Zwift, TR, Sufferfest etc

[bennymac]

Nice work Dee - I saw you listed in Watopia at 47km so knew you were on bigger mission. Smart using climbing bike then aero. I regretted not picking TT bike after the jungle as everything was so spread out. But maybe would have lost that advantage on the short fishing village climb.

[The Suit]

Stage 4 Longer ride is a tough one.
Climbing Bike, then change to MTB once I hit the gravel, and back to an Aero Bike once I left the Jungle.
I was not in the lead pack (or any pack) so it didn’t loose me a wheel.

The road bike penalty wasn't as clear as it was in the stage 4 short ride.

I failed again to make it a recovery ride. I had a goal of keeping my heart rate below 140, which lasted through the pre-start warmup, so I moved my HR cap at 150, which lasted about half way up the KOM. Then I went as hard as I could to the end.

[bennymac]

I just shaved 10 minutes off my previous Alpe PR. And before you ask no, I didn’t change my height or weight Same bike setup as well.

I actually haven’t weighed myself since starting zwift because I wanted to go sub 1 hour first.

[huckbucket]

You didn’t just beat it. You crushed it. Nice work!!

[Dee Hubbs]

I have 18 routes left to get badges for.
My goal is to have only 16 routes left by the end of the month.
With Zwifthub web page closing at the end of the month, I can print a 1 pager from there with the 16 routes on it, to track my badges the old school way.

[carpathian]

Benny the Beast! What, you got nothing to do in the frozen wasteland so just crushing watts on Zwift all day?!

[VTskibum]

Nicely done Benny, that’s no joke time. New goal 45min?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[bennymac]

Thanks guys. There were many factors but living in a frozen wasteland in the middle of a pandemic was definitely one of them

[carpathian]

Small steak dinner 38 minutes before start is the secret!

[buttahflake]

Well done!

[bennymac]

Steak dinner for the win!

That climb from the waterfall up to the bridge feels like it gets longer every time you go up it. Great job winning the cat and mouse game with those two.

[carpathian]

I'd honestly never had a battle like that and been so close to falling off but staying on some how. I think the gravel/mtn bike physics engine really did most the work. Any of you lighter guys notice when riding with a heavy person by watching the numbers?

I think that guy on road bike gave up in frustration because he was jumping up to 6.0 all the time and I would be at 3.5.

[bennymac]

He may have been thinking “I’m gonna win this race on a road bike to really show off” but then later realized that’s not gonna happen.

I wonder if the bridge decks and wood sections under the waterfall act like tarmac and temporarily give the advantage to road bikes. Regardless the final sprint is on dirt so you and the other guy were gonna be 1 and 2.

[bennymac]

I'm having trouble logging into zwift - seems like there is an issue on their end. They do recommend deleting the browsing history of all your browsers (even the ones you don't use) - especially Safari and Internet Explorer

I've tried that but it still won't let me in.

I also deleted the app from my mac and re-installed it but it still won't work.

Edit - not sure if this is what finally did it but I re-installed the app and then rebooted my computer - now it's letting me in - but it could just be because they fixed things on their end.

[Full Trucker]

Leaving for a 4-day Moab trip tomorrow afternoon, so packing tonight. Hoping to get on for a TOW ride later, but will miss the TGR ride. Have fun, you fools.

[bennymac]

I popped into the start briefly around 2 min but didn’t see anyone else so I bounced over to the TOW.

FTrucker - have fun in Moab!! Leg snapper laps is gonna have you flying up Hymasa.

[Dee Hubbs]

I was getting my TOW downhill XPs and came to the TGR meetup late.
Didn’t see anyone.

[bennymac]

those double XP are like a drug

[dan_pdx]

Zwift wouldn't launch for me either; I had to uninstall and reinstall, then it forced an update, and I figured by then there wasn't any point trying to join the ride. I did an unpleasant canned workout instead.

[Dee Hubbs]

those double XP are like a drug

My normal MO for a TGR ride is to sign up for the Tour of Watopia ride 1 hour before the TGR Meetup, then I join the TOW at the last possible moment (29 minutes after it started) and the late joiners get put in the second “bunch” 30 minutes into the ride.
I assumed this would put me 12-15 minutes from the top of the climb.
I could warm up by climbing for 15 and free descend for 10 minutes and join then join the TGR Meetup after scoring a bunch of easy Double XPs.
My calcs were off and I didn’t get to the top of the radio tower climb until 5:53, so I figured I better do the downhill and get my easy XP points, I could always join the TGR meetup late.
The downhill was longer than I thought, so at the bottom of the downhill at 6:15 ish I only had 9-10 kms to go to finish the route.
My math told me I could ride those 10km in under 15 minutes if I really pushed it (40km/h pace)
So I time trialed to the finish, chasing the clock the whole time, because I wouldn’t be able to join the TGR Meetup any time past 6:30.
I crossed the TOW finish line at 6:28-6:29ish and switched worlds to the TGR meetup,
but there was nobody there.
I was really hoping to pull a DanPDX and (re)join the group at the top of the climb [emoji6]

[dan_pdx]

I was really hoping to pull a DanPDX and (re)join the group at the top of the climb [emoji6]

That's pretty advanced Zwift-fu, it's hard to get the timing just right so it looks like an accident

[bennymac]

that is 3D chess style zwifting!

although not for double XP you can also look at who is riding in Watopia and find someone who has bike 15-16km with a low average speed and then join them and see if it plants you near the top of the Alpe (so you can then descend for free XP and drops).

I've not tried this so no idea how successful this could be - and I'm not sure if the other zwifter has to "accept" you joining them (I would be reluctant to accept some random person requesting to join me on my ride)

[VTskibum]

that is 3D chess style zwifting!

although not for double XP you can also look at who is riding in Watopia and find someone who has bike 15-16km with a low average speed and then join them and see if it plants you near the top of the Alpe (so you can then descend for free XP and drops).

I've not tried this so no idea how successful this could be - and I'm not sure if the other zwifter has to "accept" you joining them (I would be reluctant to accept some random person requesting to join me on my ride)

Haven't done it lately, but have had IRL buddies hop on to troll me like on Epic KOM. I wasn't prompted that they were joining. Just more of a new rider appearing and commenting "why aren't you going faster slacker"

[Dee Hubbs]

Last day for Tour of Watopia Stage 5. Starting tomorrow makeup stages will be available until April 29th. During that one week, they’ll host events that cover all 5 stage daily.
Looks like make up stages start every 15 minutes. Example:
1:00 Stage 1
1:15 Stage 2
1:30 Stage 3
1:45 Stage 4
2:00 Stage 5
2:15 Back to Stage 1.
Get those double XP points while you can.

[bennymac]

Last day for Tour of Watopia Stage 5. Starting tomorrow makeup stages will be available until April 29th. During that one week, they’ll host events that cover all 5 stage daily.
Looks like make up stages start every 15 minutes. Example:
1:00 Stage 1
1:15 Stage 2
1:30 Stage 3
1:45 Stage 4
2:00 Stage 5
2:15 Back to Stage 1.
Get those double XP points while you can.

Sweet thanks for posting that Dee. I was wondering how the makeup stages would work. I like that I can finish a ride that is over an hour and then jump into something else without having to wait for the top of the hour.