Currently when you ride an event, the data in the start pen while on the virtual trainer is not recorded at all.
Current status:
Lets say you start riding before the event A, say 10-15 minutes before, and then auto-join the event 5 minutes before and do a warmup B, and then you ride the event C. Zwift will record A as one ride, it will only record the time for B but no other data (and will only record the time implicitly in the timestamp of file C), and finally it will record C with full data but the first data point in that file will be the start of the event C (even if the timestamp of the file will be at the start of B) so the warmup in the start pen is lost. No data is recorded; no power, cadence, heart rate data is recorded. Strava will then ignore that the timestamp of C includes the time in B and just go off on the first actual datapoint. The time difference between Zwift and Strava is normally 5 minutes; and again, all other data is not even recorded by Zwift.
Feature proposal:
Since the avatar is on a virtual trainer then that avatar should also be on Zwift; somewhere on a short 500 m velodrome-style loop. If the rider is indeed warming up (and not just sitting in their bike waiting for the event to start) and there is power/cadence/HR data to record then the fake GPS data for the avatar of the avatar could be that of the velodrome.
When the event starts, Zwift would save that warmup B separately from the pre-ride A and the actual event C.
I wish Zwift would just record the time for the event , from start line to finish line .
At present I think it keeps recording when event has finished when I am going slow
cooling down , therefore messing up the figures for the event .
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Good point; yes, it does keep on recording and I often find myself logging out to end the recording of the event and then I log in again for a cool-down. In my breakdown above then C should be split into C, the event, and D, any cool-down or extra ride that follows.
This would of course be simpler if Allow Saves Without Exit - #12 by I_M_Gandu was implemented (but even then, the recording of the warmup in the start pen B would be missing and needs to be added).
This is a serious issue – when calculating training metrics, while time spent in warmup may seem trivial, it is nevertheless training stress that’s missed in the data.
Power, if not speed and distance, should be recorded from warmup.
@Daniel_Connelly
You can do your warmup riding around in any world and then 5min before the event you can go to the starting pen and soft pedal. That will create 2 files one for warm-up and one for the event
This is true, but in some events start position is important, and you lose your start position, for example the L’Etape du Tour stages had 2000 riders, and if you started at the back your chances of seeing the front were pretty much zero. You can enter, exit the event, go to a world, then re-enter the event, but this is a terribly convoluted approach to trying to simply preserve data (I’ve never done it myself so am unsure of the details).
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