My first club ride

The first Lothian Cycle group run I did was with Alison Johnston and Alan Hardie. Other members Kevin and Philip could not make it otherwise we would have had five virtual cyclists. A lot of time was spent getting Skype to work as you need the correct handle to find the person you want to conference with. We jointly worked out the best route to suit our needs would be the London Classique which is a 3.3 mile route and further decided we would do several laps of that. The other routes were considerably longer and higher climbs.

My conservatory, where my event was taking place, is colder than the Baltic at this time of year so I did a couple of laps just to warm up arriving just on time 8pm at the start line. Each lap was 3.3 miles taking about 10 minutes. It is remarkably difficult to stop exactly on the stop line as you don't have brakes, at least I have not found a control for that yet. We fafed around trying to locate a phone box unfortunately there are lots of phone boxes in London. Eventually we all connected via the leader board within a few yards. It is then easy to cycle together and we did 3 laps from that point cycling at a Monday Madness type of pace.

After the very convivial ride I received the results in Strava as normal. Instead of plugging my Garmin into the computer it just arrived like magic certified by Zwift as a genuine virtual ride. https://www.strava.com/activities/778337815
https://www.strava.com/activities/778293078

Strava presentation

Conclusions

The ability to join people you know in real life on a virtual cycle is awesome. I have tried cycling on my own and it is no where near enough fun. The purpose of all this is to keep doing it thought the winter months so the added motivation of meeting up with like minded enthusiasts cannot be understated. The addition of a Skype conference call just adds spice to the meal.

I think the meeting up on track is a difficult issue without brakes especially if the start line is on a bit of route going down hill. I have read the forum on this issue and there is lots of discussion.

The published map for London could do with some enhancements it is a bit devoid of reference points like Marble Arch etc

However the whole experience is well worth while and I may try and join an event.

FTP stands for Functional Threshold Power and represents the most watts you can expect to average over an hour. This can be used to improve your performance by joining training shedules that push your limits or you can use it to gauge which events you are suitable for.

On my Watopia flat route I averaged 132W and I currently weigh 77Kg so my FTP is  1.7W/Kg I can now use this to gauge where I go from here.

Checklist (before starting off)

* Open the windows
* Wear a hat to collect most of the sweat
* Water bottle
* Mobile
* Jersey to start with till you warm up
* Make sure windows/Zwift is up and running
* Old towel

 

 

 

Technology

The technology is truly plug and play however several notes below may be useful.

Smart trainer

It is not essential to have a smart trainer. If you can calibrate the breaking power versus slope of your trainer then produce a simple table of brake application vs slope this will suffice. Zwift produces a graph of the slope present, past and future at all times in one corner. I opted for the interactive version. Interactive means the Zwift software does all the settings for you in terms of slope simulation. I settled on a TACX Vortex T2280. There is a cheaper version T2240 the base lever smart trainer from the same company but the T2280 has about 100W more braking ability giving me a 7% slope instead of the 6% of the lesser model which I thought was a bit marginal in performance. Even on the flat route in Watopia a 5% slope is present. There are various other trainers out there, pay your money take your chances. I am not recommending this trainer above any others I leave this to the cycling comics.

Preparing the bike

The bike needs to be fitted with a TACX of similar mounting skewer. You bike also needs a rear training tyre as the friction in a trainer is greater over a smaller area of the tyre and produces high temperatures at the point of contact. There are trainers without the need for a training tyre but they usually start at £1000 upwards.

Training mat

You will need a training matt. The mat has several purposes as follows:
* Is anti slip so your trainer will stay put
* It will insulate you from the floor reducing noise and wear marks on the floor (if your floor is of a delicate finish).
* It will collect any stray sweat, as their will be lots of it, and you should have an old towel as well.

Cooling fan

It is absolutely essential to have a cooling fan, in a situation where the human body is generating anything up to 950W (in the case of my trainer) then you will need a fan directed efficiently at you. I used a Tower type fan from Dimplex. The benefit from a Tower fan is you can more ideally place it relative to your bike and it is quiet in operation. I extended the height of it to match my position on the bike. I also open all the windows during a session to let the condensation out as my training room is an unheated conservatory.

USB to ANT+ converter

If your trainer or LapTop does not have Bluetooth this is an essential requirement and various low cost versions can be found on Amazon/Ebay/ Wiggle etc cost £10 for the cheapest. I use the cheapest. You will need a USB extender as despite the spec saying effective up to 5m I had problems at 2m.

Computer

There are a variety of options here and they are covered more fully on the Zwift web site. However if you go the Mickeysoft  route you will need a 64bit I5 machine with fairly capable graphics. I did not have a compatible machine before building my trainer and I found a used Dell E6420 with 8Gbit ram a cost effective solution cost = £250. You need about 25-30fps to give a realistic presentation of the graphics.

Display

The key to the usefulness of this technology lies in the display. The bigger the display, the higher the resolution and nearer you are planted to it the better. This is the best route to suspend reality during a session. The 14" disply on the laptop was just not going to hack it for me. I borrowed a redundant 19" display from a friend and mounted it on a tripod and placed it right in front of the bike. The display and laptop have a high speed HDMI  interface.

Mobile phone

The mobile is useful as the LCG use it to communicate on the cycle and to meet up at the start line. It is also useful to control the Zwift software from your handlebars.

Map

Watopia Flat

I find it useful to have a printout of the route up below the screen. I am not sure if this is possible on Zwift but I have not found a feature that gives my orientation on the track. LCG use this flat route for their Thursday night bash.

