The Indoor Riding/ Zwift/ TrainerRoad etc. Thread

[Vandle]

Pretty epic stage 2 just now. Similar to Monday.
Winner 30:38. 14th place finished in 30:41. I just can't find that bit extra to break away from the group in the final 300m. Came 10th and was passed just before the line by 3 others.

The top three had a 15s power peak of 9.5, 11.8 and 8.1w/kg respectively which I presume is when they broke for the finish. Mine was 5.5 but I had both the highest average power and joint highest w/kg of 3.3 over the entire race. Need to somehow train that final kick energy. I've also been at work all day, only one other isn't European based so first thing AM for them pretty much.

 

[Vandle]

Absolute complete newbie to anything cycling, ive just gotten myself setup with an indoor trainer and zwift, but im clueless as to where to start training wise and how to fit it in to my normal training routine where i am lifting 4 times per week and going for a brisk paced (5.5-6.5km) 1 hour walk most days. The intention is for some zwift rides to replace some walks, and potentially switch up the lifting to 3 days per week.

Does anyone have any recommendations of good beginner plans along the lines of running style couch to 5km plans maybe or suggestions of where to start, and maybe how to spread out my training week?

Make sure to set your challenge in the menu to Everest soon as possible. Every meter up will count towards unlocking the Tron bike (Zwift concept) which is the fastest non disc road bike in the game and discs don't unlock until a fair way down the track - plus they look a bit daft

https://support.zwift.com/en_us/selecting-a-challenge-HJxhsIONB

 

[UTmaniac]

Felt a bit better so joined a Zwift Games stage 2 yesterday, except after some last minute faffing I joined the pen late, which ensured I was sensible and saw how low end z2 power felt rather than pushing it after weekend lurgy. All fine until approaching 40mins, but then my knees started to ache like crazy, was a struggle to simply comple Jurassic Coast and get the route badge/bonus in just over 45mins (top Ds seem to be doing around 32mins).

At this rate, I'll need to heavily rely on the stage catchup period from 18th March, with stage three of five (the long one, especially for you As and Bs at ~80Km, Three Little Sisters ~40Km in C/D) starting this coming Saturday!

 

[PikeyPriest]

Pretty epic stage 2 just now. Similar to Monday.
Winner 30:38. 14th place finished in 30:41. I just can't find that bit extra to break away from the group in the final 300m. Came 10th and was passed just before the line by 3 others.

The top three had a 15s power peak of 9.5, 11.8 and 8.1w/kg respectively which I presume is when they broke for the finish. Mine was 5.5 but I had both the highest average power and joint highest w/kg of 3.3 over the entire race. Need to somehow train that final kick energy. I've also been at work all day, only one other isn't European based so first thing AM for them pretty much.

Nice! I did stage 2 tonight and the pace was crazy. I messed up on the titans grove reverse and did not go hard enough at the start and lost the front pack. Annoyingly about 3km later our chase group got within 2s and I was rely on others to close the gap, but it then opened again. I should have just gone for it, but live and learn. In the end came in with a pack of 30 riders and did my best sprint finish with 9.7W/kg 15s (zwift displayed that but zwiftpower has it at only 5.4 for some reason). I went from around 60 to finishing at 37 on zwift in the last 250m. Zwift power result is 32nd at 27:37 and 38s behind the winner.

Was a great fun overall and has shown me again that you need to push the pace on every slope when the fields are this big and strong. Maybe next time I will learn and have the legs!

 

[Vandle]

I looked at the stage profile before the race and the fact the only power up was available at the top of the KOM banner so knew (kind of obviously) the race would be won or lost on there and if I was still in touch with the front group at the top then I had a good chance of a podium finish. In Cat C you can definitely feel the ease off coming down from the KOMs as I expect everyone is knackered so its a good chance to regroup, plus nobody in C is mad enough (or likely strong enough) to be breaking with 12km to go. Probably not so much in the higher cat though!

