Back to racing today, and I was glad to get a final chance to take part in some of the Flat Is Fast races. However, Flat is perhaps not so important anymore, as I’ve found a way to level the playing field big time. More on that in a second.
I have missed out on the Stages 3 and 4 of the Flat is Fast series due to recovering from knee pain. As such I have to say I was a little more apprehensive than usual going into today’s races.
However, being the final week of the series, it seems now that the two stage race is the normal way we end, and so I knew that whilst these races today would be hard, they would also be over very quickly.
The challenge today – pre-race – was figuring out how hard to push in order to properly pace myself. In the end though, I kinda left things too late and didn’t get chance to dive into any stats and figures, so decided I’d just wing it and stick with the bunch for as long as possible.
But not before I made a crucial change to my setup.
I don’t often read the Zwift subreddit, but I was browsing around there late one night earlier this week and came across that little tidbit from PizzaBaby710 and figured that I really ought to at least try out a race where I switched up from 100% trainer difficulty.
So that’s the change I made today.
During my pre-race warm up I messed around with the trainer difficulty setting. At 0% it was really far too spinny. Around 95 RPM the best I could hit was around 190w.
After a little adjusting I found the sweet spot was around 15-20% for me. At that range I was able to spin at 95 RPM and hit ~240w fairly consistently in a middle gear, and then I’d have some leeway to go harder or easier if needed.
The first race today was Mech Island Loop. At just 4km, this one would be frantic. But there is a little climb in there – it’s not much, just a gradual little riser flagged on Strava as the Mech Isle Climb CW – 0.71km @ 2.9% for 21m.
That would be the acid test.
The truth is that the trainer difficulty setting doesn’t change how difficult it is to generate watts. That stays constant. What it effectively does is flatten out the track.
If you think about how workouts feel – where you can’t “feel” the gradient – it’s a bit like that. You pedal at 95 RPM, generate your 240w, and if you hit a hill, you don’t have to change gears (quite so much), and so you can be massively more consistent.
And equally on the down hills you can keep up the same cadence for the same wattage.
I can’t work out whether it levels the playing field entirely, or feels like cheating. But it seems like 90% of the other racers are setup this way, so it’s silly not to do so yourself.
Now, I don’t know if it was because I made the change, because I was fresh, or what, but I absolutely smashed it on this race.
I know it was a short one. But I got a top 10 finish (according to Zwift Power). I think that’s my best ever race performance.
Things were definitely smoother, and I’d argue easier.
Fairer? Hmm, I’m not sure. I’d really rather everyone had to ride at 100%, truth be told. But hey, it’s a game and not everyone’s hardware is equal.
So yeah, a really strong ride on this one. Very happy with it.
Of course I’d absolutely cooked myself, so Stage 5b was a little less impressive…