered solo riders from other groups we got split again. 2 off the front, 2 chasing and 1 dropped. Myself in the chasing group, we eased for our dropped guy over the top (he's a lighter rider) but we hadn't spotted how big the gap had grown. While tucking again on the descent he told us to push on, I did a long turn then (75s @ 298w avg) as part of the 2up to catch the guys up front and continued the effort past them a short way, but I was done at that point and soon back to hanging on to whatever wheel I could find towards the finish. I was counting the km's down and nearly popped at around 2km to go when a slight incline killed my cadence, somehow didn't drop my speed so a couple of soft pedals I was back into it. 0.5km to go came and I just sprinted completely emptying the tank (30s @ 360w), I knew I could finish it like that, as I thought if I was just trying to hang on I might have dropped. That's the deepest I've gone for a long time, my HR avg (175bpm) towards the top of my threshold, the turns, climbs and sprints all around 180bpm which previously would have blown me up or I'd not be able to recover from. Intensity @ 100% for the ride really shows how deep I was willing to go, but a fantastic test of my current fitness. Far deeper than I would go on an FTP test. I was quite surprised not to get an FTP increase from that, but it must have been close!
https://www.zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=966107
https://www.strava.com/activities/3806029468
WTRL TTT last night with the 3R Fall Out Boy team again. Brutal, but fantastic. Tonight's ride was on Innsbruckring with 3 climbs of the 'Legsnapper' (which has quite an apt name) and with the fast descent afterwards really makes a technical TTT course - mixed rider weights within a team really splitting them easily.
We where out quite early this time but had a couple of slower teams in front and our minute team were the 3R Team above us (3R 1Direction) where one of our usual leaders was riding this week... I went a little too hard ramping out the gate and buzzed the front but we got organised fast so the rotation started quite quickly. We had a new rider with us who didn't speak much english (nor have push to talk enabled on Discord)...
My first turn went well (75s @ 325w avg), quite smooth considering there was a slight ramp before it so I pushed early, but think that worked to my advantage as I generally shoot up on them anyway. New guy (Luka) finished his turn just before the climb, but when someone stronger pushed the pace on the front up it Luka blew up (could hear on Discord!) and couldn't hold the wheel. As it happened quite early we didn't ease too much for him, our group splitting a little over the top anyway (1 minute 13s @ 337w avg). My second pull was quite a bit easier than the first as all on a flat part of the course (60s @ 327w avg). My third pull came just before the climb, I paced it quite well (45s @ 320w avg), but half way up the climb we caught another team (Velo Raptors). Rather than easing (as WTRL rules are) a few of them pushed on, splitting their group and us with them. We had to ease to try and regroup so our second climb wasn't great (1 minute 24s @ 278w avg), as we did our minute team (3R 1Direction) came past and one of them got stuck riding with us - without realising he'd been dropped! Ooops! I managed to aero tuck the descent from this one and got some valuable recovery. Soon after the start of lap 3 we lost one of our best riders (Chris) to a disconnect, he chased hard solo but it took some before he reconnected, the gap at 17s and we'd just sped up after easing a little. As only 4 riders needed to cross the line and we had 5 we pushed on! We were all over the place that last lap, usually whoever was strongest sat on the front doing what they could while the rest of us just hung on rather than any real rotation. I did a bit of a turn coming up the slight incline but it was very measured (60s @ 278w) as was very near my limit at this point. As we hit the climb for the 3rd and last time for me it was just a case of hanging on (1 minute 14s @ 334w avg), we caught the troublesome Raptors team from earlier and blew past them quite early on, but the effort did begin to stretch our team out. Towards the top with some other scattered solo riders from other groups we got split again. 2 off the front, 2 chasing and 1 dropped. Myself in the chasing group, we eased for our dropped guy over the top (he's a lighter rider) but we hadn't spotted how big the gap had grown. While tucking again on the descent he told us to push on, I did a long turn then (75s @ 298w avg) as part of the 2up to catch the guys up front and continued the effort past them a short way, but I was done at that point and soon back to hanging on to whatever wheel I could find towards the finish. I was counting the km's down and nearly popped at around 2km to go when a slight incline killed my cadence, somehow didn't drop my speed so a couple of soft pedals I was back into it. 0.5km to go came and I just sprinted completely emptying the tank (30s @ 360w), I knew I could finish it like that, as I thought if I was just trying to hang on I might have dropped. That's the deepest I've gone for a long time, my HR avg (175bpm) towards the top of my threshold, the turns, climbs and sprints all around 180bpm which previously would have blown me up or I'd not be able to recover from. Intensity @ 100% for the ride really shows how deep I was willing to go, but a fantastic test of my current fitness. Far deeper than I would go on an FTP test. I was quite surprised not to get an FTP increase from that, but it must have been close!
Nice! Absolutely great finish and some fantastic numbers there! I do like the Volcanos ramps, really does get me riding hard the few times I've raced it. I like the corkscrew too! Although looks like you do too... 1.5 minutes faster up there than me lol
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Ha, welcome to B grade!
It looks like you’re improving pretty quickly, from 3w in June to 3.3-3.4w end of July.
I knocked time off my best up the corkscrew earlier this week on that interval ride with the race finish up there, a good 30-45 seconds faster than I would have gone solo. 25w more than I have pushed solo too, so not all down to the draft effect!
It looks like you’re improving pretty quickly, from 3w in June to 3.3-3.4w end of July.
I knocked time off my best up the corkscrew earlier this week on that interval ride with the race finish up there, a good 30-45 seconds faster than I would have gone solo. 25w more than I have pushed solo too, so not all down to the draft effect!
