The Indoor Riding/ Zwift/ TrainerRoad etc. Thread

Hips felt pretty shot from yesterdays ride and then standing like a **** at a social do last night, rather than my usual horizontal couch surf that usually follows.

Decided I'd have a mooch at Zwift lately considering IOS came out though I actually opted for my 2010 MBP (which should really struggle) and credit to it other than the App crashing 25 minutes in it managed a further hour without struggling.

Using a Powerline adapter so I have a LAN connection in the garage to mitigate any wi-fi issues and improve spawn times :p

Really not fond of my ANT dongle with my devices though admittedly it held out after some initial pairing issues and signal loss. So I think I'll pick up a Bluetooth USB dongle and make do with that instead (HRM, Turbo, PM etc all use BT and from what I hear is a bit more stable and less prone to interference not being on the 2.4ghz band?)

My employer will be selling off some laptops in the new year which are higher spec than my current MBP despite 8GB ram and a 500GB SSD it's lagging with a C2D CPU :o

I've never struggled with the self distraction indoors with regular 2hr+ sessions on TrainerRoad but despite precariously balancing my MBP on my bars & iPad mount I did find it a little immersive :cool:
 
Berger said:
I did a couple of laps of the London loop last night, I like the Box Hill climb length, long enough so you don't just power over it and get a bit more of a rhythm going.

Has anyone completed the specialised 50km challenge? I have clicked to enter, but then don't get a progress bar when I am riding (I haven't ridden 50km to see).
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Yeah it's a nice one but I think I prefer the mountains/hills on Watopia. Not sure why, think I get 'bored' of the scenery, or it always seems to rain on me in London so never enjoy it! Maybe the rain is too realistic haha!? :D

I did it last night, I tend to click each of those which pop up... Have clicked it before, just probably not ridden far enough!
BennyC said:
I did find it a little immersive :cool:
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Welcome to the Z side! ;)
 
Roady said:
Yeah it's a nice one but I think I prefer the mountains/hills on Watopia. Not sure why, think I get 'bored' of the scenery, or it always seems to rain on me in London so never enjoy it! Maybe the rain is too realistic haha!? :D

I did it last night, I tend to click each of those which pop up... Have clicked it before, just probably not ridden far enough!
Welcome to the Z side! ;)
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Until TR sort out their BT support for Tacx trainers (that said even ANT with Zwift seems more stable) it's a bit of a no brainer for me for now.

I've got the discipline to follow regimented and structured training and have mastered self distraction so I don't feel the need to continue staring at a profile chart :o... I do like the simplicity though and still useful if training in a public gym/spin studio so as not to look like a reclusive goon :p

Do people that ride together mostly communicate via the in-ride message function or use a TeamSpeak or alternative medium? Thick gloves in my garage will mean any messages I type just look like waffle face.
 
20th December and I just bought myself a Wahoo Kickr to go alongside the new fan and trainer mat I just bought for the spare bedroom.
Genuinely a dead man. She's going to have ******* kittens at this.
 
Hahahahahahaa I'm still waiting for my flux to arrive, it's been delayed so much I've been trying to negotiate getting a Neo for a very pleasing rate. Not worked yet, but regardless, she's going to **** a brick when she sees the new one in there, along side the others :o
 
randomshenans said:
Hahahahahahaa I'm still waiting for my flux to arrive, it's been delayed so much I've been trying to negotiate getting a Neo for a very pleasing rate. Not worked yet, but regardless, she's going to **** a brick when she sees the new one in there, along side the others :o
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Distraction tactics is a fine art, good luck on your incoming purchase.

Currently communicating with place I bought from to coordinate a "working from home" day to accept delivery whilst trying to come up with reasoning that will result in nothing more than a slap and 2 day huff.... as opposed to full on murdering.
 
xdcx said:
Distraction tactics is a fine art, good luck on your incoming purchase.

Currently communicating with place I bought from to coordinate a "working from home" day to accept delivery whilst trying to come up with reasoning that will result in nothing more than a slap and 2 day huff.... as opposed to full on murdering.
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Good luck to you too, sir. It is indeed an art form. I will go for the swap out tactic and wait for her to notice the new one and then get punched for a while. Hoping my skin doesn't bruise too much like a ripe peach.
 
xdcx said:
trying to come up with reasoning that will result in nothing more than a slap and 2 day huff.... as opposed to full on murdering.
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HAHAHAHA that sounds something like my house.

The come back is more shoes and handbags then though, to go with the 50-75 of each we already "need".
 
Drip feed of comments regards the Kickr are getting more poisonous as the scale of my "being a stupid man" ever prevails in her eyes. News was broken at 16:45, comment timescale from then until 22:30:

1st = "OH. RIGHT. Well, when did you decide this was a good idea?"
2nd = "lucky I didn't buy you one for Xmas, isn't it?"
3rd = "When did you decide this again? As this is just a really silly time of year to spend money"

She's also spent an hour researching the prices of Kickr's and questioning why I didn't buy from certain places. She doesn't believe they go RRP basically everywhere and doesn't believe I am capable of buying from the right place/for the right money..... Also refusing to understand that there is a version 1 and a version 2.

