The Indoor Riding/ Zwift/ TrainerRoad etc. Thread

Roady said:
Oh had a fun one on Tuesdays ZRL, my team smashed it again (took our 3rd win in a row this round - riders in 2nd, 3rd, 4th & 7th), but check the finishing positions and time on riders in 3rd & 4th :D

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Literally finished in the same millisecond, both 46 min 16.839s! Zwift putting us joint 3rd (but ZP & WTRL putting me 3rd and Fred 4th). He streamed it - check it out (also have a look how brutal ZRL racing can be if you want...):

Skip to 48 mins to see a guy attack before the underwater ramp, then Fred follows him attacking the ramp, I'm moving up too (ease to let him go). Gap seems to stay at 1s so I figure he'll be caught, using the slight drag before harbour so bridge up. Nobody else comes with me so figure I'll take Fred with me and we manage to stay away... Not very often that works! Especially in something like ZRL! ;)
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Is your team mate a robot or something? After the attack up the ramp, he's doing 500 plus watts at 70odd RPM but still sub 140bpm HR. Impressive pedal mashing!
 
Anyone else have trouble with chest HRMs after a while. I had a Wahoo one after a couple of years stopped working, now a Coospo one stopped after 3 years. Not the strap bit either it's the whole connection side of things just either doesn't connect it keeps dropping out.
 
I probably didn't care for mine like I'm supposed to, so I find the connectors/poppers rust. Sometimes it's near impossible to remove the battery too, so now I just use my Whoop. From comparisons it seems accurate and I'm always wearing it, so one less thing to remember.
 
AndyCr15 said:
I probably didn't care for mine like I'm supposed to, so I find the connectors/poppers rust. Sometimes it's near impossible to remove the battery too, so now I just use my Whoop. From comparisons it seems accurate and I'm always wearing it, so one less thing to remember.
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Optical just doesn't respond fast enough IMO useless for those 10-30 second intervals. Fine for steady stuff though.
I keep mine very clean, wipe them down don't sweat on them too much. It's like the transmitter dies.
 
robj20 said:
Optical just doesn't respond fast enough IMO useless for those 10-30 second intervals. Fine for steady stuff though.
I keep mine very clean, wipe them down don't sweat on them too much. It's like the transmitter dies.
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If you email Wahoo, they sometimes offer a free replacement, as I think they are aware that their straps from a certain period were not very robust. They replaced mine after a year of use.
 
Liefrich said:
If you email Wahoo, they sometimes offer a free replacement, as I think they are aware that their straps from a certain period were not very robust. They replaced mine after a year of use.
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Wahoo went long ago. Current one is a Coospo. It's not the strap either like I said it's the transmitter.
 
I noticed my Magene one started giving some erratic readings but thinking it was just a loose strap as tightening it has helped.

I’ve taken to using my watch to broadcast though. It’s not ideal for intervals but I generally use power based intervals and so the HR lagging a bit isn’t too important for me.
 
AndyCr15 said:
Maybe my HR doesn't change quick enough, I wore both for a while and the Whoop was generally within 2 or 3 beats of the chest strap.
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Yeah it's only an issue for those short intervals. MTBing produces different traces as well between my Fenix watch and chest strap. The optical misses pretty much all the short less than 10s efforts, like it averages a few seconds rather than records every second. Same result with a polar arm based one as well.
 
I've never really been convinced by optical. No idea how DCR gets tracks to follow pretty much 1:1 with chest HRMs.

When ever I dont wear a HRM, and use my Fenix, I'm just always doubting and thinking 'that doesn't seem high enough'. And still get many occasions where I'll be doing full on intervals in the gym, and Fenix says I'm at about 90 bpm. But then wiggle it a bit,. and it shoots up to 180.
 
Shadowness said:
I've never really been convinced by optical. No idea how DCR gets tracks to follow pretty much 1:1 with chest HRMs.

When ever I dont wear a HRM, and use my Fenix, I'm just always doubting and thinking 'that doesn't seem high enough'. And still get many occasions where I'll be doing full on intervals in the gym, and Fenix says I'm at about 90 bpm. But then wiggle it a bit,. and it shoots up to 180.
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I think you have to have it really tight. I've got a velcro style strap and never get a decent reading, but before with the original strap on tight i always get comparable measurements
 
Can't get wrist mounted ones to work for me. Having them tight enough to work is very uncomfortable to the point I have to take them off. Chest straps are so much better to the point I don't even notice it there.
 
I find the Polar Verity Sense is bang on. I've had it since release (2021) and it's been faultless. Previously I had Polar H10's which I found unreliable and uncomfortable (had three of them!). The convenience and reliability of the arm-strap outweigh any minor discrepancies between the two. I did compare the VS track with the H10 and found no glaring differences. Apparently because your arm is convex, vs wrist which is concave, it improves OHR response.
 
