Zwift Chat

[alex_cycles]

I think that approach would make racing unbelievably boring. In a climbers race all the best climbers would have similar numbers, in a sprinters race all the best sprinters would have similar numbers, etc.

You may be right, but we will never know because it's never going to happen. 🤣

 

[JhnBssll]

Progress update 😊 I'm still cracking on with my Zwift training but have swapped from the Build Me Up plan to the FTP builder; the former was just too much combined with getting out at the weekend as well. I re-did the ramp test between plans and was pleased to see my FTP had increased from 215 to 230, I'll take that!

I'm now in week 2 of 6 of FTP builder and tonight's training was a strength builder with 6x 10s maximal efforts. I somehow managed to record an all-time high peak power when it uploaded to Strava, pretty happy with that! Missing 1400W by a single Watt was a bit gutting though

Judging by this I guess 1500 or 1600W should be possible with some strength work which would be cool, but I'd definitely swap that for a decent FTP in a heartbeat

I've ridden/trained 3 days on the trot now and am meant to be doing a club Zwift ride tomorrow; I might choose to do the active recovery spin instead of the foundation workout or skip it all together. I'm thinking maybe active recovery tomorrow, foundation Friday and skip the Tempo this week but we'll see how the legs feel tomorrow 😄 I've got a 35mile off road event on Sunday and it's due to be wet, muddy and extremely windy so I'll need my legs in good shape by then

 

[bobinski]

Well done all you racers. Cracking performances by all.

 

[CXRAndy]

CCC had by previous races, an average event. We missed the first sprints points, Al scored well up the Titan and placed 3rd overall. Dave rode a blinder pace up Epic, but went over W/kg for the climb, subsequently dq'd. The rest of us scattered across the finish line.

But in actual personal perspective, lots of us got PBs for segments or climbs. As they say, do your best

 

[alex_cycles]

I'm now in week 2 of 6 of FTP builder and tonight's training was a strength builder with 6x 10s maximal efforts.

I'm on week 5 of this at the moment. It's getting harder. On those 10s intervals I found it hard to "earn the star" at first because the text onscreen tells you to go for maximum, but if you do, you massively exceed the target power (150% FTP I think). So you do what you're told and then don't get the pat on the back for it. Call me OCD/childish/literal, but that sort of thing is irritating. In fact I find the onscreen text generally quite irritating (pity you can't switch it off).

I've ridden/trained 3 days on the trot now and am meant to be doing a club Zwift ride tomorrow; I might choose to do the active recovery spin instead of the foundation workout or skip it all together. I'm thinking maybe active recovery tomorrow, foundation Friday and skip the Tempo this week but we'll see how the legs feel tomorrow 😄

Those tempo workouts are the hardest in the first 4 weeks, and then comes threshold

I've got a 35mile off road event on Sunday and it's due to be wet, muddy and extremely windy so I'll need my legs in good shape by then

Enjoy that.

 

[<Tommy>]

You may be right, but we will never know because it's never going to happen. 🤣

To be honest it’s kind of what happens now isn’t it? In a hilly race you’ll see in the results that all the front runners have a similar w/kg. And in a sprint race the strongest sprinters finish at the front.

Another thing with categorising by power that we haven’t mentioned. You will find in zwift races that your power is often dictated by the pace of the pack around you. Whorty is an excellent example if this. He was in c cat for a long time when it was pretty obvious he was capable of racing in B cat. He never went over the boundary because he was in a pack of C’s. As soon as he went got over the b/c boundary his numbers all went up. Whorty often podiumed c cat races. So iff the system was based on points he would of gone into B a lot quicker.

This is another example of what I’m saying really. You can argue which power based system is best or more refined. But the fact it’s based on power will always mean it’s inherently flawed.

 

[Joffey]

You (and any others unsatisfied with their category) might want to try signing up to another test ride as apparently they've listened to feedback and changed the algorithm.

Hey, you might even be in A now...

Braap braaaap I'm back in C

Zwinners!!

 

[Whorty]

To be honest it’s kind of what happens now isn’t it? In a hilly race you’ll see in the results that all the front runners have a similar w/kg. And in a sprint race the strongest sprinters finish at the front.

Another thing with categorising by power that we haven’t mentioned. You will find in zwift races that your power is often dictated by the pace of the pack around you. Whorty is an excellent example if this. He was in c cat for a long time when it was pretty obvious he was capable of racing in B cat. He never went over the boundary because he was in a pack of C’s. As soon as he went got over the b/c boundary his numbers all went up. Whorty often podiumed c cat races. So iff the system was based on points he would of gone into B a lot quicker.

This is another example of what I’m saying really. You can argue which power based system is best or more refined. But the fact it’s based on power will always mean it’s inherently flawed.

100%

In C it was nigh on impossible for me to go over cat boundaries in a normal race as to do so I'd have to try and break free of the blob, and that just doesn't happen in Zwift. So I was having to sit in the pack, and contest the sprints and climbs.

Based on points I'd have been upgraded much earlier, as would many of the other top C's I raced against who like me couldn't break C cat numbers.

I am surprised though that I'm mid table B in races now (higher on flatter courses), but I guess that does show that a top C is as strong as a bottom to mid B rider and hence the boundaries are a bit unfair to some riders.

But we can only race to the rules at the end of the day and so long as no one is cheating (weight doping being the key one) then we're on a kind of level playing field.

