congratulations. same as me just graduated from B with 4.06 w/kg hahaha I'm a low A now but excited as well. coming from D cat 1.5 years ago I just celebrate this achievement after riding almost everyday zwift and IRL.
Nice work!! It's not gonna be easy in A Cat but we just gotta keep at it and just like how B Cat at first was hard we eventually got better, stronger and faster!!!
It's been cool seeing you get stronger and faster. With all due respect, in my opinion you have been an capable of 4+ wkg for a while now. Racing B cat on flat routes allows for low watt drafting and coasting lowering the average watts for the race. When I was in B cat I made the mistake of chasing breaks and doing ITT and that pushed me into A cat long before I felt ready. Your zwift Strava segments have been equal to or faster than mine for months, only recently have I seen you do races that have required 20+ minute hard efforts and you showed how strong you've become and now you're an A! Welcome. You'll do fine.
Yeah I know what you mean! Finally getting some longer races with lots of climbing is fully unleashing all that I got inside! I'm trying to be more selective with my races always looking for longer distances with climbing as those are my preferred routes! Still got lots of work to do but going to keep working and grinding as hard as I can!
I just finished my workout and now seeing this relaxing on my couch I feel I need to go back and do it again 3 times :). Honestly, amazing effort going soo deep! It paid off!!! It's a great feeling to see goals accomplished. good luck!!
Congratulations for the significant improvement in power and heart rate effort. After all those biking days and little or no rest, it would be interesting to know your HRV. Thanks
Thanks!! I've been looking at that Whoop strap but the month subscription kinda kills it for me. Sucks because I'm a data nerd and like that kinda stuff too!
Yeah I hear you! I’m ready to get to work and get stronger so I’m somewhat competitive in A Cat. Gonna have to look for mass cat starts so I’m not left in the dust and in no man’s land!!
I knew this day would come- graduation day! Dude, you've made INCREDIBLE progress and you seem to just be getting stronger! You might be racing in that Premier League/reppin' Canada a lot sooner than you think- truly amazing stuff and awesome effort! 😎⚡
Congrats on the upgrade Erik! 4.4w/kg for 20 minutes is solid. If you can complement that with some decent 1m and 5m efforts you will go a long way in A grade. A grade is completely unpredictable so looking forward to the videos. Some days you tootle around at 3.6 w/kg waiting for the sprint finish and other days people are tearing your legs off from the 1km mark.
I enjoy your channel. Very human, don't take yourself too seriously, and you talk about family/workout time balance. A reminder from Greg Lemond, 3X Tour De France winner: (About training) "You should always feel like you could have done more"
Great job @dontgetdroppedcycling . You need to do a video of you riding this year, progress and then and end of the year ride and make one last video of 2021 compilation.
To be honest it’s nothing special. I pretty much eat one big meal a day (dinner) and even that isn’t too spectacular. After this Alpe race I had my afternoon coffee and lots of water. For dinner I had noodles in soup with dumplings. Today I had my usual morning and afternoon coffee and dinner some homemade hamburgers with onion rings and wedges. I don’t watch what I eat too much, more so the amount that I eat. Eating one big meal a day helps me control the intake so that I don’t become 200+lbs again!! If I have a big hard race like the Alpe I might consume some carbs before hand and before this race I just had a naan bread “pizza” with salami and cheese. Otherwise all other standard races I do fasted. Feel free to ask more question but again, nothing crazy here!
Never forget! Now I’ll be looking for mass category starts so we all can still race together!!! … and when I get dropped I still have a group to race with 🤣
Well done mate..I did it first time last weekend…took it pretty easy as I wasn’t sure how it would play out and only wanted the climbing metres for Tron. Did 1:03 which for me as a sprinter is ok
Straight into Cat A! 😂 Man just felt tired from watching this! You went deeeeep And you got me inspired to try to go for a under 1h Alp. (PB is 01h07m)
YOU GOT THIS!!! I want you to smash it and let me know when you do!!! Put yourself in the hurt locker till you get to the top! I’m already super pumped and excited for you to get your goal!
