Hello all-
I am a new Zwifter - having gone on 3 rides so far and have a couple quick questions:
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Does running Zwift from a Win7 computer require Admin rights? I find the program hangs up immediately after executing the program if I don’t - is that my computer?
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What is the daily schedule of the courses (watopia vs richmond)?
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How do I start in the same position on the course each time? Outside I am used to biking the same distance each time and comparing. I would like to do this within Zwift but can only do this if I can start at the same position (ideal) OR bike complete laps (less than ideal).
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I am using a Tacx Vortex Smart with a Schwinn Le Tour from the 1970s (insert snicker here). When I shift to the climbing gears my wired cateye says my cadence is ~100 rpm but on Zwift it drops to ~60 rpms. This goofs up my speed as well - on my cateye I’m going 15 mph but on Zwift I’m going ~6 mph. At higher gears the cadence/speed are much closer. What causes this?
Thank you for your feedback…
wdp
Welcome Walt.
To answer questions #2, you can see the calendar when you log into Zwift, I believe Sun, Mon, Tues is Richmond, and then Wed, Thurs, Fri, Sat is Watopia.
Hi Walt, welcome to the community!
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I’ve run Zwift on Win 7, Win 8, and Win 10. None of them have required admin rights. I’d guess it’s something going on with your computer or security settings.
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As Jaime said, course schedule is in the game. You can also find it by going to the Announcements section of this support site. There’s a post there about it.
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As far as I’m aware, start position isn’t controllable by the user. You start where the game dumps you.
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What are you using for a cadence sensor? You can (and should) disregard the speed differential on Zwift vs your CatEye. Your CatEye speed will be based purely on your rear wheel speed, whereas your Zwift speed is based upon your weight, power, and the game’s physics engine. Anytime you’re riding in Zwift you should ignore the CatEye speed and treat the Zwift speed as your “true” speed.
Thank you for the feedback!
re: Starting position:
So do people just do full laps for their workouts? If not, how do you monitor progress from one workout to the next?
re: Cadence: My cadence sensor is a cateye (Tacx wireless is on-order).
At the tougher gears it’s almost exactly the same as within Zwift. However, when I shift to the easier gears it way underestimates. For example when climbing a hill I may be using an easy gear with cateye reading 100 RPM but in Zwift it’s at 60 RPM.
The speed disparity interests me as well because it impacts the total mileage biked - something I normally track for mileage goals. The distance on my cateye is accurate (reflects actual miles biked). I think the distance on Zwift isn’t as accurate (my bike can’t go 40 mph outside like it can within Zwift). So which mileage would you record?
I am an Informatician and keep track of much “data” outside of Zwift. I would like to know if the Zwift data is directly comparable or if it should be treated differently?
Hey Walt,
You should connect your Zwift account with Strava. There are defined segments throughout each course. For example, there is a segment that is one full lap around the Watopia course, starting and ending at the orange Start banner. It’s also a great way to track your own data.
So do people just do full laps for their workouts? If not, how do you monitor progress from one workout to the next?
?? YOu have distance, power, Normalised power, HR, AVG HR, Avg Speed … a lap is totally arbitary.
At the tougher gears it’s almost exactly the same as within Zwift. However, when I shift to the easier gears it way underestimates. For example when climbing a hill I may be using an easy gear with cateye reading 100 RPM but in Zwift it’s at 60 RPM.
There is no way they should be different. If you have an ANT+ sensor for cadence then the cateye and ZWIFT will be getting cadence form the same source, so they should be roughly identical.
The speed disparity interests me as well because it impacts the total mileage biked - something I normally track for mileage goals. The distance on my cateye is accurate (reflects actual miles biked). I think the distance on Zwift isn’t as accurate (my bike can’t go 40 mph outside like it can within Zwift). So which mileage would you record?
Dont forget , this is a virtual world. as they have posted above, the speed of your wheel means what exactly? You have travellled 0km horizontally, at an average of ## cadence at an ### power level. Prior to ZWIFT you may have entered into Training Peaks “1 hr, 30 km” … but in actuality that means nothing. ZWIFT takes it to the next level and estimates the distance travelled based on power output and terrain (hill and flat etc).
Thank you for the responses. I very much appreciate the feedback from the experts!
Chris: I haven’t used Strava at all (currently Garmin connect and xls) but will look at it. Do you use Strava only? What about step tracking? Sleep monitoring?
Craig: “a lap is totally arbitary”
How is a partial lap that contains mostly uphill the same as a partial lap that is mostly downhilll? Distance/speed/HR/Power would not be directly comparable? For now I’ve been doing complete laps based on where I start (and look at data from within lap intervals like sprint/KOM) but not sure how I’d handle half lap data.
Craig: “If you have an ANT+ sensor for cadence”
The cateye is wired, not wireless. I am trying to understand why switching to easier gears would decrease the accuracy so much (it did again last night).
I get that Zwift is a virtual world but I am trying to understand the best way to compare zwift data to the real world. Perhaps it would be better to use the cateye (again wired) to measure the distance, rather than within Zwift.