Zwifting - I think I need help!

[yoav]

You do know that you don’t have to do the ride in one go? Start a ride, pause, come back to it, even days later and it will carry on where you left off. Of course, you have to leave Zwift running on the device in between. I have an old computer running Zwift and I did The Four Horsemen over 3  sessions on successive days. Now I’m girding to try the Uber Pretzel. Cheating? Who cares. It even works if you start in a world other than Watopia which isn’t always available, your ride continues in the world you started in, just with fewer riders.

[chrisbainbridge]

I did think about doing the 4 horsemen as part of my work up to going on holiday.  My plan was to get to the top of each hill, let the bike starting going down the other side, climb off and have toilet break, meal stop, leg massage and then to get back on again.

[drossall]

You do know that you don’t have to do the ride in one go? Start a ride, pause, come back to it, even days later and it will carry on where you left off. Of course, you have to leave Zwift running on the device in between. I have an old computer running Zwift and I did The Four Horsemen over 3  sessions on successive days. Now I’m girding to try the Uber Pretzel. Cheating? Who cares. It even works if you start in a world other than Watopia which isn’t always available, your ride continues in the world you started in, just with fewer riders.

I did wonder about the rules on pausing rides. Obviously not in events, as that would be silly. But I occasionally need to stop for all sorts of reasons, even because the battery on my tablet is running down, and I'd never figured out whether I needed to be back within (say) 3 minutes.

Plainly not. Thanks. Pausing just means stop pedalling and leave Zwift running?

It also seems to be better now at detecting and recovering from unintended drop-outs. I've even been able to resume after a tablet crash - Zwift seems prone to overload my tablet with power demands if I let it drop even to 40% charge, meaning that the tablet crashes and restarts.

[L CC]

Even on events it's fine to just pause.
I've started events that were time limited, sat in the pen and done them later.

I've ridden the 4 Horsemen twice. You guys are lightweights 

[chrisbainbridge]

Even on events it's fine to just pause.
I've started events that were time limited, sat in the pen and done them later.

I've ridden the 4 Horsemen twice. You guys are lightweights 

You only get the points once!

[L CC]

The first time was before route badges were a thing. I unlocked a jersey (that I never wear)

[drossall]

Even on events it's fine to just pause.

Don't suppose it works too well in races

[Asterix, the former Gaul.]

You do know that you don’t have to do the ride in one go? Start a ride, pause, come back to it, even days later and it will carry on where you left off. Of course, you have to leave Zwift running on the device in between. I have an old computer running Zwift and I did The Four Horsemen over 3  sessions on successive days. Now I’m girding to try the Uber Pretzel. Cheating? Who cares. It even works if you start in a world other than Watopia which isn’t always available, your ride continues in the world you started in, just with fewer riders.

Aaaargghh!

Never knew that, thanks for not leaving me in ignorance

I don't mind doing a couple of hours non-stop but it'd have helped enormously to have had a break just before the Alpe on the 4 Horsemen.

[drossall]

I did think about doing the 4 horsemen as part of my work up to going on holiday.  My plan was to get to the top of each hill, let the bike starting going down the other side, climb off and have toilet break, meal stop, leg massage and then to get back on again.

Isn't there something about it detecting you pedalling (or not)? Nice idea though

And I believe that there's a supertuck thing where you do a couple of magic moves to make it recognise the supertuck, and then you can stop pedalling? Or am I making this all up?

[drossall]

Separate question. Has anyone tried the training programmes? I dabble in club time trials, always have, for fun. But I'm the kind of cyclist who has always believed that real, systematic training is cheating. So I've taken no interest in Zwift's training programmes, even though I'm over half way through the levels now. Wondering vaguely whether to put a toe in the water, just for a change.

