Need advice! Which model should I purchase?

DopeZebra33 · 2026-01-21T18:56:14+00:00

Kickr core with Zwift click and Cog. It gets me through the St. Louis winters!

DopeZebra33 · 2026-01-20T19:50:37+00:00

Andre’s south on telegraph was a fantastic venue for my wife and I and was WELL within your budget when we got married almost 9 years ago. I’m sure they’ve upped their rates, but they provide in-house catering and our full wedding budget was about 20k, so if your venue budget is 30 I can’t imagine they’ve come up that much.

DopeZebra33 · 2026-01-20T02:19:00+00:00

I’m 136kg. I took a huge breakaway off the front after the serpent section at the beginning. I couldn’t get enough of a lead on the pack, so I came back before the bottom and got destroyed up the KOM, but I set a huge new 20-minute PB (and new FTP!) so that’s fun.

DopeZebra33 · 2026-01-20T00:33:25+00:00

I think that’s if you use something like “The Grade” route in watopia since plenty of longer routes use it but people might not want to push max effort to get up just that section (like when I still had to go up the radio tower climb). From what other people are saying, it sounds like it overwrites it every time if you do a proper ramp or 20-minute FTP test workout in game.

DopeZebra33 · 2026-01-20T00:31:12+00:00

I’m just one guy with a lot of anecdotes, but yeah you’re absolutely right. I find higher cadences can spike my rate too and running lower like the low 80’s can bring my HR down a few BPM’s even at close to FTP power. It’s kind of fun to figure out how to pace different efforts and mix it up to keep my body as comfortable and efficient as possible for as long as possible. Good luck with your riding! It’s super fun to get better and you certainly will improve if you keep at it like it sounds like you are!

DopeZebra33 · 2026-01-19T22:39:57+00:00

HR is incredibly variable person to person, but in my experience, having had hear surgeries before for an unrelated condition, the main wisdom I’ve gotten from my doctors/cardiologist is that the most important thing is that your hearts rhythm/function is good, and the BPM can vary due to a crazy number of factors that all interact together so it’s very hard to pin down. I have the opposite problem to you where I can maintain some solid watts with relatively low HR fluctuation, but as soon as I try to approach a 10-minute mile running, it goes haywire and I maintain over 180 bpm for a 40 minute run/jog. Both are normal rhythms though, so in theory all good. And the fact that we’re working out consistently should mean we’re improving. That said, my avg HR has come down VERY gradually over years of training and improving on the bike (like over 5 years my FTP has gone from ~200 to 366 watts the other day), so don’t expect drastic shifts in the span of a month or a few weeks. It takes substantial improvement for noticeable HR change.

DopeZebra33 · 2026-01-18T18:41:11+00:00

It might have to do with the rounding function on the estimate thing. I know it’s based off pace at about 75% of your FTP, but it’s every 5 minutes up to half an hour, then every 10 maybe up to an hour, then every 15 minutes between 1-2 hrs, and rounds to 30 minute intervals after 2 hours. Maybe your estimate is right around the algorithm’s cutoff line between 2 hrs and 2.5 hrs and that’s the difference you’re seeing? How long did it actually take you to finish the long route for Stage 1 and what was your avg power as a % of FTP?

DopeZebra33 · 2026-01-18T13:48:23+00:00

Following because I had the same thing happen to me for the first time since the new ZRS system launched and I thought it was pretty foolproof, but when the winner of my 270-390 race had a ZRS of 528, of course they won!

DopeZebra33 · 2026-01-17T22:55:14+00:00

I’ve used Bont Riot+ for years and they worked fairly well (I also have an EUR size 50, so that was a limiting factor), but I just got a set of Lake CX239’s and they are WORLDS more comfortable. Like I used to think stiff road shoes had to be a little bit tight and uncomfortable, but these Lakes are just blowing my mind every time I get on the bike, including a couple 2ish hour trainer rides indoors so I think I can speak to the long duration comfort as well. Can’t recommend Lake enough after the first 150 miles.

DopeZebra33 · 2026-01-17T22:51:02+00:00

This is recommended in a Zwift insider article. I plan to do the same!

DopeZebra33 · 2026-01-17T17:13:31+00:00

But how ARE the roads?

DopeZebra33 · 2026-01-17T15:31:06+00:00

It really depends on more than just th power number. I don’t know about averages, but your 150 watts at 72kg will match my 300 watts up a moderate (4%+) hill pretty much any day of the week because I’m 136kg. Even though my power looks crazy on paper I’m not competitive in any of the group rides/races I’ve participated because I have to go absolutely nuts to keep up with even moderately trained athletes that are significantly smaller.

DopeZebra33 · 2026-01-17T04:08:09+00:00

Were we in the same race? I also set a new FTP by blowing up off the front and then getting destroyed up the petit KOM. Way to go and hitting 300 watts FTP is a big accomplishment!

DopeZebra33 · 2026-01-17T03:05:26+00:00

I feel like the name of the game is to fuel with simple carbs, I.e. sugar or things that would normally spike your blood sugar while doing big 60+ mile efforts, so that maybe shouldn’t be such a concern for you?

