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Throwback Thursday: Jarvis, the original Zwift Island

Eric Schlange
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6
Throwback Thursday: Jarvis, the original Zwift Island

Throwback Thursday: Jarvis, the original Zwift Island

Between October 2014 and March 2015 there was no Watopia, and certainly no Richmond or London. There was only Jarvis, aka “Zwift Island.” And only a handful of Zwift beta testers could be found riding it at any given time.

Here’s a video of a full lap of the ~3 mile Jarvis course. You’ll see some things which made their way to Watopia, including:

  • Windmills
  • Deliverance Hill (which includes the drive-thru tree now in mini-Jarvis)
  • An Italian village very similar to Watopia’s

What happened to Jarvis?

There has been a lot of speculation about what happened to the island so beloved by initial Zwift beta testers. I had actually heard that Zwift lost the files for the the island, which seemed ludicrous… so I chatted with Zwift’s original creator Jon Mayfield to learn the real story. Here’s what he told me:

…we’ve never lost any data at Zwift. I have backups, and backups of backups.

The reason Jarvis is not trivial to bring back is because it was created almost entirely by math equations – the terrain, the plant placement, and the road are all generated by algorithms. Only the buildings and arches were placed by hand.

With the shift to Watopia, we went with editable roads. Now we can have roads that do anything. Intersections, right turns, s-curves, flats. It’s not just sine and cosine waves added together anymore.

Additionally we developed better tools to place plants and zone types. ie, tropical zone, snow zone, forest, etc. Within a zone it still uses algorithms to place plants but the zones are hand-placed and tweaked by artists.

… Jarvis was nearly pure code (because I’m a programmer, and didnt have any tools aside from my code and we couldn’t hire bunches of artists at the time). Today we have a nice suite of tools.

Why was it called Jarvis?

Because Zwift used the GPS coordinates of Jarvis Island National Wildlife Refuge for Strava uploads. The real-life island is generally uninhabited and located in the middle of nowhere, midway between Hawaii and Samoa. Learn more about the real Jarvis here >

Jarvis on Strava

Even in these early stages Zwift was growing in popularity. In the short time that Jarvis was in use, 4,665 people rode the “Full Lap Counter Clockwise” segment for a total of 131,329 attempts!

You can see from the profile below that Jarvis Island was a very simple, symmetrical course. Of course, today’s Zwift courses are much more complex and developed… but those who were around in the early days will always remember Jarvis as the course that started it all.

 

Zwift Volcano Plus Hammerfest – February 20-24, 2017

Eric Schlange
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0
Zwift Volcano Plus Hammerfest – February 20-24, 2017

Zwift Volcano Plus Hammerfest – February 20-24, 2017

Trapper Markelz, organizer of Zwift Hammerfests, has announced his first event of 2017: the “Zwift Volcano Plus Hammerfest!”

This five day, three stage Hammerfest will start with laps around the lava, laps around Richmond, and finishes with a double sledgehammer KOM of Fox and Box Hills. To participate, register here.

Here are the stage details…

Stage 1 – Watopia Volcano Laps – Feb 20 & 21 (48 hours)

The hammerfest begins with three (3) hard laps clockwise around the Volcano Circuit. Select “Volcano Circuit” in the course options. This will have you do an immediate u-turn from the start, veer right onto the ocean tunnel, and turn left to go around volcano circuit clockwise indefinitely. Your three fastest laps will count for a hammerfest result!

Strava: https://www.strava.com/segments/14032406
Veloviewer: https://veloviewer.com/segments/14032406

Stage 2 – Richmond Pain Cave – Feb 22 Only! (24 hours)

You only have 24 hours to slam out a single, fast, as hard as you can, almost throwing up Flat Route lap. Select the Flat Route when you start. The segment starts and ends when you turn onto W Franklin Street. Ride a couple warm up laps so you know the start and end.

Strava: https://www.strava.com/segments/11307826
Veloviewer: https://veloviewer.com/segments/11307826

Stage 3 – London Fox on Box – Feb 23 & 24 (48 hours)

This Hammerfest finishes out on both sides of the London KOM. Ride Box then Fox or Fox then Box. It doesn’t matter the order. You need both segments in a single ride to log a result! Both of your times will total up and there will only be one winner standing tall on top of it all.

Fox Hill
Strava: https://www.strava.com/segments/16802545
Veloviewer: https://veloviewer.com/segments/12744396

Box Hill
Strava: https://www.strava.com/segments/12744502
Veloviewer: https://veloviewer.com/segments/12744502

Watts up with Power? ride summary for February 15th

Justin Wagner
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Watts up with Power? ride summary for February 15th

Watts up with Power? ride summary for February 15th

In conjunction with TrainingPeaks, Justin Wagner of TeamODZ leads the “Watts up with Power?” ride each Wednesday at 6:30AM PST/9:30AM EST/14:30 GMT.

