@Sheila Leard and others: The motto of the Bad Ass camp is: "This is Where The Training Happens". Usually said in the final 10% climb of 30 seconds to my house, when people start complaining "it's unfair we have to work so hard at the end!" Combine that with my OF motto: "Keep doin' it 'till you can't" Meaning, as long as you can get out and ride/run/swim/ski, no excuses to stop just 'cause you think you're too old. Same applies within any group workout ... as long as there are rabbits up ahead, no reason to quit yet.
So, yeah, that was me saying, "Hang with the group until you can't; thats when the training happens." You gotta learn a new definition of "can't", though. One that you carry into race day at your next triathlon. IOW, you're training your mind as much as your body...
@Al Truscott I should have known it was you that said that! You're the best. I thought at 60 mnutes I would cook myself staying with the group. So because you said that I gave it a shot. I had a great ride. Thanks for getting in my head with some of your magical fairy dust
@Sheila Leard For the record, I do not alter my weight from my 66 kg IRL. WYSIWYG. For you, the difference between 55 and 56 kg is pretty minimal, in terms of how easy it would be for you to keep up in the game. IOW, don't bother "weight doping" on Zwift. If you want to get to 3.0, and you think you can stand to lose 2.2 pounds, and you want to avoid "weight doping", then lose the weight IRL, and/or up your FTP to 168 (which is probably easier to do than lose the weight!) The people who were in the lead in our ride today all seem to have an FTP in the range of 3.2 w/kg +/- 0.1. at least as far as the results in Zwiftpower.com indicate. You are almost there with us, but if you wanted to go the same speed we do with the same RPE we have, your "weight" in Zwift would need to be 51.5 kg, or your FTP in watts would need to be 179. You can change either number - there are no weight or watt police patrolling the Island. But when you enter a race in Zwift, making those changes would be considered a no-no.
@Sheila Leard We are very, very similar. I’m also 55-56 kg and when I’m deep in training, I’m about 167-168 ftp. I’m prob not there at the moment, but will get there. As for weight doping, I was at 2.7-ish w/k and drifting upward of z3 today. I would def have to bump up my weight to hang with the faster guys, but I had people to ride with, and I kind of want to keep my numbers real so to speak, so I can gauge my improvement. Does that make sense?
@Sheila Leard Yes! I hear you. I’m a tech person, so I understand the algorithm side, but the physics side is like trying to assemble an IKEA table while looking into a mirror. Down is up and black is white. Esp since I’m not on a smart trainer. Very confusing.
@Alicia Chase - Thanks for a great ride yesterday! I was trying my darndest to stay with you:-) It was my first successful team ride and I loved it. One hour at .91 IF!!
@carol_defazio. I didn’t know you were on the ride. Are you on Discord? It’s where we all can chat or breath heavy. There’s a link in the forums - Discord link for Zwift.
@Sheila Leard - yes, I was on Discord but was muted. Lots of heavy breathing, for sure. Turby kept talking to me on Discord even though I was 2 feet away from him! LOL It was great!
@C@carol_defazio It was a good ride, and you were right there. The thing I liked about that ride was I always had an EN team mate to ride with. You, me and @Turby Wright were together a long time, then we caught up with @maurice matthews and KMF Man and rode with them a bit. Really makes the time fly.
Let's try the London Pretzel For the Saturday Zwift ride. 7:00 PST at the banner. Did we loose a few of the ladies to a race? If so...have fun and ride hard! Hope to still have a few for the AM ride.
I'm going to try to join in this Saturday for the first time. Of course, I've said that the last two weeks. In any case, I think I've got all the logistics sorted except Discord. Can someone point me to instructions on how to get linked into the Discord discussion for this ride?
Yes, @Sid Wavrin. I have company for breakfast Saturday, so wouldn’t be able to make the 10 a.m. start. Instead, I’m planning to do a race at 11:40. Should be fun!
Question for all of you pro level Zwifters... If one is pushed for time and want to skip some of the warmup and get straight to the main set, how does one do that? In trainerroad, you could just drag over to where you wanted to start and start riding. Is there a way to do that when using the OS workouts imported into zwift? I commonly have need of a 45-50 min workout rather than the 1:03-1:05 length.
@Ralph Moore - I am definitely not a pro level and do not use trainer road but I do understand the need to get in and get out.
Login to Zwift, select a race event at your level, D, C, B, etc.....start racing, hang on, leave early if needed.....guaranteed to get the work in and more....
@Shaughn Simmons Thanks. I actually did not make it clear now that I review my post. I meant when using the EN workouts (like the OS Tues/Thurs workouts) from within Zwift and you want to skip the warmup 15 min or so.
@Ralph Moore - we are in the same age group I see. I understand your question and I don't really have a specific answer to that technicality but, if intensity within a short time window is the goal while using Zwift, one alternative is to just jump into a race and let it happen..............