Although my biggest bug bear is when B's and A's joined C races and nullified the field. Even a group of 3 or 4 of us trying to break free would be pointless as the Bs/A's would bring the pack to us, that's one of the reasons why it's hard to break C cat numbers, as zero point trying to attack as the cheats just bring you back again.

Points though, done properly, surely has to be the way to go.

 

[Legs]

I'm so looking forward to getting myself back on Zwift... It's been a month since my last proper ride...

I've been tinkering with internet setup in my outbuilding, now it's been cleared out a bit... With powerline adaptors, I can get a stable connection in there, but the download speed is only 1.5-2.5 Mbps which is a bit pants! Zwift avatars run quite smoothly, but a few of the jerseys go orange from time to time, their power data drops out, and their names go "NVALID"...

The outbuilding is only 5m from the closest part of the house, where I can get 37Mbps download on Wi-fi. Could I get Wi-fi into the outbuilding with a mesh Wi-fi setup? I don't fully understand what that would entail...

Our router is unfortunately not very accessible for running a wired Ethernet connection, though we have a Cat 6 Ethernet cable to the back of the TV, so as a last resort I think I could put a network switch on that cable, take an armoured Ethernet cable out of the front wall of the house and dig a 15m-long trench around the house and across the drive into the outbuilding...

Oh, and I need to shift this chest infection, too

 

[bobinski]

I'm so looking forward to getting myself back on Zwift... It's been a month since my last proper ride...

I've been tinkering with internet setup in my outbuilding, now it's been cleared out a bit... With powerline adaptors, I can get a stable connection in there, but the download speed is only 1.5-2.5 Mbps which is a bit pants! Zwift avatars run quite smoothly, but a few of the jerseys go orange from time to time, their power data drops out, and their names go "NVALID"...

The outbuilding is only 5m from the closest part of the house, where I can get 37Mbps download on Wi-fi. Could I get Wi-fi into the outbuilding with a mesh Wi-fi setup? I don't fully understand what that would entail...

Our router is unfortunately not very accessible for running a wired Ethernet connection, though we have a Cat 6 Ethernet cable to the back of the TV, so as a last resort I think I could put a network switch on that cable, take an armoured Ethernet cable out of the front wall of the house and dig a 15m-long trench around the house and across the drive into the outbuilding...

Oh, and I need to shift this chest infection, too

I run a cheap Tenda mesh on the back of my Virgin router and 3 small boxes extend up to the loft, to the back of the house into the garden. The newer models from all makes have a stronger signal and extend further. The beauty of a mesh netwok is once up and running you simply add another box to extend further and then you can run an ethernet cable from the last box to your pc or apple tv to help, if needs be, with a more stable signal.
Its pretty easy to set one up, run the boxes efectively strung out at whatever distance you need to reach. If it doesnt send them back.

 

[bobinski]

I know its not a political forum but this strikes me as an eminently sensible suggestion and if you agree please sign and share:

https://go.skimresources.com/?id=80023X1531141&isjs=1&jv=15.2.2-stackpath&sref=https://road.cc/content/news/highway-code-fury-calls-cyclists-driving-test-290353&url=https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/603615&xs=1&xtz=0&xuuid=5fdc283ef19fdb568b812b6db87c3b9e&abp=1&xjsf=other_click__auxclick [2]

 

[CXRAndy]

I know its not a political forum but this strikes me as an eminently sensible suggestion and if you agree please sign and share:

https://go.skimresources.com/?id=80023X1531141&isjs=1&jv=15.2.2-stackpath&sref=https://road.cc/content/news/highway-code-fury-calls-cyclists-driving-test-290353&url=https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/603615&xs=1&xtz=0&xuuid=5fdc283ef19fdb568b812b6db87c3b9e&abp=1&xjsf=other_click__auxclick [2]

This off the back of the Daily Mail having their usual whinge about cyclists reported on RoadCC

 

[CXRAndy]

I'm so looking forward to getting myself back on Zwift... It's been a month since my last proper ride...

I've been tinkering with internet setup in my outbuilding, now it's been cleared out a bit... With powerline adaptors, I can get a stable connection in there, but the download speed is only 1.5-2.5 Mbps which is a bit pants! Zwift avatars run quite smoothly, but a few of the jerseys go orange from time to time, their power data drops out, and their names go "NVALID"...

The outbuilding is only 5m from the closest part of the house, where I can get 37Mbps download on Wi-fi. Could I get Wi-fi into the outbuilding with a mesh Wi-fi setup? I don't fully understand what that would entail...

Our router is unfortunately not very accessible for running a wired Ethernet connection, though we have a Cat 6 Ethernet cable to the back of the TV, so as a last resort I think I could put a network switch on that cable, take an armoured Ethernet cable out of the front wall of the house and dig a 15m-long trench around the house and across the drive into the outbuilding...

Oh, and I need to shift this chest infection, too

Why not run it clipped to the house and then trench the shortest distance to outbuilding. You can then fit an access point wifi repeater and maybe another network switch if you want multiple hard wired connections.

 

[Spartak]

I have a BT set up, to which I use one of the discs to run my Zwift in the extension, it will also reach into the garden where my plan is to build a shed mancave for my Zwifting and apparently a tumble dryer too...!!!

 

[alex_cycles]

I have a BT set up, to which I use one of the discs to run my Zwift in the extension, it will also reach into the garden where my plan is to build a shed mancave for my Zwifting and apparently a tumble dryer too...!!!

Why do you need a tumble dryer for your Zwifting?