The Indoor Riding/ Zwift/ TrainerRoad etc. Thread

[platypus]

I feel like my turbo training is coming to an end for this year, though I'll probably still do one session/week. Will see pretty soon if its worked getting me fit again after my knee issues.

Here's hoping the Sufferfest app has matured by next winter.

 

[DanF]

starting to get hooked on zwift. Did a group ride on Tuesday that ended up in a pretty brutal climbing speed up the epic KOM hill which spat of loads from the group. Was kinda surprised as it was just meant to be a group ride and not a race. Tried the KISS cat c race last night for the first time. I didn't start very strong and ended up in a slow group at the back, soloed up to the next group and stuck with them for most of the rest of the ride to the end where it went to a sprint finish. Ended up fairly over the Cat C w/kg

The guy who won the C group was a minute faster and lower w/kg, do the different bikes/wheels make much speed difference?

Living in London it's a total pain for training. 1 hour will get me to decent roads and back so need 2 hours for a training ride. 1 hour on zwift feels like a decent workout.

 

[BennyC]

http://www.halfords.com/cycling/turbo-trainers/trainers/tacx-flow-t2240-smart-turbo-trainer

Bit late posting this, but it has been £200 for a few days (£20 off normal price), so £180 for British Cycling membership card owners. I've not seen it £180 before discount for a while now, since Halfords hiked up prices a few months back.

At the other end of the spectrum they also have the Flux & Neo price matched, with BC discount they'll be £870 / £540 respectively.

 

[xdcx]

The guy who won the C group was a minute faster and lower w/kg, do the different bikes/wheels make much speed difference?

https://zwiftblog.com/5-fastest-bikes/

There is subtle differences between the frames and the wheels. Tron thing with Zipps is fastest I think.

 

[Roady]

I feel like my turbo training is coming to an end for this year, though I'll probably still do one session/week. Will see pretty soon if its worked getting me fit again after my knee issues.

Here's hoping the Sufferfest app has matured by next winter.

Yeah I can't help but feel they missed quite a bit with the first iteration of the SF app, too much development into the 'platform'/portal surrounding the actual riding without enough thought, config options and integration of the actual riding UI (which you see and use more!), hope that'll change. The ride/video integration will come with the newer workouts designed with the app in mind first, rather than with the current rehash of older rides with the old overlay left in place.

I'm going to try and continue 1 turbo ride per week, if anything to provide myself some intervals & OU's which I know my training needs more of to progress, will probably choose the coldest & wettest days of the week for it!

starting to get hooked on zwift. Did a group ride on Tuesday that ended up in a pretty brutal climbing speed up the epic KOM hill which spat of loads from the group. Was kinda surprised as it was just meant to be a group ride and not a race. Tried the KISS cat c race last night for the first time. I didn't start very strong and ended up in a slow group at the back, soloed up to the next group and stuck with them for most of the rest of the ride to the end where it went to a sprint finish. Ended up fairly over the Cat C w/kg

The guy who won the C group was a minute faster and lower w/kg, do the different bikes/wheels make much speed difference?

Living in London it's a total pain for training. 1 hour will get me to decent roads and back so need 2 hours for a training ride. 1 hour on zwift feels like a decent workout.

Bikes and wheels make a bit of difference but not that much, especially when climbing. With any elevation on Zwift the rider weight makes a HUGE difference. Riders can be supremely 'faster' than you, yet throwing out lower wattage and W/KG to stick within the CAT limits. Also clever racecraft surfing wheels. There's a few rides with 'auto-promotion' up CAT's (everyone starts together, most of the WBR rides are like this). Well worth riding some of those to really determine your figures/level. But it does sound like you should be in CAT B. There's less people on Zwift now (than the winter) so you'll find smaller differences between riders in the different classifications. I'm CAT B, sometimes I'm one of the stronger ones there, but during the winter (100+ riders in each CAT) I was more middle-ground.

 

[Slinkie]

Hi all,

Are the custom workouts and settings I have in zwift saved in the software or are they saved in my account? I want to reinstall windows on the pc I use for zwift but want to know if I need ot make a note of my custom workouts so I can make them again or if they'll be there when I log in from my fresh install.

 

[BennyC]

They'll be saved locally.

Within the Zwift folder > Workouts. On Mac anyway, should think there's a similar directory on Windows. Back them up as I don't expect they'll reappear with a fresh install.

