In this episode:
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zffBy2ma6jI&w=560&h=315]
I’m still amazed when I hear from Zwifters who don’t yet use a fan. How do you survive? Granted, I run pretty hot, and perhaps you don’t need as much cooling as I do. But you do need a fan for Zwifting, unless you are specifically training for heat adaptation.
Your body only runs at around 25% efficiency, which means that every watt of pedal power comes with three “wasted” watts which are turned into heat. Cruising along at 200 watts? You’re generating 600 watts of heat. Race at 400 watts and you’re producing enough waste heat (1200 watts) to power a toaster oven!
Without a fan, that waste heat creates a superheated pocket of air around your body. Soon enough your body temperature will rise, your RPE will increase, and your power output will decline as your body kicks in its “governors” to keep you from overheating and damaging internal organs. Without a fan, you simply can’t hold your maximum wattage! This is probably the biggest cause for new Zwifters complaining that they can’t hold the same power indoors as they can outdoors.
Adequate cooling also helps to reduce cardiac drift. Here’s what coach Hunter Allen has to say in this article:
Staying cool is very important while riding indoors, a small change in body temperature can create a large change in the amount of power you can produce. As your body becomes hotter and hotter, you will perspire more and more to help cool the skin. Losing that fluid creates thicker blood and therefore more resistance internally in the cardiovascular system. The result of this is that your heart has to pump faster in order to get the same amount of blood to your working muscles. This is called cardiovascular drift and while you are stressing the heart more, you are not increasing your absolute FTP.
By keeping yourself cool and hydrated, you will be able to produce more wattage for a given heart rate and thus increase your overall absolute fitness. Overheating can easily cause a reduction in indoor power by 20 to 30 watts alone, so it’s critical that you have a large fan blowing on you during your workout and if you can do it in a cool room, that will make a difference as well.
One way to choose how much air you need blowing on you indoors is trial and error. But this is Zwift Insider, so let’s use some math to come up with another solution by calculating how much air cooling we receive when riding outdoors. Wind generated by fans is typically quoted in CFM, or cubit feet per minute. What CFM do we experience when riding outside? That is, how much air hits us every minute? We start by figuring out our frontal area. This obviously varies depending on rider size and position, but typical frontal areas taken from this page are:
Then we multiply that frontal area by how far we travel in a minute in order to get CFM. At 20 miles per hour you are traveling 20*5280=106,600 feet per hour. Multiply that by our frontal area–let’s use the hoods for a best guess estimate–and we get 20*5280*4.3=454,080 cubit feet of air per hour. Divide by 60 and you get 7568 cubic feet per minute. This is how much air is hitting you when riding outdoors on a windless day on the hoods at 20mph (32.2kmph). What if we tweak our variables a bit?
So you can see that at a minimum you need around 7500 cfm of fan power to replicate outdoor air movement in your pain cave.
There are other factors to consider, of course:
Cooling needs vary from person to person and setup to setup, but for me I like having two powerful fans so I can turn them both on or off independently when desired. I would say if you find yourself dripping sweat during anything other than maximal efforts, you need to improve your fan setup.
Here are three good Zwifting fans with consistently good reviews on Amazon:
If you want a lot of air in a narrow window, “blower” fans are the ticket. They don’t move as much air as a good box fan, but they move a narrow column of air very quickly, great for keeping sweat off your face.
Lasko’s 20″ fans move a lot of fair, even though I doubt their quoted CFM number. Not a bad price, either, considering it includes a remote.
Kind of between a “blower” fan and the Wind Machine in terms of tightness of the air column, the Vornado packs a punch in a smaller footprint.
Want the very best? Check out Wahoo’s Kickr Headwind. It blows a very tight column of air right where you need it, and wind speed can be automatically modulated based on your virtual speed (to simulate a headwind) or heart rate (to cool you when you need it most). I’ll be posting a review on this soon, but everything I’ve read and seen on this has folks very pleased with its functionality.
