it fun to put riders into the hurt locker just before big hill. i do it all the time. you get that long line of riders before the hill, and seat back watch the group go bang. good times.
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There is no need for concern; your power numbers are indeed logical. You exhibit a typical power-duration curve characteristic of an average amateur cyclist possessing untransitioned fast oxidative IIa muscle fibers and a predominantly glycolytic metabolism. The only atypical aspect I perceive is that the Coggan zones may not be applicable to you, as your VO2max is likely 30W-40W above what the calculator would indicate (I estimate your current VO2max to be around 51-52 mL/kg/min).
With a ZRS of 535, you may encounter difficulties in maintaining pack speeds in your pen, particularly as a lightweight rider who needs to exert slightly more effort. Once you exceed 210W, your energy source relies exclusively on carbohydrates, resulting in a situation where your oxygen demand surpasses your oxygen uptake. Meanwhile, competitors with an endurance advantage of 1-1.5W/kg continue to ride on mixed fuel, which enables them to maintain a more balanced oxygen demand. This is what ZHQ calls ānullification of sprintersā and what I criticised several times on this forum.
The good news for you is that you have the ability to significantly improve your endurance without sacrificing your sprinting strength. Your Vlamax is likely quite high (perhaps 0.65?) and in my humble opinion you should treasure it.
Todayās race went as expected - dropped by much stronger-power riders in ZRS-B. I was the only CE-C rider there with most of the field being top-end CE-B, plus few As. I was dropped in few minutes and was alone, just like my past two ZRS-B races last week and so I had two options:
- Leave the race
- Get to the finish and hope that at least 50% will stay in the race so that I am in the bottom half and get my score adjusted down to the more appropriate category.
I went ahead with (2), finished and got score adjusted slightly. It will probably take one mid-pack finish in C to be back in B but that is us yoyoing at the border of two categories.
But it makes me wonder how will the upcoming Zwift anti-tanking system interpret this?
- In his three races in B, he always pushed beyond the limit for few minutes until he was dropped and then rode to finish. That suggests that his current score is higher than where he should be.
- He pushed some and then rode easy to the finish. He did not try hard enough so no score decrease.
On the positive side, as I was riding I have accidentally found a way how you can change the minimap view. I wish I knew earlier as it could be quite useful in races. That is why I am sharing it here - double-click the Zwift Play Left button to cycle through the views.
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Thanks for this, this is a really detailed response.
I have no clue what my Vlamax is or even how to measure it. My only vo2 max readings are from my garmin and it says 54, when I started in February adding proper cardio (cycling) to my training routine it was 42.
How do I take calculate my vlamax and even take advantage of it?
Should I be taking in carbs on my rides to help unlock more performance as well then? Or are 30-40 minute races to short to benefit here?
Overall in terms of ZRS Iām not to fussed about it as I know it will curve down a little and get be back to a more realistic competition banding for my ability.
Iām totally clueless as to where to go from here training wise as well should I be focusing on z2 long rides or pushing ftp build up style training? (Probably going a little off topic here)
I see our heavyweight Olympian-like Watts racer from Category Enforcment D has gone from a Racing Score of ~550 in July to 2, after several months of not racing and just doing some gentle group rides by their standards.
Suggestion that he was going to buy a Zwift Ride recently, maybe his old setup was grossly inflating his power output.
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I wouldnāt put a lot of trust in Garmin Vo2 āreadingsā. Itās best to measure it in a lab and will vary as you adapt to cycling.
Z2 and Sweet spot are generally the go to way of building up aerobic capacity. It isnāt optimal for everyone but itās proven to work.
Finally did a ZRS race. B cat, starting with a 608. Dropped in less than 3km, rode the rest with a few others. Finished 3 minutes behind the winner, who saw his score increase to 560. I was second to last (plus one DNF) and my score decreased to 574.
Intervals.icu shows your estimated VO2 under the columns of power data for chosen date ranges on the right.
I hit a high of 55.9 back in early '22, since developing long covid two years ago and ongoing I struggle to do more than single efforts that hit ~41.
Iāve found it to be reasonably close and in line with a lab test, along with the predicted running times.
For an adapted athlete yes itās pretty good. For someone newer to cycling itās going to jump around a bit.
Sums it up for my perspective. If it was the opposite I can always just join 690+ races.
You have an issue of giving up on another account? You know itās pretty common. What is the difference of 1 pay account vs another? Some people like to relive the nostalgia of leveling up all over again.
And if you didnāt know, some of us actually compete on Zwift via seasons with new account to see who clocks the most miles. Many games like Diablo, ends your current career with a new season and you restart at level 1.
I like to pull the group, while watching the chase group bridge. Always just out of reach but very close. Like the donkey and a carrot.
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Has anyone tested the seed score W/Kg element, by increasing their weight a bit and then improving their 30sec and/or 10min best a bit by pure Watts?
Did your seed score then lower?
Are we keeping the same ratio? If so, your need score should increase. Because CP is absolute watts * w/kg.
By increasing your watts, and lowering the w/kg slightly it would cause overall increase.
If itās for the purpose of sandbagging races then yes
Irrelevant to the ethical question
And some do it for the reason that you explained, so thatās also irrelevant
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Another pondering, this time about score changes post-race solely because of finish position outside of podiumā¦
Are changes bigger in the higher pens (A/B vs D/E) due to the average Racing Score of all finishers in a pen?
Or something like the top 5/10 finishers in a pen like zwiftpower rank score?
Hard-coded change numbers assigned to pen?
Or something else?
Different take, I see riders jumping in begging to be set at a lower cat due to injury. Save themselves the trouble and take the proactive route.
By āCPā Iām presuming you mean Compound Score, abbrieviated to zrCS at zwiftracingapp for Timās weight modified version.
I think of āCPā being Critical Power for bike stuff.
You might be right that increasing weight then improving pure Watts for seed score durations raises seed score.
I guess the other thing worth checking is lowering weight and doing more W/Kg for seed score durations.