Sorry to hear this mate, but onwards and upwards! Use Zwift as a distraction, but also something to focus on. Something you can control.
The
Sunday morning 3R Endurance ride (normally 100km B+C pens at different W/kg) is running an E pen through winter now where they're going to focus on some of the longer and hillier routes for training and badges. They did
Four Horsemen last weekend, this one coming is
Surrey Hills.
Last sunday they did PRL-half as lead was short on time. Some of them did 2 laps (
that's 8 x Box Hill!) but lots of tired legs around as many of 3R celebrated Cat Allens 300,000km female distance Zwift world record ride the day before with a long ride...!
PRL full has been delayed a week, so current scheduled day is Jan 26th - celebrating leaders 5 year anniversary as lead.
I just haven’t been equipped to deal with this year. It’s going to be a slow recovery.
I’m seriously considering entering RAAM as a remedy though.
Wow that would be some accomplishment, serious dedication to get there though mate. Doing audax's already? Probably the best way of getting there, some massive ones around without too much commitment.
Anyone got real life comparisons of the various apps? I'm currently hovering between Rouvy and MyWhoosh. Mywhoosh is probably ideal as it's free. Just need to check my old laptop is capable of running it.
My main goals for indoor riding is to just get a mix of long endurance rides (2-3hrs) in early/late where it's dark outside at the moment, and then maybe a proper workout once a week. No aims for social riding or races etc.
Indievelo is also an option since it's still free till March, and then given it's tied into Training peaks it feels it might integrate well into a mix of indoor/outdoor riding from a data standpoint. Trainer Road also seems ideal, in that it takes an AI approach and suggests workouts based on recent activities a little like the Garmin suggested workout. That feels ideal and i'm unsure how much i would really care about the fake outdoor cycling design of the main apps.
The other option is just using the bike on it's own platform and sticking Netflix on. In the basis that the long rides would be less boring and the workouts would be short enough i don't need distraction.
TPV is ok (I've only used that, RGT and Zwift), probably better suited to you than MyWhoosh as it should work on your older laptop. MW is more demanding than Zwift, running it on older/lower hardware is possible (there's even a lower spec version of the app for it) but it is very unstable. Also it's geared more towards racing than socials or free riding. But you might find the training stuff good in there. Trainer Road probably the best for just training plans/sessions if you really don't care to look at anything other then Netflix and an effort graph.
Rouvy worth trying. Graphics look good and very much designed to solo ride, but the training plan side is an unknown. Most of them you can do a 1 month sub and then just cancel it, so maybe do 1-2 months on each with whatever intor/new/starter vouchers you can find, no real commitment.
Zwift gave 3R a bunch of free '1 month' rewards for all the group rides we do. Wasn't enough for all the leaders and sweepers, but my name went into the hat for all the race team work I do, but didn't make the lottery! Lots of others did, awesome for Zwift to acknowledge the effort & commitment as we've not had something other years (apart from some preference on timings, our own banners and road paintings in our own events etc).
For me I always go back to Zwift. The amount I use it, it's worth the sub. None of the others offer me the same things for less money without massive compromises where I'd feel I'm missing out. But the social aspect, 'busy' race schedule and just populated wherever you go side of Zwift are quite important to me. There's always 'someone there'. Still pretty traumatised from some IV races I did, got absolutely smashed, felt totally unbelievable performances from the bots, zero social, then find out at the end there wasn't a single human there - made it really zero enjoyment for me. At least when I get thrashed on Zwift it's usually by a human, is generally more believable and there will usually have been some social interaction!
As said, if you know you can pedal for 2 to 3 hours, watching a film, then sure.
Exactly. It takes a certain mindset. I'm like you and need distractions, while also feeling more involved in what I'm doing!
On an unrelated note. Do any of you guys occasionally do AdZ as a training session? Feels like quite a good way to do an hour a bit workout.
I did it a few times early on, treat it as an 'FTP test' as you know it's a solid hour effort. But depending on you as a rider will determine how accurate an hour going uphill works into your training for a valid FTP value... I find it quite different to riding a flat effort for an hour. I used to do a 20 min effort there to set FTP, then ease to 95% and complete the climb. But great training to just ride the Alpe and work towards a sub 60-min climb... Then aim for sub 50.
I hurt myself there too many times, so I've done it on average less than once a year since I started on Zwift (ok so the Alpe wasn't there the first few years, then the last few years I've only raced up there!)
My power output on the play controllers would be limited to if i was in the big ring or not and there were no ratio options so i would cap out my power around 900-1k watts even though before using v-shifting i had hit over that. Now with the ride, and the ability to pick proper ratios im able to peak my sprints over 1300.
Nice peak! The 1000W barrier is quite a good one to be able to repeat getting through... Then doing it 'on-demand'... Then doing it during a race and still not blowing up... Then doing it at the end of a hard race - that is the real one.
I'm still barely at the second - can sometimes 'on a good day' hit over 1000W and extremely rarely at the
end of a flat race if I've played my cards right. I can do good sustained below it
700-800W for 30s for long sprints and will see 900W peaks fairly regularly, even at the end of hard races. But not the magic 1k very often! Then again I'm 76kg and although punchy my repeated efforts, quick recovery from them and sustained surges are my strength rather than saving everything for that end '1 shot' effort.
I've ordered one from Amazon, but currently getting nowhere with Decathlon which is pretty disappointing. Making me want to just return it
You should have threatened that if they didn't get you one shipped! ridiculous to have hassle over something like that. Still think you should've got a real Smart Bike anyway
Seems the reason my Kickr bike wasn't tilting was probably because I have trainer difficulty set to 50% so it was essentially halving every gradient. Set it to 100% and thats all working OK now. Only issue is that now I need to faff with the gears on it because I think doing AdZ with my current gearing will be horrible. Maybe I just need to get stronger
ADZ is steep enough and long enough. You need the gears to be able to sit and spin it. Properly climb it. The more you're using Zwift for 'real' training
On the topic of Zwift racing, I managed a 3rd place on a race last Monday which was pleasing. I even managed a bit of a sprint to beat somebody to the line. Trouble is that result moved me back up into the 320+ ZRS banding, so it's back to getting my arse kicked again.
Great result! A podium is always great to see on the racing record! Well done!
Really enjoy seeing mine, more than I really thought (at least recently as they're so few and far between). Although not got one technically in a 'B cat' race, the FRR event I was technically against B racers due to the split category. So that's kinda the aim now I guess. Also Ladder races shouldn't really count!
Yeah my racing score is 463 so square in the middle of the 350-520 (B) category and not really standing a chance since they changed things, still better than being 521 score on the old calc when the category began at 520 lol
Its great isn't it. I have the kickr headwind and the vacmaster is miles better. More powerful and sounds better too. Admittedly the headwind was second hand so perhaps its not in the best nick but I would happily get another vacmaster and I can't say the same about the headwind.
I've got a Headwind and love it. Can't imagine not riding with it now in the summers! Winter I could probably manage without it, I've 2 other fans I use too. Headwind is quite noisy now and shifting less air, the fact it's in a dusty/grubby/dirty garage probably just needs a clean. A job for the xmas break is see about stripping it and cleaning it out to improve it!