Amazing effort! Trust me, you'll enjoy the A's so much more than the B's. You don't have to worry if someone is going too many watts for the category, you just race everyone!
Nice power! You are making crazy progress ... pretty soon you'll have you mind set on 40 mins 😜. I'd like to join you the next time you race up this 🙂🙂
Oh man, maybe if I hold onto your wheel as long as possible… but I might explode and die somewhere in the middle 🤣 Not entirely sure I want to do this one again anytime soon but if something pops up in my wheelhouse when I’m free I’ll give you a heads up!! Sunny actually ended up in this race as well!!
I think zwift is doing the usual 95% of 20min for FTP and underestimating in this case since your effort was much longer. You did something like 305-306w for 45-46min. With an effort that long I think its fair to take the avg power as your FTP without any or at least minimal reduction. I think you're already above the 300w FTP mark.
Yeah I think if I do a legit FPT test I can bust down that 300w door! But again, that is real hurt and the last time I did a real FPT test I was really dead and out of commission for pretty much the whole day 🤣
@@DontGetDroppedCycling A 45min maximal effort, if you can pace it right, is a better FTP estimate than a ramp or traditional 20min test (due to assumptions made to estimate FTP from Max Aerobic Power or the relationship between 20min power and 40-70min power.) I started doing zwift climbing races up AdZ or VenTop or 40k TTs as my FTP tests as they take 40-70min and help with the motivation to dig deep. I also look at power / sensations 30+min in, I should feel like I'm going real hard and be happy to stop, but i can keep going for a while at the same power and also that I cannot go any harder.
First off I want to thank google translate for helping me out with this comment and a big thank you to @سلطان الشلاحي for watching!! The journey isn't over... lots more to come!!
Go to gel is SIS (Science in Sport). If it’s a big boy ride like when I did a double century I go for Maurten Gel 100. Go to hydration is Biosteel. Go to carb drink that I’ve had so far is Nuun Endurance. I would suggest Maurten Drink 160 as well in terms of effectiveness but I’m not a big fan of the taste. Let me know if you have any other question and thanks for watching!
Great video! I watched a few vids and subscribed to you. Impressive power. I have the same weight and height as you. What was your first ftp ever en how long ago? And your age? Thank you
I started cycling March 2020 when I began working from home. Got Zwift September 2020 and first FTP test was 182w. Started racing and got bumped to B Cat, got destroyed, did some training and January 2021 my FTP was 262w. Then just went crazy this past year racing almost daily during the winter and fall months and riding outdoor daily in the spring and summer months. 36 yrs old. Thanks for watching and subscribing!!
Yeah the chip is out of this world so far. I spoiled myself during my birthday with it and obvious got more computer then I actually needed but I could not be happier so far with it. I can run Zwift with basically no fans and if it does turn on they’re at idle (1500rpm). I also screen record at the same time for these videos. Editing is a breeze and exporting an hour long video takes about 10min with the fans never turning on at all! Can do all of this on one battery charge if I really felt like it as well. Just waiting for the day Zwift is optimized for M1 and it’ll run even better. Should be able to take advantage of all the GPU cores and give me the best shadow resolution that I’ve seen some gaming PCs output. (Ie shadows on your avatar and bike)
@@DontGetDroppedCycling I'm on the same TT, have you ever done advanced factory spindown? I don't get power fluctuations like you do. I do some which is normal, but not like 1-1.5 w/kg
@@DontGetDroppedCycling dude, I don't want to take anything away from you but, I just checked your rides on zwift power and things don't add up... Something is not right...
congratulations. same as me just graduated from B with 4.06 w/kg hahaha I'm a low A now but excited as well. coming from D cat 1.5 years ago I just celebrate this achievement after riding almost everyday zwift and IRL.
Nice work!! It's not gonna be easy in A Cat but we just gotta keep at it and just like how B Cat at first was hard we eventually got better, stronger and faster!!!
Way to go!!!
This is a proper graduation to A. Congrats. Look how far you have come from your first ride on the Alpe.
