The Indoor Riding/ Zwift/ TrainerRoad etc. Thread

[Roady]

Dont bother with the click together tiles....

Even when you wipe down the matt and spray the surface nasty stuff will grow underneath, the GF will get unhappy about the smell after 5 weeks then force you from the conservatory into the garage which is cold and wet. Which in then forces you build a posh shed inside your garage, which then forces you to buy a epic TV which just happens to be better than the one you have in the house, which then forces you to go to IKEA as you might as well store all your bike stuff in their now..... and before you know it the money you saved up for nice holidays is gone.......Be warned.

One pointer - "grandma has given us some money for something, what shall we get". Correct response is "a new telly". When the retort is "the one we have is only a few years old whats wrong with it", the amended correct response is "it's not 4K" (even though we have nothing 4K to watch on it). #winning

Also helps that the 'new' telly was a BF deal, the 'old' one went into a second lounge and the older one from there which couldn't be wall mounted ended up in the garage to give us even more room by wall-mounting the replacement.

I don't mind being stuck on a ~10 year old 32" around 10" from my face, more than good enough for my bad eyesight! Certainly better than spending out of the bikeholiday fund

Ahaha. To be honest if I had a cold and wet conservatory that would probably be first choice for turbo training.

Debatable. Previous house we had a 2m x 2.5m conversatory built and it was like riding in a cold stinky damp sauna. I chose to actually ride outside on the turbo instead, even in the rain at times (as long as it wasn't heavy, mostly sheltered by the house anyway). But was on an old dumb trainer so no worries about power.

Yeah, I considered it at one point. I have a trainer that powers itself though, I never went any further with the generator idea.

This. Good excuse to get a Neo! Although depends what you're doing about display... If a tablet/laptop then you could genuinely be 'away' from a power source. Using something like a power bank as a backup/power source if battery life isn't good enough. There must be other alternative sources for powering a screen apart from a generator. Large power banks or something like a UPS? I can't imagine a 24" screen uses that much power that a 900VA UPS couldn't keep it running a few hours...?

I've one of these in the office and it powers 2 users PC's and dual 24" monitors for each of them at least 30 minutes when we have any power cuts.

Hi Roady, sorry for the late reply and if I wasn't too clear with my objectives You're right that it's primarily for cardio, but I'm quite keen on the metrics and want to have a go with Zwift which I suspect I might get properly hooked on. Anyway, the decision has been made and I now have a Stages SB20 in the dining room, and apart from your prophesy of a teething problem (believed to be a belt tension issue that should be sorted soon) I'm impressed and pleased with it so far.

Good to hear and probably still a very good choice for what you're after. Sorry about my prophecy, most of the issues I've heard about tend to be more 'electronic' than functional. A belt tension issue would be the first I've heard of (I think). Hopefully an easy solve, or firmware or such.

Good luck with it, some good numbers there for starting out, 310W for 30 mins is around a 280W FTP, which is good for someone new/starting out (I'm not even that high). I know you're technically neither of them but considering the change of equipment, riding position, riding style, limited experience etc etc, it's good.

 

[Jonny ///M]

Managed to get some comparison date on Zwift.

Started a B cat race but forgot I'm exhausted and haven't touched a bike for over a week. Hard as hell start and my measured approach wasn't enough, tried to chase at mad watts but gave up and settled into a steady ride to loosen the legs off.

Average watts 263w vs 227w. Near the end I did an effort showing 300w on the Garmin but 340w on Zwift.

 

[xdcx]

So 30-40w. I've seen people regularly upload duals with that sort of difference and even seen people get away with duals as wild as that in races where they are mandatory with no consequence

 

[platypus]

Can you really not see previous weeks performances on Strava without Premium?

 

[Jonny ///M]

So 30-40w. I've seen people regularly upload duals with that sort of difference and even seen people get away with duals as wild as that in races where they are mandatory with no consequence

Sometimes it doesn't seem that far off but that effort was pretty steady and shows it up.

 

[SoliD]

Decided to give an a crit race a go tonight. I find races keep me motivated to keep up the power a bit more than a straight session. Was some crit race and averaged 308w for 26.5 mins. For a whopping 60th place!

