FYI, Saturday Crew...I will be skiing in CO, and will not be riding in Zwift again until Feb 1, so I'll miss the next two weekend rides. I expect everyone to be ready for an assault on the Radio Tower, or Keith/Leith Hills on Super Bowl Saturday!
Tried and failed to get on this morning. New to Zwift so can only assume I'm missing something... I didn't see the ABP ride as an event I could select at the right of the home screen (should it be there? or if not how do I indicate that I want to join that group ride??) so at 10:01 I just attempted to "ride with" an ENer that I saw was riding. I started pedaling immediately when I was dropped in since they were moving already, but didn't see anyone on the course even though I had "followed" a all the active ENers I could find on the zwift mobile app. People I have followed should show up as special pins in the map view if they're riding, right? Anf when I click to "ride with" someone, that should drop me on the correct course?? Please help this newb who is feeling like an idiot!
@Carole Harbison It sounds like you did everything right. The Saturday ride is not going show up as an event in Zwift. The EN riders who want to do the ride simply select the course that is posted, soft pedal to the start banner and gather with other EN riders until we roll at approximately 7:00 AM pacific time. Joining the discord channel will help so you can talk to others and get the plan. You can also choose”ride with” and select an EN rider you follow. It is important to spin your bike up before you select ride with so you can hang on to this rider. You need to be riding about the same watts/kg as the rider you chose or they will disappear quickly especially when the course is crowded as it was today. Yes the people you follow should show up as orange pins on the map. Don’t give up! Try again. Discord will allow us to help you.
Thanks @Sid Wavrin! I'm wondering if internet connectivity issues were part of the problem today, my spotify has been coming in and out all afternoon. I'll try again next week!!
@Carole Harbison connectivity can cause big problems. Typically if you are having problems you will be alone on the course with no one else around you. Today the course was crowded so very unlikely that you would have not been with a bunch of other riders.
Thanks to @Sid Wavrin for leading another Saturday ABP EN ride. Great talking to you all. Kudos once again to @Jason Veith for the Zwift workouts. Perfect blend of work and pain!
@Carole Harbison When I was finishing I saw you and gave you a 'ride on' There is a learning curve to Zwift. Stick with it. Each week you will learn one new thing. Definitely get on Discord.
@Gordon Cherwoniak and possibly @maurice matthews I did a little research on the low/hard cadence while in erg mode when doing VO2 intervals (Maurice, I think you were having a different issue, but this might interest you). According to the TrainerRoad guys, the reason the cadence drops as you get into the short, hard efforts is because erg mode is trying to maintain the prescribed power output. If your effort is dropping, then erg mode drops the cadence and lowers the gearing (shifts to a harder gear) in order to keep power output consistent. If you get to the point where you can’t mash the pedals because the gearing and cadence is too low, backpedaling for a few seconds (at least in TrainerRoad, not sure if it also works in Zwift) resets your cadence.
I'm back for the next three Saturdays, still mired in the wet 'n squishy PNW. So @ 0700 PST (1500 UTC, 1000 EST), I'll set up at the start banner for the Watopia Mountain Route...
I put the Saturday Zwift ride in an event on the Groupme for 2/23. Al is skiing and I am running a half marathon so won't be there. I suggested the Pretzel as a route as it seems a few people are riding longer. Join in and stop whenever you're done with your WKO. Have fun and ride hard! 7:00 AM Pacific at the start banner.
Apologies to the Saturday ABP’ers. I’ve lost my “somewhat cheap, not-very-reliable, but when it worked, it worked” broadband. Living in the sticks has its drawbacks. I’m back to using Verizon “expensive, but at least it’s throttled” cell for broadband. Not sure if I can use Discord and the ZML while I’m riding. Zwifted yesterday with just the app on my desktop connected (I thought), and I still had power dropouts. #firstworldproblems #butzwift
Okay gang it sounds like it is officially winter in many places so I wanted to try and fire up the Saturday West Coast ride for those who may be riding Zwift on Saturday AM. It looks like we ended last year with a 7:00 AM Pacific start time so let's try that again this year. We did this as ABP last year so I guess that's a plan. We can start out easy to keep everyone together for a while then unleash your beast and get your ride in. Join the discord channel to if you wish to keep connected with others riding. There is instructions for both Discord and Zwift in the forums. I suggest we select the Everything Bagel route. It is a little longer and has some climbing. I assume there is a start banner just ahead of where your avatar will be placed if you select that route just prior to 7:00 and roll the banner and wait for others. We have in the past worn the" basic 5" kit so we can identify each other easier on course. See you on Saturday morning.
This is a comment from @Al Truscott describing the Saturday Zwift Group ride. There will be a group most Saturday mornings. Come join us! Getting on Discord and chatting makes the time pass quickly. The course will be posted on the team Groupme each week. Search this thread to get an idea of what you need to do.