Time to adjust the goals and get back to work! 💪🏽
It's been cool seeing you get stronger and faster. With all due respect, in my opinion you have been an capable of 4+ wkg for a while now. Racing B cat on flat routes allows for low watt drafting and coasting lowering the average watts for the race. When I was in B cat I made the mistake of chasing breaks and doing ITT and that pushed me into A cat long before I felt ready. Your zwift Strava segments have been equal to or faster than mine for months, only recently have I seen you do races that have required 20+ minute hard efforts and you showed how strong you've become and now you're an A! Welcome. You'll do fine.
Yeah I know what you mean! Finally getting some longer races with lots of climbing is fully unleashing all that I got inside! I'm trying to be more selective with my races always looking for longer distances with climbing as those are my preferred routes! Still got lots of work to do but going to keep working and grinding as hard as I can!
Epic effort, and fun to see your progress up the Alpe du Zwift. Well deserved with a new FTP. Looking forward to seeing your first cat A race.
Back to getting my ass dropped 🤪
I just finished my workout and now seeing this relaxing on my couch I feel I need to go back and do it again 3 times :). Honestly, amazing effort going soo deep! It paid off!!! It's a great feeling to see goals accomplished. good luck!!
Congratulations for the significant improvement in power and heart rate effort. After all those biking days and little or no rest, it would be interesting to know your HRV. Thanks
Thanks!! I've been looking at that Whoop strap but the month subscription kinda kills it for me. Sucks because I'm a data nerd and like that kinda stuff too!
Good effort. I got forced into Cat A last month after a DQ too. It's tough going from a podium every race to finishing in the bottom half of the A's.
Yeah I hear you! I’m ready to get to work and get stronger so I’m somewhat competitive in A Cat. Gonna have to look for mass cat starts so I’m not left in the dust and in no man’s land!!
I knew this day would come- graduation day! Dude, you've made INCREDIBLE progress and you seem to just be getting stronger! You might be racing in that Premier League/reppin' Canada a lot sooner than you think- truly amazing stuff and awesome effort! 😎⚡
Thanks a lot!!! Super motivated to keep getting stronger 💪🏽💪🏽
I knew it wouldn't be long!! said Cat A was coming a few videos ago!! massive congrats mate. hope mum and baby are doing good
Thanks a lot Chris! Family is doing very well. Hope you and yours have a great Holiday season!
Now you are officially a zwift professional. Congrats man
I wouldn't say professional but above average 🤪 Thanks for watching!!
Congrats on the upgrade Erik! 4.4w/kg for 20 minutes is solid. If you can complement that with some decent 1m and 5m efforts you will go a long way in A grade. A grade is completely unpredictable so looking forward to the videos. Some days you tootle around at 3.6 w/kg waiting for the sprint finish and other days people are tearing your legs off from the 1km mark.
Just gotta throw myself deep into the A Cat races and keep improving!!
that is amazing result. around 52 mins. awesome man.
That was epic. The Frenchman really wound the screw at the end, but at least you caught the knackered Brit near the end...
Yeah, he just stepped on the gas to catch the Brit then just kept going and I had nothing left to hold on!
@@DontGetDroppedCycling As a below average cat C rider, I salute your efforts!
I enjoy your channel. Very human, don't take yourself too seriously, and you talk about family/workout time balance. A reminder from Greg Lemond, 3X Tour De France winner: (About training) "You should always feel like you could have done more"
Thanks for watching Tom!
Awesome riding Erik, you are making some crazy progress. I better start working hard if I want to hang around with you in spring.
Just putting in the work to keep up with you guys!!!!
Great job @dontgetdroppedcycling . You need to do a video of you riding this year, progress and then and end of the year ride and make one last video of 2021 compilation.
I’ll see what I can do as it’ll take significantly more time to put something like that together.
Duuuude same music i've been pumping! EXACT.....just IM'd u on another track....not EDM/Trance but solid
Haha cool cool. I’ll check it out!!
