Texas time Trials or Bust - Whose gonna join me
- Thread starter ratz
- Start date
ratz
Wielder of the Rubber Mallet
The best way it to try the "demo" account; let TR do the trainer control and zwift do the mileage and visuals. That's the easy way to see if you think it's work it.
ratz
Wielder of the Rubber Mallet
The power of video training. Had a fellow bent rider join in.
Would never have finished this today by myself; after 3 power profile days in a room I was burnt.
But with someone else there dying too I survived.
The cool part is I was at 250 watts and the co rider was at 415 watts and we pretty much died exactly that same. Pretty cool tech
Would never have finished this today by myself; after 3 power profile days in a room I was burnt.
But with someone else there dying too I survived.
The cool part is I was at 250 watts and the co rider was at 415 watts and we pretty much died exactly that same. Pretty cool tech
ratz
Wielder of the Rubber Mallet
Tonights ride; recovery only so I could debug zwift for tomorrow.
Left it posted on the calendar just in case any one would come ride this super easy rid. Wound up riding with a guy from Ecuador and another from CA.
Just like that 30 minutes poof gone;
lots of spikes power from the chitter chatter.
Really enjoying the social riding with the video
Left it posted on the calendar just in case any one would come ride this super easy rid. Wound up riding with a guy from Ecuador and another from CA.
Just like that 30 minutes poof gone;
lots of spikes power from the chitter chatter.
Really enjoying the social riding with the video
Last edited:
Hey ratz! Thanks for inviting me to join your workout. When I saw it on the calendar I though, 'I'm gonna join that workout and ask this guy a ton of questions.' :-D The exchange of info was decidedly one-sided so I wanted to hop on this forum and publicly thank you. My first 'bent ride was 27th sep 2019 so I need all the info I can get! Thanks so much for the insight. Still digesting a lot of it.
Anytime you need workout motivation, I owe you.
ratz
Wielder of the Rubber Mallet
Could be an over calculated FTP I'll send you a private note about what the software says it should be.
ratz
Wielder of the Rubber Mallet
Zwift has this nasty short-sighted approach to the training side of the equation. I'm sure they will fix it eventually but not yet. Right now Zwift FTP monitoring only moves FTP up; it doesn't' suggest downgrades. Couple that with the concept that ERG workouts plans (as designed today) only work if your FTP is correct. So Since Zwift only moves you up and never down; suddenly ERG based plans don't work because they are over scaled.
The beauty of the racing aspect is you should always have a race-file to work with; feed the race file to something like XertOnline.com, WKO4, or Traning peaks is a must. Every Zwifter should get a Free XertOnline.com linked to Strava and load race files there to monitor current FTP. After 2 weeks of data in XertOnline you will NEVER have to take a ramp test again. I only take them after long periods of off time to make sure I have data to prime the pump. Someone racing weekly like @trplay has no need to just load race effort files.
Now the hard part of the EGO; only Raise your FTP setting in Zwift Workout after a reset week; getting stronger mid-3-week loading block is suppose to happen, and the load increase built into the workout plan isn't meant for you to dial up the FTP mid-block. The workout schedule was built/thought out before the concept of using a computer to calculate a daily value. existed; they assume you have to be testing at the end of the block. The only one that has licked that problem is Xertonline; they have "smart" workouts that adjust daily, and unbelievably while you are DOING the workout. That's pretty cool but takes a paid account and the software is still not there yet; the plans are bit too boring but they will get there. Within 3 years we'll have dynamic workouts everywhere.
So Next up on this is we need someone to get the new Zwift Club functionality. Then we can make a Cruzbike club; and start scheduling regular rubber band rides; that will force the group to stay together. I'm building a library of ERG files people could ride in that setting; Get to that point and we can do group ride for social and motivation and have different people doing different training at the same time. Almost there; just a few more pieces to test.
The beauty of the racing aspect is you should always have a race-file to work with; feed the race file to something like XertOnline.com, WKO4, or Traning peaks is a must. Every Zwifter should get a Free XertOnline.com linked to Strava and load race files there to monitor current FTP. After 2 weeks of data in XertOnline you will NEVER have to take a ramp test again. I only take them after long periods of off time to make sure I have data to prime the pump. Someone racing weekly like @trplay has no need to just load race effort files.
