Wow I'm overdue an update in here, but not much to report. Bit of a trainer issue (sorted by firmware update and calibration) possibly ruined a TTT for me, but hopefully made a bit of a comeback. Tonight will tell as it's WTRL TTT time again. In an easier group this time, bit of a 'comeback' ride for the Team & guys I rode a lot with last autumn. I should be one of the stronger ones there so should be good to push myself a bit without blowing and finishing solo...
TTT getting dropped. One of the team (Sarah) had a trainer issue (Stages bike, sounds like a flywheel problem) and in doing so skipped her turn and I got my timings wrong starting 15s early and then ended up fighting for the front...
Before then doing a 30s longer turn than planned! Couple of gap closes and someone surged the front up the first part of the KOM. Sarah dropped and 2 of us eased to get her on, but the front guys didn't hear. Then when we'd almost closed the gap their 'only 4.0w/kg'
up the first ramp really maximised me. I went so deep, that even after Sarah called to leave her,
I barely made it back on the group. Then the final part of the KOM
I just blew up and told them to leave me. I was quite disappointed as knew this group shouldn't be as hard as that - but when I looked at the ride data afterwards it confirmed things.
10 minutes a few watts over my FTP (276W), but realistically more like 15-20W over where I am right now.
So on the weekend I decided to do the short stage of TDZ, with a plan to do a longer ride on the sunday. Trainer was really not good, so I knew it had a problem (getting some belt slip, but also power was really down). I pushed on and finished, knowing it was good training, even though the power numbers really off (but know I'm off the boil at the moment - just not *that* much!). Threshold for 40+ minutes but power around 50-60W down.
So on the sunday after a couple of warm ups, calibrations, spindowns and a firmware update
I rode the long stage of TDZ and had a fantastic ride. Utterly emptied myself and gave myself horrible DOMS for several days afterwards. Ooops!
But power and numbers back up where I want them to be. A little below the FTP I set a few weeks before on an amazing few rides, but at least now more of a realistic measure where I am at 'normally' on a happy/repaired/calibrated trainer.
But I am getting a bunch of belt slip at the moment, even with a new belt. Thought it was cold related but even after pointing a heater at the Flux and riding it hard for ~1 hour I'm seeing it. Doing some investigations now but possibly can't resolve it until I find more info and refit my pulley arm/wheel... Until then if someone comes across someone selling a KICKR Core (unlikely) then let me know...!
Hahaha I hadn't realised it was a hilly course! Which route did you do? Huge kudos for crossing it off regardless. There's only a few times I've ridden that long (or longer), but have done 3 hours quite a few times (helps that one of my 'regular' rides is 2.5 hours)!
Nope.
Although 3R did it a few weeks ago. Quite a few times now their Endurance weekend series have done routes/courses for people to cross off.
Nope... Nearly did last year and did around 60/70% of it the year before (or was it the one before that...). Not heard much about SUFF recently, they done much to the platform the last year or so?
What external displays do you have/want to use, as that may determine what to use (resolution/ports).
Do you have any old laptops/old rigs? I'm running a 6 year old cheapy reconditioned i5 I threw an SSD into. Doesn't set the world ablaze but for £350 (back then) can't fault it. Did consider reusing my old Q6600 rig, but most of the trawling I did seemed to suggest it wouldn't be any better... Also didn't have an old Geforce to sling in it.
If I was going tablet route I'd probably get a MS Surface Go2. Got one for the other half last Xmas and it's a good bit of kit. Unsure how good it would push 1080p or bigger though. If you where after something *just* for Zwifting and have a big screen/display to use, then the AppleTV is pretty unmissable. Certainly with the current price of GPU's.
But if you've got an old 1050/1060, it could be worth looking for old business/desktops. Scroll back a page or two in here and you'll find a bit of info when we threw a few ideas around. Think someone even got a reconditioned HP Workstation, but can't recall what GPU it had.
Only certain android tablets will work, but if you have a good smartphone it could be worth getting a USB-C to HDMI converter and pushing that out on a display (if you have one). Certainly a cheap option. My Samsung S10 runs Zwift really smooth but I've not pushed it over HDMI...
Slow and steady does it. But also if you're riding outside/garage it's worth getting a calibration done.
Hahahaha proper made me chuckle, really like that
But 2 laps of that would be utterly brutal! Was it part of an event? Would be a 6-7h ride for me... Maybe one for
@AndyCr15 to get his teeth into!