Zwift Chat

[<Tommy>]

Apologies, Tommy, it does a bit. Most importantly: No one is changing anything. They are public testing to see how it works in practice. I.e. following a reasonable development process instead of just making the changes regardless of what people think or testing them in lab environments. That is good.

I'm sure that as a result of the tests they will fine-tune their categorisation algorithms, do another bunch of tests, etc. and see where it leads them. Even if they scrap the idea, I think it's good that a developer acknowledges the issues and at least tries to address them.

On the system itself, the detailed description seems to suggest that both aerobic and anaerobic power has bearing which is great. This would, for example, solve the issue of Team NL Elite in our C ZRL. - They're all sandbaggers, literally riding every race on cat boundaries, likely monitoring 20-min effort to make sure they don't get promoted. However, since sprints have no bearing on cat they sweep 80% of all FAL/FTS points in races.

If I was Zwift I would actually keep categorisation rules a secret so no one could accurately avoid promotion.

No it doesn’t 👍

Save the post you just made Pete. And read it back to yourself in a years time.

 

[alex_cycles]

That's the reason you struggled. 75-80 is quite low cadence, will force your legs to flood with lactic acid. Whilst your cardio isnt too stressed. Using a high cadence 95rpm plus helps the legs from flooding too early. It does take time to build leg speed. When I began back on Zwift last November my cadence was lower than my previous bests. Around 80rpm and I felt that was the only way to make power. Now some three to four months later my cadence is up into the low 90s rpm. My best sustainable power came from around 95rpm

I've certainly noticed cadence has gone up since I started using a turbo and doing races and workouts

I'm giving this Zwift program a try - only 2 weeks to go then will do another ramp test to see what difference it's made. By then I expect I'll be riding a lot more outside. I do actually have TrainerRoad as well, but find it really boring so thought I'd give the Zwift programme a go.

I suppose, with a bit of work, one could implement a TrainerRoad program in Zwift, but to be honest, I'd rather they merged so I don't have to

 

[CXRAndy]

. I do actually have TrainerRoad as well, but find it really boring so thought I'd give the Zwift programme a go

You can run them both simultaneously. You need two ant+ dongles. Start TR first, minimise screen, then open Zwift, disable 'controllable trainer' in settings, then ride.

You have the workout of TR and the visuals of Zwift

 

[alex_cycles]

You can run them both simultaneously. You need two ant+ dongles. Start TR first, minimise screen, then open Zwift, disable 'controllable trainer' in settings, then ride.

You have the workout of TR and the visuals of Zwift

I run a bluetooth only setup at the moment from an iPad with an HDMI connector dongle. The HDMI dongle does have a USB port on, so plugging in an ANT+ dongle might be an option (I already have one).

 

[cyberknight]

WTF do i know and all that but looking at your posts suggests you are giving your body a real kicking when it needs it least. Multiple attempts at Alp D Zwift? Why? Its not as if you can trust your power output or times. So, why not ease off a bit and do 1 hr endurance rides every day. The evidence, such as i understand it from all the interwebs and YT stuff , suggests regular low power endurance endurance and a weekly effort/HIT are about all you need to maintain and indeed improve fitness. As your collar bone improves and you can up the intensity you will reap the benefit of those endurance rides. You seem to be risking riding to fatigue at the moment and trust me that is a long journey back if you do.

Im liable to cancel zwift anyway and goto rgt free as my short pay is now hitting me as shift allowance is a month behind which is going to leave me £300 a month short for the next 3 months even if I get back to work in march ,along with rising bills I have already cancelled Strava,gcn etc which are all due in the next few weeks .

 

[Supersuperleeds]

This will be my 'man cave'. View attachment 630829

I just need to strip the asbestos roofing and wood siding, reclad in insulated corrugated sip panels, new doors. Oh power and internet

looks bigger than my house

 

[mjd1988]

Good luck tonight everyone!

 

[JuhaL]

View attachment 631142
It was this one, done today after a full rest day yesterday. I cracked after the third FTP interval at 56 minutes. My heart rate was into VO2 max territory and I had nothing much left to give. I did manage to finish it, but with 4 rest breaks.

Yesterday i joined ZER Easy Riding With EZ group ride. Like it says it was meant to be easy ride but I decided to go my own way. After ride I check my Garmin and it says it was VO2 max ride. It felt harder I was expected, maybe 8 hours at a work before the ride was effect my performance, I didn't sleep very well either. Anyway, next few week it's time to develop my endurance and calm down.

 

[CXRAndy]

Tough race tonight, climbers gambit. Fluffed the sprint, did my 2nd best time since 2018 up the Epic reverse. Only 20secs of PB.

 

[JuhaL]

Tough race tonight, climbers gambit. Fluffed the sprint, did my 2nd best time since 2018 up the Epic reverse. Only 20secs of PB.

...and Epic KOM is way much steeper from reverse. Tough route and well ride.

 

[steverob]

Great, I'm Cat B.

Zwankers.

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...

 

[mjd1988]

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...

Back in B 👍👍

 

[alex_cycles]

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...

nope - still B, but at least they didn't put me in A.

As others have said though, it's irrelevant unless we actually enter these or it becomes the way they do it in future.
With all that data on our performance, you'd have thought they could come up with something that works.
Being radical, how about something that actually matches the race? Yaknow...

If it's a climbers race, let's bias the ratings to W/kg (over the approximate duration of the climbs)
If it's flat, bias more towards raw Watts (over the approximate duration of the ride)
If it's a mixture, a hybrid measure weighted accordingly.

Doesn't really seem to be rocket science. Just needs some common-sense and "fit-for-purpose" metrics. The data is there. Sure, if someone's never done a 2 hour race they won't have 2 hour metrics and THAT's when extrapolation could be used to estimate things. Not as a matter of course.

 

[Peter Salt]

nope - still B, but at least they didn't put me in A.

As others have said though, it's irrelevant unless we actually enter these or it becomes the way they do it in future.
With all that data on our performance, you'd have thought they could come up with something that works.
Being radical, how about something that actually matches the race? Yaknow...

If it's a climbers race, let's bias the ratings to W/kg (over the approximate duration of the climbs)
If it's flat, bias more towards raw Watts (over the approximate duration of the ride)
If it's a mixture, a hybrid measure weighted accordingly.

Doesn't really seem to be rocket science. Just needs some common-sense and "fit-for-purpose" metrics. The data is there. Sure, if someone's never done a 2 hour race they won't have 2 hour metrics and THAT's when extrapolation could be used to estimate things. Not as a matter of course.

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.

 

[bridgy]

How did Team CCC get on tonight?

Splitters had a bit of a blinder- second place in our league tonight, scoring well on the sprint and both KOM's. And three in the top 11 at the finish.

Everyone contributed - great team result.