Caporegime
Time for another push up AdZ trying to go sub one hour soon. Need to do an FTP test as well. See how months of training combined with awful sleep have improved my fitness. I fear my results will be depressing.
The Indoor Riding/ Zwift/ TrainerRoad etc. Thread
- Thread starter randomshenans
- Start date
Soldato
Might not be long enough for you, but might help with motivation, Zwift Academy race one starts 0930 today. 30mins no drafting up Ven Top.
It's getting to that time where I'm going to return, with my cap Helmet in hand, and sign back up to Zwift.
Guess my winter aim is to try and finally get the Tron bike unlocked. May even attempt one of the Pretzels. How I fit this all in with Trainer Road I'm not sure. Had hoped the API would've been in place by now
Guess my winter aim is to try and finally get the Tron bike unlocked. May even attempt one of the Pretzels. How I fit this all in with Trainer Road I'm not sure. Had hoped the API would've been in place by now
Caporegime
Currently at 85% on the challenge for the Tron bike. Another few weeks and I should have it.
Can't remember where I am at. I think I have 8000m left or thereabouts.
I still need to tick of Quatch Quest and do Muir and the Mountain.. again (did it with a friend and it didn't give me the badge... i don't want to face Radio Tower again!!) then maybe just play around with the climb portal, if that is still a thing, for a few weeks and I should get it.
Also need to do the route that does 2/3 of VenTop again but I think I'm still scarred from last time doing the whole thing
It's odd that it fluctuates so much - mine sits between 53 and 55 and has done since I got the watch 2 years ago. It's at 55 now, which I think is generous - it was only 54 when I was running a 3.45 marathon.
Caporegime
Just did (half of) my first Zwift race. Sweet baby jesus I have never sweated that much in my life. Also, sandbagging *************. I have a w/kg of about 3.3-3.5. When I went to join a race it said to do the 2.9-3.2w/kg one. Thats what I did. I died after 20 minutes at over 290w average with spikes up to 550w. Thats 3.5w/kg avg. Absolutely brutal and I cannot believe that the other 20 or so riders that were with me the whole time didn't have higher w/kg or were also about to coincidentally die at the same time as me.
Good fun but there was no let up. Occasionally it went down to 200w for 3-5s but most of the time was spent at 250w+ with constant spikes over 300w.
Will definitely be back and its probably something I will do when I want a 40 minute (or in this case 20 min) workout.
Good fun but there was no let up. Occasionally it went down to 200w for 3-5s but most of the time was spent at 250w+ with constant spikes over 300w.
Will definitely be back and its probably something I will do when I want a 40 minute (or in this case 20 min) workout.
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Soldato
That's the thing, its obviously hard to know how hard it is for others. Well done on the first one though, its a tremendous workout and loads of fun (afterwards). Are you on zwift power? I'd recommend it, you can see more detail of your and the other riders performance. It's a little fiddly to set up but once you are up and running it's great.
When looking at Zwift power you'll see Cat C races are usually won well bellow 3.5w/kg ave. That will usually place very well in a B race. https://zwiftpower.com/events.php
Soldato
There's a strange enjoyment to be had from suffering like a dog during a Zwift race. Cross the finish line and slump over your handlebars.
I managed a rare podium on a race last week (last of the August Punchy Power series). Zwiftpower says I averaged 252w / 3.1kg. Kept the ego in check though and got spat out the back on yesterday's race (Rolling Highlands) at the same power. Winner is listed at 329w / 3.5kg.
I'm finding my general strategy for the short climbs in the 25 to 35 minute races (Zracing Monthly Series) is I need to be near the front as you hit the climb, especially if you are doings laps. Then as I slowly die up the hill I can drift back through the field but hopefully not get gapped and avoid further suffering trying to chase back on.
I managed a rare podium on a race last week (last of the August Punchy Power series). Zwiftpower says I averaged 252w / 3.1kg. Kept the ego in check though and got spat out the back on yesterday's race (Rolling Highlands) at the same power. Winner is listed at 329w / 3.5kg.
I'm finding my general strategy for the short climbs in the 25 to 35 minute races (Zracing Monthly Series) is I need to be near the front as you hit the climb, especially if you are doings laps. Then as I slowly die up the hill I can drift back through the field but hopefully not get gapped and avoid further suffering trying to chase back on.
Soldato
How are others finding the Racing Score trial system on Zwift?
I'm very dubious of it, almost as much as their offering in summer '23. There's a large bias towards pure Watts rather than W/Kg over just 30secs and 10mins intervals over the last 90 days as an ongoing seed, which you can currently drop up to 15% below with poor results.
It's allowing some riders from the four pen Category Enforcement pen system to drop two and sometimes even three pens, in the five pen Racing Score system.
The weakest pen that I'm part of at ~237, with the formula being used and typically having a limit of 300, is far harder than the Category Enforcement D.
I'm very dubious of it, almost as much as their offering in summer '23. There's a large bias towards pure Watts rather than W/Kg over just 30secs and 10mins intervals over the last 90 days as an ongoing seed, which you can currently drop up to 15% below with poor results.
It's allowing some riders from the four pen Category Enforcement pen system to drop two and sometimes even three pens, in the five pen Racing Score system.
The weakest pen that I'm part of at ~237, with the formula being used and typically having a limit of 300, is far harder than the Category Enforcement D.
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Associate
- Joined
- 21 Jun 2004
- Posts
- 1,655
The new HUD is nice, much better for tracking gradients for rolling hills.
