The Indoor Riding/ Zwift/ TrainerRoad etc. Thread
- Thread starter randomshenans
- Start date
Awesome result regardless. If you view it on ZP it looks like the admins need to finalise things (hardly any riders)http://www.zwiftpower.com/race.php?id=4313, you can check the 'unofficial' results by clicking [LIVE] on the top right. This uses the ride data from Zwift and Strava to work out placings, it's usually pretty accurate but doesn't disqualify riders, it has you at 10th.
Your Strava avg power is 300W, crazy high for CAT C! The C ride I did I held below 3.2w/kg to stick within CAT C limits, averaged out at 3w/kg (~240W for me, FTP is 270W), a huge number got disqualified riding well over that, some even lower avg than me... I got a flag, I think for my 7w/kg long sprint!
Guy I know was in the B race, finished 34th or something and really struggled, he's a more powerful rider than me so it doesn't bode well for when I eventually end up in a proper B race! lol
Awesome result regardless. If you view it on ZP it looks like the admins need to finalise things (hardly any riders)http://www.zwiftpower.com/race.php?id=4313, you can check the 'unofficial' results by clicking [LIVE] on the top right. This uses the ride data from Zwift and Strava to work out placings, it's usually pretty accurate but doesn't disqualify riders, it has you at 10th.
Your Strava avg power is 300W, crazy high for CAT C! The C ride I did I held below 3.2w/kg to stick within CAT C limits, averaged out at 3w/kg (~240W for me, FTP is 270W), a huge number got disqualified riding well over that, some even lower avg than me... I got a flag, I think for my 7w/kg long sprint!
Guy I know was in the B race, finished 34th or something and really struggled, he's a more powerful rider than me so it doesn't bode well for when I eventually end up in a proper B race! lol
cheers - it was brutal pace from the off. Like 350/400W out the start gate etc - Also the unoffical "live" results have me 10th but the huge group of people at -13.21/13.22 are the front group that I finished with - the others aren't in the same time etc.
Looks like something has gone wrong with everyone's data as it's not been updated or anything. 71 starters and according to the "offical" result only 7 finished which is wrong. I'm sticking with my 2nd place!!!
Like I say my ftp according to zwift after the race should be updated from 243 to 298!!!
Haha yup, I've got 2 rides which do the same and one which vanished completely from ZP!
That's a big jump of FTP, probably best ignoring but also doing a new test when you're recovered...?
The sun is making me want to ride tonight but I know it'll be cold when it drops. May just hunt down a zwift race instead!
That's a big jump of FTP, probably best ignoring but also doing a new test when you're recovered...?
The sun is making me want to ride tonight but I know it'll be cold when it drops. May just hunt down a zwift race instead!
https://www.strava.com/activities/893874255
Absolutely ruined myself last night in a Zwift KISS CAT B race. My first CAT B after riding a couple of C's & D's where I held back to keep under the w/kg limits. I knew there would be no hiding now, but equally I wanted to really put an effort in to get an idea of where I stood.
http://www.zwiftpower.com/race.php?id=4303
CAT B sets off with CAT A, so where before I'd previously set off with CAT C & D finding I could easily hold the 4w/kg start and be in some of the front bunches. Not the case with CAT B & A! I was pushing 5-6w/kg and losing wheels everywhere! Reeled myself in to 300W and tried to settle into a tempo, after a mile or so realised I was in no man's land with a group forming a couple of seconds behind me so dropped back to ride on some wheels.
Around 15/20 of us kinda rolling turns for a good few laps, I had a dig or two off the front figuring out who was strong and would follow. The race was for 8 laps and after holding around 3w/kg avg for several laps with this group I felt like I needed to try and bridge across to the next biggest group up the road, around 50s in front on lap 5/6 (realise now it was probably mostly A riders!). There were a handful of solo riders between the two groups so I hoped to take 2 or 3 with me and pick a few up. When I went several tried to go with me and I had to hold 4.5w/kg to really make any progress, after a mile or so it was me and 1 other guy (Steven Murray) with several seconds on them. We pushed hard for 2 laps, hardly dropping below 4w/kg and got the gap down to around 30s. I was pretty done at that point, there was no way I could sustain that so I settled back down to 3.5w/kg and a handful from the group behind soon collected me, around 6-8 of us, I could tell it was going to end in a sprint so surfed as many wheels as possible to recover.
