Lysty Lockdown Zwift rides

[Plankosaurus]

With the corona lockdowns well and truly in place now, we’re looking at ways to keep our riders active and engaged. One of the ways we’ll be attempting to do this is to run a series of regular rides and races on ZWIFT.

What is Zwift?
Zwift is an online riding ‘Game’ for lack of a better word. You set up a stationary trainer, synchronise it with your PC or Tablet, and ride, train, and race in a virtual world online with thousands of other riders from around the world. I’d go on, but their promo video does a much better job of explaining it
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBXnYW6yX_Q

How do you get started?
This is a tricky one with more than one answer depending on what you want to achieve and how much you want to spend. Basically you’ll need a few different components:

Zwift account – Head on over to https://zwift.com/feed and sign up for an account. They’re currently doing a 7 day free trial for adults, and kids accounts are now completely free with no limits

Bike – this will be a personal preference thing, as almost anything will do provided it fits your trainer. Your $15000 road bike will work, as will that $40 garage sale find, there are trainers that will fit your mountain bike too so you can feel more at home

Stationary Trainer – there are a multitude of options out there, and I’ve only used a couple of them personally. A ‘smart’ trainer is going to be the weapon of choice for a more realistic feel, they transmit power figures to zwift, but also receive gradient and speed data back so they can adjust the resistance automagically for you. They are expensive though so you may want to look at a ‘dumb’ trainer.

A dumb trainer just means that there is no data being received back from zwift so they won’t adjust resistance for you. I use a direct drive trainer with an inbuilt power meter that transmits to zwift, but you can use just about any dumb trainer on the market if you use a power meter or speed/cadence meter that transmits in ant+ and/or Bluetooth. (see below low cost option on ebay)
https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Bryton-Bike-Part-CADENCE-SPEED-Dual-Sensor-ANT-V2/254545710229?hash=item3b441b4c95:g:s7MAAOSw5gZcqtVc

Whatever you decide to get, make sure it fits your bike!

Device – I’ll assume if you’re reading this that you have access to at least some form of electronic device. Zwift is multi platform so luckily there is a few ways to get rolling. It will run on PC, Mac, Android and IOS. I use an old laptop, but your mobile phone will usually do the job too. You will need to make sure that Zwift is compatible with the device first, as it won’t work with some older devices, and you’ll also need to make sure you have the required receiver to your trainer setup (an ant+ or Bluetooth receiver. See below for more ebay links)
https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Anself-ANT-USB-Dongle-Mini-USB-Stick-Adapter-for-Garmin-Sunnto-Zwift-Perf/183363516130?hash=item2ab15136e2:g:ybgAAOSwD9dbaBaV
https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/TP-Link-UB400-Mini-Bluetooth-USB-Adapter/264407033350?epid=7030384827&hash=item3d8fe32606:g:f1UAAOSwUsxdTUy~

Fan – This one can be overlooked by many but it is essential! I use a big industrial fan and it only just manages to keep the sweat minimal on a moderate day. Anything will be better than nothing though, a basic budget pedestal fan will still feel heavenly in the middle of a good session.

Riding Zwift
Once you’re all set up, start hitting the road! There’s a lot to choose from which can be a little overwhelming at first, so it might pay to just head out on an easy route and get a feel for it. Tail another rider or try to hold a group and get a feel for drafting and coasting down hills. Have a browse through the events, workouts, and training plans – believe me these things can make all the difference to keeping you interested. Then jump to our LDTR social pages and look out for organised club rides to join.


Hope to see you out there!

[Plankosaurus]

Riding with us

We'll be periodically posting official rides on social media, but there will be more riding than what is being posted. at this stage, i'll be looking to run 2 rides a week, and anyone is free to join them.

To get involved with the LDTR rides, first make sure your own username in zwift has LDTR in it somewhere. that way i can identify you and invite you to rides.

Next, search for me in zwift and follow me - Plankosaurus {LDTR}

Once you have LDTR in your username and have me followed in zwift, i'll be sure to keep inviting you to all the events i run. there's no pressure to get to them all, and they'll all be for a bit of fun and fitness so anyone can join in.

Ride Types

there's going to be 3 main types of rides i'll be running, possibly with some variations for fun, but we'll see how we go

Training rides and workouts - I'll be running these during the week, most likely on wednesday evenings (because i'm still working). these will be under an hour, and will use the "no Drop" feature which means the group will stay together regardless of how much effort you put in. you can choose to just cruise through and enjoy the virtual scenery, or you can select the same workout as me, or you can choose your own favorite workout.

Social Epic rides- I'll run these on saturday mornings, possibly switching between these and racing. I'll be trying to make them at least 1.5hr long and tackle some of zwifts tougher routes. they'll also be "no drop" rides too so the whole group can share the fun. If you have a suggestion for a route, feel free to let me know, i've pretty much seen it all on zwift so happy to take you somewhere you've been meaning to visit.

Racing - I'll start running these on saturday mornings as an alternative to the epic rides. they wont be super serious races, but we may have a prize or two available if they become popular enough. they'll obviously be free to enter and no MTBA insurance needed either (try not to fall off your trainer). the no drop feature will be turned off for these, its every man, woman, and child for themselves

* Fox and hounds - I'll take a head start of 5min, then everyone has to work together to catch me. winner is whoever catches me first
* Pacman - The group gets a 5min head start to form a solid pace, then i give chase and see how many i can catch. winner is the furtherest in front or last caught
* Randomizer - We all go off together, and i'll speed up and slow down according to a zwift workout no-one can see but me. winner is the rider closest to me at the finish
* Flat out - Just a race, a plain old bornig old free-for-all

Hit me up if you have any other race ideas!

[Plankosaurus]

A couple of pics from our first "test" ride (test ride because i got the date crossed up  )

[Plankosaurus]

Our next online Zwift social ride will be on Saturday 2/5/2020 at 10:00am!
You’ll need to search for our Zwift ride leader Dale - Plankosaurus {LDTR}) and follow him. Next add {LDTR} to the end of your username. Once you’re following Dale, He’ll be able to identify the LDTR riders add you to this event and the other events we start doing (We’re hoping to run at least 2 a week and swap between social, training, and race events).

This ride will be the Watopia route “Muir and the Mountain”. It’s got some solid climbing in it, but Zwift glue will be enabled so the group will stay together regardless of how fast you are. And due to the wonders of modern technology, you can simply step off your bike and be magically transported home if it gets a bit much for you 😉

See the Forums for more in depth details - https://www.forum.lysterfieldmtb.com/index.php?topic=2351.0

Looking forward to seeing you all out there!


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Also wednesday training rides are in full swing too. i wont be advertising them, but if you have LDTR in your zwift username i'll keep on inviting you

[Plankosaurus]

Little video on budget zwift setups:

https://youtu.be/Eg0IDDmSStw

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