The “Watts up with Power?” ride is likely the slowest group ride you’ll find on Zwift, because it focuses on learning the basics of power based training while riding together on Zwift. Each ride is streamed to Zwift LIVE by ODZ on Facebook, and focuses on teaching specific principles of power-based training. For viewers that are unable to attend live, the teaching is made available for all to review afterwards.

Here is the summary for February 15, 2017.

In past lessons we’ve talked how training with power can enable you to plan exactly when you hit your peak performance, thus allowing you to be on form exactly when you want to be on form.  To get to the point of planning your workouts for this, we need to understand the concepts of Fitness (also called Chronic Training Load, or CTL), Fatigue (also called Acute Training Load, or ATL), and Form (also called Training Stress Balance, or TSB).

In this week’s lesson we discuss these three concepts in detail, and relate them back to each individual workout that is performed.  This is the foundation for being able to use and understand the Performance Management Chart, which is the key to planning your training such that you hit your peak performance at the exact moment you want to.

This week’s lesson was based on Chapter 9 of “Training and Racing with a Power Meter” by Hunter Allen and Andrew Coggan, PhD.

Related reading:

Next week’s lesson we are fortunate to have Nate Dunn M.S., a TrainingPeaks level 2 certified Coach, from Data Driven Athlete share his knowledge with us. We are excited to hear what insights he has to share with us!

KISS EU – Love, 8 and mind games

Quentin Lafaye
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0
KISS EU – Love, 8 and mind games

KISS EU – Love, 8 and mind games

Raced on the ever so famous Figure 8, the Valentine’s Day KISS EU saw a lot of action in every category. For the As, Kleiven (BRTeam) took the win over Primon and Diggers.

The reverse KoM was the first breaking point of the race, under Daniel Schmidheiny‘s impulsion. The Team X rider found himself surrounded by 20-ish riders at the top of the hill, including some strong hitters like Cheyne, Gama (PTz), Primon, Cartwright (KissRT), Allonby, Webb (Vision), the Vegan Cyclist, Portia (Vision), Hein (Team X) or Boniface (Team ODZ).

Webb on the attack.

The flat part of the course highlighted the attempts of Adam Webb (Vision) and Tim Cartwright (KissRT) to get away before the forward KoM. Despite some strong attacks, the pack stayed together until the hill, where Primon, Boniface (Team ODZ) and Cartwright (KissRT) tried to break it apart. Coming into the descent, there were 11 riders opening the road: Cartwright (KissRT), Boniface (Team ODZ), Schmidheiny (Team X), Webb (Vision), Primon, Kleiven (BRTeam), Yakamura, Allonby, Stevens (TK.be), Diggers and the Vegan Cyclist.

The heartbreak sprint

T.Cartwright (KissRT).

In the last kilometers, Cartwright (KissRT) followed Yakamura‘s attack, but they were caught going into the Esses. Jernej Primon countered with Kleiven (BRTeam) coming back a few seconds later. Keeping a few seconds over the pack, the Slovenian rider launched the sprint, but Njal Eivind Kleiven‘s saved aero boost gave the win to the BRT rider. Coming from behind, Nick Diggers took 3rd by winning the bunch sprint. With his 2nd place and by making the decisive move in the ultimate kilometers, Jernej Primon won the “q/l Report – Combativity Award” of the day.

Final sprint.

In the B category, Julien Beijer (Team X) took the win and will soon be looking into the A cat. Robert Lille-Rodberget (Vikings) took 2nd place and David Galati (LaPrima) completed the podium. For the Cs, Tor Berge took the win over Trond Stian Jensen and Thomas Vang. The D category saw Rob Purbrick take the win, with Lee Pink (BRTeam) and Andreas Kunast completing the podium.

Quite a few women took on the race as well. Trond Stian Jenssen (C) was the first to cross the line in front of Natalie Batey (B), Brith Gulmæle (B) and Vision Cycling’s Zoe Corcoran (C).

Here is the race commentary from Nathan Guerra.
Check it out on the Zwift Community Live Twitch.tv channel >

KISS EU – Feb. 14th / Provisional Results :
A Category :
1- N.Kleiven (NOR-BRTeam)
2- J.Primon (SLO-U/A)
3-N.Diggers (AUS-U/A)
B Category :
1- J.Beijer (NED-Team X)
2- R.Lille-Rodberget (NOR-Vikings)
3- D.Galati (USA-LaPrima)
C Category :
1- T.Berge (NOR-U/A)
2- T. Jensen (NOR-U/A)
3- T.Vang (NOR-U/A)
D Category :
1- R.Purbrick (GBR-U/A)
2- L.Pink (GBR-BRTeam)
3- A.Kunast (GER-U/A)
Women :
1- T.Jensen (NOR-U/A)
2- N.Batey (GBR-U/A)
3- B.Gulmæle (NOR-U/A)
q/l Report Combativity : J.Primon (SLO-U/A)

-the q/l Report-

Slowest up the mountain is still up the mountain

Monica Schlange
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2
Slowest up the mountain is still up the mountain

Slowest up the mountain is still up the mountain

Ever since the mountain route on Watopia came out in March 2016 I’ve been annoyed by it. The size of the mountain and the times people were getting defeated me mentally before I even tried. Because of this as I’ve ridden around Watopia this winter I would always choose a flat route. “More miles,” I’d tell myself. The problem with that is, I was still letting that mountain defeat me.