Buy on Wahoo.com >
Buy on Amazon >
Pro tip: get a wifi-connected power strip so you can easily turn your fan(s) on using your phone!
Got a fan setup you’re happy with? Share below!
Zwift has announced the first three teams who will be participating in the KISS Women’s Super League.
The three teams added are all UCI Women’s Teams: Canyon//SRAM, Doltcini-Van Eyck, and Hagens Berman – Supermint.
Additional teams participating in the Women’s KISS Super League will be announced this month. The Women’s League will start racing in February once all participating teams have been confirmed.
Tour de Zwift has been a blast so far, with thousands of riders turning out to ride/race throughout Zwift’s five worlds. And even though the rides are fun, it can be difficult to fit all 9 stages into your schedule, no matter how badly you want to complete the tour and unlock that TdZ kit.
Zwift has your back: they’ve set aside the first weekend in February as makeup days, allowing riders to complete any and all missed stages. They’ve scheduled a pile of makeup events, with each stage available every two hours throughout the two days. Each stage is scheduled at 22 different times across February 2-3, so you should be able to find a time that works for you!
Looking to put in a lot of miles in the first weekend of February? Try stringing together stage events on Saturday and Sunday to ride the complete tour. It’s even possible to ride it all in one day!
In this episode:
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ue1XuQCHgSU&w=560&h=315]
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The Vegan Cyclist was the perfect opponent for Cameron Jeffers. In this video, he gives a recap on his experiences. As he goes quite in detail, he brings back the tension of the race itself.
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Cameron Jeffers got his living room hot. Did he get to win the race? Here’s how the race looked from his side of the cable.
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Ed Laverack wasn’t formally part of the showdown between Cameron Jeffers and the Vegan Cyclist, yet he participated in the event and also carefully analyzed how it played out. As a pro rider, his view of the battle is quite interesting.
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In fact, the Cam Jeffers vs. The Vegan Cyclist race garnered perhaps the biggest crowd of Zwift race participants ever: well above 1,000. We do not want to overlook the amazing performance of all those who joined. The Charlie, Carbs, and Cycling channel puts the spotlight on the actual race-winning efforts.
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And in case you don’t care about that big Zwift race that we heavily feature this week… how about this entertaining Q&A with the man behind the Smart Bike Trainers channel?
Which race routes are the most popular, and why do you suppose that is? Recently ZwiftPower.com webmaster James Hodges produced a report for me summarizing which routes have been used the most by race organizers in the past three months.
It is worth noting that this report isn’t based on participation (that is, number of racers) but on which routes were selected by race organizers.
No big surprise here, as this is the most popular route in-game. For all our talk about wanting big climbs, Zwifters gravitate towards the flat stuff. This, I believe, is why ZwiftHQ is working on bringing more flat roads to Watopia soon–because this route is quite crowded when freeriding on Watopia days.
Of course, this route isn’t completely flat: the slight climb up from Ocean Boulevard can be painful in a race, and the ramp into the Esses is where attacks always happen. But overall this is an exceptionally flat course, built for the wattage bazookas.
Learn more about Watopia’s Flat Route >
The “CCW” is key, because in the clockwise direction you don’t have a long enough climb to make things interesting. This is a super-fun crit course with one kicker per lap and a hard-to-nail finish. It’s one of my favorites and a favorite of many racers, so it’s no surprise seeing it at #2.
Learn more about Watopia’s Volcano Circuit >
As a very flat course with a single kicker per lap, the Classique is sort of London’s version of Volcano Circuit CCW, but with a simpler finish. It’s a fun race course, especially if you get the feather powerup so you can attack on the kicker and put fellow racers in the hurt locker.
Learn more about London’s Classique >
This route is just a bit flatter than Watopia Flat, with no significant climbs to speak of. It’s not a favorite because it’s interesting for racers: it’s a favorite because it’s so flat. It’s not one of my favorites, although in the reverse direction the dirt climb up to the Italian Village is fun.