Please please please share your nutritional plan with me. Your recovery after all these hard efforts are simply off the charts!! well done
To be honest it’s nothing special. I pretty much eat one big meal a day (dinner) and even that isn’t too spectacular. After this Alpe race I had my afternoon coffee and lots of water. For dinner I had noodles in soup with dumplings. Today I had my usual morning and afternoon coffee and dinner some homemade hamburgers with onion rings and wedges. I don’t watch what I eat too much, more so the amount that I eat. Eating one big meal a day helps me control the intake so that I don’t become 200+lbs again!!
If I have a big hard race like the Alpe I might consume some carbs before hand and before this race I just had a naan bread “pizza” with salami and cheese.
Otherwise all other standard races I do fasted.
Feel free to ask more question but again, nothing crazy here!
Absolutely 'knackered' just watching you! Superb effort and always nice to smash a PB. Well done!
Thanks!!
Just watched the video and I am so happy for you
Don’t forget about the little people 😆
Never forget! Now I’ll be looking for mass category starts so we all can still race together!!!
… and when I get dropped I still have a group to race with 🤣
Wow bro, you can suffer. Compliments! That's a skill as well.
Haha yuppppp the more you can stand the suffering the stronger you’ll get! The suffering is legit in A Cat 😭
Well done mate..I did it first time last weekend…took it pretty easy as I wasn’t sure how it would play out and only wanted the climbing metres for Tron. Did 1:03 which for me as a sprinter is ok
If you got 1h3min on your first crack taking it "pretty" easy you should EASLY smash 1hr on your next time up!!
Congratulations on the upgrade.
Thanks!!
You gotta do this again but better! 🎉🎉🎉🎉
Ya I still wanna break 45min!
Great effort I went up to A cat on the Alpe and have regretted it ever since! LOL
😂
Straight into Cat A! 😂
Man just felt tired from watching this! You went deeeeep
And you got me inspired to try to go for a under 1h Alp. (PB is 01h07m)
YOU GOT THIS!!! I want you to smash it and let me know when you do!!! Put yourself in the hurt locker till you get to the top! I’m already super pumped and excited for you to get your goal!
Dude, savage effort. Cogratulations!
Thanks!!
Well done!! I’m very impressed
Thanks!!
next level performance dude!
Amazing effort! Trust me, you'll enjoy the A's so much more than the B's. You don't have to worry if someone is going too many watts for the category, you just race everyone!
I just try to survive now!!!
@@DontGetDroppedCycling for now ;)
Nice power! You are making crazy progress ... pretty soon you'll have you mind set on 40 mins 😜. I'd like to join you the next time you race up this 🙂🙂
Oh man, maybe if I hold onto your wheel as long as possible… but I might explode and die somewhere in the middle 🤣 Not entirely sure I want to do this one again anytime soon but if something pops up in my wheelhouse when I’m free I’ll give you a heads up!! Sunny actually ended up in this race as well!!
Solid effort!
👊🏽
awesome riding! congrats!!👍
Thanks!!!
I think zwift is doing the usual 95% of 20min for FTP and underestimating in this case since your effort was much longer. You did something like 305-306w for 45-46min. With an effort that long I think its fair to take the avg power as your FTP without any or at least minimal reduction. I think you're already above the 300w FTP mark.
Yeah I think if I do a legit FPT test I can bust down that 300w door! But again, that is real hurt and the last time I did a real FPT test I was really dead and out of commission for pretty much the whole day 🤣
@@DontGetDroppedCycling A 45min maximal effort, if you can pace it right, is a better FTP estimate than a ramp or traditional 20min test (due to assumptions made to estimate FTP from Max Aerobic Power or the relationship between 20min power and 40-70min power.) I started doing zwift climbing races up AdZ or VenTop or 40k TTs as my FTP tests as they take 40-70min and help with the motivation to dig deep. I also look at power / sensations 30+min in, I should feel like I'm going real hard and be happy to stop, but i can keep going for a while at the same power and also that I cannot go any harder.
Brilliant time and effort!
Thanks!!
Dad strength is a thing.
I'll take it! I guess I just gained a little extra dad strength with the second one! No more for me though.... LOL
أحسنت وجهد كبير قمته به استمر لديك المزيد ⚡️⚡️⚡️
First off I want to thank google translate for helping me out with this comment and a big thank you to @سلطان الشلاحي for watching!! The journey isn't over... lots more to come!!