My reasons for cycling have been two-fold: exercise to lose weight and exercise to combat my depression. To stick to the flat routes, for me, was a cop-out. I was getting exercise, but I was losing the mind-battle on the flats. I worked hard on the flats so I could beat my previous times, but that mountain continued to stare down at me, almost mocking me. “Only strong cyclists ride up this mountain!” “You’re too fat to ride this far!” “You can’t do it!”

So I decided a fictional mountain would not beat me!

I started a few weeks ago with a little mind game. I would ride up it until I got to the first bridge. I’d then turn around and ride back down, adding a few miles quickly on the descent as my reward for going up. The next time I rode up my goal was to ride until I hit 500 feet of elevation gain. With the reward of going back down. Then I did 600 feet, 700 feet, 800 feet.

Today I was supposed to do 900 feet. Because of my depression, it often takes me twice as long to recover than the average person, so I push myself, but I don’t push so hard that I’m useless for 3 days. But today, I was SO close to the top I couldn’t help myself. I had to finish. And I did! I finished the mountain today! Of the 108 people who went up, 107 of them were faster than me. By a lot. But I wasn’t trying to be fast. I was staying the course. I went up the mountain!

And here’s what I learned:

  • I’m stronger than I think. (My husband knew this, but I’m still trying to believe it.)
  • My cycling journey looks different than other people’s and that’s neither better nor worse.
  • It’s okay to stop riding for a few minutes to regain composure. I’m still making progress.
  • When I’m riding on narrow roads with huge drop-offs on Zwift I have great anxiety and fear and have to look away from the screen to remember I’m in a garage.
  • I have worth, both on the bike and off.
  • I feel so much better about life and am happier when I accomplish big things.

If you haven’t ridden up the mountain go do it now! You won’t regret it, even if you’re the slowest to the top!

Zwift update version 1.0.16400 released

Eric Schlange
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0
Zwift update version 1.0.16400 released

Zwift update version 1.0.16400 released

An update was pushed out for Zwifters on PC/Mac last night which mirrors the update released for iOS a few days ago.

According to game master Jon Mayfield,

Today’s update has got us started down a long road of adding small but useful feature additions we’ve had planned, plus a few requested by feedback from Zwifters like you.

You may want to read our post about the iOS release to get an idea of what has been changed and why it matters. Here are a few more details about this update:

  • Segment timers are now visible all of the time you are in a timed segment.  Very helpful for setting a new PR up the Epic KOM in Watopia!
  • It rains slightly less often in London now
  • Algorithms for flagging certain riders who may have an extremely mis-calibrated setup have been improved.

Thanks, ZwiftHQ. Keep up the good work!

See the releases notes from Jon Mayfield >

More sunny days in London ahead!

Strava Smackdown Series begins

Eric Schlange
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0
Strava Smackdown Series begins

Strava Smackdown Series begins

The Strava Smackdown Series p/b Zwift Insider is a new weekly competition where riders compete for fastest time on a specific Zwift segment, winning nothing more than bragging rights. (We’ll probably have some prizes in future rounds.) It’s a way to inject a little competition into your Zwift sessions, without taking on an entire race or committing to a particular group ride time.

This week’s competition is on the Hilly KOM Forward segment. It’s a short climb, so hit it hard! You can see all future segment details on the league homepage.

We will announce the men’s and women’s top 3 podium here on Zwift Insider at the end of each week’s competition.

How to Enter

Entry is easy–the ride is the hard part!

Simply join the Zwift Insider Strava Smackdown league on Strava Leagues.

Click to join >

Then ride the Hilly KOM forward segment and upload your ride to Strava. (Hint: the easiest way to ride that segment is to choose the “Hilly” route on Watopia. The Figure 8 route will get you there as well.)

Leaderboard

Your segment time will be automatically shown on Strava Leagues after you save a Zwift session containing the Hilly KOM Forward segment to Strava. You’ll know exactly where you stand, so you can make another attempt if needed!

View Round 1 Leaderboard 

Rules

  • You can ride any bike, use powerups, draft in a race–whatever gets you the fastest time without cheating.
  • Each week’s round begins on Monday and runs through Sunday, UTC.
  • Multiple attempts are allowed.
  • Podium finishers will be verified using their Strava history, so if you’re on a setup which is over-reporting power you will be disqualified.