As we where on the Volcano crit circuit there are a couple of rolling slopes just before the finish, I'd hit most of them at 4-5w/kg all race and was distancing people so I figured I'd go for a long sprint and hope I had enough left in the tank to hold them off. With an aero powerup saved I pushed again at 4w/kg at 1.6 miles to go and nobody went with me. With 0.8 to go I popped my powerup just as a couple came flying past me, holding 5w/kg I was able to hold onto a wheel, but I faded badly at the end and lost a couple of places. On screen I finished in 50th place (A & B in same list), so I figured I'd be around 20/30th place in B.
Now all results are in I finished 19th place in B. 150 starters, around 50 in A and 100 in B. I'm happy with that, top 20 (out of 100) in my first B race!
Zwift prompted me to change FTP to 285W at the end of the session, didn't choose to change it so have kept my 271W FTP for now. 101% intensity, 76 suffer score on Strava and 293W avg for the race on ZP. No wonder I was totally ruined!
Absolutely ruined myself last night in a Zwift KISS CAT B race. My first CAT B after riding a couple of C's & D's where I held back to keep under the w/kg limits. I knew there would be no hiding now, but equally I wanted to really put an effort in to get an idea of where I stood.
http://www.zwiftpower.com/race.php?id=4303
CAT B sets off with CAT A, so where before I'd previously set off with CAT C & D finding I could easily hold the 4w/kg start and be in some of the front bunches. Not the case with CAT B & A! I was pushing 5-6w/kg and losing wheels everywhere! Reeled myself in to 300W and tried to settle into a tempo, after a mile or so realised I was in no man's land with a group forming a couple of seconds behind me so dropped back to ride on some wheels.
Around 15/20 of us kinda rolling turns for a good few laps, I had a dig or two off the front figuring out who was strong and would follow. The race was for 8 laps and after holding around 3w/kg avg for several laps with this group I felt like I needed to try and bridge across to the next biggest group up the road, around 50s in front on lap 5/6 (realise now it was probably mostly A riders!). There were a handful of solo riders between the two groups so I hoped to take 2 or 3 with me and pick a few up. When I went several tried to go with me and I had to hold 4.5w/kg to really make any progress, after a mile or so it was me and 1 other guy (Steven Murray) with several seconds on them. We pushed hard for 2 laps, hardly dropping below 4w/kg and got the gap down to around 30s. I was pretty done at that point, there was no way I could sustain that so I settled back down to 3.5w/kg and a handful from the group behind soon collected me, around 6-8 of us, I could tell it was going to end in a sprint so surfed as many wheels as possible to recover.
As we where on the Volcano crit circuit there are a couple of rolling slopes just before the finish, I'd hit most of them at 4-5w/kg all race and was distancing people so I figured I'd go for a long sprint and hope I had enough left in the tank to hold them off. With an aero powerup saved I pushed again at 4w/kg at 1.6 miles to go and nobody went with me. With 0.8 to go I popped my powerup just as a couple came flying past me, holding 5w/kg I was able to hold onto a wheel, but I faded badly at the end and lost a couple of places. On screen I finished in 50th place (A & B in same list), so I figured I'd be around 20/30th place in B.
Now all results are in I finished 19th place in B. 150 starters, around 50 in A and 100 in B. I'm happy with that, top 20 (out of 100) in my first B race!
Zwift prompted me to change FTP to 285W at the end of the session, didn't choose to change it so have kept my 271W FTP for now. 101% intensity, 76 suffer score on Strava and 293W avg for the race on ZP. No wonder I was totally ruined!
