Im firmly a cat C. Not won one yet but rarely out of the top ten. My VO2 max according to zwift puts me right in the middle of cat D. Might give these a go although time difference is a pain unless I go for 7am Sunday morning.
The Indoor Riding/ Zwift/ TrainerRoad etc. Thread
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i think the VO2 boundaries are slightly high. I think having split cat races like the TFC mad Mondays would be a good way to have closer racing. It also means your high Bs get groups with low As and therefore will need to push big watts the entire race rather than just relying on a sprint finish.
Happens in every race I do that! Its where I lose them. With the pack all the way until 300m to go.
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Anyone else finding their https://intervals.icu/ VO2 ~10% higher than their Zwift profile VO2 found at https://www.zwift.com/uk/feed ?
With us not having access to other racers' ZwiftHQ VO2, at this point it's as good as impossible to know how effective this weekend's 40/48/56/63 boundaries are compared to previous Tiny Races weekends, until we get results from Saturday.
At a very quick look at the signups so far, pen E looks to exclude the very strongest standard Category Enforcement Ds, best 5mins showing so far in E is 3.18 (top standard Ds can do ~3.3 and there's a 3.3 in Tiny Races VO2 D).
It doesn't help that neither of the two "hilly" courses this Saturday are anything like a 5min+ climb, we really could have done with something like 3.1Km Ven Top (or Sea To Tree, Grand Central etc.).
With us not having access to other racers' ZwiftHQ VO2, at this point it's as good as impossible to know how effective this weekend's 40/48/56/63 boundaries are compared to previous Tiny Races weekends, until we get results from Saturday.
At a very quick look at the signups so far, pen E looks to exclude the very strongest standard Category Enforcement Ds, best 5mins showing so far in E is 3.18 (top standard Ds can do ~3.3 and there's a 3.3 in Tiny Races VO2 D).
It doesn't help that neither of the two "hilly" courses this Saturday are anything like a 5min+ climb, we really could have done with something like 3.1Km Ven Top (or Sea To Tree, Grand Central etc.).
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That sounds just like me on a Zwift crit race. On the "Bag That Badge" series in May, I've been 4th, 5th, 6th and 8th on Zwiftpower results (Cat C). I'm well into the red on the climbs / ramps to stay with the lead group or shell some riders out the back but get my ass kicked in the last kilometre.
As my zwift finishes on the 4th due to the price increase I thought I'd give Alpe du Zwift a go as a last hurrah.
How anyone does that in under an hour is beyond me
, there's parts of my legs that I've never felt aching like it 
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How anyone does that in under an hour is beyond me
, there's parts of my legs that I've never felt aching like it
Alpe du Zwift completed :) - Album on Imgur
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Soldato
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Without subscription, everyone still gets 25Km free use of Zwift per calendar month, I used ~24Km today on this morning's four Tiny Races to finish approximately 10th on average in the lowest pen E... I forgot I was using limited distance trial and did ~2.5Km of downhill recovery after race 1!As my zwift finishes on the 4th due to the price increase I thought I'd give Alpe du Zwift a go as a last hurrah.
How anyone does that in under an hour is beyond me
Alpe du Zwift completed :) - Album on Imgur
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No chance of doing it these days, but like @Roady I averaged ~3.5W/Kg a few years ago to do ADZ in just over 56mins iirc, by free riding after a threshold ~45min ERG workout.
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Pacing AdZ is key. The early pace is a killer if you go too hard, you will pay for it the rest of the climb. I’ve done it about 25 times now and my new target is to get under 50 minutes. Though it may take a year or 2 to achieve…Without subscription, everyone still gets 25Km free use of Zwift per calendar month, I used ~24Km today on this morning's four Tiny Races to finish approximately 10th on average in the lowest pen E... I forgot I was using limited distance trial and did ~2.5Km of downhill recovery after race 1!
No chance of doing it these days, but like @Roady I averaged ~3.5W/Kg a few years ago to do ADZ in just over 56mins iirc, by free riding after a threshold ~45min ERG workout.
That's cool so I could technically do Alpe du Zwift once a month to check progress and Garmin for my basic sessions?Without subscription, everyone still gets 25Km free use of Zwift per calendar month, I used ~24Km today on this morning's four Tiny Races to finish approximately 10th on average in the lowest pen E... I forgot I was using limited distance trial and did ~2.5Km of downhill recovery after race 1!
No chance of doing it these days, but like @Roady I averaged ~3.5W/Kg a few years ago to do ADZ in just over 56mins iirc, by free riding after a threshold ~45min ERG workout.
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Yep, plus have a few Kms left over for another session or two per month if you finish at the kom banner, to do a bit of a hilly course like Ven Top; Sea To Tree; Grand Central etc.
Zwift will tell you that you've used your 25Km, but you can click ok and finish that session when you're done, before you will be locked out until the 1st of the next month.
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Yeah you'll see a few early entries for me when I used to do the first 40 mins of it as an FTP test, go tempo for a few mins and then press on to finish it.
Current is 56 minutes @257W as part of a TTT we did as fun at Christmas time trying to keep/sweep as part of it along with the descent. My 'FTP' these days is around 270-280W at the same weight.
AdZ is good to learn, the climb is broken up into several identifiable parts so you 'get to know' how you can pace each section and where along it you are.
For me 50 min is a fairly soft/easy 'target' but as I've not ridden it fresh/in anger/target for a long time. I've been on Zwift 'since the start' (nearly 10 years?!) and still only been up there 8 times... I like to joke I've been up there 'less than once per year'. I'm no long/real climber, just a punchy guy who likes hills
"Fun" you and I sir, are made very different
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Zwift has a new hill coming. I think it will be the 4th of this month challenge in the hill climb series.
It branches off the new costal section and connects to top of epic KOM. Interestingly there are breakdowns for each decile for stats, a progress bar, average power reading displayed and it will give a FTP reading based off user data at the top.
It branches off the new costal section and connects to top of epic KOM. Interestingly there are breakdowns for each decile for stats, a progress bar, average power reading displayed and it will give a FTP reading based off user data at the top.
@Junglist I did a quick test of my PM vs trainer last night and I can see why you had a bit of a nightmare with it. I set the trainer to ERG @185w in Zwift and looked at the PM on my head unit and the PM was very hard to keep consistent and close to the 185w. If that was controlling the trainer I think it would have been a mess.
I think this is the issue with some of the older subscription platforms. They don't put a price increase through for years and then do a catch up and it hits everyone as a shock. Zwift i think has held it's price for ~6 years? Strava did similar last year.
Had they just done regular CPI increases each year no one would've batted an eyelid.
I would have noticed. Perfectly happy with the free offerings now, so even if Zwift dropped back down to the previous amount I wouldn't swap back, I only use it as eye candy so it's not worth it.
Yeah it can be all over the place! i just stick to my Turbo now.
Have you noticed a difference in the perceived effort for watts outside compared to in? Genuinely believe if I did an FTP test outside vs inside outside would be 10/20w higher for the outside one. Very weird!
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In regards to the Zwift price rise, it doesn't help they did it as the weather was getting nicer. Had they done it in the winter it would've caused the same grumbles but people, like myself, would've been less inclined to quit.
There's now free or cheaper options and while they may not be as good as Zwift I'm sure they offer enough of a distraction from a turbo session. That is if you're not already listening/watching something.
If your balls deep into the racing scene I can see how Zwift has you stuck but if you're just using it as a free-ride or training platform there are now other viable alternatives
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