Indoor Training, and Virtual Racing (ZWIFT)

Jan 14, 2017 at 02:09 PM

Dag, sorry Thierry fam stuff. I'll start it off, but I have to get going. Burn some rubber!

Jan 14, 2017 at 03:27 PM

OK, 3 laps of London wasn't in the cards for me this morning. I've been fighting something and dropped out after two laps. Thierry was looking good and dropped me hard part way into the second lap.

Bruce van-Schalkwyk

Jan 14, 2017 at 04:41 PM

I put in an hour with some sweet spot training, after a 30 minute warmup earlier in the morning. I didn't see this post first, David, and thought you got another mechanical, but thanks for starting the ride with us.
I was on box hill with a guy in front of me by about 5 seconds, then 4. Because we were wearing regular kit, I couldn't see who it was, and so many riders kept coming up, grouping, taking off, so I used my ipad and gave him a Ride On. I saw a giant blue thumbs-up above a rider in front and cranked up to his wheel for a draft.

Thierry finished the whole race. You're a monster!

Thierry Bonnaire

Jan 15, 2017 at 12:43 AM

Great times this morning, I enjoyed the David's smack down posting towards those who could not resist hammering from the gun.
Jim and I kept steady ( Boy! That was tough) for a long portion of the ride until we approached the third lap.
I was going to drop out when the hour was up but my legs felt good during that moment and kept on going until the finish. Let's hope we get a larger Kissena contingent next round.

David Yang

Jan 17, 2017 at 03:14 PM

Now that I'm back on a training program, not sure how to handle the weekly group rides. Anyone want to lead the Wed morning rides?

Bruce van-Schalkwyk

Jan 17, 2017 at 04:56 PM

No.

You've done a great job leading so far. Not sure how your workout changes the Zwift Wednesday group ride? I'd love to see you continue it.

Last week, I was in the back because I was doing my workout.

From what I see in TrainingPeaks, for my schedule, and I'm assuming yours is the same, it seems like the 1 hour Zwift can be a 10 minute warmup up to Z 2, and then steady in Zone 2.

Every 5 minutes, a 20 second sprint, up to Zone 6, or whatever they can put out. Regroup. It should be slow enough to text when the sprint is coming up, and group riding can be fun.

I think it's totally fine to get on Zwift and do a Zone 2 ride, despite the 'Power Hour' name. This is a good training ride and I have a feeling a lot of people who sign up will ride with you. And if not, they can jump off the front.

Anyone who wants to jump off the front is welcome to ride in a group and make it fun for them. All others can stick with you. Save the racing for Saturday. And your Zone 2 may be a harder workout for others. Ahem.

Just getting on the bike at 5:45, or whatever time it is in Seoul, Helsinki, and Toronto, can be workout enough.

David Yang

Jan 17, 2017 at 05:30 PM

Thanks for the vote of confidence, Bruce. I guess my only real hesitation of doing workouts as a ride leader is that traditionally these rides are steady paced. It would be kind of tough to keep everyone together after each interval.

Also the workout would change week to week. If zwift let ride leaders do a little content management, it would be convenient for us to post up weekly ride goals.

Bruce van-Schalkwyk

Jan 17, 2017 at 08:59 PM

Agreed it would be good to easily post workouts and changes.

But we can make up whatever workout we want, with instructions a minute before the start, and repeated a minute into it, so everyone's on board. Regrouping is easy when there's a giant gold chevron above you we can all see.

That it changes each week is a good thing, especially considering there are so many flat-out races. Structured workouts are already a part of Zwift and it would be good if riders understood this about the KCC Wednesday ride. And they can opt out any time they want.

If Coach Lipscomb can organize hill repeats(!)

https://www.strava.com/activities/824162774

Then we can do a Z2 with sprints.

And if 150 people sign up, and 4 Kissenas are doing the workout with all the others off the front, then that's what I call a solid Kissena workout.

David Yang

Jan 18, 2017 at 12:07 AM

Well then let's give it a shot.

Also still would like to alternate ride leader position for Wed morn rides if anyone is interested.

David Yang

Jan 18, 2017 at 10:31 AM

Woof, need sleep. Sorry lads.

Bruce van-Schalkwyk

Jan 18, 2017 at 03:13 PM

No worries. Only 24 in the group this morning. I'm assuming New Year's resolutions don't have the energy they used to last week, on a Global scale.

David Yang

Jan 18, 2017 at 03:43 PM

Thought I could double up by doing my workout last night when I had time and then get up early for today's intervals. At one point in my life I could have done that, but not anymore.

I'll be on zwift later tonight to do the workout if anyone is interested.

