I tried my first Zwift race last night. I entered the C category because I didn't want to go too hard, figured once we get up to speed I could just cruise at z2 and not contest the sprint. What I failed to realize is that they started all the groups together for this one. So, I went super hard to stay with the main bunch, then i realized it was mostly A's and B's, so I eased up and dropped myself from the pack. But then I saw a few C's just sat on, so then i started going harder and joined a chase group, because why not. Seems weird that the winner of the C group can just sit on with the A's.
Anyway, ended up rolling pretty hard. Averaged 258w for 45 mins which is just about what I have my FTP set to (260), but it was it much less steady effort. It was pretty fun having other sandbaggers to chase 😁. I didn't feel overextended, though I gave a good surge in the last few mins. So I guess if I had to do a 45 minute FTP test I probably could have gone a little harder, maybe 270? Not sure how much the variability costs in terms of efficiency and sustainability.
I was planning to do a 2k test on the rower today, hopefully I haven't spent all my coin on that race.