Piggybacking...There is also a Saturday ABP ride which is in its second year now. We start @ 7 AM PST/10 AM EST. The regulars on this ride are more like B/C, with FTPs in the range of 2.5-3.5. The rides are intended to serve as the Saturday OS ride, which is usually some flavor of 12' @ .8 IF, 30' @ .7, 2 x 10' @ .9, then 60' @ .8, which for many of us works out to 2.2-2.8 w/kg. Again, the calculator Brian links to above is very handy to adjust one's handicap up or down so we can stay together. On Sundays, I use it so I can ride with the Big Boys - dropping my 66 kg to 53, I can just about stay with Patrick using the same effort level he is. (The only problem with weight doping is, it lets me ride the KOMs faster, so it screws up my PRs for those segments on Zwift)
I have intentions to do the Saturday Zwift Group ride. It would be helpful to get more folks that are hovering on 2,5 range. Would like to see more women.
I have a few 10K's coming up so I'll ride on Sunday instead. I can post a West Coast ride on Sunday if people are interested.
I plan to join the Saturday ABP rides, assuming I don’t have a conflicting family/holiday commitment. I will be starting the OS in January, so should be consistent at that point. Haven’t tested my FTP in awhile, but Strava is estimating me at 2.8-2.9 w/kg. Not sure if/how it works in the companion app, but I know there is a way to adjust effort in the desktop app without having to change weight. Maybe only works in workout mode? Not sure, but I can check it out @Sheila Leard and let you know. Might be an easier way for us to hang with the guys.
I think this is the thread we used for what became Saturday West Coast Cruise and Crush or CNC. We want to bring this back for r 2019/2020. We have talked to people who are willing lead. They are @Al Truscott, @Turby Wright, @Nam Lam, @Larry Peters and @Sid Wavrin. I will attempt to add this to the Zwift HQ schedule when I return from IMAZ so that it will be a scheduled ride in Zwift events. We have agreed that it should be 90 minutes on the Out and Back again course, using the CNC model cruising at around 2.5 or less and crushing the sprints and KOMs at best effort with an attempt to regroup using the fence feature.I think we started around 7:00 Pacific. Please use this thread for comments in the mean time so I can get it right the first time I send it to Zwift. Al, you mentioned a different name for the ride. Could you remind me what that was? Also if you want to draft the ride description, that would be great also. I will list the leaders in the order that i listed them above. That means if Al is gone Turby gets the beacon and so on down the line. Al is gone for a stretch pretty early in Dec. so the rest of you can suggest a starting date. December 3? All the leaders have been added to a leaders thread in group me where we can coordinate leads as schedules fill in. Please feel free to comment and change anything I've described here.
@Sid Wavrin Here's what I suggest for the title and description: Team EN Saturday Cruise and Climb
"Join Team Endurance Nation for the Saturday version of our legendary Winter Cruise & Crush group ride. Cruise through Fuego Flats, aim for the Volcano KOM, recover, then up again over the Hilly KOM (reverse). If we're fast enough, we can finish up with the Fuego Sprint.
We start at 2 w/kg, build to 2.5 w/kg by 10 minutes. Adding in the climbs, we aim for 2.7 w/kg average overall.
Yes, start on or AFTER 0700 Pacific. Meaning, if we can't start on the hour, make it after, not before the hour. I need my beauty sleep, as well as breakfast.
All Al's suggestions sound good to me. I'm pretty flexible about dates to fill in leading. Only issue is I'm on an Ipad so I can't type out the messages you guys do.
Okay @Al Truscott. I'm not sure I can get this started by Nov 30, but I will try. The Group me I speak of is just the Zwift lead chat. You are in that chat. I think it's appropriate for us to use that to manage the lead schedule as we go along. @Turby Wright you should be able to type on Ipad. It's really help[ful to be able to communicate along the way. I think that is what @Al Truscott uses? I use my phone with the companion App. The other big change is managing the fence. There will be a control strip along the bottom the leaders screen where it can be turned on and off. It's really helpful to keep the group together. I will work om this and keep you posted.
Thanks for including me @Sid Wavrin. I also agree with @Al Truscott's suggestions. I have not tried the control strip for the management of the fence yet. The other helpful prep work is to download the Ditto App onto your iPad or Iphone. This will decrease the typing during the ride.
Comments
Sent from my iPad
You're invited to my new group 'EN Zwift Event Node (ZEN)' on GroupMe. Click here to join: https://groupme.com/join_group/36550297/V9ei3G
And the Chat Link...You're invited to my new group 'EN Zwift Chat (PSA)' on GroupMe. Click here to join: https://groupme.com/join_group/29902223/tGK5OF
Sent from my iPad
Okay gang it sounds like it is officially winter in many places so I wanted to try and fire up the Saturday West Coast ride for those who may be riding Zwift on Saturday AM. It looks like we ended last year with a 7:00 AM Pacific start time so let's try that again this year. We did this as ABP last year so I guess that's a plan. We can start out easy to keep everyone together for a while then unleash your beast and get your ride in. Join the discord channel to if you wish to keep connected with others riding. There is instructions for both Discord and Zwift in the forums. I suggest we select the Everything Bagel route. It is a little longer and has some climbing. I assume there is a start banner just ahead of where your avatar will be placed if you select that route just prior to 7:00 and roll the banner and wait for others. We have in the past worn the" basic 5" kit so we can identify each other easier on course. See you on Saturday morning.