 

[platypus]

I'm feeling a little uncertain of where to go now with the Turbo.

Originally, my intention over the winter was to rehabilitate my knee, and get myself some safe training for my ride to Loch Lomond. Having done that ride now and felt like I accomplished it easily, I'm not sure whether to continue with my TR program, switch back to Sufferfest and just do odd [horrible] rides or what. Hmmm.

 

[Roady]

Get on Zwift instead! Much easier to jump on and 'do something' regardless of duration and what your aims are. Like me tonight, as the weathers forecast to be pretty rubbish all week, my legs are feeling good so instead of doing an interval session I'm going to jump onto a Race instead. Then I'll do intervals when more tired later in the week. Also if I can find a good source of the Hammer Series I'll maybe steam that while doing some base/easy session too... Or probably catch up on the Dauphine...

Just so many extra 'options' with Zwift, which for me is the huge appeal of it.

 

[booyaka]

agreed - weather looks crap all week so a few zwift sessions will keep me ticking over

 

[One More Solo]

I might do that EVR race @Roady if I can get my bike on the turbo quick enough when I get in.

 

[platypus]

Get on Zwift instead! Much easier to jump on and 'do something' regardless of duration and what your aims are. Like me tonight, as the weathers forecast to be pretty rubbish all week, my legs are feeling good so instead of doing an interval session I'm going to jump onto a Race instead. Then I'll do intervals when more tired later in the week. Also if I can find a good source of the Hammer Series I'll maybe steam that while doing some base/easy session too... Or probably catch up on the Dauphine...

Just so many extra 'options' with Zwift, which for me is the huge appeal of it.

I just really did not like the interface. Maybe I need to persevere a bit.

 

[Roady]

https://www.strava.com/activities/1022883268/analysis/0/2667 (only race selected)

I might do that EVR race @Roady if I can get my bike on the turbo quick enough when I get in.

Great to ride with you (briefly) buddy, well raced & great result!

https://www.zwiftpower.com/race.php?id=7981

Was happily hammering it along but my Bluetooth dropped at the base of a little kicker (so lost loads of speed), I'd just about closed that 15s gap (with a big effort!) when my Laptop battery went critical! In my rush to warm up I'd forgotten to plug the damn thing in... Noobie mistake! My framerate had been pretty bad (which I'd blamed on windows updates) but it was my laptop attempting to power save, I rode the climb until there looked to be a slight downhill section, jumped off the trainer, unravelled my power cord and plugged it in! I lost a good 45s to the couple of guys I'd caught before, leaving me a good 1 minute 30s down on OMS's group.

I went hard to try and close but stuck in 'no man's land' it was tough going. I blazed past 2 other guys dropping but neither were quick enough to work with to close up. I rode this half hour as hard as I could (300W avg) but with around a mile left I was still 15s down on the guys I'd caught before so I eased back to finish. I was 30s infront of my closest chaser (guy who's connection kept dropping) and a minute in front of the next group on the road.

OMS you finished over 4w/kg and got promoted to CAT A, finishing in 5th! Several of the guys you rode with all got bumped up to CAT A. I finished 7th in B with 3.8w/kg which I'm very pleased with. 294W avg for 44 mins so had the prompt to up my FTP (ignored as race).

 

[platypus]

So other than logging in, hating the look of the thing and thinking what am I doing, I just find a random race and thats it? Do you need to qualify for them in any way?

 

[FrenchTart]

You don't have to join in the races. You can also just ride a course randomly. Personally I quite like Wattopia and climbing up the mountain. Have ridden with Benny_C a couple of times too

 

[Roady]

So other than logging in, hating the look of the thing and thinking what am I doing, I just find a random race and thats it? Do you need to qualify for them in any way?

Racing is only a small part of it, most people 'just ride', then progress to the training sessions and plans on there.

Majority of races, info & results are listed by: https://www.zwiftpower.com/race.php | Much of the results here are 'auto' linked to rider data from Stava rides. Sometimes these links don't work. Some race admins are good, some are not/non-existent.