 

[wonko]

but I had both the highest average power and joint highest w/kg of 3.3 over the entire race.

It might suggest that others are drafting more effectively and saving more of their energy for the final push?

In Cat C you can definitely feel the ease off coming down from the KOMs as I expect everyone is knackered so its a good chance to regroup, plus nobody in C is mad enough (or likely strong enough) to be breaking with 12km to go. Probably not so much in the higher cat though!

That's an interesting one. The climbs are where all the lighter / stronger riders naturally attack. If you're heavier with more power and can hang on uphill, then the downhill is where you can make it the lightweights turn to suffer. Unfortunately you've just run out of steam on the uphill...

I had a go at Stage 2 earlier, and fairly happy with the result (10th on ZP and 5 of those ahead were A+s) given that I'd not had my normal recovery time and had also opened a bottle of red last night. Currently waiting for the GC rankings to update.

 

[UTmaniac]

Given the Zwift Zmonthly race series GC like Zwift Games are time based rather than position based (which isn't great when there are so many runnings of stages and you usually have to do UK prime time to get extra drafting benefits), it's even more important to attack the inclines.

 

[Roady]

Good to see you all enjoying Zwift Games! Well done & keep it up! Won't go into the racing thoughts or around categorisaions... Really not worth it here - it's been thrashed out for many months by 10's of thousands already in other places! Most of the whole community is aware of how broken things are right now. CE is a joke. zFTP absolutely laughable as a replacement for FTP (they are totally different things) and too easily 'gamed' by those who want to take advantage. There's sprinters in C cat with better power numbers than me, doing 16w/kg sprints and winning anything they want to with no danger of upgrading (I'm a mediocre B at best).

Did stage 1 myself last sunday as a warm up before a 'real' race. Not sure how but I'd spotted it as 16km... Not 24km!

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Rode it super hard, generally 'messing around' to warm the legs up. Rode it to test and hurt the pack as knew I wouldn't be doing too much of that in my race afterwards - so every time it got a bit stretchy I would be at the front, getting a gap multiple times trying to force splits before then easing. When the second lap came around I realised then, that the race was longer than I'd realised! Sat in much more then once I figured I'd finish it with only 15-20 mins before my other (main) race plan. They went hard up Hilly KOM the second time and I just watched them go. Really happy with my PR first time (2min 10s @ 356W) and not much else I could improve. Did feel I could have done a solid top 10 result, which is a bit of a shame to 'miss out' on, but my race afterwards was more important. Some good power numbers from me - actually equalling my 20 min PR for the season (3.7w/kg) from earlier in the week I'd got racing ZRL in the final TTT!

https://www.flammerougeracing.com/ - 21 stages in 23 days!

For my usual week/weekend riding, I usually would do 70-100km in a group ride to 'catch up' when not outside riding. But with FRR starting on the saturday I wasn't riding GC (so I skipped stage 1) and was then in for stage 2 - a 45km race. The plan was to do sprint leadouts for a teammate in same pen as me (in FRR we have 2-3 cats per pen) before dropping back to 'domestique' for others who where riding GC/competing (there's multiple competitions in FRR) in the pen behind.

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My sprint leadouts where pretty useless, being badly positioned and not much more than another wheel for teammate to blast past (ooops). Eased then with him but without many groups behind and finding a teammate (Peter) he told me to ride for him. Peter was at the front of the D pen so me working for him to extend the lead over second place in his category giving him a good boost in GC overall time. The way he was riding there was no way he was going to get caught!

 

[Roady]

Cat A is 4.2 W/kg ftp, equating to a 20 minute of 4.42 which is just insane. For me that is 350W for 20 minutes for a Cat A upgrade, which I just don’t think is possible.

Yeah but always consider once you're at that level the improvements come from consistency and a usual by product of that - volume - which also generally reduces your weight (improving w/kg).