My legs have felt awful for last couple of weeks but think that ride proves its mostly in my head.

 

[Jonny ///M]

That wattage proves its in your head aye!

Zwift racing is silly watts, I'm sure I could race a 3/4 cat race and average 250w.

I'm also struggling for motivation just now but hope to find some motivation in the new year.

 

[SoliD]

That wattage proves its in your head aye!

Zwift racing is silly watts, I'm sure I could race a 3/4 cat race and average 250w.

I'm also struggling for motivation just now but hope to find some motivation in the new year.

Yep and hr was mid 150s for most of it. Compared to 170 when I'm proper going for it.

Yeah those esports champs prove it when a pro rower wins it.

 

[xdcx]

It's out of control now. Top community races are going harder than the premier invite races. A lot of strong guys but also a lot of complete BS. We are having to race against people that have literally been caught cheating in the last couple months and nothing is being done and nothing is stopping them racing.

I am doing 5WKG averages for entire races and over 170BPM average for entire races and I am just barely managing to finish in the front group of these races.

I averaged 5.3 for 40 something mins last week in the TTT and we came 4th!... 4TH!
A British nobody triathlete guy done 6.2 for 44mins the other week in the TTT dragging his team round for a win. Did not get DQ'd despite it being flagged by lots of teams that the guy is doing beyond WT numbers. Never seen such blatant cheating and he got away with it completely.... So you can see why zwift races are stupid watts and over the top. It is chock full of utter nonsense.

 

[platypus]

Ey wow, the Paris course is pretty hot on Zwift, isnt it? Did it for the first time yesterday and at 4k too. Quite impressive actually.

 

[Roady]

WTRL TTT last night. Flat course and again quite a mixed team with 3 A riders along, 1 new B and a couple of old dogs. We lost one before the start so a regular stepped in, but he'd already ridden so barely lasted a lap. 3 A riders on such a flat course really did hurt! Lost the other weaker new B's 3/4 the way through, he did well. I closed a few gaps early on and my turns felt good. Spent the second half chasing wheels and only did a couple of turns - plus my usual leadout into the finish. I finished feeling pretty strong, which was nice, but had over-fuelled in the daytime before and had a fairly easy day off work (daddy daycare). I had an Irn Bru 'energy' drink in my warmup and really think it did massive things for me (placebo?), but I don't normally drink energy or sugary drinks so maybe not totally (although it was sugar free)...

https://www.strava.com/activities/4455863811/analysis/0/2430

Average pretty much bang on my FTP and 3.4w/kg avg. Which is good to see considering I didn't feel utterly at my limit (until putting efforts in) and had actually taken an easier week last week to shake off some illness. I had all intentions of riding earlier in the week, just didn't get the time, so a little down on miles, but thankfully not too much of a dip in form like I'd thought... Yet.

Managed to get some comparison date on Zwift.
<snip>
Average watts 263w vs 227w. Near the end I did an effort showing 300w on the Garmin but 340w on Zwift.

Good to compare! So that was 300W on the 4iiii and 340W on the Vortex for a 19.5 minute race effort on a mostly flat course?

Can you really not see previous weeks performances on Strava without Premium?

They changed it a few months back, so performance related stuff became more of a premium, so they could sell more. They're really struggling (and have been for a while).

Decided to give an a crit race a go tonight. I find races keep me motivated to keep up the power a bit more than a straight session. Was some crit race and averaged 308w for 26.5 mins. For a whopping 60th place!

Good work and numbers, although those crit races hurt a lot, probably very good for your CX training & efforts!

Zwift racing is silly watts, I'm sure I could race a 3/4 cat race and average 250w.

They're a totally different thing though - so short there's really no conserving of energy!

It's out of control now. Top community races are going harder than the premier invite races. A lot of strong guys but also a lot of complete BS. We are having to race against people that have literally been caught cheating in the last couple months and nothing is being done and nothing is stopping them racing.

Hadn't realised it was quite as bad as you say, but really makes a joke of the whole thing doesn't it! Just gotta not take it too seriously...!

Ey wow, the Paris course is pretty hot on Zwift, isnt it? Did it for the first time yesterday and at 4k too. Quite impressive actually.