Now the hard part of the EGO; only Raise your FTP setting in Zwift Workout after a reset week; getting stronger mid-3-week loading block is suppose to happen, and the load increase built into the workout plan isn't meant for you to dial up the FTP mid-block. The workout schedule was built/thought out before the concept of using a computer to calculate a daily value. existed; they assume you have to be testing at the end of the block. The only one that has licked that problem is Xertonline; they have "smart" workouts that adjust daily, and unbelievably while you are DOING the workout. That's pretty cool but takes a paid account and the software is still not there yet; the plans are bit too boring but they will get there. Within 3 years we'll have dynamic workouts everywhere.
So Next up on this is we need someone to get the new Zwift Club functionality. Then we can make a Cruzbike club; and start scheduling regular rubber band rides; that will force the group to stay together. I'm building a library of ERG files people could ride in that setting; Get to that point and we can do group ride for social and motivation and have different people doing different training at the same time. Almost there; just a few more pieces to test.
ratz
Wielder of the Rubber Mallet
1. You have to know what value to slide it too.
2. A lot of people don't spot the slider.
But yes that were you do it.
The concept of changing it for each workout doesn't align with periodized training; so I never understood why that's the only place they the adjustment, it should be in the setting on the web next to weight. It is nice that they added "bias" to the companion apps workout interface; but it still doesn't make sense to ofter an FTP setting at the start of each workout; that's just going to cause overreaching and plan failure.
ratz
Wielder of the Rubber Mallet
This is the Zwift / XertOnline integration I was referring to:
http://baronbiosys.com/the-ultimate-guide-to-training-with-xert-and-zwift/
If using zwift on a PC or Mac, the overlay stuff would give the racer un precedented data during the race. There's also a "Team" interface near the button. Always interesting. Now just gotta get @RojoRacing to try it.
http://baronbiosys.com/the-ultimate-guide-to-training-with-xert-and-zwift/
If using zwift on a PC or Mac, the overlay stuff would give the racer un precedented data during the race. There's also a "Team" interface near the button. Always interesting. Now just gotta get @RojoRacing to try it.
trplay
Zen MBB Master
It's very useful for someone else to hop on your trainer and try a workout they might not have. They can jump on my trainer, slide the ftp to their number and train away.
RojoRacing
Donut Powered Wise-guy
Oh god as much as I like looking at data I don't find it helpful to use it in the moment as it seems to instill a false sense of capability and hinders my ability to read my body. One of two things happens when I have data and expectations to go with it 1. I perform exactly to the expected values and end the ride feeling like maybe I could have given another 5-10% or 2. I ride to the data expecting to achieve my potential and as I fall shorter and shorter of the goal as the ride goes on I find myself in a death spiral of self-doubt until I completely implode. You could say I'm setting my value too high or low and you'd be right but as a person who is so engrained with pushing my limits based on listening to my body which changes its tune by the hour, it can be hard to set solid values for that.
I'll admit I have raced on zwift with a second zwift-power page open but oddly enough I only look at the other riders data as a substitute to reading their body English and condition, something I'm very good at IRL but can't do in a game.
The cool thing about that overlay would be for other people to see it live during a race to see how the athlete performs and how the numbers are reflected in the data, for that reason I wouldn't mind looking into it.
RojoRacing
Donut Powered Wise-guy
Apparently I already have a xert account as my email was already taken but somehow my profile still needs to be setup. I'm stuck at the part where I select my gender because it only gives me 3 options and none of them are racer? what happened to the other 47 kinds of gender?
Bill Wightman
Well-Known Member
I am glad I wandered back onto the forum or I would not have seen your posts. Texas Time Trials are a 4.5 hour drive for me from Houston. I will sign-up for the six hour ride. That's about my fun-o-meter limit. It will be fun for a V20 if it is flat to rolling hills. Anything more than that and I need to lose some weight, even though I have been putting in the base miles religiously, I have also been putting in the M&Ms. Something to look forward to.
Last edited:
ccf
Guru
XertOnline test protocol specifies a "maximal effort" and "4 or 5 peak power sprints". Whether or not you get a maximal effort in the TTT depends on your strength relative to the team and the number of team members. And there's typically just one sprint at the end. So does that mean you have to upload other kinds of high-intensity files to XertOnline to get an accurate result?
ccf
Guru
I got the free Xert account and uploaded 3 months of Strava data, which included a FTP ramp test on Zwift at the end of January. For the January test I got a 7 watt demotion over last year. And the Xert analytics gave me an additional 15 watt demotion. Ugh!
But it's probably about right given the lack of tough riding this year.
Right now I'm doing some more hamster wheeling on Zwift while getting work done. I'll put in a few short, high-intensity efforts to see what Xert does with it.