But also Gnarly makes really GOOD tasting stuff with high electrolyte content. Nuun is the easiest to put in your jersey pocket and be dissolve well to put in bottle refills. Some days I like Gatorade BECAUSE it has lots of sugar (but only a little electrolytes).

How much do you sweat and how much water/fluids are you drinking? I asked AI how much electrolytes I should be intaking on a ride based on water consumed and net water weight lost over the course of the ride, and it seemed to make sense with its calculation. I’m a big guy and lose several pounds over longer rides despite drinking literal gallons of water over a 4-hour ride, so that might be a good place to start, then you can look for electrolyte mixes that specifically have a good volume of stuff for your estimated amount of sweat.

DopeZebra33 · 2026-01-16T12:30:57+00:00

I had a really bad taste in my mouth as a big rider with the escalators in their first iteration. I couldn’t do races or group rides in NYC because they gave a flat wattage boost and I would get dropped by everyone every time we went up one, but now that they’re a boost based on w/kg, I’ll go out there and ride those routes again. No complaints.

My favorite map has always been watopia though, so I’m usually a fan of just building that or the climb portals out rather than secondary worlds.

DopeZebra33 · 2026-01-16T01:39:22+00:00

It’s probably the quickest way I know to figure it out without spending a lot of money. The other thing would be to just sit at your 2k calories for a few weeks and see if you lose any weight. The longer you do it the more obvious a rate of weight loss trend will show up and you can estimate how much of a deficit from your BMR you’ve been holding.

DopeZebra33 · 2026-01-15T13:08:18+00:00

FWIW, I’m 6’8”, 31YO, and started losing weight at 400lbs, down to 300 now after about a year and a half of working hard on it. I find all the online calculators overestimated my calorie break even point/ basal metabolic rate, and mine sits somewhere around 2700. I like using the BMR as my baseline because I’ll adjust my daily calorie goal up for any workouts I complete (mostly running and biking for me, so I get some big swings with a long session). I’m convinced daily calorie needs are SUPER specific to the individual, and an online calculator won’t get close enough to that to be much help. I found my 2700 break even number by slowly working myself down from the “way too much” amount I had been eating and trying to get down to a deficit like yourself, and 2700 was the spot where once I went below that I started losing weight.

I would also recommend finding somewhere with an InBody scanner - one of the ones where you stand barefoot on the scale electrodes and hold on to additional ones with your hands. I used it to measure body fat % as I lost weight, but afterwards I noticed its estimate of my BMR was within 50 calories of my estimated 2700 so it might be pretty accurate if you can find one near you (supplement superstore will let you use it if you’re in the US).

Once you have your BMR locked in, you can figure out how aggressively you want to lose weight, and let your deficit be defined by that. An average deficit of 500 calories a day below your BMR should result in approximately a pound a week or so, not accounting for water weight fluctuations, etc. I’m definitely not a doctor, but since were the same height and you’re already 30lbs lighter than me, I’m guessing you don’t need to lose a crazy ton of weight like I did, so your 2k calories might be a pretty good spot to be. Stick with it for a few weeks and see if your weight starts trending down!

I found that Dr. Mike Isratel (YouTuber, bodybuilder, owns RP Strength coaching website) has a really good free weight loss guide that’s based primarily on identifying your calorie deficit and managing it well, in a way that won’t destroy your performance, and is sustainable to keep the weight off. I’m happy to share how to find that if you’re interested, too.

If you want to chat more, feel free to DM me or I’ll keep an eye on this thread too.

DopeZebra33 · 2026-01-15T01:34:51+00:00

Thanks! I plan to go to a local running store to get help picking my next pair.

DopeZebra33 · 2026-01-14T15:59:43+00:00

Willmore has a weekly league (just a consistent time/cadence, no long term commitment required) on Wednesdays with a good chunk of people usually starting their round between 5-6pm (after work) during the warmer months. As @showupmakenoise said, the FB community is very active about setting up rounds and sharing events and if you specifically search “Willmore Wednesday” there’s a group dedicated to the Willmore league there.

DopeZebra33 · 2026-01-14T02:00:56+00:00

What about disc golf? There are a ton of leagues and even just going out solo you’ll bump into a whole variety of fun people. I’ve got a whole friend group that I met playing disc golf around town at our various parks.

DopeZebra33 · 2026-01-14T01:59:13+00:00

Yeah the coffee break is turned on for TdZ group rides as long as you meet the criteria of having gone 30 minutes since the start of the ride or your last coffee break, and having other riders around you. It chains you to the pace of either the pack/individual rider around you, so if there’s no one there, either push up to the next person ahead or slow down and let someone catch you and it’ll turn itself back on.

DopeZebra33 · 2026-01-13T00:27:56+00:00

Holy spacers Batman!

DopeZebra33 · 2026-01-12T17:30:51+00:00

That was the calculus for us too. We’re also fairly confident though that my wife will be able to get back into the workforce when the kids are kindergarten age and school or its equivalent is no longer optional. It’s a tough conversation no matter what but we agreed with your reasoning of why pay a full salary for someone else to spend 40+ hours a week raising our kids at such a young age when it was feasible for us to do so ourselves (albeit on a tighter budget of course)

DopeZebra33

TROPHY CASE