Zwifting - I think I need help!

[L CC]

Anyone want to finish this off for me? I'm OK with single leg drills but not for >an hour.

[JonBuoy]

Anyone want to finish this off for me? I'm OK with single leg drills but not for >an hour.

Admit it - you just want the lovely kit 

I can't help with the full kit but have a backwards cap going spare if you want to look a bit of a twat.

[morbihan]

I enjoyed the new Scotland route on TDZ this morning.
To date I entered 12 of the events in varying distances. Going pretty hard at them for me. Efforts ranged from 248 to 321 watts NP. (I'm 79 kg, late 50's)
I managed a 6th on one of the flatter events but was generally dropped by the climbers on lumps and have no sprint.
I'll probably do another distance over the weekend but am feeling the repeated efforts.
Ms Morbihan has managed them all too, its been a big hit in the house.
Anyone else done the Scotland route?

[drossall]

Hoping to fit it in but visiting family, so it's hard to find a good time. I'm hoping to find discussion of which parts of Scotland are reflected in it - which lochs etc. I know it's "inspired by" and not an accurate representation, but wondering whether it will be more like a chain of places that are actually quite geographically-dispersed, or entirely a Scotland that exists only in the designers' minds

[JonBuoy]

I did the Scotland TdZ route at 1700 along with 2506 others then went exploring on the rest of the roads.  I thought it was really good and even spotted Nessie 


ETA:  I appear to have an insect bite on my right knee.  It looks like the Wahoo Midginator is functioning well 

[Asterix, the former Gaul.]

 
Did the 32km yesterday.  It was a fierce pace after half way.  I came in at my usual place with 2/3rds in front and 1/3rd behind.  Hardly any Scots to be seen although lots of North Americans apparently visiting the old country.  Typical Zwift realism!

[gibbo]

Anyone want to finish this off for me? I'm OK with single leg drills but not for >an hour.

I missed stage 6 so will do it this week. I notice it's the Three Sisters stage (hilly-ish) which doesn't appeal one bit so I've signed up for the shortest/ least climbing option just to complete the full series. In my defence my legs are a bit shot from over-Zwifting at the end of last week and weekend.

[Legs]

I turned my fan up to the max, and chipped 90s off my PB up AdZ yesterday morning in the 3R race, down to 46:33 (308W at 73.5kg).  Annoyingly, I didn't even place as top 'B' in the race because I was outsprinted by a German fella who sat on my wheel for the last few switchbacks.  I was focussed purely on getting a fast time, rather than playing cat-and-mouse, but he'd probably have pwned me in the sprint anyway.

[drossall]

I missed stage 6 so will do it this week.

Me too - just that one to go. Difficult to fit in because the climbing is going to make it slow and I've got commitments every night, pretty much

[MattH]

Only got stages 1, 2 and 3 to do this week 

To be fair, I only signed up for Zwift during January, and didn't realise TdZ was a thing until stage 4 was on.

Last night was my first go at AdZ; I didn't have a lot of time, so just did the first 300m of ascent (corner 15?) - basically I rode until my nominal cut-off time then to the next corner, before doing a u-turn and rolling back down. Looking forward to doing the whole thing though, I just need to set aside some time to do it.

[drossall]

There's a badge for getting up it 25 times. So far, I think I've done it twice in about three years. So that would be about 2035 then.

[MattH]

So stages 2 and 3 done this evening (couldn't get free in time to do stage 1). Got a green jersey on the Champs Elysees on stage 3, my first ever jersey in Zwift

Now just got to figure out when I can fit in stage 1.

[morbihan]

There are races on the Scotland circuit now.
I jumped on one this morning.
306 watts average got me about 40th place in B cat. Yikes!
Over and done on 18 mins so like a Crit.
Interestingly looking at the stats, the A cat was a good bit slower. Weight of numbers sucking the B's along I guess.

[Asterix, the former Gaul.]

There's a hack to get into worlds when they are off-calendar.  You just change the date on your device, I believe, having done it a couple of times a long while a go.  There were a few other riders but not many.

I notice it is possible to get back to past events on 'Companion' by a date change, but I have not had time for further investigation.

If you did enter a long-past event and was the only rider, what would happen?  Might try it later today.

[Legs]

Much easier than that, do a workout (which allows you to select any world which isn't event-only), then skip through the workout blocks if you just want to free-ride.

You can also get into non-calendar worlds by setting up a meet-up, or by using the world tag hack if you're on PC or Mac.

[JonBuoy]

I've created a custom workout that is just a 1 hour free ride.  I just select that then select which world and which route I fancy and bimble around it.