David Yang

Jan 20, 2017 at 08:33 PM

For people with limited time or stuck indoors and can't make it to the group ride, we're on during the usual time, 9:15a.

Thierry Bonnaire

Jan 20, 2017 at 11:00 PM

I've been afflicted with a awful head cold this week therefore I'm going to take it easy this weekend

David Yang

Jan 21, 2017 at 03:24 PM

Good seeing Patrick on today. A rider joined in saying he was on Kissena sometime in the 90s.

It was tough today, I didn't have the power to hold off the riders pushing serious watts for the course of an hour. Found myself in the familiar place called "no man's land" with 10 riders in front of me and 10 riders in back. Ended up doing a sort of threshold workout as usual.

David Yang

Jan 21, 2017 at 03:24 PM

Oh and shoutout to Yackenstein who never actually joins the ride/race and instead likes to pop in and out of view randomly...

twoyacks

Jan 21, 2017 at 03:31 PM

Well...Yacks technology crapped its diaper again...I did everything correctly and it still bumped me off....I'm climbing fine over the top of box hill then the load generator (thank u eternally for that designation computrainer) just stops and my avatar just coasts to a stop. Log back on quickly, search for Yang, wait for a hill and I'm off again...speed is always janky on my computrainer using the speed sensor for the head unit, but power & hr are correct
https://www.strava.com/activities/839323619

PatrickGrehan

Jan 21, 2017 at 04:10 PM

First time going Zwift group ride and 3rd time on Zwift today. I was looking for an alternative to a group ride and found a hammerfest. One dude was posting 5.4 w/kg for all of box hill. Well, to be fair, it does say "race" in the ride description. Even the Yangster was crushing it - after the neutral start I never saw him again. I am still trying to figure out some of this stuff. On a positive note I figured out how to join the race which I should probably consider a good thing seeing Yack's difficulties doing so.

Are you guys still trying to do audio on Discord?
Yang - how were you chatting/messaging during the neutral start? Mobile app? Laptop?

Nice seeing (I use this term loosely) you guys today...

jim_nelson

Jan 21, 2017 at 04:19 PM

Bailed on you guys this morning cause I couldn't pass up the opportunity to ride outdoors on a 45 degree January day.

Patrick, sorry to miss your debut race.

David Yang

Jan 24, 2017 at 09:38 PM

@PatrickG I was using the mobile app to message in-game. People weren't really into Discord so I stopped logging on (esp for the Wed morn training). I think it'll be good to use it on Saturday mornings if there are a fair amount of Kissenas present.

I'll be on tomorrow morning as usual. Rest week so will just be in zone 2-3 for an easy spin.

Bruce van-Schalkwyk

Jan 24, 2017 at 10:14 PM

They now have a volcano.

I would have liked a long stretch of beach on either side with lots of palm trees and water and sailboats, but ok, a volcano. As long as it's not London and raining...

From the Zwift email:

3 new routes:

Volcano Flat - an approximate 8 mi (12.5 km) flat loop, which includes most of the old flat route minus 'The Esses'.

Volcano Circuit - a 2.8 mi (4.2 km) lap around, and inside of, the volcano. This one has a built-in lap counter to count the laps as you complete them. In an organized lap-based event that uses this course, the lap counter will count down to the finish.

Volcano Circuit CCW - same as the volcano circuit, but in the reverse direction.

And from their update blog:

Finally, we have just fixed an issue with our events and made it so all users in the event can hear the ride leader texts, no matter how far away he or she may be. The same goes for their identifier beacon - it is now visible at any distance.

David Yang

Jan 25, 2017 at 12:02 PM

Good times, great taste at zwiftdonalds. Bruce and I rode a nice steady z2-3 pace. I broke up the hour by changing up cadence/gearing and then did a random 2 minute vo2max thing right before cool down.

Saturday's race i'll be doing a workout during the ride in case anyone else doing Tim's workouts want to avoid the hammers and join me.

Bruce van-Schalkwyk

Jan 25, 2017 at 12:45 PM

Nice pacing, thanks, David. We had a good group of 4 doing a steady ride, though it broke up a little over half-way through. I do get a little freaked out when my rider goes directly through other riders, and my focus can be a bit intense so I get vertigo on the corners, like watching a roller coaster movie. But better than watching my Garmin tick past the seconds.

David Yang

Jan 26, 2017 at 05:06 PM

I'll probably jump on Zwift in 15 minutes and spin zone 2 for an hour if anyone wants to join!

twoyacks

Jan 26, 2017 at 05:25 PM

don't u people have jobs??????