Regarding zwift racing score, the difficulty in the summer is that lots of riders aren’t racing regularly. Indoor riding has been only training rides for me at or below threshold. My score is basically falling as previous races reach the 90 day target. There will be lots of riders jumping back to Zwift racing and being categorised well below their ability. It should hopefully settle down later this month or October.
Edit - I’ve dropped 555 to 446 so far without doing any events.
Regarding zwift racing score, the difficulty in the summer is that lots of riders aren’t racing regularly. Indoor riding has been only training rides for me at or below threshold. My score is basically falling as previous races reach the 90 day target. There will be lots of riders jumping back to Zwift racing and being categorised well below their ability. It should hopefully settle down later this month or October.
Edit - I’ve dropped 555 to 446 so far without doing any events.
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>insert welcome to the party pal Die Hard meme<
That's Zwift racing! Although it suggesting 2.9-3.2 would be a 'cat C' race, wouldn't expect that kinda average. The 550W spikes yes, but 3.5 average is really in the realms of (low) Cat B! But always down to the Race organiser/admin to enforce categories/DQ/etc which they'll only be able to do on the Zwiftpower.com results post race.
Hasn't been that many big ones, but we've had lots of new routes and course so beginning to see, lots of riders like the new HUD but I'm yet to see it on AppleTV. It's allegedly available there today - typical need to do a Zwift update before the first ZRL race of the autumn! Usually the way...
The racing score and category changes are still very new so we're still finding our feet (especially those of us who tanked June/July due to injury/summer/hols and are now working our way back...)!
Totally agree. As a 'middling-B' before and I'm now back in C (FTP down to around 3.3/3.4) my Racing score seems to be a bit all over the place. The very tactical ladder races have caused some massive swings on mine, at a guess it it because its against riders with either much higher scores, or much lower. My Race Score actually went down when I came second in a Ladder Race 2 weeks ago! So when I win get a good boost, but I seem to drop score just as easily...
My score currently 458, but with much of my riding TTT's (not covered by vELO/Racing score) and longer races (don't score well as opposition usually not well ranked) I've got such a short data set from it to draw from. I don't think even ZRL counts due to the way WTRL do things (certainly doesn't in vELO) and with it starting again tonight that'll be my focus again... We'll see!
I've ended up in 2 B teams for ZRL, my current team from last couple of seasons being EVO Cyclones, got drawn into EMEA-E Western (North) B1 this time around (raced B2 last couple of rounds). Going to be brutal if they need me as a Cat C...! Second team I've ended up leading Race3R WASP in EMEA-W Southern (North) in B2... Again much higher in B than we'd hoped considering 4 of the 9 riders are Cat C's!
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Soldato
Was no Apple TV update this morning when I was on.>insert welcome to the party pal Die Hard meme<
That's Zwift racing! Although it suggesting 2.9-3.2 would be a 'cat C' race, wouldn't expect that kinda average. The 550W spikes yes, but 3.5 average is really in the realms of (low) Cat B! But always down to the Race organiser/admin to enforce categories/DQ/etc which they'll only be able to do on the Zwiftpower.com results post race.
Hasn't been that many big ones, but we've had lots of new routes and course so beginning to see, lots of riders like the new HUD but I'm yet to see it on AppleTV. It's allegedly available there today - typical need to do a Zwift update before the first ZRL race of the autumn! Usually the way...
The racing score and category changes are still very new so we're still finding our feet (especially those of us who tanked June/July due to injury/summer/hols and are now working our way back...)!
Totally agree. As a 'middling-B' before and I'm now back in C (FTP down to around 3.3/3.4) my Racing score seems to be a bit all over the place. The very tactical ladder races have caused some massive swings on mine, at a guess it it because its against riders with either much higher scores, or much lower. My Race Score actually went down when I came second in a Ladder Race 2 weeks ago! So when I win get a good boost, but I seem to drop score just as easily...
My score currently 458, but with much of my riding TTT's (not covered by vELO/Racing score) and longer races (don't score well as opposition usually not well ranked) I've got such a short data set from it to draw from. I don't think even ZRL counts due to the way WTRL do things (certainly doesn't in vELO) and with it starting again tonight that'll be my focus again... We'll see!
I've ended up in 2 B teams for ZRL, my current team from last couple of seasons being EVO Cyclones, got drawn into EMEA-E Western (North) B1 this time around (raced B2 last couple of rounds). Going to be brutal if they need me as a Cat C...! Second team I've ended up leading Race3R WASP in EMEA-W Southern (North) in B2... Again much higher in B than we'd hoped considering 4 of the 9 riders are Cat C's!
Soldato
I had my first race with the new HUD yesterday - I liked the pop-up (down) gradient profile, helped when I was hanging on uphill and can see the top of the climb is very close so would keep digging.
The price was not raised for a long time with very many update releases over that time. It was more a case of 1 big raise then lots of little ones.
ohhhh please let me know how you are getting on with the Zwift Ride, im super tempted to upgrade from my setup. I have the zwift play controllers on a 2nd hand bargain road bike i picked up, and without the zwift play my gearing made so much noise, now with the zwift play i cant really get the full benefit of my big cog without changing up to it, and thats not overly practical. Now the Ride can be brought without a trainer its pretty tempting.
Soldato
I don't own one but had a ride of one in my local Rapha. It's great and coming from a Tacx smart bike I really like it. I also very much like the idea of being to replace the trainer should it break or wear out and the ride has an easily user serviceable part in the chain that can be replaced. You can pick up used smart trainers on FB marketplace real cheap these post covid days. If I didn't have a smart bike already I'd buy the ride, no question.
It's absolutely perfect! Although my only previous experience of zwift was with the concept2 bikeerg, which was far from an ideal option, but the zwift ride is just the perfect zwift setup for me.