Zwifting - I think I need help!

[Asterix, the former Gaul.]

That puts you on a par with Kenny De Ketele.

Strava tells me I rate 205, an improvement of 0.67%. I didn’t like the 20 minute ftp test either.

[Legs]

Thanks DuncanM and asterix.  To support my supposition that it’s rather inflated, I did a Tempus Fugit TT just now and managed ‘only’ 315W.  Admittedly my legs were a bit jaded from yesterday, but it was a PB for power and for the resulting time, so I can’t be disappointed even if it was a long way short of the 334W (318/0.95) that I should theoretically be able to sustain for 20 minutes!

I’m light-years away from Kenny de Ketele in ability (also a stone heavier and a fair bit taller), but it’s a nice comparison!

[Asterix, the former Gaul.]

Yesterday, did a “VITALITY FOR UNICEF RIDE”:

in partnership with UNICEF, every ride completed during the Series will unlock a life-saving polio vaccine for a child. With the Vitality UNICEF Ride Series, Vitality is helping UNICEF vaccinate thousands of children with life-saving polio vaccines around the world.

I’ve some sympathy for both of these comments below the article:

I don’t think it’s a particularly good thing to ‘gamificate’ vaccins for children. Why not distribute as much vaccins as possible, in stead of making it depend on the amount of rides completed? Sucks to be the kid that doesn’t get a shot because Fartdrafter2000 didn’t complete his ride..

It reminds me of all those cringey FB-posts with the “If I get 1000 likes, I will do this and that!”

Countered by this:

Vitality aren’t a charity, they’ve partnered with UNICEF as it says. The way it will work is that UNICEF are providing the vaccines regardless but vitality will fund a portion based on number of rides carried out. It’s a two way thing, vitality get exposure and possibly revenue from people joining and UNICEF get a little help in funding the vaccines. The risk is always a little cynicism when business and charity meet, but you just have to focus on it being for a good cause. UNICEF won’t be preventing a vaccine from being used just because a ride didn’t take place.

I enjoyed the ride which was strangely different for me. It was for riders of nearly all levels but they’d turned off the rider board so I had no clue as to where I was. A large peloton simply left me behind and on a sprint at c.5.9 km I was almost last out of 45 riders. After that it was just me and the road ahead for ages with no idea what was behind. Then a bunch overtook and I found I could keep up. I was faster on climbs slower on descents - it was a pretty flat route. As we neared the end the pace hotted up and I was determined to keep near the front, sprint for the line and so not be nearly last again!

At school I’d known one or two kids crippled by polio so believe it’s good if the need for vaccinations gets a bit of publicity.

[Legs]

On a recommendation from a different forum, I tried out a workout this morning that was 20x (60s@130%, 120s@50%), and it's the first time that I've properly failed.  I got into a death-spiral at the end of the twelfth interval and could barely turn the 160W required for the ensuing rest period.  I'm going to go again next week and see if I can get any further...

[drossall]

I've got about 20,000ft to go for my Tron bike, because I always cycle in Imperial Not that I really want it; I probably won't bother riding it, as the Zwift worlds are fantasy enough for me, without adding a fantasy bike as well

I've never been a climber, but I thought I ought to choose an objective. I must have been going at it for nearly a year - riding quite a lot in the winter, but not really doing anything to choose hilly routes or in any other way get there quicker. At first, I assumed that I just had to Everest it; it was a bit of a shock to get there and discover that I had twice more to go.

I have a mad, perverse plan to finish it off by doing the Tempus Fugit route, which must have pretty-much the least climbing of any in the game. That will take a bit of advance planning and route choice for the preceding rides though

Success! Finished the climbing challenge on Tempus FugitTick Tock, which must have the least gradient and climbing of pretty-much any course in any world. Just because I could

[Asterix, the former Gaul.]

Congratulations!

Did that ride as my 4th and final UNICEF event. I don’t even remember going up anywhere.

[Legs]

Success! Finished the climbing challenge on Tick Tock, which must have the least gradient and climbing of pretty-much any course in any world. Just because I could

Nice! Well done drossall!

[drossall]

Did that ride as my 4th and final UNICEF event. I don’t even remember going up anywhere.

I was watching the counter carefully. You climb by at least five feet in the caves, for example And in some of the steeper parts, I think you can do as much of ten feet of climbing in a mile

[pdm]

Starting the current Zwift academy...
After the Baseline ride, Zwift somehow decided my FTP was 330W !  (Last measured at 295W a few months ago)
The first workout was therefore duly failed, cracking on the second effort - therefore had to crank down to 95% for the rest to be able to complete it....

[Asterix, the former Gaul.]

They pushed me up to 220w

I’d like to believe it..

[Legs]

I've only completed one full workout since my (assessed) FTP went up to 318, and that was Leg Openers, which is a low-intensity warmup activity.  I suspect my true FTP is around 305W.

I'm in tricky Zwift territory; having an FTP of around 4.2 W/kg, I'm not competitive in A-cat races, and I don't want to demoralise myself by doing lots of TTs and seeing my performance inevitably plateauing.  I need to work on producing repeatable 1-2 minute efforts to keep up in mass-start races, but need the stimulus to push my FTP higher...