[L CC]

When I did the Uber Pretzel I treated it like an audax- I had planned rest stops where I stopped for half an hour to eat, drink, stretch, change my shorts. Every time I go up the Alpe I get off the trainer for the descent. I'm not that bothered about drops (once you've got 5 million what are you going to do with the extra?) Or Ride Ons (I don't really need the approval of strangers- see also Strava kudos) so I leave my avatar to do her thing.

Super Tuck happens automatically if you have 0 cadence and 0 watts at 56kph and a descent steeper than 4%

Separate question. Has anyone tried the training programmes? I dabble in club time trials, always have, for fun. But I'm the kind of cyclist who has always believed that real, systematic training is cheating. So I've taken no interest in Zwift's training programmes, even though I'm over half way through the levels now. Wondering vaguely whether to put a toe in the water, just for a change.

There's some discussion in the base training thread and here

[drossall]

When steering becomes universal, and Zwift detects not only lack of input for the super tuck, but no steering input either, they'll be able to swap us all to riderless bike avatars for the descents, 'cos we're really all off watching the telly in the lounge

[PaulF]

I did think about doing the 4 horsemen as part of my work up to going on holiday.  My plan was to get to the top of each hill, let the bike starting going down the other side, climb off and have toilet break, meal stop, leg massage and then to get back on again.

Isn't there something about it detecting you pedalling (or not)? Nice idea though

And I believe that there's a supertuck thing where you do a couple of magic moves to make it recognise the supertuck, and then you can stop pedalling? Or am I making this all up?

Yes, it notices that you've stopped pedalling and lets  you freewheel which continues until you run out of momentum. If you're fast enough you'll supertuck as fboab describes. I didn't think anyone actually stayed on the bike on the way down the Alp

[yoav]

If you pause by just stopping pedalling then your avatar will just stay at the side of the road whilst the clock keeps counting the time. If you pause by pressing the menu button then the clock will stop and resume where you left off. However, if you are on a KOM climb the the clock won’t stop for the climb time only. Presumably that’s to stop people getting a KOM jersey by going a climb in a series of short bursts with rest in between. I once got a time of over 23 hrs for the Alpe de Zwift climb. Funnily enough, I wasn’t the slowest, only the second slowest that day!

[drossall]

I didn't think anyone actually stayed on the bike on the way down the Alp

I stayed on the bike all the way down Mont Ventoux yesterday

[Legs]

Woohoo!  Got my FTP upgrade to 300W this morning

[Asterix, the former Gaul.]

That's only 98W more than me, y'know.

[chrisbainbridge]

Anybody using the ZwiftHacks?  Do they improve the experience?  I am interested in storing my Zwift badges outside the game so that I can keep track of which routes I have completed so I can plan my riding

[Legs]

I did this yesterday and it's a big improvement - I don't care who else around me is getting lots of Ride Ons!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSShxn5fDVI&t=216s

[yoav]

Anybody using the ZwiftHacks?  Do they improve the experience?  I am interested in storing my Zwift badges outside the game so that I can keep track of which routes I have completed so I can plan my riding

I just printed off a list of the routes from the Zwift Insider website which I have pinned up next to my trainer setup and tick them off as I do them.

Another tip is to install Zwift on your phone, not for actual riding but just to check on your record of badges etc.

[Legs]

I’m really struggling to get the 100km/h badge on Zwift.

Yay!  I managed it at Bologna last night on my post race cool down (Cervelo P5/DT Swiss).  I was doing a few sprints to loosen up my legs and one of them happened to coincide with the steep bit of the hill.  I was looking at the power field on the HUD, really, and just glanced across to see my speed at 97km/h and rising…

[L CC]

Apparently the latest update has badge-checking?

[gibbo]

Apparently the latest update has badge-checking?

I just updated so I could see this enhancement. I like it since it's right there when you to select a route. I also noticed that a route I had previously completed Zwift says I haven't...

[chrisbainbridge]

Also as of today Zwift activities recorded in Zwift will propagate to Garmin connect, into your fenix, and then update the fitness stats.

[chrisbainbridge]

I like the new update which marks the routes you have ridden.