My FTP right now (266W) is around the same it was at what I consider my 'peak' in 2017 (270W). My FTP has been higher (280W) but I was over 10kg heavier then. I'm 75kg now, was somewhere between in 2017. So might actually be at my 'best' right now... Also have to consider being consistent - the last season or 2 I've levelled out much better. Have less drops in performance, then when I have (usually from illness/holiday hitting my riding volume) I've generally only focused on getting back to where I was before. I've not fought it, I've let the improvements come without looking for them, with just consistent riding/efforts/volume. Then the occasional good day/good ride giving me a bit of a bump up.

Zwift Games registrations open. Some great routes, really looking forward to it although very much doubt I'll win the gold tron bike! I don't even use my current tron bike and looking at the ride profiles, I'll not be using it for this series either.

Zwift Games

Participate in our biggest Zwift event yet, then watch the best cycling esports riders in the world battle for the Zwift Champion crowns.

www.zwift.com

Tron is the best bike in game, you should use it more!

So, it's just another event like the TdZ, right?

Yup pretty much how I see it.

Anyone else's tickr take an age to pair and get signal etc?

Mine is fairly instant. Athough I tend to wear it when kitting up so it's always a good 5-10 mins before I 'need' it (or read it anywhere). The few times a battery has flatted while on Zwift and I change it riding, it would generally be back in seconds.

if i dont have a plan i struggle to just "go with it".

Understand that, so maybe just look at 'time' and zones to start with. You're probably familiar with them already, but at this point as a non-cyclist trying to do anything too specific will likely hurt/overly fatigue/at worse injure you. Your fast twitch muscles will aid you with some sprinting, but your slow twitch will need some work...!

Certainly Zwift is 'hard'. You get very little coasting/easy riding (more of this outdoors!), so for you much of your riding will be building the muscles up which you lack for that endurance type work - there's several groups specific for cycling which you will find pretty tender. So get used to the burn - you love it anyway doing weights, just be aware of it and stretch/recover properly! The only other thing I would say - it's great cardio... But if you already do some cardio work, don't push yourself too deep/hard too soon. You've get massive 'newbie' gains very quickly, even for the next year or two almost regardless of what you're doing, so getting your recoveries right and 'keep the fun' to keep yourself engaged. Zwift is very good for that - but maybe a little less so when it comes to more intensively structured/coach driven stuff.

 

[Junglist]

+1 for just free riding and ticking off the routes or hanging with pace partners.

Though I have switched to Trainer Road for training and I'm actually enjoying it. So much so I haven't logged into Zwift for a number of weeks now. But I intend to do a few routes before it gets too warm in the shed

 

[Vandle]

It might suggest that others are drafting more effectively and saving more of their energy for the final push?


That's an interesting one. The climbs are where all the lighter / stronger riders naturally attack. If you're heavier with more power and can hang on uphill, then the downhill is where you can make it the lightweights turn to suffer. Unfortunately you've just run out of steam on the uphill...

I had a go at Stage 2 earlier, and fairly happy with the result (10th on ZP and 5 of those ahead were A+s) given that I'd not had my normal recovery time and had also opened a bottle of red last night. Currently waiting for the GC rankings to update.

Ha, think you are right. Maybe they aren't easing off and maybe it is me catching them downhill. Hadn't really thought of it like that. I held onto the group ok and was absolutely blowing by the time I got to the top so just presumed everyone else was too

 

[AndyCr15]

What I find fun in races is finding your own little battle. I figured I'd probably manage around 2.7-2.9W/kg, which puts me somewhere in the middle of C as I did stage 2 yesterday. Of 303 riders I started out cruising along around 220th, but got in a pack of 20-30 that gradually started moving up through the ranks (a little). As we moved to around 180ish, I decided my target was the top half of things. With about 2.5mi to go, the group was about 160th to 180th depending where you were in the pack, so I figured I needed to make a move. In my mind, I was Pogacer, heading out from the pack on my own... off I went! In the second to last sprint, me and another guy put in a reasonable effort and broke from the pack. I stayed with him another mile as we reeled in a few more, then with a mile or so, I poured more power in and left him behind to catch the last 3 or 4 I needed to come in something like 149th.

