I can second this…. I recently catted up to C unexpectedly (luckily it wasn’t in a ZRL race) Congratulations @nina Now I can see you in races again. I’m the one way off the back. haha
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This is awesome Nina, I was actually going to post here when I saw your race results that you were due for an upgrade, because these D races are no longer challenging you enough!!! Congrats!!
As someone who also upgraded at the start of this round, I am happy with the new challenge. The only time anyone is allowed to be disappointed after a race is if they did not give their absolute best on the day. Not their best compared to their own prior performances and of course, not compared to anyone else. It’s all about finishing the race knowing you gave everything you had that day because each day is different.
I felt like s**t today and everything felt harder. My HR was also not going down as much as usual during the short recoveries. And all this after having had 3 days off the bike and one opener day yesterday, when I felt fabulous. I am not reading too much into it- no point! I know I am very consistent with my training. So, I gave my absolute all today. 5 min into the race and my HR shot up to 190 bpms (good thing I wasn’t looking), so the fact that I stayed with the lead group until the second lap is a win for me. I was then in the chase group, and I was pleasantly surprised we caught the lead group. Then the elastic snapped again the 3rd time up the segments and I got dropped with a group of riders. We stayed together and one rider was trying to drop everyone else, but I kept following. The 2 of us dropped everyone else in our group and then it was the 2 of us. I noticed she started to struggle, so I attacked on the last timed segment and after catching my breath, and when I saw a 4 second gap, I hammered the downhill (best place to drop people is when the speed goes from slow to fast!) and ended up getting a bigger gap with 2km to the finish.
So for someone looking at my placement (21st), it won’t look impressive at all. But that doesn’t matter. I had lots of personal wins today, including a 3 min power PR.
That’s the way to approach these Zwift races, especially when you are at the lower end of the cat.
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Congratulations everyone! I sat out this race. I have sinus pressure and thought it better to be safe then stress myself. I finally feel like I’m on an upswing!
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Race today was a TT after I lost the front group and stayed by myself ahead of the next group for most of the race. So barely a race within the race for me, and more of a paced effort.
I am glad the ZRL “Climbing Round” is over. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy racing ZRL. I hope Zwift will chose a variety of courses for future seasons. Otherwise the races will keep favoring one or two rider types.
I might jump on the Fearless crits coming up, some of the Zwift Games and some of the Iceni races next.
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I did the race yesterday. It was brutal. I stayed with the front pack for the race. That hill
Was intense. I followed @vivian.a.workman ’s recommendations. Tried to spin up the top of the hills for momentum like we used to do in WOs.
I couldn’t super tuck down the hill because the women I was riding with were heavier than me so I was pushing to stay in their draft. I was 3/4 til the end when the group behind me surged. I pushed as hard as I could at that point and got 6th. My legs were shaking by the end.
My OURA said I had the most deep sleep and REM sleep in quite a while and intervals ICU said my FTP went up 2 watts.
I could have ridden my bike to work today but they said there might be black ice. That was enough for me to say no. I really didn’t want to spin pedal today!
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I really enjoyed this round of ZRL. I had to skip last week because I was sick but had my best result on the last race where I finished 7th.
I’ve noticed that I can really sustain higher power for much longer since we started incorporating longer tempo intervals in our workouts!
With the longer break in ZRL, I’m planning to race the Iceni series, starting March 3rd.
Racing on zwift this winter has kept me motivated to train and I’m hoping to do longer MTB races this year.
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Honestly I don’t think it’s all Zwift. Martin tends to say it’s Zwift when people fuss. When there was the Elite Premier League I know it was all Charlie at Zwift but now that there’s no Premier I have to think it’s not 100% Zwift controlled.
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Anyone planning on joining the Zwift Games races? I think I’ll do one tomorrow, as it’s Tuesday! I’ll join the women’s only race.
Not looking forward to next round of ZRL as much, since I upgraded to C (and was blocked from finishing the last race of round 2!!!), so that means it’s back to being a midlist rider again, I guess. Even if I end up in development C-cat, next season is sprint-focused, and that’s one area that really is an achilles heel of mine 
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All areas are trainable, meaning, we can all improve our weaknesses. Having said that, we will always be strongest in the areas that align with our physiology. It sounds obvious, but it’s always good to keep in perspective. Not to give up, but to continue working to improve but without feeling defeated. The last ZRL round was a bit of a soul sucker for me with all the climbs, that’s why I am excited to do the Fearless Crits tomorrow and next week.
On the topic of working on our weaknesses, the Tempo zone range has been a weakness of mine for as long as I can remember. Last year I spent the outdoor season focusing heavily on that zone, and am continuing to do so this year. Like @Covi I am also seeing a big difference.
I might jump on some Zwift Games too after next week.
I wish ZRL would move to ZRS as opposed to Cats. I am curious to know what you all think, but from my perspective, I am better matched with the field when the races are based on ZRS. Yesterday I did a Tiny race with the A Cat equivalent of ZRS and I won (the woman finished first in my field had impossible numbers and is not on ZP). Meanwhile I am suffering to hold mid pack in B Cat races…
I think the vELO score is much better than the Zwift scores/cats.
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Have the routes for the next ZRL round been released?
I did the zwift games stage 1 race today. Though it was a short race, I was challenged. I came in top half of the field but 8th on ZP as I assume not everyone in the race has ZP. I didn’t know, until now, that there were two categories to choose from based on your racing score. I will try the other category next time. It was a challenging 30 minutes. I did lose the front pack at the first climb but was able to trade pulls with 2 others for the rest of the race. They kept me in the game. I was very thankful.
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@janesimmonds I don’t think so. Maybe there was mention somewhere about the courses being more sprint oriented?
Great racing @Gossimrr !! That was a solid performance!!
I got my a** handed to me in today’s Fearless Crit race. I was doing really well until the last lap, saving an aero power up for 3 laps. The problem is that there was a racer who was clearly above everyone else in the field, she pretty much took off on the first lap and did over 4 w/kg the whole race and stayed away the whole time. She was part of a team that had 11 other racers in the race…. mind you, this was a field of 17, so 12 were from the same team. They were clearly on Discord, using all kinds of tactics to decimate the field. So although I lasted with them until the last lap, they simply rode away on the last 3rd of the last lap. My HR was already close to 190 bpms at that point! 2 riders (the one who took off and one other) got DQ’d from the Bs.
I did the Fearless crit today and it was a great race for me. There were only 4 of us in the D race which was a bit disappointing. One of the women was a stronger rider than me. But my Coalition riding buddy and I rode hard and covered her attacks and kept the pressure on her on every climb. I attacked hard on the last climb and got a 4 second gap which I managed to hold to the finish for the win and my team mate won the sprint for second. That was the hardest I have ever worked in a race and I suffered for a while afterwards (including being sick!) but I’m super pleased with finally being able to use my sprint power to good effect and digging deep.