Haha, I’m not sure that would be my description.
I did sneak under the hour a month or so ago on a slow(ish) course and day. Think that was off 290W but was a struggle to get the HR up that day.
My problem is lack of flexibility, my CDA probably isn’t great for short races. Not as bad for 70.3’s where I can get off the bike and still run.
EH?!?!
This is absolutely baffling to me!
I did a 22:20 last year, for a summer evening club 10.
Managed a 1:00:41 last year in a 25TT, but the road surface is abysmal and I’d ran an 18 minute 5km parkrun in the morning.
LTS is 58:38 for a 25TT (I recall the handwriting of the timekeeper was atrocious and someone wrote me up as a 53:38 on the board, my clubmates at the time went mental 
)
So long as the race is flat, I can do okay.
For a flat 70.3, I’ll swim 30, ride a 2:25 and run home under 90 minutes.
Well I’ve not had power outside so can’t compare that side of things - now got my faveros so hopefully can get some better comparisons.
But effort levels based on HR seem to suggest I’m certainly trying as hard (random TT in august avg HR 179… last nights race which was a little shorter in time, avg HR 176).
The only course I’ve ridden isn’t exactly great, got 3 hard left turns, a decent lump in it and some dire road surface for a third of it… and its a 2 lapper (so all that twice). But still plenty of guys going faster than me.
I’m an outside Aero-doper. Have been 20:xx for a 10, 52:xx for a 25, 1:53 for a 50 off similar fitness that I’ve been on a zwift lately.
Shame Zwift can’t incorporate real life CDA (although everyone riding would no doubt be at 0.17 if they had that metric…).
My most recent “25” resulted in a sidewall tear after 15km…
…up to that point I’d been taking it easy: 162pbm ave, 279W NP, 81kg, 41.1kmh…
…I’d have been close to my LTS 25TT PB, I was wounded that day 
I noticed this since you added me/I added you.
Your times are even more off in the game world than mine, it really irks me, I’d be raging if I was you.
I can’t even fathom those times!!!
I think my plan is;
They’re impressive times, haven’t you gone sub 4/100 as well?
I struggle a bit more IRL, quite cautious and as above even with a decent skinsuit, bike & wheels I’m not very aero. Part of me would like to go to the tunnel or aerocoach etc. but I’m not sure I’m that bothered these days.
Think my PB’s are something like, 21:5x, 58:1x, 1:58:1x, 4:09, and the 100 including 60-90 seconds stop for an etap battery swap. I’d almost say that’s probably my most satisfying.
That drop to sort the fan offset the last 45 seconds of 400w
Yes I think 4 100’s under 4:00, best 3:54. Also 3 12 Hours over 260 miles, best 266 :-), which explains the diesel…
For the last 3/4 years I treated Zwift purely as a workout engine, rarely raced or did anything social, just prescribed workouts with something to look at. All done in aero position.
Since lockdown that has changed and I’m now racing twice a week and I’m sat up, out of the saddle etc to get the best race effort. I will need to be careful to not lose that CDA (or ability to get good power out in the position), so looking to do other workouts in aero.
Enjoying the racing though, so all good…
I need to go the other way. I’ve spent the last 4 years on TR and now also Zwift, sat up on the bars. One of my focus sessions for the winter will be to do longer intervals on the tri bars and increase my power output in this position. Combined with improving my cda too. I’ve got some new aerocoach bars and wedges to put on my bike over the next couple of weeks.
Beat the bongo in the sprint.
What a lead out man!!!
Reading up on when you’re in the draft zone really really helped me on this race.
@gingerbongo attacked the first four laps and was 28s ahead of me at one point…but my group of five reeled him in 
Actually enjoyed that!
that frickin killed me. Hardest race i’ve done yet. Made the first group … for about 1km, and then lost it. Worked really well in a group of 4, slowly gapping @Poet’s group behind us as he said. But i think we started slowing and/or they picked up the pace in the last 4 laps. I was hanging on from lap 7/10. TBH if @Poet wasn’t in the group behind, i’m not sure i’d have dug so deep. There’s deffo something to be said for racing with people you ‘know’.
I probably could’ve played it much more cool using the draft and dropping power etc. But after 8/9 mins, seeing my power graph on the bottom i thought i’d treat it as a 20 min solid effort, rather than dropping and surging. So whilst it was a cracking workout (which i wanted) it did me in on the actual race. Lost the other three in my group when @Poet and 3/4 others caught us. They started to pull away with a km to go but i gritted my teeth (see above) and slowly reeled him in. Tried to go on the sprint but legs were gone and he pulled away. Started to pull hiback again only to be beaten by 0.2 secs on the line!
Pretty much fell off the bike!!!
thanks for that man!! Given a bit more conifedence that i actually belong in B now, but really don’t consider myself a very good bikeist at all.
@Poet - are your power stats missing from ZP?
It’s got my result, but not my power. Typical, as that was probs my best race yet!!!
Yeah, I’ve asked for a quicker update.
Should be 10 minutes.
That’s wasn’t my hardest race by a long way.
But it was my most tactical.
I’m knackered after racing three times in the past seven days.
I had a caffeine gel 20 minutes before the start 
The Norwegian guy in 4th is an absolute monster!!! Bet he loves that course. Good for us tall heavy people 
@gingerbongo - your 1min power is great for CarB, you should go from further out and wait with your burrito/invisible
i was leg busted today. 2 decent runs, 1 easy run and 2 races on zwift for 5 in 5 days of activity. That’s big for me! Can’t remember the last time i did that! And i’m due to do somethign this weekend. Probs a longish run.
I think i’ve got a long way to go to learn what i can and can’t do on a bike as well. Like i know my strengths and weaknesses to a T when running. I lnow how far out i can sprint from etc.
The full power stats always seem to take a while to appear, sometimes nearly a day.
Highest 20m and 5m power for me, with a lower ave HR and lower max HR than my last crits.
Look at the results…
…guy in front of me…
…191cm, 60kg
No wonder his ave HR and max HR are sky high 
Sometimes it’s better to get dropped early, as long as you make the second pack; you then start picking-off the riders dropping off the front group in dribs & drabs. You can gain a lot of places back that way on a longer race.
Had a crack at one of the Sprintapalooza rides today. An hour of steady riding with half a dozen sprints thrown in. Can’t remember who suggested it.
Turns out its not that I can’t sprint at the end of a race… I just can’t sprint.
Max power at 776 watts and a 15 sec at 470 watts
They did slightly improve… apart from the one I tried sitting down at high cadence !
I think there’s quite a lot of skill involved in sprinting, as opposed to just a physical test.
There’s a little ramp a mile or two from home that we often try and sprint up for a bit of a laugh at the end of rides. Getting the gear exactly right is crucial, too low and you run out of cadence, too high and you can’t get on top of it, and where you start to wind up is also crucial.
Get everything right and I can hit over 1000W but I miss it more often than I hit it due to the factors above, rather than any particular change in fitness.
