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BurningLegs
Guru
Sounds like you bonked? It’s a horrible feeling so well done for getting through it.Well that wasn't nice. With 8 miles to go I was on the verge of giving up. My legs were screaming, I had no energy, my podcast had finished, my tea was going cold and my gooch has worn away to the bone.
02:11:29 - @bridgy
These rides are getting a bit long on time for my level, fingers crossed the climbing gets less.
There is a Lanterne Rouge prize for the Tour de Zwift yeah? 🏮
What do you eat and drink on rides? General rule of thumb is that your body has enough energy easily available for about an hour of tough riding. Any longer and it’ll really benefit from some simple carbs.
Some people like energy drinks, others like gels or snacks. I tend to go for a carb+salt drink with about 200kcals in it for rides longer than an hour and start sipping it during warm up. One for each hour of a ride lasting more than an hour.
Our league races are usually less than an hour so only needed for these unusually long rides. Don’t lose faith!
My turn to suffer Zwift (or possibly my end IT) gremlins. It was glitchy from the start - took AGES to take me to the start of the ride, and then when I got there I couldn't see any other riders. I would have logged out and back in again but there wasn't enough time. Then everyone appeared so all good at the start. I was really pleased with my climb up the KOM (faster than October) but after the descent I started losing other riders again - far from ideal in a ride like this where drafting in a group makes such a big difference. Finally lost all other riders in the jungle for good and had to ride the second half all alone 😕.
The ride hasn't uploaded properly to zwift and therefore Zwift Power but I have managed to find the .fit file on my laptop and manually upload it to Strava. Obviously I'll try to do it again but if not hopefully wqe can cobble together a time for me for the league - it was about 1:13 I think
The ride hasn't uploaded properly to zwift and therefore Zwift Power but I have managed to find the .fit file on my laptop and manually upload it to Strava. Obviously I'll try to do it again but if not hopefully wqe can cobble together a time for me for the league - it was about 1:13 I think
bobinski
Legendary Member
- Location
- Tulse Hill
I’ll be riding stage 3 on Thursday at 6-40pm if anyone wants another go😁
steverob
Guru
- Location
- Buckinghamshire
Well there's bad news and there's good news. Next stage has a lot of climbing, in fact it's basically the same climb twice (Cat 3, 650ft elevation gain), plus coming down it again in between the two.
But overall the stage is a lot shorter - my best time up the climb is 24 minutes and that was done when the stage was TT only (no draft), which means I'm hoping for low 20's if I get a lot of people doing the stage at the same time as me. And the descent I've done in 12 and a half minutes and I freewheeled the actual downhill bit and only put out 75% effort on the flat bit, so pretty sure I could bring that down to 11 mins.
All of which means I'm aiming for a total of about 54 minutes, while I'd guess that the B's and faster C's will probably be sub 45 minutes.
Didn't realise we go up the climb twice for the TT ..... I guess I take it easy the first time, to ensure I can get up a second
Edit: 3 laps
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steverob
Guru
- Location
- Buckinghamshire
ZwiftHacks and ZwiftPower both have the "A" group ride as 15.3 miles, which would mean twice up, once down. I can only assume that Zwift are counting the downhill as a lap.
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steverob
Guru
- Location
- Buckinghamshire
And also the route for Stage 5 (New York) has now been announced. Everything Bagel - 21 miles / 34 km. Two ascents of the KOM (one in each direction), first one starting just one mile into the stage, second starts at the 15 mile point.
Hate to play top trumps 😊
it’s a long story Bob but the knee has been an issue since I was 15 when I dislocated it.
Since then I’ve had about 15 operations due to football injuries which included a synthetic cruciate ligament repair that went wrong and multiple cartridge operations.
The end result is a very arthritic knee with a leg half the size of my good leg.
Can’t complain as I can play golf and ride my bike so it could be worse but I don’t want to use it as an excuse as I still feel that I can improve on my bike fitness if I try harder and train smarter.😀
bobinski
Legendary Member
- Location
- Tulse Hill
Now that would make a great Top Trumps card pack- CC excuses 😁
Are you not due an artificial knee yet? A colleague in his sixties has 2 and while he doesn’t cycle does go skiing 3 times a year.
That’s obviously beyond my experience and knowledge. One leg drills? One leg weighted squats? I had to do that to get my muscle wastage back post op. I have some arthritis in the knee and it has become much less troublesome as the muscle bulk and strength has improved. Ice and ibuprofen for the inevitable dons. Perhaps this will work for you too, taking some strain off the knee joint itself and allowing you to cycle more and improve fitness? Other than that fair play to you. My consultant and physio talked about cases like yours when warning me the operation could lead to significant arthritis so I do feel lucky. Writing this also reminded me of a guy I met on a Pyrenees trip, who has a withered right leg as a result of a birth defect .He was, bar me of course, the strongest on the flat, struggling a bit when the road went up because he couldn’t clip the damaged leg in. Which now allows me to play him as a top trump card 😁
Good luck mate👍
Cat D riders always welcomed Joffey and the competition amongst us will help us get fitter and faster.Don't worry Marino - I've come along so you aren't the slowest anymore!
Keep up the rides and I’m sure you’re improve If you use Lee and myself as your Targets.
We also need you for the team handicap races once the Tdz is finished.
Blackcurrant squash...
Didn’t think I’d need to eat on that ride as not bonked on a 2 hour ride before. But I think you could be right. Might take some gels with me for the next one.