Snip //
293W avg for the race on ZP. No wonder I was totally ruined!
Seeing your Weighted Avg/Notional Power as 278w with Stravistix?
Ahh you've got 10 mins on the end easy spinning Have you noticed as a significant power reading between your Vortex & PM as I have with my P1's? (verified against a WB)
Held an average NP of 280w for the 90 minutes we were doing the RR circuit yesterday with a far from slow slog to & from. Safe to say I'll be trying not to doze off during my Z1 on the rollers later
Yeah easy spin afterwards, I'd done quite a good warmup before (had loads of time, normally allow myself 20 mins but laptop playing up other times has meant it wasn't enough, but SSD now in laptop = 3-4 minutes to boot & load Zwift!). I probably needed more of a cooldown but was utterly empty & already 'late' (other half had already text asking when I was coming to watch TV!).Seeing your Weighted Avg/Notional Power as 278w with Stravistix?
Have you noticed as a significant power reading between your Vortex & PM as I have with my P1's? (verified against a WB)
Held an average NP of 280w for the 90 minutes we were doing the RR circuit yesterday with a far from slow slog to & from. Safe to say I'll be trying not to doze off during my Z1 on the rollers later
My PWM is on the Diverge (thru axle) and Vortex is QR with my old Defy. At some point (when we're 'out of season') I'm going to grab a trainer thru axle for the Diverge. They're OOS/stupid expensive. The KK one is about the cheapest way of doing things, but hardly ever in stock, even though it's listed everywhere. The Spesh one isn't available online and the Tacx one is in stock even less than the KK one (not many places stock it either).
I'm done with my mileage this week, although if the rain doesn't come tomorrow morning I may well be tempted by a very leisurely club ride as semi-recovery! Weather has got to look really appealing in the morning though!
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Meant to get up and head out his morning before the rain came on. Failed miserably to get out my bed.
Decided to punish myself with an FTP test.
https://www.strava.com/activities/897020100
Last proper FTP I did was 15th Jan, 220W - 8 weeks on including Tour of Sufferlandria and some coaching......258W at the end according to sufferfest app. Pretty pleased with that. I think there's still a bit more in the tank as I was pretty done in but not completely wrecked.
Also the race I did during the week on Zwift was averaging 300W so certainly a bit more in there. But very please with my start to the year so far.
Decided to punish myself with an FTP test.
https://www.strava.com/activities/897020100
Last proper FTP I did was 15th Jan, 220W - 8 weeks on including Tour of Sufferlandria and some coaching......258W at the end according to sufferfest app. Pretty pleased with that. I think there's still a bit more in the tank as I was pretty done in but not completely wrecked.
Also the race I did during the week on Zwift was averaging 300W so certainly a bit more in there. But very please with my start to the year so far.
Awesome progress! I used to hovver around 242W until I was able to run a properly calibrated test with my Vortex Smart (or at least more accurate than before with my dumb trainer) @ 272W.
That's from a 20 minute test, I should probably do another within the next few weeks for an 'end of turbo/winter' test before the outdoor miles ramp up. Same as you, in a race I've been nearer to 300W avg!
That's from a 20 minute test, I should probably do another within the next few weeks for an 'end of turbo/winter' test before the outdoor miles ramp up. Same as you, in a race I've been nearer to 300W avg!
Awesome progress! I used to hovver around 242W until I was able to run a properly calibrated test with my Vortex Smart (or at least more accurate than before with my dumb trainer) @ 272W.
That's from a 20 minute test, I should probably do another within the next few weeks for an 'end of turbo/winter' test before the outdoor miles ramp up. Same as you, in a race I've been nearer to 300W avg!
yeah - cheers. 2 more training sessions with my coach and then hopefully into the season proper. I pushed 300W average in that KISS c the other night on the vortex as well so 258W is conservative I think as well.
