Last week’s third running of the new VO2sday Micro Races went well… at least for some of you. Me? I didn’t have the legs. But I’m hoping to come back strong this week.
This week, we’re doing time-based races for the first time ever. We’re also heading to Scotland for a new set of routes, with categories tweaked a bit. Read on for details…
Time-Based Races!
Changing these from distance-based races to time-based has been feeling more and more like the only way to go, since distance-based racing creates a situation where the strongest riders complete the course quickly (often under 4 minutes) while lower categories may take 5+ minutes. This leads to an unpredictable workout and inconsistent recovery times.
This week, I’m taking the plunge and just doing it. Special thanks to James Bailey at ZHQ for helping to make this happen!
All VO2sday events for May 26 will be 4 minutes long, regardless of your category or how hard you ride. The goal? Ride further than your competitors!
Important note: Because these are time-based races, the only meaningful race results you’ll see this week are on the finishing screen that pops up at the end of each race, and the race results in Companion or at zwift.com. ZwiftPower will not display results properly.
We won’t have a 5-race GC competition this week, because we don’t have a way to combine rider distances from each race and show them on a leaderboard (ZwiftPower doesn’t support this). The good news is, I’m working with Nathan Guerra and his brilliant team over at Leadout Sports to make it happen. This week we’ll be testing it in the background – hopefully next week it’ll be live!
Compound Score Category Adjustments
I’ve tweaked the CS-based categories a bit further this week, to reduce the C and B groups and enlarge A and D. Here are the new categories:
- A: 1600+
- B: 1200-1600
- C: 900-1200
- D: 900 and below
May 26 Race Details and Signup
Here are this week’s courses:
Races are held at three different times each Tuesday:
- Zone 1: 11am UTC/7am UT/4am PT
- Zone 2: 5pm UTC/1pm ET/10am PT
- Zone 3: 11pm UTC/7pm ET/4pm PT
Sign up at zwift.com/events/tag/vo2sday >
Structured Workout Racing
The VO2sday Micro Races are nothing like your typical Zwift scratch race. Here’s how these races are distinctly structured to be engaging and fun while delivering a proper VO2 max session:
- 5 races in less than an hour – that’s 5 hard VO2 max intervals.
- Very short efforts: Each race is very short, only 4 minutes, just like a good VO2 max interval.
- Recovery time: Races are 10 minutes apart, so a 4-minute race leaves you with 6 minutes of recovery before the next interval.
- Mix of courses: Each week’s race courses feature a mix of flat, climb, rolling, and even downhill parcours. Riders with lots of pure watts have the advantage in some races, while riders with strong w/kg have the advantage in others.
- Compound Score categories: Since results will be driven by your power numbers, riders will be categorized based on compound score, not Zwift Racing Score. This takes into account your 5-minute power and body weight.
- Mass start: While riders are broken into categories for results, these are mass-start events with all categories starting together, so everyone has riders ahead to chase. (Remember, the goal is to push as hard as you can for the duration of the race, not to sit in the pack and conserve so you can sprint to victory in the last 15 seconds!)
- Drafting is disabled, so these are effectively time trials. (Yes, you’ll want a fast TT setup.) Hopefully this forces you out of the “sit in then sprint” mindset, and into “hold steady high power for the duration” mode.
Questions or comments?
I’d love to hear your feedback after you’ve completed the latest set of VO2sday races. Share it below, along with any questions or comments you’ve got beforehand!