This is a comment from @Al Truscott describing the Saturday Zwift Group ride. There will be a group most Saturday mornings. Come join us! Getting on Discord and chatting makes the time pass quickly. The course will be posted on the team Groupme each week. Search this thread to get an idea of what you need to do.
Piggybacking...There is also a Saturday ABP ride which is in its second year now. We start @ 7 AM PST/10 AM EST. The regulars on this ride are more like B/C, with FTPs in the range of 2.5-3.5. The rides are intended to serve as the Saturday OS ride, which is usually some flavor of 12' @ .8 IF, 30' @ .7, 2 x 10' @ .9, then 60' @ .8, which for many of us works out to 2.2-2.8 w/kg. Again, the calculator Brian links to above is very handy to adjust one's handicap up or down so we can stay together. On Sundays, I use it so I can ride with the Big Boys - dropping my 66 kg to 53, I can just about stay with Patrick using the same effort level he is. (The only problem with weight doping is, it lets me ride the KOMs faster, so it screws up my PRs for those segments on Zwift)
@Sid Wavrin @Al Truscott
I have intentions to do the Saturday Zwift Group ride. It would be helpful to get more folks that are hovering on 2,5 range. Would like to see more women.
I have a few 10K's coming up so I'll ride on Sunday instead. I can post a West Coast ride on Sunday if people are interested.
I plan to join the Saturday ABP rides, assuming I don’t have a conflicting family/holiday commitment. I will be starting the OS in January, so should be consistent at that point. Haven’t tested my FTP in awhile, but Strava is estimating me at 2.8-2.9 w/kg. Not sure if/how it works in the companion app, but I know there is a way to adjust effort in the desktop app without having to change weight. Maybe only works in workout mode? Not sure, but I can check it out @Sheila Leard and let you know. Might be an easier way for us to hang with the guys.
I think this is the thread we used for what became Saturday West Coast Cruise and Crush or CNC. We want to bring this back for r 2019/2020. We have talked to people who are willing lead. They are @Al Truscott, @Turby Wright, @Nam Lam, @Larry Peters and @Sid Wavrin. I will attempt to add this to the Zwift HQ schedule when I return from IMAZ so that it will be a scheduled ride in Zwift events. We have agreed that it should be 90 minutes on the Out and Back again course, using the CNC model cruising at around 2.5 or less and crushing the sprints and KOMs at best effort with an attempt to regroup using the fence feature.I think we started around 7:00 Pacific. Please use this thread for comments in the mean time so I can get it right the first time I send it to Zwift. Al, you mentioned a different name for the ride. Could you remind me what that was? Also if you want to draft the ride description, that would be great also. I will list the leaders in the order that i listed them above. That means if Al is gone Turby gets the beacon and so on down the line. Al is gone for a stretch pretty early in Dec. so the rest of you can suggest a starting date. December 3? All the leaders have been added to a leaders thread in group me where we can coordinate leads as schedules fill in. Please feel free to comment and change anything I've described here.
@Sid Wavrin Here's what I suggest for the title and description: Team EN Saturday Cruise and Climb
"Join Team Endurance Nation for the Saturday version of our legendary Winter Cruise & Crush group ride. Cruise through Fuego Flats, aim for the Volcano KOM, recover, then up again over the Hilly KOM (reverse). If we're fast enough, we can finish up with the Fuego Sprint.
We start at 2 w/kg, build to 2.5 w/kg by 10 minutes. Adding in the climbs, we aim for 2.7 w/kg average overall.
The fence will be employed to keep the group together, loosened on the KOMs. Join us on our Discord channel: https://discordapp.com/invite/5nhqrxG"
Yes, start on or AFTER 0700 Pacific. Meaning, if we can't start on the hour, make it after, not before the hour. I need my beauty sleep, as well as breakfast.
In addition to placing this on the zwift calendar, Patrick should be asked to include it in the EN list of Zwift activities: https://www.endurancenation.us/teamen-on-zwift/
Direct me to the leaders thread in GroupMe? I will list the days I can lead, then the rest of the group can fill in in order of priority.
For starters, I will lead Nov 30, Dec 21, 28...
All Al's suggestions sound good to me. I'm pretty flexible about dates to fill in leading. Only issue is I'm on an Ipad so I can't type out the messages you guys do.
Okay @Al Truscott. I'm not sure I can get this started by Nov 30, but I will try. The Group me I speak of is just the Zwift lead chat. You are in that chat. I think it's appropriate for us to use that to manage the lead schedule as we go along. @Turby Wright you should be able to type on Ipad. It's really help[ful to be able to communicate along the way. I think that is what @Al Truscott uses? I use my phone with the companion App. The other big change is managing the fence. There will be a control strip along the bottom the leaders screen where it can be turned on and off. It's really helpful to keep the group together. I will work om this and keep you posted.
Thanks for including me @Sid Wavrin. I also agree with @Al Truscott's suggestions. I have not tried the control strip for the management of the fence yet. The other helpful prep work is to download the Ditto App onto your iPad or Iphone. This will decrease the typing during the ride.
@Nam Lam photo is so intimidating