Jumped on the same 3R interval ride tonight, good workout and leader again.
Power & NP same as last week but different intervals, up the corkscrew was more on and off than last weeks constant hard and 10w less average.
I’d rather try and ride 4.5-5w constant hard, this was hard then eased to 3.0 then 5.5 etc. Dropped about 500m from the top, just couldn’t hold the wheel.
Power & NP same as last week but different intervals, up the corkscrew was more on and off than last weeks constant hard and 10w less average.
I’d rather try and ride 4.5-5w constant hard, this was hard then eased to 3.0 then 5.5 etc. Dropped about 500m from the top, just couldn’t hold the wheel.
So, I finished my four weeks of Tabata training after three-and-a-bit weeks as the routine had settled into a bit of monotonous dread.
8*20s intervals at 190% FTP might not sound too hard but they were utterly brutal and, more to the point, I didn't really see any real or consistent improvement during the three weeks (yes, it was easier spinning up 500w, and the whole 8 reps took a shorter period of time by the last workout, but I could rarely get past 4 reps without vomiting a lung).
One of the really interesting things I did notice was that Tabata is a lot more like weight training:
- I dreaded it
- It made my legs explode in flames of lactic acid
- I actually gained a little weight back
The only times I have been this uncomfortable are after some heavy or prolonged leg training... This isn't normal cycling or even normal cycling training.
Another interesting quirk was that - after the first week - I didn't have any DOMS... In fact, there seemed to be very little accumulated fatigue at all ("but no improvement," you say?): my legs didn't feel any worse the day after, as they would from my nominal 18 mile commute and I felt as though recovery was VERY quick after the set of 8 - cycling in Zone 3 for 15 minutes afterwards was fine...
So why did I stop? Although it was "only" 15 or so minutes on the bike, it isn't long enough to watch something on Netflix or for a good song to rotate onto my play list. It is also really, really unpleasant when you're neck deep into the 6th interval, you want to vomit and cough at the same time, legs are ready to spontaneously combust and there's a burning smell in your nose. Every day...
But despite all that, what did 17.5 minutes of hard exercise do for my FTP?
Another ramp test this evening, and whilst heading past my old FTP of 262W felt quite easy, I ran into a brick wall hard after 360W, netting a 3W increase (265W), which is marginal error given the Bushido has a 5% error.
Would I do it again? Definitely, but probably to break up the monotony of another training block of SST or over-unders...
8*20s intervals at 190% FTP might not sound too hard but they were utterly brutal and, more to the point, I didn't really see any real or consistent improvement during the three weeks (yes, it was easier spinning up 500w, and the whole 8 reps took a shorter period of time by the last workout, but I could rarely get past 4 reps without vomiting a lung).
One of the really interesting things I did notice was that Tabata is a lot more like weight training:
- I dreaded it
- It made my legs explode in flames of lactic acid
- I actually gained a little weight back
The only times I have been this uncomfortable are after some heavy or prolonged leg training... This isn't normal cycling or even normal cycling training.
Another interesting quirk was that - after the first week - I didn't have any DOMS... In fact, there seemed to be very little accumulated fatigue at all ("but no improvement," you say?): my legs didn't feel any worse the day after, as they would from my nominal 18 mile commute and I felt as though recovery was VERY quick after the set of 8 - cycling in Zone 3 for 15 minutes afterwards was fine...
So why did I stop? Although it was "only" 15 or so minutes on the bike, it isn't long enough to watch something on Netflix or for a good song to rotate onto my play list. It is also really, really unpleasant when you're neck deep into the 6th interval, you want to vomit and cough at the same time, legs are ready to spontaneously combust and there's a burning smell in your nose. Every day...
But despite all that, what did 17.5 minutes of hard exercise do for my FTP?
Another ramp test this evening, and whilst heading past my old FTP of 262W felt quite easy, I ran into a brick wall hard after 360W, netting a 3W increase (265W), which is marginal error given the Bushido has a 5% error.
Would I do it again? Definitely, but probably to break up the monotony of another training block of SST or over-unders...
For me, I’d have to have 10-15 mins at least to get warmed up ahead of an effort like that and a few leg/lung openers first.
Otherwise I just wouldn’t be able to try to do the set.
Seems like a “life hack” type workout.
Perhaps if you just want to maintain a fitness level of X then it will work, but for actual cycling forget it. I can’t imagine it’s particularly nice trying to do the efforts, and if you then don’t see an improvement the motivation to keep doing them is going to be low.
Otherwise I just wouldn’t be able to try to do the set.
Seems like a “life hack” type workout.
Perhaps if you just want to maintain a fitness level of X then it will work, but for actual cycling forget it. I can’t imagine it’s particularly nice trying to do the efforts, and if you then don’t see an improvement the motivation to keep doing them is going to be low.
I think the motivation part is important... I didn't know my VO2max so used Internet guidance to assess it (as far away from a bad idea as I can get), which could make it far too high...
But - just like a lot of workouts - it is probably something that needs to be included in a load of something else. I think there might be a further question in determining the outcomes of each training type by FTP test:
- I felt much stronger at my threshold power, but dropped off a cliff as the ramps went over 320W
- I managed an additional 20s at the 360W ramp, which translated - I am guessing - to the additional 3W
I think the protocol is a genuine life hack (i.e. less time working out for some appreciable maintenance/gains) but the compromises are very great. For somebody who enjoys cycling, they might be too great... I don't actually enjoy cycling (I wouldn't just "go out on my bike" and will probably never do a Zwift race), but I like performance and power, so they are less problematic for me...