Coach tomorrow, 50 miler Wednesday and back to turbo after that as forecast looks dreadful for the next 5 days after Wednesday.
Another 1hr Turbo session tonight. Took it a little easier across the board dropping about 1km/h in both the recovery and sprint efforts but overall managed to cycle an extra 1/2mile on my previous efforts. https://www.strava.com/activities/899106713
Created a separate thread for this, but BennyC suggested I post here as well.
I have heard people talk about these, but never realised how effective they could be. Then I had a quick look at this thread and can see it really does have great benefits!
So with that in mind, please give me recommendations on what to get and whether they will work with the likes of Zwift! Nothing too expensive, probably looking at around £35-£50 to get me started. Have had a look on eBay and there's certainly a range and a half!
Also, the missus announced last night that she is going to borrow her mum's bike from next month and go on a few rides with me! About time too! Lol. So maybe a turbo trainer could benefit her more than me.
Thanks guys!
I have heard people talk about these, but never realised how effective they could be. Then I had a quick look at this thread and can see it really does have great benefits!
So with that in mind, please give me recommendations on what to get and whether they will work with the likes of Zwift! Nothing too expensive, probably looking at around £35-£50 to get me started. Have had a look on eBay and there's certainly a range and a half!
Also, the missus announced last night that she is going to borrow her mum's bike from next month and go on a few rides with me! About time too! Lol. So maybe a turbo trainer could benefit her more than me.
Thanks guys!
For that sort of money you are better off going secondhand as you wont get anything decent otherwise, even then its questionable. You can use dumb trainers on Zwift and the like and still get a decent workout but it really comes into its own when you have a smart trainer with variable resistance.
Yeah been looking at 2nd hand. I'm going to borrow a friend's from work and see how it goes first. Then decide from there.
I got a second hand Elite Volare Mag off GumTree for ~£30 — it's only a dumb trainer but it's been enough to get me started.
However, I've then added a turbo tyre, floor mat, iPad stand, speed and cadence sensors, heart rate monitor and obviously a Zwift subscription.
So while you can get going for under £50, you soon start racking up the £££ if you want to use the likes of Zwift, SF or TR.
That's not even with a smart trainer…
However, I've then added a turbo tyre, floor mat, iPad stand, speed and cadence sensors, heart rate monitor and obviously a Zwift subscription.
So while you can get going for under £50, you soon start racking up the £££ if you want to use the likes of Zwift, SF or TR.
That's not even with a smart trainer…
I had a feeling the spending will eventually rack up as time went on. I will test my friend's trainer this weekend and see if I definitely want to get one.
https://www.strava.com/activities/901631431
Forgot to mention I'd jumped on Zwift last night, no real 'races' so I was arsing around sorting mudguards on my Diverge and almost missed the start of a 'ZZRC sub 3.0 group ride' I'd set myself to join. Literally sat on the turbo 5s pedalling and they were off! Cue most of them pushing 5 w/kg from the start for a good few miles and me dropped like a stone...
Once semi warmed up I pushed hard to try and catch up (after a brief stop to grab my towel from the other side of the garage!) and pushed 320W avg for 9 minutes. After sitting in the group for a bit I realised wearing knee warmers, arm warmers and toe covers was being totally overdressed. Guessing ambient was around 14-15 degrees and I was melting after the earlier effort! One of the hottest nights of the year so far and I'm wearing knee warmers & toe covers, doh!
Around the same time Ziggy (leader) was trying to get the group together but they were strung over a huge range, ones in front 'holding 3' thinking the group behind would catch them (when it was hardly doing 3 w/kg). I'd passed around 20 riders more than 30s behind and a group of 8-10 forming at ~12s down was losing touch/ground. I figured I'd stop to take the knee warmers and toe covers off and ending in that group (it only takes a few seconds right...?). It's surprising how much ground you can lose on a group just by easing up for ~16s (each leg)! I was soon over 40s down!