No qualification for races, just enter from the 'start screen' when starting Zwift. You can then ride the course as normal but you will get a timer on the bottom left (until race start). A few minutes before the start you'll get transferred to a 'holding pen' with everyone else in the race. you're able to warm up here without actually 'moving' on screen (on turbo's!). You can join this pen early and there's a 'chat box' showing other riders joining along with a an area to 'chat'. When you 'chat' in game you will only see chatter from those in the same race. Your 'rider panel' will only show riders in the same race (but everyone riding on the course will still be displayed).

Most race organisers request for you to add some race initials after your name, some even the CAT level you're riding. Although most rides require you to 'enter' the correct CAT, it is done in different ways (depending on the ride). Some from that start screen (you'll see different races for each), others are a 'mass start' and you are asked to edit your name, or just categorised by your resulting w/kg average after the finish (like OMS getting 'upgraded' to CAT A, even when having 'B' in his screen name iirc). Some races 'upgrade' you to a higher CAT, some exclude you from results as you 'exceed' the CAT limits for the race you entered (I got caught out by this a number of times when starting out).

Side note: many riders 'cheat' by having a low rider weight entered, occasionally you'll see riders get declassified as their w/kg will end up exceptionally high and they will need to submit real world data to back this up (I believe 'outside' Strava rides qualify). Everyone in CAT A has to have a HRM to qualify. Also riders with ZP (zwiftpower) calculated from a 'dumb' (non-smart) turbo trainer are not allowed to win races.

Hope most of that makes sense. I should maybe put a thread together on how to get into Zwift racing!?

 

[One More Solo]

https://www.strava.com/activities/1022883268/analysis/0/2667 (only race selected)


Great to ride with you (briefly) buddy, well raced & great result!

Cheers - quite enjoyed it. Racing the Figure 8 is much more enjoyable than the flat races I've done. I made the classic mistake of getting dropped straight out of the gate though so the first 5 minutes were probably the hardest of all trying to get back on to the group, especially with very cold legs. I settled in after about 20 mins or so and finally felt decent. Our group of 8 split on the final climb and I ended up out the back with two others. I sandbagged for a bit then tried a daft long range attack about 4km from the finish which failed when I got caught and passed by the other two. I then got back to them on the twisty bit before trying another daft attack and being caught 100m from the line. I'm not one for sprinting.

 

[BennyC]

So other than logging in, hating the look of the thing and thinking what am I doing, I just find a random race and thats it? Do you need to qualify for them in any way?

Or perform a workout, find a section/segment to do some repeats, chase down other people that blast past you or just go exploring

 

[Roady]

Haha yeah, it can be fun to just spin around, wait for someone/small group to come past and jump on their wheels... Then smash them in a bit of uphill or a sprint section!

Cheers - quite enjoyed it. Racing the Figure 8 is much more enjoyable than the flat races I've done. I made the classic mistake of getting dropped straight out of the gate though so the first 5 minutes were probably the hardest of all trying to get back on to the group, especially with very cold legs. I settled in after about 20 mins or so and finally felt decent. Our group of 8 split on the final climb and I ended up out the back with two others. I sandbagged for a bit then tried a daft long range attack about 4km from the finish which failed when I got caught and passed by the other two. I then got back to them on the twisty bit before trying another daft attack and being caught 100m from the line. I'm not one for sprinting.

You rode well as the group was huge after the start, looks like it broke up quite a bit at the end! Did you see me fly off the front from the line? I find beginning spinning up quick 10/15s before the start (almost sprinting), usually then hitting/holding 400/500W as the gun goes, holding it until up to speed (another 10/15s). I usually find myself off the front of every race doing this but the drag effect of being solo will soon see the front group catch me just as I'm easing up to 'race pace' (about 250-270W on the flats in CAT B). Starting from 0 just means you'll be dropped at the start and chasing the whole race.

Going for long sprints doesn't seem to work well on Zwift, a combination of the 'wind resistance' being too high and the drag effect/benefit being far too high. Surfing wheels wins races! Even on some of the CAT C races I found being dragged along by the group and then hitting and holding a 7w/kg (or higher) sprint will win races - but I found it boring riding that reserved for the whole race! Also hard to judge where your w/kg will end up (and if you're going to get disqualified)

 

[booyaka]

So other than logging in, hating the look of the thing and thinking what am I doing, I just find a random race and thats it? Do you need to qualify for them in any way?

tons of workouts/plans to choose from as well.

I did this one earlier - damn that was a tough shift!!

https://www.strava.com/activities/1023608155