Don't even talk to me about candles please....
She just spent £45 on some as they were "reduced" then turns out the company reduced them further again last night, 2 nights after she paid for them. So she is absolutely raging, and recruited me to write a snippy email to said company as she narrated her fury out loud. I had only told her about the Kickr hours previously, I was in no position to mock and/or refuse to aid in the snippy email as it was a very scary situation for me to be in.

Regards the dude basically cycling for 27 days on Zwift above. He's on the TT forum so been looking at the thread now and again but it's good so see he is getting something from the cycling media sites now to support him :)
 
xdcx, forgive me and tell me if it's none of my business but do you and Mrs xdcx 'pool'/share your income(s) or do you contribute to a shared pot and then have your own slush funds?

I expect it's the former where as if it's the later than surely it shouldn't matter what or when you decide to spend your money on (especially a hobby) provided, all your financial obligations like bills and festive commitments will have already been met? :) and you've not decided to skip December's contributions to buy said KickR :p

Fortunately or unfortunately ;) I'm on that Bachelor lifestyle so don't have to justify any purchase to anyone other than myself. I can understand OH's gawking at the cost of some cycling kit but equally shoes, clothes, make up, candles :o etc can all be similar. Just struggling to see why she would be in such a rage if it's your money and not family money you're spending?
 
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BennyC said:
xdcx, forgive me and tell me if it's none of my business but do you and Mrs xdcx 'pool'/share your income(s) or do you contribute to a shared pot and then have your own slush funds?

I expect it's the former where as if it's the later than surely it shouldn't matter what or when you decide to spend your money on (especially a hobby) provided, all your financial obligations like bills and festive commitments will have already been met? :) and you've not decided to skip December's contributions to buy said KickR :p

Fortunately or unfortunately ;) I'm on that Bachelor lifestyle so don't have to justify any purchase to anyone other than myself. I can understand OH's gawking at the cost of some cycling kit but equally shoes, clothes, make up, candles :o etc can all be similar. Just struggling to see why she would be in such a rage if it's your money and not family money you're spending?
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She is a woman. They moan. Regardless.

Live together and I give her X amount every month which is a vast contribution to mortgage and all the bills. We then just buy shopping as is and take turns with no structure and all other random expenses in same fashion such as meals out etc.

I contributed more than fair share to all Xmas presents which are all done and paid for. The Kickr is 100% from my own pay money and paid back over 6 months interest free. Don't see the point splashing £1k when I can pay it over 6 months at no extra cost, even if I had £1k sitting spare I'd probably still take the finance route tbh. All in all it has cost me £150 from my December pay, to which, I already have £100 in money from family after visiting and delivering presents because you know how they are at this silly time of year! I will also sell my old turbo. So as you see, this is drama, from drama's sake from a woman. They love it.
 
If it makes you feel any better my purchasing of awesome things, or as my wife puts it "wasting money" got to a point where to keep the peace I keep a record of my "non essential" items in a spreadsheet and give myself a monthly allowance to spend on said things.

So basically, at the age of 34 and with a decent salary I effectively get pocket money every month. FML :p Keeps the peace though and I've got so good at optimised book keeping I'm managing Jimmy Carrs accounts for him ;)
 
I am struggling with my Kickr Snap. I traded up from a Cyclops FLuid 2 which was pretty good using virtual power with Trainer Road. However I just can't seem to get the Kickr calibrated anywhere near a real world power interpretation - either that or I really suck atm.

Normally my ftp would be c220-235W and I operated at this sort of region on virtual power quite happily. Sweetspot plans were challenging but not exhausting. Now I am struggling to hold 180W intervals! I am going to set up the bike from scratch again tonight but I really am disappointed with the Kickr in this respect. I get that indoor training doesn't need to be reflective of on road power output but it would be nice to be close. My mate who has a Kickr (not snap) has power matched FTP of c280W and whilst he is slightly heavier than me and a bit stronger there is no way the difference is 100W.

Smart training = frustration atm!
 
It's not uncommon to find indoor/trainer FTP to be in the region of 10% lower than road/outdoor based FTP due to several factors including inertia. I suffer from this myself but it doesn't bother me.

However if you're comparing a VP figure from an older trainer to that of a newer more accurate trainer then don't be shocked to see some difference. I was using an old CycleOps Mag with TR for quite a while and when I actually got a PM and Tacx Vortex I was surprised how wrong & incorrectly I'd set up my Mag in TR! Just selecting a wrong setting within TR can put your power out by 50-100w as I found:eek:

What sort of power do you manage on your friends KickR? That's the only way to really tell whether your Snap is borked or if indeed your 'real power' is in fact lower than you've been lead to believe.

It doesn't really matter either way as long as the figures are consistent :)
 
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