[JonBuoy]

I have recently discovered that there is such a thing as Zwift fire socks

IWAPOT

Only 21 more levels to go 

[Legs]

Chalked up my first proper win in an A-cat mass-start race last night!  8 laps of Crit City, only three of us in contention but I knew the other two were strong riders - one had a 15W/kg 15s sprint, so I knew that I couldn't rely on taking it to the line.  Went full send on the last lap and got a gap while the others looked at each other (or so I'd like to imagine!).  Dropped 440W average for the last 2:30 lap and held out to win by 9s. 

[Asterix, the former Gaul.]

I turned my fan up to the max, and chipped 90s off my PB up AdZ yesterday morning in the 3R race, down to 46:33 (308W at 73.5kg).  Annoyingly, I didn't even place as top 'B' in the race because I was outsprinted by a German fella who sat on my wheel for the last few switchbacks.  I was focussed purely on getting a fast time, rather than playing cat-and-mouse, but he'd probably have pwned me in the sprint anyway.

Will try turning up the fan. So far my PB is 67', never worried about the seconds. 

[PaulF]

Much easier than that, do a workout (which allows you to select any world which isn't event-only), then skip through the workout blocks if you just want to free-ride.
…

Can’t access Scotland yet that way - at least I couldn’t this morning. Think you need to wait until the world is officially released.

[MattH]

Stage 1 ticked off this evening, so TdZ done. I also snuck in my first AdZ mid-week, so I'm only 500m off the Feb climbing challenge thing.

I do need to have a look at my setup though. I'm on the Trice XL, which means I get to sit down, though I can't get out of the saddle on climbs. The problem is that I had to raise the front wheels so that the rear triangle would clear the trainer. It's sat on some crates, but they are a bit high really; I need to see if I can lower the front end a bit so my legs aren't quite as airborne. Similarly, the top of the seat is a bit uncomfortable on my shoulders; I've not noticed that outside so think it's because I'm leaning back more. At the moment a towel is padding that, and the headrest I made helps me stay comfy. I might need to look at padding on the seat, or maybe making the trike a bit more horizontal will help.

At some point I'll put an upright bike on it to give that a try.

[Kim]

Similarly, the top of the seat is a bit uncomfortable on my shoulders; I've not noticed that outside so think it's because I'm leaning back more. At the moment a towel is padding that, and the headrest I made helps me stay comfy. I might need to look at padding on the seat, or maybe making the trike a bit more horizontal will help.

For the truncated 2020 BHPC season, I raced barakta's ICE Sprint.  (It was, alas, no match for Chairman Al's Shiny! New! Windcheetah, which bagged the multi-track trophy.)

I found that I was getting bruises on my shoulder-blades, in a way that I'd *never* had on it in road-riding conditions.  The problem seemed to be that the mesh was bottoming out on the supporting strut, and no amount of tightening the straps with reasonable force was sufficient to prevent it.  In the end, taking inspiration from TEAM ORANGE, I gaffer-taped some closed-cell foam over the seat to spread the load a bit, which was good enough for a couple more cumulative hours of racing where I was going to be soaked in sweat anyway.

(My usual preference is for hardshell seats, which - assuming they fit properly - don't have this problem.)

[MattH]

Thanks - though on mine, it's where the vertical struts end that poke in, there is enough tension in the seat to keep me off the horizontal supporting struts that keep the verticals separated. If the seat was another few inches taller (or a hardshell ) it wouldn't be an issue. I haven't had an issue on the road, or at the one BHPC event I went to (hoping to do some more this year, BC racing permitting), so it may just be exacerbated by the slightly more reclined than normal position meaning I lie fully back all the time.

I could try pushing the rear triangle in a little more, which would push the seat a little more vertical, but I think the real solution will be either to get a taller seat or make up an extension that incorporates a headrest then a new cover for the whole seat to avoid there being a joint to either rub or pinch. As you say, hardshell looks like the right kind of answer (assuming they don't get too sweaty).

[Legs]

Got promoted to A last night, which is a mixed blessing.  It can be quite difficult to find races with decent-sized field, and I’m going to get a shoeing in every race!

[Asterix, the former Gaul.]

Here's a tip: the only race I have got a placing was in cat A Team Greece Climbing TT Race.  Initially they were four of us, the front runner was doing a remarkably steady 4.2 w/kg and I was last.  Part way, I paused to put the kettle on and resumed to complete the course in just under 4 hours.  When I checked Zwiftpower, I found I got 2nd place. 

Sometimes there is only a single rider in Team Greece Climbing TT Race Cat A so all you have to do is get up Ven-top, take all day if you like.