The Indoor Riding/ Zwift/ TrainerRoad etc. Thread

Had a fortnight off Zwift and been training on the road, increased volume slightly. Mostly I have Been doing hill repeats for which I end up standing for part of the climb due to the gradient.

End result, almost 10% up across the board on my power numbers.

Able to ride at or close to threshold and then get out the saddle and crank the big gear over for the little lumps, and on cresting keep the power on instead of slumping back down. I Felt like I could race instead of just being pack fodder.

Entered without fully reading the course, it said Volcano flat 3 laps which I thought was 17km. Wrong Volcano course, it was actually 37km :(

I finished in the front group. Tried a few attacks/pressure to force a split on the gravel after the underwater section but but these didn’t pay off and it ended in a bunch sprint.
 
So.... is riding outdoors and Zwifting at the same time, cheating? I experimented with it this week (with the double XP and all) rode 40 miles outdoors, 33 on Zwift and just discarded the ride at the end. It doesn't go to my feed as a ride, but I keep the XP and drops?
 
Yup...it's a thing. People have been doing it for a while running, as for the Zwift ride/run events, you can only really do the latter if you have a treadmill.......until recently.
 
SoliD said:
Good way to get your points up I guess.
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And this is it, I can easily ride for 3 hours outdoors, but no way I could stick it indoors... so I feel like I'm cheating :cry: Not sure I should do it or not? But at the same time, I want the drops/levels for the new shiny things!
 
Damn am I missing double XP? What a time to take a break :p.

Last week of weights and with what I've been lifting my legs are too dead to cycle, so week of rest after that, then ten weeks back on it for prep for the the 220 mile Rapha ride! Then only another month to the Ironman. Time flies...
 
Backed up my good result (8th) on Tuesday with another 8th place tonight :o

Legs weren’t so fresh but felt like could do more then just hold on. Second lap in the volcano string it out over the start finish line. Had a few attack over the top of me when it came back which got +1 second then came back with a string of us getting back on.

Last lap thought I was playing it cool but ended up hitting the front a little too soon coming up into the volcano and nothing much to do but keep ploughing on then, blew up a bit then managed to put a few watts out so not everyone passed me before the line.
 
I've twice written posts in here and then never got around to submitting them... Then next day reopening Chrome it's 'lost' the field full of txt. It didn't used to do that! So I've started again, got distracted and then closed/shut down again. GAH!

Did the TTT last week and destroyed myself on the horrible Yorkshire course. Dropped in the last 4km but had done well to stick with the group until then. They're all flying so with the trainer issues dropping me some power/FTP I'm now on the back foot with them as I'm barely now upgraded from being a C again back to B! :o

The 'last' ride on the Flux pretty much summing up where I'd got to with it - utterly terrible and crazy out with it's numbers - https://www.zwiftpower.com/analysis.php?set_id=138372

But the day after I picked up a Neo, S/H at a bit of a bargain price from a local guy I kinda half-knew and did trust (his ebay listing and low feedback score really meant it barely reached the minimum amount he wanted for it). I think I've come out well because the accuracy is damn spot on to my Stages (as I've continued to do comparisons). BUT, as it's an old Neo it does need some attention, it's making quite a bit of 'noise' when increasing the power and rocking to the left. Vibration also related to that noise. Have heard the originals are quite bad for this, but switching out the freehub (from Edco to Tacx branded) is one thing to do (will do this later or tomorrow before the TTT as I have one on the Flux), but also bearings on the flywheel itself can get pretty rubbishy as they're quite 'dry'. I'm waiting for the flywheel removal tool to arrive for me to get it off and take a look.

Still, an accurate (if a little old) Neo for less than £400 is a bit of a steal in the current climate... Now if I can get my Flux boxed off and a guy in Sheffield who's servicing them to sort it all out, flog it on and I might actually be quids in (although to be honest I'd be very happy to even only be a few quid out of pocket with the troubles it's caused me).

Dual recordings from Stages and the Neo:

First ride, after replacing freehub so everything still bedding in a little: https://www.zwiftpower.com/analysis.php?set_id=138371
Tempo group ride with long surges and sprints: https://www.zwiftpower.com/analysis.php?set_id=138678
Last night with no calibration on the Stages: https://www.zwiftpower.com/analysis.php?set_id=139680
Early drift but you can see it settle down and the longer the effort the more in line they are.

xdcx said:
@Roady - was Flux paired to Zwift when you tried to use the app to find it for a spin down? Sometimes problematic when a trainer is paired to another source. Just use the spin down in the zwift sources menu.
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Yes, have done it a couple of times like that and you're right it's a bit of a try it and see kinda thing as not always does the app find it.

