I joined an event/group ride on Sunday, Sprint lead-outs I think it was called. It was a group ride, started in the pens etc. but on the road it was like doing a workout with erg mode on.
Of the 16 segments to the ride I only managed to get 8 of the stars to line up, I think they correlate to matching up with the advised watts. I was just all over the place. When I eventually got to the right number it stayed there for about 2 seconds max. I wasn’t just low all the time, I was way over many times too.
Any advice on what to do to get better results? Is it just down to practice or is their something you can do? I really didn’t enjoy the ride as I was focusing on this rather than ramping up the power and sprinting etc.
I’m using a Wahoo kickr and running Zwift on an Apple TV with companion app open on my phone, in case that makes any difference.
If you were using erg mode, you probably just need to trust the technology more. Were you increasing/decreasing cadence or changing gears to try and match the prescribed power? You certainly shouldn’t be changing gears, and if you do alter cadence erg mode should adjust the resistance for you.
It can sometimes help to get on top of the gear just before resistance increases. By which I mean spin a bit faster in anticipation; if your cadence is too low you can get into a resistance death spiral, where the resistance is too much for you to push against, you fail the power, and the trainer responds by increasing the resistance.
It does take a bit of practice and a bit of trust.
I’ve only ever done one group workout, but as far as I know it should work the same. Otherwise it’d make the workout part less useful. The only difference is that group workouts have “rubber banding” to ensure everyone stays together regardless of the actual power they’re doing.
Maybe the rubber banding has some effect, but as I say I’ve almost no experience of group workouts.
Paul as far as I know ERG should be the same in Group workouts or normal workouts. The only difference is you are now with other riders doing the same thing.
If during the warm up the watts was something really low like 115W and I was just spinning, ERG should have dropped the resistance so that I was only doing 115 right?
But it was just sitting at 185-190 and I had to slow right down to drop the watts myself.
That is 100% correct Paul. So maybe ERG was off. I don’t know how to check if that was the case or not, after the fact. While in a workout you can toggle ERG on and off using the companion app. Maybe check that the next time you do one of these group workouts.
As you guys have concluded - with ERG Mode on, the power should always adjust itself so you are hitting the target. If you were at 180W whilst the target was 115, you SHOULD feel the resistance drop away so for the same cadence, it gets a lot easier and the power is then around 115W.
I have never had this type of issue before and have completed the same group workout myself.
Try again and just double check you definitely have ERG Mode on, and if you do - ask whether others in the workout are experiencing the same?
