Also…that’s the first Zwift I’ve actually “enjoyed”
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There’s another TT tomorrow morning at 7. That one is stacked with Australians and Japanese with dubious wkg
Regional academy, based on points but its 1.10/100 swim with 200 or 400 based on age and 3min - 3.10 ks over 1500 or 3km. Its 16 (age on 31/12) the longer distances kick in. That gets you 340 points (170 each) which is London region levels. They do now take bike into account but not formally testing it
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I’m still in bed then 
Up the Alpe again tonight, entertaining looking at some of the numbers out there, one chap came past at 11.2w/kg another sat on my wheel near the top, I was at 260w he was at 1.4w/kg going up 8 or 9% must be the heaviest person I’ve seen on there
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Ebike, he’ll get flagged by Zwift. I think any sustained effort over 6.5w/kg gets eliminated. Happened to lots of pros coming to Zwift during lockdown
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I did the tour for all shorter race tonight but A\B, for some reason I was sure it said 900M of climbing which seemed like a lot so I was dreading it, turns out there was only ~300M
Think I managed 13th in the race but now got 8th on ZP? Dropped on the first climb though.
Levelled up and got a pair of gloves, woohoo 
But also ticked off another route.
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Might be that people like me who can’t get their HRM to talk to Zwift get an automatic DQ?
Not everyone is on zwiftpower.
Longer 41k race for me tonight, ending with a climb up the volcano. I forgot an hour is quite a lot longer than a 20minute smash fest.
Having put out numbers of 270+ watts over the shorter races I was getting annoyed with my power output tonight and wondering why I was struggling. In the end I managed 250w for an hour. Which is an all time best. 
ETA - I did do 273w for 40mins last Tuesday, so maybe I wasn’t being quite so silly in feeling I was struggling. But an hour is still a lot longer than 40mins I guess. I also did it the hard way, as my opening 5mins was 300w, and the opening 10mins was 290w.
Trainer is still not right. It was responding to the gradient tonight, and resistance was higher enabling me to out out power. But it was pulsing. Every few seconds in the flat it was increasing resistance and then decreasing it again. It was impossible to hold any kind of steady effort or find a rhythm. It got very very annoying.
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That’s a great result, normally big field on tour for all.
Often Zwift Power has less people… usually because people with strange power to weight numbers either don’t join or are banned for cheating. I reported on the other day and he was removed (he lost 6kg in a month and increased power in races from 200w to 300w)
I lost ~6kg from mid-April 2019 to June 9th and increased my FTP from low 200s to high 200s, it’s not unfeasible.
For someone who’s solely cycling, I’d say it’s within a normal range, especially if they’ve been following a structured lockdown plan.
RE: ZwiftPower - I’m not on it as I’ve opted out, solely because I can’t be arsed with another “thing” - I also didn’t want to read another privacy policy on how they’ll use my data etc etc.
Not everything is nefarious in this world 
Cobbled climbs and Pump Room routes ticked off this evening. Recovery week, which is just as well feeling rather tired and flat.
I don’t think it was a massive field as I went for the shorter race Matt, but did put a bit of effort in to keep with the group at the start.
Yes, I’d forgotten it didn’t include everyone in ZP Stenard, I’m not sure about the HR though Symes, I’m sure I’ve forgotten it in the past and not got penalised, might be wrong though.
You can get oversized pulleys now! I did over 90km on the TT bike on Sunday, I wonder if I have them? (goes off to check) hmm, looks like you have to swap frames first
I think it’s a current challenge, you’ve got to do a specific distance on road, TT & MTB.
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Might be worth a new thread? I started answering but realised a me rambling on about self-selecting morphology, blah blah blah has bugger all to do with Matt and his awesome cycling.
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Maybe not all races but I’ve appeared on the unfiltered results on ZP but not the finals, end up with an HR in the left column showing I had a technical DQ. As I say, not all races though
Depends on the race organiser. Some require a HRM, some don’t.
On paper it looks pretty good, but I don’t think that it is quite as impressive as it seems.
The big jump in FTP has come from adopting a completely different riding technique on Zwift. At the training camp in Lanzarote in late Feb, I realised that I was able to stand up, while climbing, for 20 minutes. I then found that if I stood up and maintained a low cadence (60-70rpm) on Zwift I was able to sustain much more power.
I’ve always been a cyclist. And since taking up triathlons 5 years ago, my cycling has been improving consistently. Moving to Switzerland 3 years ago has made a big difference, riding up proper mountains and riding regularly with world class riders has expanded my horizons more than riding in the UK ever did
Zwift racing, for me, has been a revelation. I get really motivated to compete, I push myself in competitions more than I ever can doing a workout, therefore, having an environment where I can compete 24/7 against a global population of riders, many of whom are as good or better than me has been a huge factor.
Genetics definately come into play, and one thing in particular is my ability to recover from rides. I can do an FTP effort race for an hour one day, and feel absolutely fine the next, so I can race more often
Finally (getting into contraversial ground here) is diet. My wife and daughter eat a whole food, plant based diet, so during lock down my diet has been almost exclusively vegan I also did Veganuary, so for past 4 months I have eaten very little meat, dairy or eggs. All I will say is that it seems to work for me.
In the real world, it is less effective for 2 reasons, firstly aero plays a much bigger role, no point pushing out big power numbers if you have the aeroynamics of a brick. Secondly, on a turbo, the bike is fixed in position, so transfer of power while standing is direct into the crank, in the real world, the bike moves, big power, low cadence strokes impacts the steering etc.
This is not to say that it doesn’t have some benefits to the real world, even seated at 90rpm, I can hold more power now than I could previously, although I am at least 30w down on Zwift. Where it really shows, however, is when I come to a slight incline - I can get out of the saddle lift the power and maintain speed without a perceived increase in effort. Obviously riding up serious hills is now a whole new world, pretty much every outdoor ride I do now I am getting into the KOM top 10 on proper mountain segments.
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Feels like I am taking my next step in Zwifting journey. I have been following @Daz on Zwift for a while, and seen him progress to being a great Zwifter. Given my Zwifting improvements, I feel ready to join him on the KOA sports league. Slightly nervous as those guys push out some massive power numbers
Race will be streamed live with commentary at 1045 (UK time) Tomorrow https://www.facebook.com/ZwiftCommunityLive/
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