I managed to complete the PRL route today and I was certainly glad to see the back of box hill!
I was pretty bored by the end and I wasn’t happy about returning to the box hill area again for a little loop, by that point I just wanted to finish.
I can’t have been the only person on here to have completed it today as I saw loads of people attempting the route, 48 according to Strava.
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Congrats!
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Got my Masochist badge today. So there’s that.
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Nice. After completing Four Horsemen today, I‘ll sit at 20, so quite a few to go…
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…aaand it is completed. Wasn’t even as bad as I thought.
Now it’s Über Pretzel and PRL Full. Not looking forward to either.
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240w for that is brutal. Nicely done.
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I had a few beers (too many) yesterday, so I wanted to go really mellow. When the road started pointing up however, I got motivated.
Really didn’t expect to go up the Alpe in sub 50… apparently beer is a really good prep for long days in the saddle 
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I rode all of Route Ma Poule this morning and got to 61.5km before my app crashed because there were like a million riders. 
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Finally ticked off PRL London Full. Frankly, that was just rather unpleasant. 5 hours 5 minutes (4 hours 57 minutes moving time) for the 173km - just far too long to be riding indoors on the turbo. Won’t be doing that again.
They could have made a much more interesting long course using the London map so I’ve no idea why they thought 11 repeats of box hill would be a good idea.
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The original PRL took place when the London map was far smaller. It didn’t have the Surry hills for sure and may have lacked some of the flats too.
They could consider doing something new with the extra roads, but the current one is accurate to what we had the first time they did the course.
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Didn’t know that! Makes a lot of sense
Would it still be Zwift if they didn’t ignore longstanding complaints and make a small change to improve the quality of experience of their users? How much money has come into the company, and they still act like their engineering team is 3 people and an occasional intern.
I’ve got all of the badges now, and I’m peacing from their platform.
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Damn…that is a really impressive time!
I did this yesterday. Thought is was going to take about 3hr 15, I didn’t think about it much or workout how long it would really take. Had a 3hr15 session planned 2x 30 min plus endurance, I ended up having to extend to 3hr49 wasn’t pleasant (never ago). Would have been okay low Z3 and Z2 I suppose, or if I had realised it was going to be closer to 4 hrs than 3.5hr.
Also realised I’d done this course to the top of the Alp and half down about six times, as it fits in a 2hr45 or 3hr session, that’s why I was going to complete it yesterday no matter what.
I have these to complete
The Mega Pretzel Watopia 107 km (66.5 miles) 1642 m 3.7 km (2.3 miles) 2140 XP
The Über Pretzel Watopia 128.3 km (79.7 miles) 2335 m 0.5 km (0.3 miles) 2560 XP
The PRL Full London 173 km (107.5 miles) 2496 m 0.5 km (0.3 miles) 3460 XP
which I won’t be doing anytime soon.
If there is crap weather close to the start of the season (if we have one), I’ll probably knock on or two of these out in place or a 4 - 5 hr ride I’d normally do outside in the spring time.
Wonder how long those take ~ 190 - 200 watt average and/or around 2.9 watts/kg.
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At 2.9w/kg the rough estimates for your remaining routes:
- Mega Pretzel: 3h40min
- Uber Pretzel: 5h
- PRL Full: 5h55min
I hope that helps.
I might add ETA-calculator to Zwifthub at a certain point. But it’s really just a rough estimate. Equipment choice, draft, height, weight etc. Quite some variables.
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I’ll probably knock out the Mega Pretzel before Xmas then.
The Uber and PRL can ‘do one’ lol
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Thanks - all those trainerroad plans this year showing their benefit. With the benefit of the UK lockdown, being furloughed for a while, and working from home a lot this year, I’ve managed to fit in high volume sweet spot base 1 & 2, high volume sustained power build, and the mid volume century specialist plan - definitely needing a bit of a break now though.
It’s definitely a route where a bit of advanced planning is worthwhile.
I used the tron bike, which I think was probably the best option for me based on what I had available. Averaged 232 watts, so 2.97w/kg for me. I had the loose aim of doing the flats at around 2.4-2.7w/kg, the climbs at 3.5-8w/kg, and coasting the descent, which I very roughly kept to.
Nutrition wise, I was aiming for about 70g or carbs per hour and pretty closely stuck to that (roughly 338 total carbs consumed during the ride, so about 67g carbs per hour). I had:
- four bottles with SIS energy powder - about 50g carbs each.
- two gels - 36g carbs each
- 2 bars of chocolate (mars bars) - 23g carbs each
- 2 coffees with honey - about 5g carbs each
Legs feel pretty rubbish today. I think riding that long indoors on a very static bike is just not good for your body. Outside all the extra movement means that the stresses and strains are more spread out
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Best Bike Split has estimates for all the Zwift courses.
My experience (n=1) is that your indoor century /. 5 hour ride leaves you feeling pretty wrecked, even if the overall effort level wasn’t too bad. But like most things, it gets easier on the body.
After I did my first one, I swore I’d never do one again…had checked the box and it was a “one & done” type thing. I’ve now done several and it isn’t that bad at all.
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