Learn more about Watopia’s Volcano Flat >
We have a climbing route, a flat route, and a mixed route all tied for fifth place. How strange! Volcano Climb is the surprise here for me, since it features (by far) the largest climb of any route in our top 5 list. Why do you suppose it is a favorite of race organizers? My guess is it’s because 1) it’s on everyone’s favorite course, Watopia and 2) the Volcano climb is just long enough to force a split between many of the pure climbers and pure flatlanders. The Hilly KOM isn’t long enough to do this, and the Epic KOM is so long that it can become a TT and turn racers off.
Learn more about Watopia’s Volcano Climb >
Learn more about Watopia’s Hilly Route >
Learn more about Greater London Flat >
Here is Jame’s complete report of all routes used in races on the last 3 months.
Total races in last 3 months: 4,433
Did your favorite course make the top 5 (7)? What characteristics make an ideal race course for you?
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January’s fondo events are this weekend, and for the first time ever riders can choose from one of three new custom Watopia routes. Click a route below to learn all about it!
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Official description:
Take in the heart of Watopia with a flat warmup before tackling the original Watopia KOM. Then head over to the Mayan Ruins for a lap of the jungle – look out for the sloth! – before finishing up the Volcano Climb.
The Bambino Fondo is essentially these routes strung together:
Distance: 52.2km (32.4 miles)
Elevation Gain: 580m (1902′)
Strava Segment (from start pier)
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Official description:
Warmup with a trip to Sequoia Circle before climbing the original Watopia KOM in the longer, gentler reverse direction. From there the climbing continues with a trip up the Volcano KOM, and tour of the Mayan Ruins jungle, and then finish off with a long climb up the Epic KOM (arch; not tower).
The Medio Fondo is essentially these routes strung together:
Distance: 72.9km (45.3 miles)
Elevation Gain: 1010m (3313′)
Strava Forward Segment (from start pier)
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Official description:
This longest Fondo route takes you on a meandering – and ascending – tour of Watopia. Start out with the original KOM in the reverse direction before climbing the Volcano. From there, you’ll do a lap of the Mayan Ruins jungle and then take on the steeper – but shorter – original KOM in the forward direction. Mix in flat laps around downtown Watopia and the Volcano Circuit before finishing at the Epic KOM summit (arch; not tower).
The Gran Fondo is very similar to the Medio Fondo in terms of key climbs and overall elevation, but ~25km (15.5 miles) longer due to some meandering around Watopia proper between the “Road to Ruins” section and the “Mountain Route” ending. This route is essentially these routes strung together:
Distance: 97.8km (60.8 miles)
Elevation Gain: 1196m (3924′)
Strava Forward Segment (from start pier)
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All Zwifters who finish a Fondo route will unlock the official Zwift January Fondo kit. Each of the 6 Fondos from November to April has a unique kit to unlock.
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See upcoming Fondo rides on ZwiftHacks >
A big thanks to Veloviewer for providing the 3d images for our new routes.
Today at approximately 11am PST Zwift broke its concurrent record by a significant margin, with 13,064 signed on. This comes on the heels of last Thursday’s record-breaking traffic numbers (10,453).
Midday Tuesday is typically Zwift’s weekly high-traffic point, so this new record didn’t come as a surprise to ZwiftHQ. With Tour de Zwift in full swing and winter weather all over the northern hemisphere, Zwift’s highest traffic of the year will probably be this week and next.
The time is now for Zwift to allows its user base the freedom to choose where they want to ride. Even Zwift’s planned “guest map” approach would be a welcome change from what we currently have, which is very crowded courses, especially if you’re anywhere other than Watopia.
I find myself gravitating toward group rides more and more right now because free riding just isn’t pleasurable on crowded courses. From what I hear, Zwift will be rolling out their guest map feature very soon. I’m crossing my fingers and hoping it is within the next week!
