Category Archives: Zwift

Say Hello to PowerZwift

25 January, 2017 9:37 am ⋅ Leave a Comment ⋅

PowerZwiftI love Zwift. It allows me to get some kilometres done in the safety of my own home with no fear of rain, snow, hail, sunburn, crashes, cars, trucks, vans or pedestrians with headphones on. Right now, it’s probably my primary source of kilometres.

Of course, using software so often means I’ve started to become a bit of a Zwift power user. I’ve got tweaked configs and third-party add-ons like ZwiftMap. I also run Zwift on multiple computers depending on where I am and which version of The Paincave I’m using, and because I’m a techie I reinstall my Operating system a lot, and doing that manually is a complete pain.

So I wrote some PowerShell code to automate Zwift and make my life a bit easier.

Well, I had a bit of free time last night, so I packaged it up, added some enhancements and uploaded some of it to GitHub as PowerZwift, free and Open Source, for other Zwifting techies to use.

It allows you – at the moment – to:

  • Download and install Zwift
  • Download and install ZwiftMap
  • Start Zwift and ZwiftMap from one command
  • Toggle startup music on and off
  • Switch easily between circuits (“Worlds” in Zwift-speak).
  • Create Windows Shortcuts to start Zwift in a specific World with one click.

If you’re on Windows, you might find it useful. If you’re on Mac or iOS, sorry, but this won’t help you much – but there are lots of hacks for you nonetheless.

 

Posted in: Zwift

The evolution of a paincave

17 January, 2017 10:55 pm ⋅ Leave a Comment ⋅

There’s a new thread over at Zwift.community asking about people’s current training setups, so I thought I’d go back through my photostream and find some of my recent setups. My paincave has been through more iterations than I care to think about, and luckily I didn’t photograph them all, or I’d be here all day. Read on for pics and ramblings

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Posted in: Meta, Training, Zwift

Racing and Riding update w/e 16 Jan 2017

16 January, 2017 12:05 pm ⋅ Leave a Comment ⋅

So, we’ve made it to 2017 after what can only be described as Year of The Utter Shit, so where are we at?

Well, the start of the new year formed a convenient, if arbitrary watershed to try and re-establish some old, good habits. I’m now attempting to follow a structured training plan from The Sufferfest, though I’ve had to build in some very generous variations due to things like work/on-call commitments and wanting to actually ride outdoors occasionally. Nevertheless, some weight is dropping off and some watts are going on. I’ve had two “new threshold” notifications from Training Peaks in January so far, and my Smart Scale has been congratulating me occasionally. Who would have thought* swapping a quiet beer for an hour of sweat on a bike would be so effective?

Zwift.community has been launched by a good friend of mine and I’ve come on board as an early adopter and admin

In news of actually turning some pedals, I’m racing again two months earlier than expected. Thursday saw me enter a Zwift KISS Race on the spur of the moment, because that’s a thing now, and Saturday saw me racing on dirt for the first time in… ages.

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Posted in: Meta, Racing, Training, Zwift

On Being Stateless in Zwift

20 July, 2016 11:40 am ⋅ Leave a Comment ⋅

So I joined Zwift just recently. Sure, I’m a little late to the party, but reasons.

Anyway, while signing up, Zwift allows you to select your nationality, and offers a veritable cornucopia of nations with which you can identify. For instance, you can show the world you’re from  The Faroe Islands, Kiribati or the British Virgin Islands. If you’re a pedalling priest, you can select the flag of the Holy See. Wow. So many flags.

So I went looking for my flags.

Now, I carry two flags on my bikes.For the uninitiated, the flag on the left is the bleeding eyes of Sufferlandria. Black for Suffering, White for Purity of Suffering and Red for Suffering.

I didn’t really expect the Sufferlandrian flag to be available in Zwift. It would have been a nice little easter egg bonus, but I didn’t expect it. Nevertheless I did feel a mild stab of disappointment when I couldn’t find it.

So obviously I went off hunting for my other flag – the actual flag of the actual country in which I was actually  born. Wales. A Red Dragon on a field of white and green.

This flag

article-0-0E594C4B00000578-538_468x286You know what? It’s not there.

A country of 20,779 km2 and over three million people. Just not there. A country that has its own damn wikipedia. A country with its own legislative assembly, national anthem and capital city.

But I can’t select that flag. Oh no. I can select the flag of “Neutral Zone”, whatever that is, but not Wales.

I can select the flag of The Falkland islands, a flag which actually has a sheep on it. Jesus, you’re just trolling now, aren’t you?

Zwift, you need to get your shit together. Seriously.

 

 

(Update: Apparently, Zwift use ISO 3166 and ISO places Wales under the UK. Apparently. But not The Falklands. Which is a British dependency.)
(Update 2: There’s also no Scottish flag, no Ulster flag, and no European stars. But you can select the flag of Pitcairn, a tiny island nation with fewer than 100 residents)

Posted in: Gadgetry, Meta, Training, Zwift ⋅ Tagged: ,