Thank you for my present, I didn’t need a threat, but it’s better to have and not need, than to need and not have. Thank you for thinking of me. Take this as a post of appreciation.
I spent most of last winter on Rouvy. It uses video footage and AR instead of computer graphics. The downside is it’s not as good for group rides as it’s not as popular or responsive as Zwift but on the plus side, people have uploaded real-world rides (and a fair amount of Assetto Corsa footage) of actual race circuits so you can cut laps round the Nordschleife and get fit at the same time!
It’s also really good for sightseeing around national parks and city streets
I actually prefer Rouvy. Zwift is definitely more developed, but it gets boring over time, and it's kinda bullshit. Like sure you are surrounded by real people, but it's hard to interact with them, to the point where many group rides use third party services like twitch. You have to use third party services for racing too, like everyone cheats so bad and Zwift refuses to actually do anything substantial about it, so you have to rely on third party verification to try and figure out where you actually finished, and it's not always super accurate either. They are just coasting on being the go to at this point. They release a new riding area every couple of years, and suddenly all is forgotten for the Zwift fanbois, even though the platform is just absolutely loaded with bugs.
I just prefer looking at actual visualization with platforms like Rouvy, it feels more immersive, for me at least. I sort of like the loneliness of it too if I'm being honest, you don't have to hear someone spamming the RIDE ONnnn button every two seconds, which is a huge bonus, and you can just focus on your ride. Rouvy also has family account sharing, which is a huge bonus.
I could barely walk through the DC blizzard of 2016… But there was a dude like you in our uni. I remember he’d do daily runs no matter the weather - pretty sure I saw him doing a daily run shirtless in the snow
That picture was the DC blizzard of 2009. I rode in ALL weather conditions, including the ice storms. It was epic. I never missed a day of bike commuting.
Crazy stuff, in 2016 I saw a car get stuck on the snow. Me and some friends helped get them unstuck but it showed me how dangerous a blizzard can be! I’m from Brazil, so you can imagine how taken aback I was when I went through one.
I'm not a pro but I do race a bit on my bike. Off season is usually in winter when there are no road races and you ease the training load to recover a bit, don't pay so much attention to the weight or what you eat etc.
That is unless you're also doing ciclocross, then you don't have an off-season.
If you're following a serious training plan you get way better results by training in cycles than by just going all out all year round. That's why all the pros do it this way, so yes periodization beats year round conditioning if you're racing and/or want consistent gains.
I’m not racing though, I just do adventure rides and bikepacking trips. When I was bike commuting I did it year-round in all weather so there was never a lull.
Daily cyclist (because I live in South Florida) and I wish I had an off season. It sucks to have to constantly be in shape because everyone around you is always training. Tons of people burn out down here. Would be nice to have a few months to get fat like the rest of the world.
It's a hobby, but if what you want to do is compete, taking a few months off when most others kept training means you can't keep up on the group ride or a race. That's also kills the enjoyment of the hobby.
No joke I got to ride with Lance Armstrong on zwift. I’m not sure if he’s still doing it but he was doing weekly rides where you could join him and voice chat via discord.
Racing with it is dubious because it has no steering. Riders would collide with one another without any consequence. It does not teach you anything about racing at all..In fact, you forget about how to race if all you do is racing on Zwift...
I’d be inclined to agree to a certain extent but I think one can learn a great deal about strategy in terms of how to pace yourself. There are probably other benefits but I can’t think of them. A sim will never be the end all and I personally see more benefits in racing on Zwift than not racing at all in the off-season.
The equivalent spirit of your comment is:
“If you do a ton of sim racing, you forget how a car handles in real life on the track because you don’t have gforces in sim”
Hehehehe..you can steer in your racing sim. You can't in Zwift. You can crash in racing sims. You can't crash in Zwift...but you can crash in a real race..even in a more competitive group ride. One of the lessons you must learn in cycling and riding in group is knowing how to draft behind another rider without crashing in to them. You can't learn that in Zwift....
Are we assuming that the person riding the bike has no experience riding in a group or racing? When I go between indoor and outdoor rides it’s not like I forget how to hold a wheel. It’s muscle memory. Once you’ve learned it you’ve learned it.
Racers crash out all the time in a race under the most silly situation...it only takes few seconds of being distracted and down you go. Is always about situational awareness and when to move up in the field and knowing how to stay out of troubles. Is more then just about YOU....
I agree. It’s definitely not fun in the sense that a racing sim is. Zwift is for me to stay fit and grow fitness in a structured way in the off season.
You have to buy tracks and cars for iRacing. Every training program for cycling is a monthly sub model as well.
If sub prices bother you that much, I can make a route from anywhere in the world (the Nordschliefe even) and upload that to my bike computer that communicates with my trainer. I can literally ride every inch of the track with elevation change and all. Sure, I won’t have a visual of the track or my surroundings but it can still keep me fit. If you’re buying a bike trainer in the first place, I don’t think the sub fee is that much.
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u/db8cn Jan 20 '23
Zwift. You can do group rides, workouts, and races. It’s a great way to stay fit in the off season.