For the past 14 months or so I have been contributing to Zwift Insider in my Open Pro column covering the exploits of a professional cycling career with a side of training and data analysis. That column will continue in 2019 but I am excited to debut a new feature here: The Peak Form Coaching Project. The aim of the project was to help one motivated Zwift athlete with a full year of free premium coaching and showcase the process here in regular updates. I wanted to help someone with a lofty goal and show how effective coaching and the use of Zwift can bring big cycling dreams into reality. Personally, I also wanted a personal challenge as a coach and I certainly found one.
Peak Form CoachingI started Peak Form Coaching in 2013 an effort to apply all that I was learning on the road and in my Kinesiology studies and maybe supplement my nonexistent income as a not-yet-professional cyclist. Fast forward 5 years and coaching has become a real business for me and more rewarding than I ever thought it could be. I’ve coached dozens of athletes to national-level podiums, provincial championships and countless PRs in everything from a 5km run to a 40km TT to Ironman. I thought my athletes had done just about everything in endurance sports. That was until I met Connie Swinson.
The first words that popped out at me from Connie’s application for the project were “1200km ride.” I reread carefully and found that it wasn’t a typo with an extra “0” added. Connie’s goal is to finish the most coveted ultra-distance cycling event in the world: the legendary Paris-Brest-Paris. A little googling revealed that the PBP began in 1891 and is one of the world’s oldest cycling events. The ride is “Brevet” style, meaning it is completely self-supported and riders must carry their own supplies. Riders must reach more than a dozen checkpoints within strict time limits, with 90 hours to complete the entire hilly, sinuous route through the French countryside.
As it turns out, even getting to the starting line is an achievement as riders must complete sanctioned validation events of 200, 300, 400 and 600km in the months prior to the August depart in France. To add a bit more pressure, the PBP is held only every 4 years, so there is little room for error in preparation.
Connie is going to take this awesome challenge on at age 65 and if she finishes she would be the oldest North Americanfemale finisher in history. In our first conversation, I could tell she had the background and motivation to make it happen. She has completed several Brevet events already and her husband and teammate Hardy has a long resume of ultra events. Looking at her training data, you can see she has an endurance base already and works hard on Zwift to include intensity work. From a coaching perspective, the puzzle pieces are there but there is some serious work ahead to put them together.
Needless to say, I agreed to take Connie on for the inaugural Peak Form Coaching project. The allure of this uncharted coaching territory and the immensity of the challenge were exactly what I was looking for in this project. And it is truly uncharted territory. The longest events I have ever coached an athlete for were a mere 20% the duration of the PBP. There will be new elements of nutritional planning, sleep/fatigue management and pacing that I haven’t applied before. There is also one more curveball: Connie and Henry ride recumbent bikes, something else I have never encountered. Pedaling is pedaling and power is power but I am certain there are a few kinks in the training process that come with an entirely different riding position.
With all of this said, I have high hopes and lots of excitement for this project. I am confident I can make Connie a stronger cyclist, increase her sustainable power and build her muscular endurance. The challenge isn’t riding the 1200km. Anyone of us could cover the distance in a couple weeks given enough Clif bars, chamois cream and some cozy hotels. The challenge is the pace and the 90 hr cutoff. With stops to sleep, equipment maintenance and possible weather delays, the need to maintain a strong clip becomes imperative.
For me that means raising Connie’s threshold and more importantly her base aerobic pace to allow her more room for error in the big event. It means simulating endless rolling climbs loaded with provisions and the accumulation of muscular fatigue therein. I am already planning consecutive long endurance days to improve recovery capacity and work out an optimal nutrition and pacing strategy. Finally, we need to push for progress while also carefully tapering for and recovering from the 200, 400 and 600km qualifying events along the way. This will the 2019 Peak Form Coaching project and we have a little over 9 months to make it all happen. Time to get to work!
