VO2sday Micro Races, Week 2: More Times, New Categories

Last week’s launch of the new VO2sday Micro Races was a big success! 371 riders started, making it the biggest race of the day by far. Read the story and watch the video of my race day >

But we’re not stopping there. This week, we head to Makuri Islands for a new set of routes, with a race structure modified to help make the experience the absolute best it can be. Read on for details…

Changes This Week

I’ve made two big changes to the races this week:

• Two more time slots! I’ve added more times based on rider feedback. We now have three time slots to choose from:
  • Zone 1: 11am UTC/7am UT/4am PT (see results on ZwiftPower)
  • Zone 2: 5pm UTC/1pm ET/10am PT (see results on ZwiftPower)
  • Zone 3: 11pm UTC/7pm ET/4pm PT (see results on ZwiftPower)
• Compound Score-based categories: Riders are now grouped based on your compound score, which is a metric Zwift records but nobody knows anything about. 😄 It’s based on your 5-minute power and body weight, computed as (5-min power in W/kg) * (5-min power in W). Example: my 5-minute power best is 359W, and I weigh 84kg. My compound score is (359/84)*(359)=1534. In theory, this should work well for grouping riders into competitive categories. We’ll see how it works this week, and adjust accordingly!
  • A: 1800+
  • B: 1400-1800
  • C: 1100-1400
  • D: 1100 and below

May 12 Race Details and Signup

Here are this week’s courses:

• Neokyo Crit Course (2.75km): a nice flat start
• Castle Crit (2km): time to climb!
• Suki’s Playground (2.75km): another flat one, with a downhill start in fact…
• Valley to Mountaintop (2.4km): ends on a bit of a climb, in the Golden Forest
• Three Village Loop (3km): finishing our series with a slight downhill

Sign up at zwift.com/events/tag/vo2sday/ >

Time-Based GC Results

Final GC winners in each category are crowned based on overall completion time across the 5 races. The leaderboards are available on ZwiftPower:

• Zone 1: 11am UTC/7am UT/4am PT (see results on ZwiftPower)
• Zone 2: 5pm UTC/1pm ET/10am PT (see results on ZwiftPower)
• Zone 3: 11pm UTC/7pm ET/4pm PT (see results on ZwiftPower)

My dream with these races is to make them be time-based, so each race would be (for example) 4 minutes long. This would let us dial in precise VO2 max interval lengths for the races, would ensure that all riders go hard for the same length of time regardless of ability, and (maybe the most fun part of all) set up a unique GC that is based on overall distance covered in the allotted time.

The problem is, ZwiftPower doesn’t support this. So I’m talking to WTRL and a few other community organizers to see if we can pull it off some other way. Stay tuned.

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, with a target completion time of 3-5 minutes, just like a good VO2 max interval
• Recovery time: Races are 10 minutes apart, so a 5-minute race leaves you with 5 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 zMAP 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.
• GC-Based final results: overall rankings are based on your cumulative time across the 5 races (see links above).

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!