I'm sure most of the people reading this probably know what zwift is. Most of you also have probably used zwift in the past or are using it at the moment. Within Zwift you have these little races that don't really mean much. For example, I did a Zwift race the other day that was about 14 indoor miles and I averaged 269 watts. I was farely happy with that. I ended up fourth in the little, "race," in the B group. The B group of course being the group below A. Averaging 270 watts for 45 minutes is pretty hard for most people if I'm Being honest, but is not the main factor in being good at a zwift race. Your weight/power ratio is much more important. Your weight to power ratio is your wattage, divided by your weight in kg. For me, 270 watts would be arounf a 3.7 w/kg.
3.7 w/kg is really good by most standards. it is at the top of the B group, and possibly the bottom of the A group. Unfortunately, 3.7 w/kg is dog shit for 45 minutes when comparing yourself to a pro zwift racer. these can push 5-6 w/kg for over an hour. That is an insane number. lets do a little comparrison to my latest zwift race indevor. I did the last stage of the tour of watopia, which was about an hour and a half and 3,000 feet of climbing. To put it in simpler terms, it was a brutal 1:30. For the race I averaged 240 watts. That would put my w/kg at around 3.2. lets compare this to the front of the race. My dad, who is not a pro but better then I am was at the front of that race. He averaged 256 watts for that entire ride, not much more then me, but he ways 140 pounds. That would put his w/kg at 4/kg. That is a .8 w/ks difference for an 1:30 hours. That is some crazy weight to power ratio, and he is not even a pro.
Now lets compare this to the pros. Lionel sanders, who is not a pro zwifter, but is a pro triathelete tends to do these pro races as training. During rides like those I do not see his w/kg drop below 4, and they tend to get up to 6 w/kg regularly. This is some crazy power output. I cant even imagine being able to do this. I did a race a few days ago that invovled guys like lionel. It was a Zwift racing league pre-ride. I saw that in the A group there was some pro racers, so I bailed and went to the b group. At the start of the race i averaged around 300 watts for 10 minutes. I felt ok, but later realized that was too much. After the first lap, I was about a minute back from those pro guys. 1 minutes is a lot in only 23 minutes. After the second, I was 5 minutes back. I tried to settle in with the 3rd or fourth group, but just could not make it happen. These dudes at the front were pushing incredble power. After my third lap I just said, "screw this. I've been riding for an hour and I have only gone backwards." I ended the ride and went and ate a donut.
The moral of that short story is that it is ok not to be a pro. The reason they are pro is because they are the best, and it is the only thing that they actually do. If you work a 9-5, there is no way in hell you can be as good as these pros, and that's ok. Just keep working hard, because honestly when your only racing yourself, effort is the onlything that matters.
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