[drossall]

So I've been riding the Dura Ace series, and the fancy kit has made no difference at all. Can't understand it

[PaulF]

Good news: I’m less than 5000m from the Tron bike.

Bad news: they’re all vertical

[gibbo]

Monday sees me starting the Build Me Up training program, again. Looking forward to having sore legs for the next 12 weeks, not.

[Legs]

I just went out and got the 25x Volcano badge (and 5x and 10x), since my wife’s away for the weekend and my lads were cooperative about going to bed.  All my laps were between 5:32 and 7:01, and I managed to stave off the boredom listening to the radio and nattering on the chat with a chap who was doing 50x Volcano at the same time!  Glad to have done it but definitely not something I’m going to do again!

[PaulF]

Good news: I’m less than 5000m from the Tron bike.

Bad news: they’re all vertical

Unlocked it earlier this morning

[Legs]

 

[gibbo]

Unlocked it earlier this morning

Nice one 

[chrisbainbridge]

Congratulations.

[Defblade]

Just getting back on Zwift after a great summer of RealWorld riding.

First thing is, annoying that the 26,600-odd vertical metres I did in the RW hasn't magically appeared on my Tron count... still nearly 3k to go there 


In the meantime, I'm suddenly finding it much harder to engage with - too... clinical, I guess.
I've gotten pretty fit over the last 18 months, lost about a stone and a half, but with the time I have to put into riding and my (lack of) overall ability I can't see myself getting significantly fitter or lighter, so with Zwift I'm now looking at all the figures and knowing that xKg over y distance at z% climb will always come out the same - and finding it a bit demotivating.
I know this must be the same back in the RW, but it doesn't feel so much like it... probably helps I don't have a power meter!

Once it gets colder and there's little chance of grabbing a RW ride (my lungs complain if I ride when it's much below 10'c) I'll probably sign up to a training plan and maybe that will overcome this feeling.

Also, I'm tempted to try some of the other providers of similar platforms out there, but as Zwift already appears to be the one where it's most focused on the game side with others looking they are far more about the stats, I'm not hopeful.


Anyone else get this sort of feeling, and any tips to break through it?
Thanks in advance 

[L CC]

In the real world, what motivates you to ride?

Zwift noted that basically, people fall into three core buckets when they ride Zwift:

A) Train: Either doing a structured or group workout, or a training plan
B) Compete: Doing a race or series of races
C) Explore: Group rides/runs, free rides/runs, badge hunting, and tours

Within those three buckets, Zwift says that:

– 50% of Zwifters fall into the ‘Train’ bucket at least once each month
– 20% of Zwifters will ‘Compete’ in an event at least once a month
– 80% of Zwifters will do something in the ‘Explore’ bucket at least once a month

I get bored with it- I know the roads, I've got all the badges I'll ever get, the group ride chit chat can be tedious.
But I'm in a team, and I race (badly). That's pretty motivating.

[Defblade]

In the real world, what motivates you to ride?


I get bored with it- I know the roads, I've got all the badges I'll ever get, the group ride chit chat can be tedious.
But I'm in a team, and I race (badly). That's pretty motivating.

In the real world, to a great extent it's freedom and getting away from stresses of work etc - being in the moment, I think they'd call it these days - also there's the thrill of speed    (downhill!).

Then, I like how being fit makes me feel in myself, but I'm not fixed on cycling to achieve that - until my knee went dodgy, it was years of karate and using my crosstrainer. I do like to get better/faster in my riding, but to me that's simply a side effect of increasing my fitness... it shows me that the exercise is working rather than being a motivational goal in itself, if you see what I mean.



My life is fairly busy - I have enough trouble fitting a low volume Zwift training plan in, and I would not want to commit to any sort of race series/team etc as I can't be sure when I can Zwift, or for how long.
Currently trying to do 30-60 mins Mon/Wed/Fri evenings after work and longer rides either Sat or Sun, depending (hoping to be outside for those for a while yet).

I have enough structure there and enough willpower to drag me out to the garage each night as above... but I'm feeling it is a bit of a drag just now.

[gibbo]

Monday sees me starting the Build Me Up training program, again. Looking forward to having sore legs for the next 12 weeks, not.

4 weeks in and as predicted my legs are permanently sore  . The Build Me Up Program seems much harder this time round. My FTP is a bit higher than when I last did it but the Unicorn workouts are sooo hard and long and last night the Purple Unicorn required me to drop my FTP down otherwise I would never have completed it. Even with the derated FTP saw me on my knees come the end.

[JonBuoy]

I've hardly touched the trainer for 6 months but signed up for Zwift's Build Me Up starting this week.  The trouble is that the trails are still dry and the evenings this week have been pretty decent so I felt like I needed to make the most of the after-work daylight before the clocks change.

Last night I finally got round to doing the Zone Benchmarking workout with my FTP still set where it ended up last in April.  I had had a 90 minute 'warmup' thrashing the MTB around in the last glimmer of daylight but I was pleasantly surprised that the zones felt somewhere near right.  We shall see how I get on with the 'real' workouts...

[PaulF]

I've just done another FTP test; the result flashed on screen tehn disappeared. Where does Zwift hide it?