Zwift Chat

[CXRAndy]

Off to attempt another double Alpe du Zwift today if anyone fancies a pootle. Be on about 13:30 and expect to be riding for about 3 hours, so if anyone can't get into the Alpe section but fancies a climb come and join me Hoping to leave the realism at 100% for (most of) the second climb too today

At this rate Lee should be looking over his shoulder

 

[Whorty]

You are a crazy man

Enjoy ​

3 hours climbing is a bit more interesting than 3 hours going around the volcano With ToC closing in I need to increase time in the saddle. I don't have much chance to get outside, might get a couple of rides in before ToC, so I need to keep putting time into Zwift. 3 hours is about 2000 calories too, so good for the old weight loss

 

[Whorty]

At this rate Lee should be looking over his shoulder

ha ha ... not yet. 13 more kg to go before Lee has to worry about anything There are others in my sights before Lee

 

[JuhaL]

I am gonna test my latest purchase today. I had a nicely drop dosh so i get Specialized S-Works Venge to my garage. I had that inspiration after i watch latest Chris Pritchard’s tip video, nothing can’t stop me now

 

[bridgy]

So I tried - and failed - to do a workout the other night. It defaulted to ERG mode as usual, which was working OK until I got to the sprint part of the workout, and as I tried to sprint (I was meant to do 595 watts), the resistance just got harder and harder until I literally couldn't turn the pedals at all. Is this a common problem on the Neo or in ERG mode generally, or am I doing something wrong?

 

[bobinski]

3 hours climbing is a bit more interesting than 3 hours going around the volcano With ToC closing in I need to increase time in the saddle. I don't have much chance to get outside, might get a couple of rides in before ToC, so I need to keep putting time into Zwift. 3 hours is about 2000 calories too, so good for the old weight loss

Eat to train and all that And eat to recover.
That aside ToC won’t be an Alp style effort. I admire your motivation but just wonder if you are better riding at sweet spot at a decent cadence than trying to spin up a gradient

 

[bobinski]

So I tried - and failed - to do a workout the other night. It defaulted to ERG mode as usual, which was working OK until I got to the sprint part of the workout, and as I tried to sprint (I was meant to do 595 watts), the resistance just got harder and harder until I literally couldn't turn the pedals at all. Is this a common problem on the Neo or in ERG mode generally, or am I doing something wrong?

Paul you have to spin up a second or two before the sprint- it’s really frustrating but it’s the only way to get near to or on top of the power needed for a sprint in erg on the NEO. I wish they would sort it. Required quite. A lot of anticipation last night on the sprints in stage 3.

 

[LBHIFI]

So I tried - and failed - to do a workout the other night. It defaulted to ERG mode as usual, which was working OK until I got to the sprint part of the workout, and as I tried to sprint (I was meant to do 595 watts), the resistance just got harder and harder until I literally couldn't turn the pedals at all. Is this a common problem on the Neo or in ERG mode generally, or am I doing something wrong?

Can't you do the workout in normal mode?
Although, I never run workouts in erg mode, but it's definitely doing some adjustment anyway. Most notable during sprints where the resistance ends up too hard, even with me only using 30% realism. Not so hard that I can't turn the pedals, but too hard to be optimal (tire slippage).

 

[Whorty]

Eat to train and all that And eat to recover.
That aside ToC won’t be an Alp style effort. I admire your motivation but just wonder if you are better riding at sweet spot at a decent cadence than trying to spin up a gradient

My cadence the other day when I doubled up the Alpe were 77 and 75 respectively. As I'm doing ToC on a SS I won't have the luxury of using gears to find a sweet spot cadence, and will be alternating between spinning and grinding. As I get more tired there will be more grinding - I'm assuming this is not too dissimilar to climbing. At my weight I don't really 'spin' up the Alpe, I'm still more likely to grind more - this actually feels more natural to me.

I will also be doing some longer rides on Zwift at 100% in the SS gearing to get my legs used to the gradient changes but no gears to move to. For now though, I want to consolidate strength.

 

[Whorty]

So I tried - and failed - to do a workout the other night. It defaulted to ERG mode as usual, which was working OK until I got to the sprint part of the workout, and as I tried to sprint (I was meant to do 595 watts), the resistance just got harder and harder until I literally couldn't turn the pedals at all. Is this a common problem on the Neo or in ERG mode generally, or am I doing something wrong?

The 'spiral of death' where the cadence gets too slow and the resistance increases until pedals can't be turned. One option is to come out of ERG (E key) before sprint sections. Another is as Bob says, spin up cadence coming into the sprint section and this should get you through.

Personally I'll probably change my FTP in Zwift before this stage so I can use the stage as more of a 'recovery' workout rather than full out leg killer!

 

[bridgy]

Paul you have to spin up a second or two before the sprint- it’s really frustrating but it’s the only way to get near to or on top of the power needed for a sprint in erg on the NEO. I wish they would sort it. Required quite. A lot of anticipation last night on the sprints in stage 3.

Ah OK - perhaps a little more practice needed from me then. I did wonder at the time if something like that was needed but the workout I was doing was simulating a lead-out then a sprint so power was gradually ramped up to about 360 watts before the 595 watt sprint started - quite hard to spin up when already at such high power and resistance.

Edit: I notice on your Strava that the sprints in the TOW stage workout come off much lower power so maybe easier to do that pre-sprint spin up than in the workout I was doing?

 

[bridgy]

Can't you do the workout in normal mode?
Although, I never run workouts in erg mode, but it's definitely doing some adjustment anyway. Most notable during sprints where the resistance ends up too hard, even with me only using 30% realism. Not so hard that I can't turn the pedals, but too hard to be optimal (tire slippage).

Yeah I think next time I do a workout I'll turn off ERG mode and put difficulty setting to zero (to reduce the affect of the terrain on resistance) and see if that works better for me

 

[CXRAndy]

I literally couldn't turn the pedals at all. Is this a common problem on the Neo or in ERG mode generally, or am I doing something wrong?

If you dont keep on top of the cadence, resistance will build massively. I dont know about Zwift workouts, but I assume its similar to TR. example if I let cadence drop down to say less than 50 resistance will increase, even at say 250W, so 500+ resistance will be huge at low revs.

I use the Neo on the small chain ring, it works better with better control

 

[bobinski]

Ah OK - perhaps a little more practice needed from me then. I did wonder at the time if something like that was needed but the workout I was doing was simulating a lead-out then a sprint so power was gradually ramped up to about 360 watts before the 595 watt sprint started - quite hard to spin up when already at such high power and resistance.

Edit: I notice on your Strava that the sprints in the TOW stage workout come off much lower power so maybe easier to do that pre-sprint spin up than in the workout I was doing?

Probably though i recall an over and under workout with sprints that required the same technique i am suggesting albeit at a higher starting point. I am not saying i succeeded!

oh and what andy said about small chain ring-forgot that.

 

[JuhaL]

If you dont keep on top of the cadence, resistance will build massively. I dont know about Zwift workouts, but I assume its similar to TR. example if I let cadence drop down to say less than 50 resistance will increase, even at say 250W, so 500+ resistance will be huge at low revs.

I use the Neo on the small chain ring, it works better with better control

I found this video from youtube, it's a stage-3 workout ride and in a 14:50 looks very much same behave with wahoo kickr or is this cyclist just careless. Same thing seems to happen every time when he should produce 700watts.