Martynt74 said:
I think you have to have it really tight. I've got a velcro style strap and never get a decent reading, but before with the original strap on tight i always get comparable measurements
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Oh dont worry I do! I have a 'gym setting' and 'normal wear' tightness, but can never get the former to be reliable.
 
I think there are generally different quality of optical. I've always used a chest strap before, as nothing else seemed very accurate. I wouldn't trust a watch, I had a Oura ring that was terrible, but the Whoop 4.0 seems very accurate.
 
I'm starting to think tht doing my workouts in the evenings really isn't great. I felt worse today after a 1.5 hour Z2 ride than I did after a steady state session which should be far more taxing but I did the steady state in the middle of the day rather than finishing the Z2 about 21:45.
 
Shadowness said:
I've never really been convinced by optical. No idea how DCR gets tracks to follow pretty much 1:1 with chest HRMs.

When ever I dont wear a HRM, and use my Fenix, I'm just always doubting and thinking 'that doesn't seem high enough'. And still get many occasions where I'll be doing full on intervals in the gym, and Fenix says I'm at about 90 bpm. But then wiggle it a bit,. and it shoots up to 180.
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chest is the most accurate yes.

the watches etc are never that accurate and cycling / running is where they struggle the most unless you have it really tight, device wise, apple watches are apparently the most accurate in general with wrist HR monitoring..
 
Shadowness said:
Wish it was that 'easy' in the A races! I managed to stay with the lead group all the way to the finish, but I cannot sprint immediately after putting out threshold efforts. So only managed 11th :(
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Haha yeah lets just say this B2 league we've got drawn in this round is fairly sedate compared to the busier B2 leagues I've ridden in before. I mean I'm riding well but wouldn't say I've made a massive boost - to win a ZRL C1 race (helping another team) as a Cat C in the autumn - when I knew I was a B cat (just needed the effort to push myself back up!) To then be coming 3rd in a B2 race... That would normally be a big bump in power/form. My FTP hasn't really changed (256W vs 261W), but I am 2kg lighter.

#Chri5# said:
Please indulge my Zwift moment from this morning as well - I actually won a race!

Now, it might have only been Cat C (the Range 2 higher band though!) and 20 in the race but you'd have thought I'd won on the Champs-Élysées with my celebration in the garage :D
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A win is a win mate! Have to celebrate them! Especially in a community race like those Zwift ones as they're generally well attended for a flat course, so it feels less like a hollow win like most of my other podiums like taking a first from a pack of 5. :cry:

#Chri5# said:
Is your team mate a robot or something? After the attack up the ramp, he's doing 500 plus watts at 70odd RPM but still sub 140bpm HR. Impressive pedal mashing!
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Haha pretty robotic. He's a good friend and we ride together a lot - my Strava Year of Sport thing said I rode with him 42 times last year... He's an endurance rider doing 300-500km most weeks and rides frequently as part of a keeping fit routine as is an Officer in the Belgian Navy (drinks a lot of strong beers!) generally a leader & sweeper. Does a low grinding cadence - even outdoors but is mostly an indoor rider. Doesn't have a massive HR range.

robj20 said:
Anyone else have trouble with chest HRMs after a while. I had a Wahoo one after a couple of years stopped working, now a Coospo one stopped after 3 years. Not the strap bit either it's the whole connection side of things just either doesn't connect it keeps dropping out.
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I killed 3 Garmin in 2 years. First Wahoo TICKRv1 lasted 2014 - 2021, TICKRv2 2021-2023, the warranty replacement still going. Have found generally Panasonic CR2032 the best for it, even the Duracell which you'd expect premium tending to give duff readings and replace them sooner.

I generally coat the lip of the battery door with a waterproof grease to reduce the ingress. The times when it starts being inaccurate I'll leave it with the door off and battery out in the airing cupboard overnight and it seems to sort it out. Maybe every 6-7 months. I generally change the battery then too so I'm never sure if they're flat but for the cost may as well.

AndyCr15 said:
I probably didn't care for mine like I'm supposed to, so I find the connectors/poppers rust. Sometimes it's near impossible to remove the battery too, so now I just use my Whoop. From comparisons it seems accurate and I'm always wearing it, so one less thing to remember.
Click to expand...
I didn't find the Whoop that accurate - similar to Shadowness - just no peaks when I did short efforts. Either a limit of the optical on the extremity of the body, or some kinda smoothing they do... Or me not wanting it tight?!

I'm sure I've got something like arthritis on my left wrist from a couple of years of wearing it too tight, I switched to right wrist last summer and it's ok, but any time I try left again within a couple of days it just aches.
 
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