Zwift - Cruzbike Activities (races and group rides)

[RojoRacing]

Damn talk about running from a pack of tigers at the end there

 

[CruzLike]

I had fun even though it was not one of my better races. I had an hour rest from riding my weekly Cruzbike TT . After 2.5 laps of 4 I began to feel it. I lost the draft of the smaller group I was with.
I had hoped to catch @Pollock, he was about a half mile ahead of me near the end. As I was riding, I began to notice some play in my left foot. Cleat? Pedal? Crank? It slowly became worse. I was sure of it was the crank when I had trouble shifting my front derailleur. The derailleur was fine. The chainrings were not in there usual position.
.9 to go it came loose. For a moment I was having a one legged drill. I knew that was not going to last. I stopped and repaired it on the side of the road. Luckily my tools were 5' away from my bike. Cranked it back up for the remainder and called it a day.
Fun riding with you guys.

 

[LarryOz]

Here you go Larry, Jim, Maria, and other tight schedule peoples. Pick one and lets see where it takes us.

I could probably swing the 5:35 race on the 27th. Is that Eastern Time? Do you have to do "anything" special to be in the race. Qualify or something. Set your name up special?

 

[Pollock]

No race on Wednesday for me. I will be at a recruiting event for work that night.

I did put my trike on the trainer tonight to make sure it is good if I commute on it soon. Wow. The loss from the elastomer and seat is real. Never noticed it until I started on the S40!

 

[LarryOz]

Yes, those are all Eastern Time. You are already ZP registered so to register for the race go to zwiftpower.com then select events and highlight the race of your choice and select the join button. Make sure you select the proper category! You might consider taking off your zwift id number from your name. This was only needed when you first registered. To do this go to zwift.com and log in. Go to settings/profile where you can take your zwift id number off the end of your name. If anyone needs help with any of this just pm me or ask here. Not sure how many will join this race but lets see what happens. I have signed up. You can view who has signed up on zwift power. So all who are remotely interested please sign up soonest to give us an idea who might be there. Larry if you can convince Jim and Maria to join us I think their participation will be a very positive draw. Especially if we can get early notice to get the word out. Who's in?

I have signed up and sent an email to Jim and Maria in case they have not checked this thread.
I signed up for the B group. Hope I can hold on! Haha
See you Wed morning

 

[RojoRacing]

Come on @Jim Parker and @Maria Parker log on and share some support via the group chat on discord. I think just having someone in the mix who's influential to the other cruzbikers really makes them dig deep in their efforts. Last two times I joined these guys a few of them set some astounding PR's going for that chance to kick my but. Henry is 2-0 against me so I need corporate to avenge me.

 

[Maria Parker]

Jim and I can't race at the same time because we have but one dongle that allows us to use our laptops with Zwift. The early start time is no problem. We ordered one, perhaps it will arrive today?

 

[LarryOz]

Jim and I can't race at the same time because we have but one dongle that allows us to use our laptops with Zwift. The early start time is no problem. We ordered one, perhaps it will arrive today?

Heads or Tails - who gets to race if the dongle doesn't come in?

 

[LarryOz]

Yes! Ken comes through and the sign up sheet is starting to be dominated by Cruzbike. Ken and Maria's C cat is looking to be the favorite as I'm sure Ken will not have another mechanical as in the last race. The A cat is the only one without a Cruzbiker. We patiently wait for the A cat fate. Pick your cat and join the fun.

Hardy, what are those numbers over to the left of our names?

 

[Mixerman]

I'm in, but my wife is out of town so if I see the baby monitor blowing up I may have to bail, kids are usually good sleepers tho. Good luck everyone!

 

[Pollock]

If the alarm at 5AM actually wakes me, I’ll join in. Same time, but easier than commuting. I better get the S40 back on the trainer tonight though!

 

[RojoRacing]

You all better give your systems a quick run through tonight before tomorrow so you don't get any surprises in the morning.

 

[Maria Parker]

Thanks for getting us out there this morning Hardy!

 

[LarryOz]

I had fun - I see how weak I am now! It was hurting there at the beginning for me too. The B group I was in (with Alex) rode at 4+ w/KG for the first 3 miles and I just could not hang on. Alex did - Kudos to you Alex!!!