Strava

The Zwift software is linked to Strava training records. You get credit for your efforts on Watopia despite it being a virtual cycle.

 

The bike

Any bike will do but I strongly advise a road bike as most training tyres fit 700mm wheels and most trainers are calibrated initially (from the manufacturer) using road bike characteristics. I used an old, one of the last steel framed racers from OLMO in Italy with Campagnolo running gear. It has been superseded by my Specialised plastic (Carbon Fibre) bike, and is lets face it, 25 years newer in technology terms. I was about to gift the OLMO to a cycling charity but reemployed it in my trainer Cost = £0.

The concept

I am a keen occasional club cyclist. At my age I find it increasingly difficult to improve my muscle bulk and therefore performance. I also suffer from the cold and going into winter my weekly mileage drops off to such an extent I have even less fitness the following year. My current fitness level allows me to do at least 70 miles and 6000 feet of climb. I am a fairly average cyclist for my age rarely doing over 17-20 mph on the flat.

I am a member of Lothian Cyclists and they book their meets over an on line application called Meetup: http://www.meetup.com/Lothian-Cyclists/ ......(LCG) I find the convenience of that platform second to none. The have a regular meet every Monday (Monday Madness), that takes in every grade of cyclists with a very sociable lunch stop. In the summer 50 mile rides are possible but in winter 30 miles is more the norm. They also have a Saturday group that is slightly higher paced and tends to use the Supportive format where stops are less frequent and the pace a bit faster. They also run a virtual cycle group that is in it's infancy called Virtually Cycling in Circles.

The virtual club is what this blog is about. The group is currently led by Philip Campbell but in theory anyone can post a cycle-route if you are nominated to be an organiser. It is a very egalitarian organisation in that if you are not careful you will be nominated by others as an organiser.

The platform that LCG uses for virtual cycling is a piece of software called Zwift. The following description is taken off the LCG web site and written by Philip C. They currently run Watopia Flat. Watopia is a fictional island in the Solomon's. It is an actual island but it is uninhabited and certainly does not have any roads of any sort that could be cycled on. It is real enough to be recognised by Strava and count in you personal fitness record. Strava is another on line application for keeping track of your activities and planned routes in the cycling world.

The Lothian Cycle Group , Virtually Cycling in Circles

Watopia flat

Running continuously (even through the summer months, I’m going to run a THURSDAY evening virtual club ride round the island of Zwiftopia.

ALL are welcome to join me – from the comfort of your own home!
Seriously...now that the dark hours and crap weather are upon us, we can apply Velominati Rule No. 5 and get out there in the cold and wet ...or we can man up and hit the turbo’s indoors ...!
Except that can be a bit boring, really....


Using the Eurobike award winning online cycling platform called Zwift , turbo'ing indoors has actually turned out to be quite fun. Graphics are good and you can chat with literally hundreds of real cyclists from around the world as you cycle – I’m loving it...
SO! – you are all cordially invited to join me on a virtual club run on THURSDAY evenings at 8pm in the Zwift world.

THINGS YOU WILL NEED:-
1. A bike
2. A Trainer – Turbo or Rollers.
3. An ANT+ compatible speed and cadence sensor OR an ANT+ compatible power meter OR a “smart “trainer that has the sensors or power meter built in..
4. An ANT+ USB dongle, which needs to be plugged into your PC/ MAC or IPAD
5. An internet connection
6. A Zwift account – DO NOT FEAR – Zwift allow you to try it out FREE for 14 days or 50km (which ever runs out soonest) before you need to put any money down . If you do take the plunge, it’s £8 a month but you DON’T have to front up credit card detail or money to have a go on the free try. So go on – give it a go!)
I confess to being quite hooked already ...and saw benefits in my Caledonia Etape early in the year from having a weekly go in Zwift during the winter.
I’m happy to provide advice on equipment , make suggestions, or even pop round and help people get set-up if it would help .
Drop me a message if you need a hand after checking out the following links :-
http://zwift.com/what-is-it/
http://www.bikeradar.com/gear/category/accessories/training-software/product/review-zwift-zwift-49225/
In terms of equipment, any turbo trainer will do, as long as you can change the resistance of the trainer whilst on the bike, to help simulate the uphill sections.
For a Speed cadence sensor, I’d recommend the following Garmin Speed cadence sensors, as you don’t have to line up fiddly magnets on wheels to make them work :- http://www.wiggle.co.uk/garmin-speed-cadence-sensor/?lang=en&curr=GBP&dest=1&sku=5360660283&ci_src=18615224&ci_sku=5360660283uk&utm_source=google&utm_term&utm_campaign=UK_PLA_Accessories&utm_medium=base&utm_content=s31UFlp58_dc|pcrid|67090793462|pkw||pmt||prd|5360660283uk
but there are cheaper ones out there...for around the £25 mark.
The cheapest fully functioning USB ANT+ dongle I have found is on Amazon for £10! :-http://www.amazon.co.uk/douself%C2%AE-Black-Garmin-Forerunner-011-02209-00/dp/B00T7C2DWA/ref=sr_1_5?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1426166473&sr=1-5&keywords=ant%2B
Please try and get equipment set-up and have a go before hand to get familiar with the software / user experience before joining us on the evening ..that way we can concentrate on the cycling and not in IT help-desking each other .....The Zwift programme is really good at helping you during set-up and it really is quite simples....
Hope to see you there!!