I began to chase back on but realised I was solo as the groups behind had fractured. I blew past lots of guys doing 2.5-3w/kg trying to catch up (myself doing 4-4.5w/kg) but I was pretty empty, barely making up 10s before the front group seemed to ramp up and I was stuck at 20s down making very little progress. Any riders dropped seemed to be doing lower than 2.5w/kg and none of them interested in my wheel or working back up. I considered just quitting there and then (leader was very annoyed with most of the group as the front was not easing up!) but decided to ease back and just finish (was on the 2nd lap of 3).
I came across a guy struggling to hold 2.5w/kg so rode most of the last lap with him practicing my 'towing' @~2.4-2.8w/kg. It's really really tricky! We were getting the hang of it towards the end, I found easing up to ~2w/kg before hitting any climb the only way I could keep him 1-2m behind (and not drop him when hitting 3 w/kg on it!).
I went for a long 3000 ft sprint, going out far too hard and almost blowing, eased up and was still able to sprint past a couple on the line.
http://www.zwiftpower.com/race.php?id=4525 - Results not processed yet, 'Live' has me at 57/71.
Overall a badly organised and controlled ride, far too many individual riders ignoring the leader and it wasn't even a race. I span a little afterwards to round the mileage total for the evening up to 30. Good enough training but felt like lots of wasted effort, oh well! Will stick to races!
Forgot to mention I'd jumped on Zwift last night, no real 'races' so I was arsing around sorting mudguards on my Diverge and almost missed the start of a 'ZZRC sub 3.0 group ride' I'd set myself to join. Literally sat on the turbo 5s pedalling and they were off! Cue most of them pushing 5 w/kg from the start for a good few miles and me dropped like a stone...
Once semi warmed up I pushed hard to try and catch up (after a brief stop to grab my towel from the other side of the garage!) and pushed 320W avg for 9 minutes. After sitting in the group for a bit I realised wearing knee warmers, arm warmers and toe covers was being totally overdressed. Guessing ambient was around 14-15 degrees and I was melting after the earlier effort! One of the hottest nights of the year so far and I'm wearing knee warmers & toe covers, doh!
Around the same time Ziggy (leader) was trying to get the group together but they were strung over a huge range, ones in front 'holding 3' thinking the group behind would catch them (when it was hardly doing 3 w/kg). I'd passed around 20 riders more than 30s behind and a group of 8-10 forming at ~12s down was losing touch/ground. I figured I'd stop to take the knee warmers and toe covers off and ending in that group (it only takes a few seconds right...?). It's surprising how much ground you can lose on a group just by easing up for ~16s (each leg)! I was soon over 40s down!
I began to chase back on but realised I was solo as the groups behind had fractured. I blew past lots of guys doing 2.5-3w/kg trying to catch up (myself doing 4-4.5w/kg) but I was pretty empty, barely making up 10s before the front group seemed to ramp up and I was stuck at 20s down making very little progress. Any riders dropped seemed to be doing lower than 2.5w/kg and none of them interested in my wheel or working back up. I considered just quitting there and then (leader was very annoyed with most of the group as the front was not easing up!) but decided to ease back and just finish (was on the 2nd lap of 3).
I came across a guy struggling to hold 2.5w/kg so rode most of the last lap with him practicing my 'towing' @~2.4-2.8w/kg. It's really really tricky! We were getting the hang of it towards the end, I found easing up to ~2w/kg before hitting any climb the only way I could keep him 1-2m behind (and not drop him when hitting 3 w/kg on it!).
I went for a long 3000 ft sprint, going out far too hard and almost blowing, eased up and was still able to sprint past a couple on the line.
http://www.zwiftpower.com/race.php?id=4525 - Results not processed yet, 'Live' has me at 57/71.
Overall a badly organised and controlled ride, far too many individual riders ignoring the leader and it wasn't even a race. I span a little afterwards to round the mileage total for the evening up to 30. Good enough training but felt like lots of wasted effort, oh well! Will stick to races!
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