DAAAAAAAAAAAAANG!
Epic! Chapeau!
Big boy watts
Gonna still keep grinding and working for even more BIG BOY WATTS!! 💪🏽
Wauw !!!!! clap,clap, clap
Awesome kiddo...
Thanks for calling me a kid!
Crazy shit!!! Awesome! You mind me asking, what trainer difficulty do you have set? Just wanna be able to appreciate the effort :) thanks
I’m roughly around 70% with 53/39 crank and 11/30 cassette. Thanks for watching!
Wow! Thanks for the quick reply, really appreciate it. Congrats again, really enjoy you videos…SUBSCRIBED💪🏻
No problem at all! Thanks again!!
Awesome PR!
Thanks!!
Sector stats? Is this new? Cool!
Not new but only on the Alpe I believe.
Hey Erik, great ride! What were your recommendations for gels and drinks? You mentioned it earlier on in the video. Thanks! :)
Go to gel is SIS (Science in Sport). If it’s a big boy ride like when I did a double century I go for Maurten Gel 100.
Go to hydration is Biosteel.
Go to carb drink that I’ve had so far is Nuun Endurance. I would suggest Maurten Drink 160 as well in terms of effectiveness but I’m not a big fan of the taste.
Let me know if you have any other question and thanks for watching!
@@DontGetDroppedCycling thanks man! Super helpful. And congrats on getting into A! :)
No problem at all and thanks a lot!!! RIDE ON!!
Great video! I watched a few vids and subscribed to you. Impressive power. I have the same weight and height as you. What was your first ftp ever en how long ago? And your age? Thank you
I started cycling March 2020 when I began working from home. Got Zwift September 2020 and first FTP test was 182w. Started racing and got bumped to B Cat, got destroyed, did some training and January 2021 my FTP was 262w. Then just went crazy this past year racing almost daily during the winter and fall months and riding outdoor daily in the spring and summer months. 36 yrs old. Thanks for watching and subscribing!!
This is a race or just a PR attempt? It looked like you chased your teammate down.. 😮
It's always a race first 🤣 I also cannot remember what when down in this one as it happened a long time ago!
pretty good kid...keep trying!
#neverstop
Good effort, what are you running zwift on?
Looks like nice quality
2020 16” MacBook Pro with M1 Pro chip.
That M1 chip is 👌🏻hoping it will be put in the Apple TV at some point,
Yeah the chip is out of this world so far. I spoiled myself during my birthday with it and obvious got more computer then I actually needed but I could not be happier so far with it.
I can run Zwift with basically no fans and if it does turn on they’re at idle (1500rpm). I also screen record at the same time for these videos. Editing is a breeze and exporting an hour long video takes about 10min with the fans never turning on at all! Can do all of this on one battery charge if I really felt like it as well.
Just waiting for the day Zwift is optimized for M1 and it’ll run even better. Should be able to take advantage of all the GPU cores and give me the best shadow resolution that I’ve seen some gaming PCs output. (Ie shadows on your avatar and bike)
What is your TT? If it's direct drive then you shouldn't have such a big power fluctuations...
I’m on a Kickr Core with trainer difficulty at 70%. 53/39 crank and 11/30 cassette.
@@DontGetDroppedCycling I'm on the same TT, have you ever done advanced factory spindown? I don't get power fluctuations like you do. I do some which is normal, but not like 1-1.5 w/kg
I do a spin down once a week.
@@DontGetDroppedCycling dude, I don't want to take anything away from you but, I just checked your rides on zwift power and things don't add up... Something is not right...
No comment on your fitness but there is something very wrong with your trainer, power output shouldn't be fluctuating that wildly.
Trainer and Pedals calibrated weekly and pretty close to each other as well via duals when I check up on them. 🤷🏻♂️
Bruuuuuuuuh
PEAK C-19 fitness LOLOLOLOLOLOL
I totally forgot you were Category A 🤯🤯🤯
@GrannyG456 it was no fun! Glad Zwift changed the thresholds 😆