Recommendations

Good luck everyone! Ride on!

Trek Mission announced

Eric Schlange
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4
Trek Mission announced
ZwiftHQ has rolled out a new mission which is open to all Zwifters. During the mission Zwifters get to sport a sweet Trek pro kit and ride a shiny new Trek Madone (which is the level 20 unlock).

How to Enter

To begin the mission, select it from the Zwift course selection screen and agree to the terms. To complete the mission and be entered into the prize drawing you must ride 50km (31 miles) in one session. You can complete the mission once for each world (Watopia, London, and Richmond). Each completion=one entry into the drawing.

Deadline

Participants must complete the mission before 23:59 (UTC) on February 28th.

Prizes

Three lucky winners will be selected to win a Trek Segafredo Pro Team jersey signed by the team. Winners will be drawn on March 5th. Everyone who completes the mission unlocks the “Trek Training Kit” (shown below) which is a nice change from past missions where you didn’t get anything to keep long-term after completing the mission.

Zwift iOS version 1.0.16361 released

Eric Schlange
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0
Zwift iOS version 1.0.16361 released

Zwift iOS version 1.0.16361 released

A Zwift iOS update was pushed last night, bringing some new features and stability fixes to the platform which will be released for PC/Mac soon.

According to game master Jon Mayfield, the corresponding PC/Mac update should drop in the next week. ZwiftHQ wanted to get the iOS update out quickly because it addresses some stability issues from the previous release.

Here’s a quick rundown of what this update includes:

  • Workout Adjustments: just tap the screen and use the FTP adjustment arrows to adjust workout intensity up or down by 10%. I’m happy to see this, because I’ve had many days where I just couldn’t hold the wattage I had set up–now I can reduce it a bit but still keep going, instead of skipping entire blocks.
  • Tire size selector

    New tire size selector available if using a speed sensor. Great for kids or 650c wheels. Previously if your wheel was smaller than a standard 700c you were “cheating” since the Zwift assumed all speed sensor users were on 700c wheels. Now you may select your wheel size. This doesn’t apply to smart trainer and power meter users, of course.

  • Training Stress Score (TSS) is now calculated and shown after a workout. TSS is a popular metric used to track cumulative training stress. Created by the folks at Training Peaks, Zwift has received permission to use the TSS term in game. Learn more about TSS here >
  • Segment times are now always visible to help track your progress. I’m not sure what this means exactly, since I haven’t seen anything different in game yet.
  • Event duration and pace information displayed while waiting in an event paddock. A nice remember as you spin and wait for your ride to begin.
  • Trek Mission added: read details here >
  • Fixed crash related to Wahoo ANT dongle
  • Improved rider behavior to reduce “wild” riders
  • Stability improvements

Featured workout: 3+2 and 2+1s

Rob Manning
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0
Featured workout: 3+2 and 2+1s

Featured workout: 3+2 and 2+1s

Most racers and high-performance cyclists think of the base period as ‘endurance’ time. They do hours of zone 2 and 3 miles on the trainer to build an ‘aerobic base’ to prepare them for the coming high-intensity workouts. The problem is, your body gets good at what you train it to be good at. If you train it to be good at doing zone 2 and zone 3 intensity, it will be good at that. It won’t be very good at doing anything else.

In order to mix it up, I like to do a day of higher intensity work during the week. It keeps your body on its toes and adds additional benefits to your training. In fact, high-intensity interval training creates many of the same adaptations as low intensity, high volume training. That’s right, doing that short, super hard workout gives you similar benefits as that 2 hour zone 3 workout (Read more here…)

Workout Summary

Ride it once and you’ll see why this is a workout I like to include every so often when I need to get my butt kicked for an hour. In 58 minutes of work, you should be cranking out around 93 training stress score points. For those of you who track your power and training stress, you’ll know what this means. For those who don’t, let me say this: it’s hard. Really hard.

As shown above, this workout consists of a fairly standard warmup and cooldown, with three sets of this in between:

  • 3 minutes @ 105%, 1 minute @ 125%, 1 minute @ 150%
  • 3 minute rest @ 75%
  • 2 minutes @ 125%, 30s @ 150%, 30s @ 175%
  • 5 minute rest @ 75%

Get Training!

To use this custom workout file, click the link below and save the .zwo file to your computer’s /Documents/Zwift/Workouts directory. Now when you start up Zwift you will see this workout (called “3+2 and 2+1s”) under the Custom Workouts category in the workout picker.

Download Workout

I use a high intensity, short duration workout like this once per week to shake up my training and keep me interested. If you’ve never done a high intensity day during your base period before, start with one day every 10 calendar days and increase it to a max of one per week.

Once you do try it, post a comment and let me know what you think!

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