I’m planning on doing a sponsored cycle on zwift to raise money for a cause quite close to me.
The thing I need help with is how many miles is achievable over a weekend?
The plan is Friday night, Sat and Sun. I want to complete before the weekend ends.
My friends are saying 500 miles because I’m Scottish and I’d raise more money for the comedy (Proclaimers song).
The charity are doing a “600” campaign and 600km is 372 miles.
Do you think either 500 or 372 miles are achievable over a weekend and at my level?
I’m fairly new to cycling, got into zwift at the start of the year but now I cycle twice per week, usually 25>30 mile and around 2000ft elevation each ride.
At 30 miles my body is starting to fatigue a bit, I’ve never tried any further, purely because I try to keep the run under 2hrs. I’ve probably cycled 500 miles in total over the last 10 weeks.
What’s your opinion on 372 miles or 500 miles over a weekend? Too much? Any advice?
Both seem like a lot given what you’ve said. Go the smaller one if they are your only two options.
Because you will be pacing yourself you will be going slower (zone 1or 2) so it will take a long time. Ride at zone 1/2 for an hour and see what speed/distance you do on the flat. Use that to get an idea of how long certain rides will take.
Hi Ben,
Thanks for the input, sorry if this is me being thick, what’s zone 1 and zone 2?
I’ve never came across zones when cycling. I just set a route / loop, usually Watopia or London, something with an elevation less than 2000 and generally 20+ miles. London loop as an example. I’ve never seen zones?
Have you done an FTP test? I’d suggest doing the FTP ramp test and stop the ramp when you fail to meet the target power. Once you finish the test zwift will give you an FTP estimate which will save your your profile.
When you ride press G on the keyboard. This will bring up a Graph along the bottom (you won’t see it at first because it draws it slowly from the left hand side of the screen). The coloured columns represent which power zone you are in and have been in. If you use a HR monitor you will also see a red line which shows your HR history. The colours are something like grey for Recovery (zone 0), blue for zone 1, green for zone 2, yellow 3, orange 4, red 5. This graph allows you to see more data from your current ride and helps pace yourself.
I haven’t done an FTP test but I do know what you mean now with zones.
I tried a fitness routine once but there was little to no resistance, it seemed to be measuring RPM/Watts but I didn’t need to change gear once, I prefer having the resistance so when I’m going up hill, my legs properly ache
I prefer tagging onto the back of a group.
Maybe my trainer should have been changing resistance during the workout?
My plan was to set it onto a route like London loop or similar and do lots of free ride laps until I got to 372 or 500.
The ramp one is the easiest to do. You’ll be able to go for a ride afterwards and it doesn’t really take much experience to do (the other ones require you to get better at pacing before you get a good estimate).
The workout you tried may not have been changing resistance much because you didn’t have a good FTP estimate saved. Also for workouts the route/incline/scenery is just for show it doesn’t affect the resistance.
It’s possible to do 600 KM in three days, even at your level. It’s going to be tough, but be sure to have a nutrition plan laid out and make sure to ice your legs for a good amount of time after the day’s ride to help with recovery. I think the course Tempus Fugit on Watapia the flattest course so that might be the best way to complete the 600km since there will be minimal elevation gain. You can always ask people to meet up with you during a portion of your ride so that you can draft off them when things are getting tough.