Final time was 31:30 and ZP has me 109th, 2.9W/kg... although I've just seen it has me listed at 97.5 and I'm down under 95kg at the mo! Damnit!

I notice some guys in the top 20 have over 4W/kg average! Come on. That's not just a good day, surely? That's someone knowingly racing in a lower Cat than they should, surely? (I know I shouldn't be surprised. I nearly entered Cat D myself)

I see if I had entered Cat D, my W/kg wouldn't have been the highest, the winner was over 3 with others ar 2.9, but I was a minute quicker than the winner...

 

[Sinbad2000]

Hmm so today, Zwift wasn't controlling ERG mode on the wattbike at all (new zwift update dropped last night). Anyone else seen this?

 

[BurningHorizons]

Hmm so today, Zwift wasn't controlling ERG mode on the wattbike at all (new zwift update dropped last night). Anyone else seen this?

Afraid not bud. Just finished an ERG workout on the new update. WBA v2.

 

[Sinbad2000]

Afraid not bud. Just finished an ERG workout on the new update. WBA v2.

Which firmware are you on?

 

[BurningHorizons]

Which firmware are you on?

1.03.51

 

[Sinbad2000]

1.03.51

Cool thanks. I was on the beta - i've moved back to regular and will see if it's better tomorrow

 

[Spleen Sauce]

Cool thanks. I was on the beta - i've moved back to regular and will see if it's better tomorrow

I find that the implementation of the dual Bluetooth device support on the beta firmware utterly abysmal - no easy way to tell the Wattbike which to use for ERG control, it'll decide based on which device connects first. Its really dumb.

 

[Sinbad2000]

I find that the implementation of the dual Bluetooth device support on the beta firmware utterly abysmal - no easy way to tell the Wattbike which to use for ERG control, it'll decide based on which device connects first. Its really dumb.

Connects second gets command

Yes it's really crap - agreed. I've stopped using the wattbike hub to be honest. I don't really care about the pedaling efficiency stuff, I am an absolute amateur - and their workouts just seemed too easy. I mean I'm by no means fit at all, and their intermediate health workout had Garmin telling me I was detraining ... and I wasn't going to pay extra for the more advanced stuff AND zwift.

Zwift on my phone, and netflix on a tablet on the big mount, and life seems to be peachy

 

[manic111]

One question on the Zwift before I accept being sold on it.

Is the Zwift trainer compatible with other apps? Or is it tied to Zwift? In all likelihood I'll use Zwift anyway, but if all my friends jump ship, or if Zwift goes bust (obviously unlikely!),I don't want to have to buy a new trainer

So I have finally got myself a trainer! Plumped for one of the Jetblack Volts which Evans are selling cheap (about £200). Done a couple of rides on it and am super happy with it - seems quiet (although my drive train is not!), well put together, easy to use, and response well to what's going on on screen.

I have a few very beginner Zwift questions:
1. How do you guys set yours up? I've been running it on a laptop screen with the Zwift companion app on my phone to control, but:
(a) I find that the companion app doesn't always connect brilliantly,
(b) having to reach across to grab the phone is a pain, especially due to the touch screen
(c) the laptop screen is a bit small from that distance.

I'm not keen on buying an iPad just for Zwift purposes - any other suggestions? Could I use a PS4 controller and remap the keyboard shortcut keys to it?

2. Is it smart to do an FTP test or something early doors to help Zwift calibrate itself? I did a couple of rides yesterday - one hilly, where I was probably on my third largest ring for most of it (at about 8-11%), and one flat where I was in my smallest and second smallest ring even when not flat out. Presumably, I could do with a little more resistance - how do I calibrate that?

Thanks!