Then I was with a group of 2 or 3 for a little while, but mostly rode solo. It was lonely. Usually someone over a minute in front of me and behind me. Too far to catch or be caught.
I kept seeing Maria about 1;30 ahead of me, but I could never get any closer! Way to go everybody. Nice to see all those "Cruzbike" labels on the results sheet. We should try and do it again!

I was able to hit 183bpm on my pulse at the end, so that was kind of interesting. Have not gone that hard in a while. Not too bad for an old man like me!

 

[RojoRacing]

Yeah I went in thinking it was going to be a solid group effort for the first 80% to catch the other groups then every man and women for themselves at the end. It ended up being 5-6wkg for the first 5 mins then a solid group effort at 4-5wkg with harder efforts on the kickers to trim off the fat from the group a couple riders at a time. I was not expecting such a hard start but my experience on Zwift in general kicked in a kept me attached to the leaders. I was telling Henry that minus the hard start these handicapped races play out just like my fast guy group rides at lunch or on the weekend. Everyone tries to get the group through the ride as fast as possible with not too many attacks and then in the last 2 miles it’s everyone for themselves.

@LarryOz now you know next time to be proper warmed up with a few over threshold efforts before entering the start pen.

 

[LarryOz]

I hope the folks following this understand that we aren't really racing. For instance Maria and I finished inside the same second but reality is she gave me a 6 minute head start. She went a lot faster than I did. You can see the real times in the unfiltered zwift power results. Larry was around 9 minutes faster than me. What we ARE doing is riding our bikes very, very hard. Harder than most will do in a solo training environment and (wait for it) actually having fun while killing ourselves. This race excert shows Maria and me in the last mile and some of the having fun part. We are trying to break from her group but one guy is able to go with us. If you listen close you might hear someone (not to be named) call out sandbagger Anyway the concept is to work together to drop this guy but we just weren't ready for that yet. If I could have given a proper lead out combined with strategic use of the power up truck it would have ended differently. Either way its a hoot. Join in next time and lets get the team work thing cooking. And I don't think I'm sandbagging

Haha! Seemed like a "race" to me - at least at the beginning when I got dropped - then it was just a solo TT effort- I would say if you can still talk while riding at the end of 40km TT, then you probably aren't riding hard enough.

 

[RojoRacing]

Haha! Seemed like a "race" to me - at least at the beginning when I got dropped - then it was just a solo TT effort- I would say if you can still talk while riding at the end of 40km TT, then you probably aren't riding hard enough.

Sounds like Henry may have been talking a lot for you guys but when I was in the race he was all business in the second half. After the finish it was a fair bit before ether of us could figure out who had crossed first because we couldn’t breath.

In my race our pack was large enough that my riders list was always full of A riders. I could never really judge how far ahead the other leaders were and I never looked back.

 

[Maria Parker]

I hope the folks following this understand that we aren't really racing. For instance Maria and I finished inside the same second but reality is she gave me a 6 minute head start. She went a lot faster than I did. You can see the real times in the unfiltered zwift power results. Larry was around 9 minutes faster than me. What we ARE doing is riding our bikes very, very hard. Harder than most will do in a solo training environment and (wait for it) actually having fun while killing ourselves. This race excerpt shows Maria and me in the last mile and some of the having fun part. We are trying to break from her group but one guy is able to go with us. If you listen close you might hear someone (not to be named) call out sandbagger Anyway the concept is to work together to drop this guy but we just weren't ready for that yet. If I could have given a proper lead out combined with strategic use of the power up truck it would have ended differently. Either way its a hoot. Join in next time and lets get the team work thing cooking. And I don't think I'm sandbagging

Agreed Henry. Really tough work-out that would have been hard to do by myself. Plan another one early in the morning (after I recover) and I'll play again. Thanks again for organizing and badgering us to do it. Join Larry's virtual time trial next time too!

 

[LarryOz]

You two are killing me! Some how Larry you twisted my meaning.

Just playing with you! - Great to be part of the "group" - even though I was "last" - boohoo - but at least I was still on the "first page" - Was riding with a 10 degree seat today, so that might be holding me back a little. I'll have to get it back to 20 degrees for next time and see if that makes a difference!

 

[Jim Parker]

I was having a great time about 10 - 11 miles into the race when my laptop screen went blank. Somehow the AC plug fell out and the battery died. When I plugged it back in, there was no power meter connection to Zwift, so I was done. I'll do better next time.