Richmond now looks loads better as they re-mastered it with the newer textures and stuff. Can't say I noticed much difference - but I am running at 720p lol

 

[SoliD]

W

Good work and numbers, although those crit races hurt a lot, probably very good for your CX training & efforts!

Found it relatively steady I was watching TV so lost concentration and started dropping back so had to put a few efforts in but NP was 306 and Avg was 308, so fairly steady, had an OK kick left in me at the end for 15-20 seconds.

 

[SoliD]

Stupid question why is my zwiftpowr profile not showing my weight in the results?

 

[platypus]

Does anyone know how I can get my ANT+ Garmin HRM working with Zwift directly? Everything else is detected via my ANT+ stick without issue, and it works just fine when I use my Edge, and after its detected by that, then Zwift will pick it up. But I don't want to have to keep remembering to charge my Edge, or use it necessarily when turboing.

 

[xdcx]

Stupid question why is my zwiftpowr profile not showing my weight in the results?

Was the race yesterday or today?
If so then it is mostly because ZP is a steaming pile of **** and has over 17,000 fit files still to process from the past couple days racing It's beyond broken. Again.

 

[xdcx]

Does anyone know how I can get my ANT+ Garmin HRM working with Zwift directly? Everything else is detected via my ANT+ stick without issue, and it works just fine when I use my Edge, and after its detected by that, then Zwift will pick it up. But I don't want to have to keep remembering to charge my Edge, or use it necessarily when turboing.

So Zwift won't pick up the HR monitor until after your Edge has picked it up?
That's very odd and doesn't make much sense to me. If your ANT+ USB is picking up other ANT sensors then don't understand why the HRM is any different. It's not like the Edge wakes up the HRM or dopes anything different in seeing it to what the ANT+ USB is doing.
Very odd.

 

[SoliD]

Was the race yesterday or today?
If so then it is mostly because ZP is a steaming pile of **** and has over 17,000 fit files still to process from the past couple days racing It's beyond broken. Again.

Any race whatsoever! no weight in any of them.

 

[platypus]

So Zwift won't pick up the HR monitor until after your Edge has picked it up?
That's very odd and doesn't make much sense to me. If your ANT+ USB is picking up other ANT sensors then don't understand why the HRM is any different. It's not like the Edge wakes up the HRM or dopes anything different in seeing it to what the ANT+ USB is doing.
Very odd.

Yes exactly that situation. It's annoying as during Winter half the time I forget to charge my Edge.

 

[Roady]

https://www.strava.com/activities/4484840610

WTRL last night. Brute of a course as personally Sand and Sequoias I find so hard to pace. I'm ok on the flats, good on the climb, but those damn kickers and rolling parts really hit me hard. I think a large part of it is probably my trainer difficulty being set high, so I do have to kick on each of them, whereas lower difficulty I wouldn't. But equally I need that as my kick & recover I use for gap closing gets so muted on the lower setting... Meh.

But also throw into the mix our usual team of 8 was down to 5. Only 3 of us regulars with 2 'unknowns'. Ouch. I rode it hard, knowing I had the legs and did my best to keep our captain Percy in, even though he's been struggling recently. He dropped off on the second short climb, then the group got split by other teams coming through. I went back to work the gap, then Percy caught us back up and was strong enough to put some good work in! I closed a number of gaps but was really burning the second lap, having to close them for myself with a few assists. Other regular (Calvin) riding strong and one of our extras (Brian) also doing well. The other guy (Jim) needing some help and then come the finish we ended up split again. Jim & I at the rear and the other two up the road. Still a great ride, but probably my 'hardest' due to the reduced group size, course and longer distance than usual. Numbers a bit off what I'd generally expect, but still a solid workout!

Stupid question why is my zwiftpowr profile not showing my weight in the results?

Not sure. But equally I can't find your ZP profile to check. Does it show it on the header?

Think it just pulls it from Strava, so as long as you've agreed to the Privacy/GDPR waiver in Settings that should be it. If you go into settings what does it say on the right hand side under 'Registration and privacy setting'?

 

[SoliD]

Nope not that I can see. I'll check my privacy settings as I limit what everyone can see so this may be why.