I've been avoiding the Zwift pairing selection screen due to the bug in there where you'd get 'stuck' in it and have to restart Zwift. That's fine 30% the time you're doing warmups and have time to come out and go back in. But when you're either short on time, or you're warming up due to delayed start times for the ZRL-TTT in the pen you can't 'afford' to risk it as can't get back in the pen once event time has started... But you sure know this ;)

AndyCr15 said:
So.... is riding outdoors and Zwifting at the same time, cheating?
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HAha, yes it is! But you're obviously only 'cheating' yourself. Also the double-XP is only valid for the TOW rides I believe? So as they're not really events where there's any administration or valid 'results' it doesn't matter.

But if you're competing in a future BC/UCI sanctioned event they might well ban you from it and strip any results like Cam Jeffers...! ;)

platypus said:
Damn am I missing double XP? What a time to take a break :p.
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Fairly sure it's only in the 'Tour of Watopia' rides which are going on right now and not everything.
 
Roady said:
Fairly sure it's only in the 'Tour of Watopia' rides which are going on right now and not everything.
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Ah fair enough; well its back on to the bike next week for proper after a good weights phase. I've a 220 miler in June and then obviously the Outlaw in July. I'll need to find something else soon!
 
So doing a workout today, for the first time I turned on my Wahoo, out of interest, to see how similar it was to the Kickr... and it turns out... not very similar?! The Kickr had me rolling at a steady 168W and the 4iiii on my Canyon said 203W...

I assume, to compare, I just start recording on my Wahoo ELEMNT and let it sync to Strava, the workour syncs to Strave, I download them both and upload them to a website to compare?
 
platypus said:
Ah fair enough; well its back on to the bike next week for proper after a good weights phase. I've a 220 miler in June and then obviously the Outlaw in July. I'll need to find something else soon!
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Good luck! That 220 is gonna be a real test for so many reasons, unless you have a masterplan where you're prepared to ramp up pretty steadily and quickly for the 6-8 weeks to get some massive rides in and taper?! Or just going to get a bunch of successive shorter rides in across weeks and weeks to build a massive base and then HTFU on the day?! :D

AndyCr15 said:
I calibrated the 4iiii after yesterday and it seems a little better today.

Thoughts on this? - https://www.zwiftpower.com/analysis.php?set_id=140135
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That's the easiest/cheapest/quickest way to compare. Great little tool. There's a few others you can use (Golden Cheetah is free but complicated, DCR has a great tool but subscription based).

As for the data itself, it's a pretty poor comparison isn't it! Reminds me of the massive differences I see/saw with the Flux (why I changed it) - https://www.zwiftpower.com/analysis.php?set_id=138372

The best thing to do is a 10 minute 'warm up' ride where you do various wattages and cadence. Then do a Zero offset on the 4iiii and a Calibration/spindown on the KICKR around the same time. Then a ride to compare the data between them. The calibrations after the same warmup and similar time should put them in line.

Forgot to calibrate(zero) the Stages last night as was in a bit of a rush then too busy discussing tactics on Discord before the TTT, but still good comparison: https://www.zwiftpower.com/analysis.php?set_id=140315

Tough course, but a tactical masterclass by our leader (that I questioned and didn't think would work!) got us smashing our previous team CR on it, even when we had 2 A riders along the previous time. Amazing ride, but utterly brutal. I was at my limit so many times and skipped every turn in the latter half, but just hung in there and managed to finish strongly. Felt good to finish with the Team as that's the first time in a few weeks. Neo really sounded like a Jet engine though, tool arrived today so will whip off the Flywheel and hopefully 'spot' what the problems is... Think it's vibration more than anything else - which I can solve if it's the plastic case, but the source of that vibration is more what I'm looking for. I'm going to bet it's a bearing.
 
Roady said:
Then do a Zero offset on the 4iiii and a Calibration/spindown on the KICKR around the same time.
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I calibrated the 4iiii the day before that ride, but the Kickr is self calibrating, I thought? The website says -

With automatic calibration, the KICKR has exceptionally accurate power and eliminates the need to perform routine spindowns. You can now maximize every training session knowing the KICKR will always be tracking your power to +/- 1% accuracy.
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I don't really look at my power on the road, if anything it limits my performance.

Looked one night at an A80 and I was doing 450w going through to take my turn on the front and thought ****, this is hard.

Bundy has been fun at about 280w average and 320-330w NP. Almost feels easier to do 24.5mph Bundy Vs the last 3 lap sand and secquoa race I did.
 
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