@Ralph Moore within the Zwift mobile app there's a toolbar at the bottom of the map page that has pause, start, stop, etc. buttons. There are buttons there to skip a section of a workout, as well as increasing/decreasing the intensity of that block. You can, for example, do 5 minutes of the warmup block and then skip to the next section (or skip the warmup altogether).
if one gets dropped from a group ride is there anyway to magically get back to the group without quitting the ride and restarting using the 'ride with' function?- Asking for a friend.
if one gets dropped from a group ride is there anyway to magically get back to the group without quitting the ride and restarting using the 'ride with' function?- Asking for a friend.
No. Official word from Zwift HQ is ya gotta quit your current ride, and start a new one...but they're "working on it for the future"
Apparently I took this screen shot last week, showing ELEVEN EN riders all in a group on our Saturday Ride. Thanks to @Brian Hagan for his UltraMan training, and the Mayor, @Tim Sullivan for joining us. There were even more riders not in the screen or on the sidebar. Time stamped 7:18/10:18 AM:
Another double digit group, and that's not counting the Fearless Ladies and their awesome racing-ness. I did my 2 hours @ 0.834 IF, its working to push up my Time To Exhaustion (a key TP/WKO metric) to 54:03.
Thanks to @Jason Brandt, @Turby Wright& @Sid Wavrin for continuing to push me up those hills...got a two minute PR on the second one. Congrats to John Katsoudas for his Green Jersey. Thanks to @Brian Hagan@the end of his Zentury, to @maurice matthews for fitting us into his 2.5 hour trainer marathon. Here's a shot 40 minutes in with a dozen EN names in the right panel. (And "J Click", who rode with us most of the first hour. Is he an EN sleeper?) Kudos to all!
Thanks @Al Truscott for organizing the ride. This was my first one, and I had a blast. I'm already looking forward to next week's ride. Thanks to everyone that rode today for pushing me, especially Mark Stahlkopf for pushing me to a PR up Fox Hill.
Thanks to @Al Truscott for staying on Discord and watching the race and giving me race advice. Very helpful. I can’t navigate all the tech when I’m trying to not barf.
Next time I won’t be muted on Discord. I would have loved to hear Al’s tactics. All I know is that tried to stay around 2.8-3w/kg … and stay with you!! There was one rider that separated us at the end and I couldn’t catch her. 5 seconds! Thanks everyone!
Great ride all, thanks (I think)! I needed a nap after!. Well done Al you were GONE on the hills!! Congrats to all the girls for their race!! Of course I'm right next to Carol so I had a ringside seat! Well done all!! Carol had an IF of 1.0 for just over an hour and got bumped up to C. She loved racing with the girls!!
Comments
So, yeah, that was me saying, "Hang with the group until you can't; thats when the training happens." You gotta learn a new definition of "can't", though. One that you carry into race day at your next triathlon. IOW, you're training your mind as much as your body...
@Al Truscott
How many kg do you drop? Do you target a w/kg you want to ride? I'm 56 kg so if i want to be 3w/kg at my current FTP of 165 I would need to be 55kg.
For the record, I do not alter my weight from my 66 kg IRL. WYSIWYG. For you, the difference between 55 and 56 kg is pretty minimal, in terms of how easy it would be for you to keep up in the game. IOW, don't bother "weight doping" on Zwift. If you want to get to 3.0, and you think you can stand to lose 2.2 pounds, and you want to avoid "weight doping", then lose the weight IRL, and/or up your FTP to 168 (which is probably easier to do than lose the weight!) The people who were in the lead in our ride today all seem to have an FTP in the range of 3.2 w/kg +/- 0.1. at least as far as the results in Zwiftpower.com indicate. You are almost there with us, but if you wanted to go the same speed we do with the same RPE we have, your "weight" in Zwift would need to be 51.5 kg, or your FTP in watts would need to be 179. You can change either number - there are no weight or watt police patrolling the Island. But when you enter a race in Zwift, making those changes would be considered a no-no.
Thanks,
John
If that doesn;t work, go to the EN GroupMe Zwift Chat (PSA), and ask someone to send you a link.
Login to Zwift, select a race event at your level, D, C, B, etc.....start racing, hang on, leave early if needed.....guaranteed to get the work in and more....
SS
Thanks to @Jason Brandt, @Turby Wright& @Sid Wavrin for continuing to push me up those hills...got a two minute PR on the second one. Congrats to John Katsoudas for his Green Jersey. Thanks to @Brian Hagan @the end of his Zentury, to @maurice matthews for fitting us into his 2.5 hour trainer marathon. Here's a shot 40 minutes in with a dozen EN names in the right panel. (And "J Click", who rode with us most of the first hour. Is he an EN sleeper?) Kudos to all!
@Al Truscott
Next time I won’t be muted on Discord. I would
have loved to hear Al’s tactics. All I know is that tried to stay around 2.8-3w/kg … and stay with you!! There was one rider that separated us at the end and I couldn’t catch her. 5 seconds! Thanks everyone!