Zwift Races for OFs

Al Truscott

Want to race in Zwift, but worried the 20, 20, 40, and early 50-somethings will eat your lunch? There is a "Master's" series, which is based on 5-year age categories, up to 75+. [Women race vs. men, but get to go against guys ten yrs older, eg, a 58 y/o women races against the 65-69 y/0 men.] I'll probably be trying this one in a couple of days:

https://zwift.com/events/view/37739

Races are on Tuesday, every 3 hours or so, to grab people in various geographic categories. You have to sign up first on both ZwiftPower.com, and send passport or DL scan for age verification to: 
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfx3LqI4Qi1OPXT8TkeVpN6wOzPTx-LPSs9BJ2Vyfisv9LkgA/viewform

There are also age categories down to 30-34, but I'd suspect those folks might be better off staying with the A/B/C/D categories based on w/kg.

Sheila Leard

@Al Truscott  Thanks for finding this! This will bring out the Alphas The times of the races are not great but I may try to work my schedule around one of them. I noticed that the courses vary, i.e., Atlantic, Europe, Britain.
 

Al Truscott

I think those names refer to the locale of the folks they are trying to attract via those times.

Tom Box

Thanks Al.  I'll give this a try.  Is it based on your current age or age year?  I only ask because this is my age up year, turning 60 in October so it would be nice to race in the 60-64 age group.

Al Truscott

Based on age as of end of this year, i believe. So @Tom Box you'd be60-64.

Alicia Chase

Thanks, @Al Truscott, I’ll look into this. A Tuesday race would work well for the FTP workout. 7:00 PM eastern might be too late for me, I tend to not sleep well if I train hard late in the day. And, I’d be in your category, Al!

Carol DeFazio

Thanks @Al Truscott, Turby and I are signed up for tomorrow at 12:30 Eastern time.  I can get all my chores done in the morning first:-)    Should be interesting....  

Todd Bray

Thanks for sharing this @Al Truscott! I've submitted all the required documentation and may give this a shot tonight if my work schedule permits. 

I've only done one race so far and am still learning the ropes with Zwift. I've become pretty good at creating workouts in Training Peaks and am actually following a Trainer Road plan that shows up daily in Zwift. Pretty cool stuff!

I'll admit that my first race I didn't know that it wasn't in ERG mode and peddled my brains out!!!   

Again, thanks for the info!

Al Truscott

@Turby Wright @Sid Wavrin Just realised we all rode the same course, even though at different times today. Sid bombed us by four minutes. Turby and I were within 15 seconds of each other (sorry, Turby, got ya by 14"), but he wins the HR award: averaged 124 to my 130 (and I thought *I* was low). Luckily I rode with a good group of 5-6 on the flats the first loop, left them in the dust on the hill, waited up for a new group after the descent, stayed with them until the hill again. At the end, I won the mini-sprint of the three people who managed to catch me after the 2nd descent.

No different than any other race, but at least I didn't have to worry about the others around me (except to keep the pack together and pip them at the end), as none were in my AG.

BTW, in the morning race, the *OVERALL* winner was a 67 y/o who seems to own all the KOMs in Zwift for my AG. He's Austrian, and had an NP of 406 for his one hour out on the course. He's 93 kg, so he ain't weight doping... his Strava page boasts he's the 8x Austrian TT Masters Champion. Unreal #s:

                                             95% 20'  Avg    NP    Avg       5'          1'         15"            Wt       Avg HR

A		Norbert PopovicZHR	1:00:46	4.1w/kg	366w	407w	3.9w/kg	5.7w/kg	7.7w/kg	10.6w/kg	-	93.0kg	149bpm

Sid Wavrin

@Al Truscott Yes, All day Tuesday the race is the same. At the end end of the week they compile the results for the day into a spread sheet assigning points to each person according to place overall and place in the AG. The points are then totaled for the series. Somebody does a bunch of work! I guess the races on the weekend do not count for the series. There is also a Facebook group where some of this is discussed.

Turby Wright

@Al Truscott Atta boy Al, great race!! A 67 yo putting out 4.1 for 1 hour? Really amazing!! Although I would have enjoyed taking Norbert on my brick run after for a little payback! Loving Zwift for among other things, racing against cyclists who are WAY better than us triathletes and the hills, which I stink at because we don't have any!!

Sheila Leard

@Al Truscott I like reading your race tactics. Great work.