The most optimal training is what keeps you consistent. Congrats on what you've achieved so far

Just keep going! Make 2024 the year that you are consistent for the full 12 months. You don't need to be a hero on every ride, you just need to keep up with the efforts....no excuses. At the end of the year, you will have amazed yourself with how far you have progressed.

28th/147 is great. Press G and get the graphs on the bottom so we can see how much you're suffering! Looking forward to the step up to cat c series, I can see it happening this year!

One advantage of the UK Benji is our evening time trial scene during the sunmer. I guarantee you have a club running a weekly 10 mile TT near you. It's a great way to test yourself throughout the year and the road bike category is probably more popular than the TT bike one now, so no equipment issues

With the amount of hours you have, I think you're absolutely right with your mixture, you'll get much more out of high intensity riding and sweetspot as opposed to 80% of your time in z2. Great video dude.

Love the content as always. Excited to see how you progress this year

I want to offer a perspective on what you do Benji. You are improving yourself in the best way you can and sharing it with the world. You show thousands of other people who may even be at a similar point in their cycling journey how to do the same. You motivate them, invite them to join in, and many do. Imagine how amazing it is just to motivate a single friend to exercise and enjoy a hobby. You do this for thousands. You are doing an amazing job. You don't have to justify yourself. Keep doing it.

Benji you should try one of the weekly BMTR 100 mile group rides. (Every Saturday) Did my first one at the very end of last year and although it was hard, the community that shows up to ride the event is amazing and really helped push me to the finish. Not to mention the coffee stops were also a life saver to take mini breaks off the bike. Could be a fun video as well!

“So my aim was to not finish last”😂 keep going Benji💪

Proud of you Benji for pushing hard and being authentic in your content creation. Looking forward to seeing how far you grow as a cyclist in 2024.

Another fantastic video Benji. Completely agree with your training mindset! Great result on that last race. 💪

Absolute legend, you're doing great mate. Very relatable content for the everyday cyclist. Kms are Kms and as long as you're having fun and improving ignore the keyboard warriors and pseudo experts. First and foremost cycling should be fun.

Thanks for sharing! I love your exploration of Zwift racing.

Keep up the grind man ❤

Well done Benji, you really dug deep there, looking forward to seeing your journey in 2024

I've done a couple of the endurance races with you and they're hard. Trying to hang on to essentially Cat C racers (2.9wkg) is pushing yourself to breaking point. I'm a good Cat D racer (was a Cat C) but I can only hold on to the lead group on the flats. I'm much better in proper Cat D races up to 1 hour long. Good luck Benji and please stop quitting races. Finish the race regardless of your position.

Lookin good man, visably leaning out

Really proud of you Benji! Keep going and with your sprint you'll surely win soon

I know what you mean, Benji, about cycling outside. I stopped riding outdoors a few years ago. Then I found Zwift and now do 100% of my riding indoors. After I recover from surgery, my intention is rack at least 3000 km by the end of the year.

no matter where you end up in a race, or get dropped , or explode or whatever... never forget, the LEAST thing you always get is a huge healht benefit! as Sly Stallone uses to say: keep punchin' 👊

Love seeing you do this! Drop to am easier gear or two and spin at 90+ rpm. I found that out recently, it helps so much with the muscular fatigue on the legs. 90+ on flats and 80-85+ on hills

Great job, Benji! Through force of will and a lot of hard work, you transformed yourself into an athlete. You should be an inspiration to many.

Big progress mate. Keep going

Great attitude mate, keep going, keep posting..

Great stuff Sir. Never gets easier, just faster! Enjoy the progress. M

Hey Benji, totally agree with you that with indoor cycling the most important factor is that you’re having fun. I wouldn’t worry too much about 80/20 polarised training but do watch out for signs of overtraining. You’ve got some good short interval power output. If you can sustain higher 2-5 min power, you will do much better at these races towards the finish. Perhaps weekly threshold/VO2 intervals may help where you’re doing 2-5 minute intervals. Anyway continue to have fun! 😊

I enjoy your videos, it's fun watching you progress in the sport.

I just got a smart trainer for Christmas and have been loving Zwift. I agree that variety is so important and at our level (I'm also level D) it is about having fun so you do it regularly.

keep racing my dude... your're motivating more than you know. 🤖🤖🤖🤖🤖🤖

Good to see you racing shorter flat(ish) races. Stick to these types of races and you'll be finishing with the front in no time. I race B grade and have won a few of these Flat is Fast stage races lately. It's been a fun series!!

How congrats your a beast dude! Keep going make 2024 your best year!

it doesn't matter where you finish. I always finish last! Who the hell cares. You finished ahead of all the other people eating bonbons on the sofa.

Goe bezig Benji! 😅 I like Zwift races as well, it gives me a good way to do Zone 4/5 intervals in a fun way. But I think doing one every day is too much, your legs havent recovered from the day before. Rest is required to make you stronger. I will try and participate in a race with you one of these weeks.

Cadens is getting better and you’re getting more comfortable at heart rate treshold. Hopefully that motivates you to ride more frequent this year! We’d love to see your progress!

Love the content Benji. Keep at it and I am sure you will see massive improvements this year. I don't think the goal of winning a competitive race with 100+ riders is very realistic however. D, C and B category races are all dominated by a few riders who (deliberately) manage to stay within the category enforcement but ride top end results every single race (you can easily check on zwiftpower). Because you are probably not worried about the category enforcement rules you will be promoted to the next category long before you have a realistic shot of winning competitive D category races I am afraid. Don't let that stop you though!

Benji, where about in the UK are you? Plenty of quiet places with few cars.

Another banger of a video Benji!! 2024 is the year that you'll win a competitive zwift race, everyone can see you improving💹. If you keep the dedication up this year, you'll maybe even make it to cat C🚀!!

Yes indoor is so hard to do long rides. I live in Michigan in US and we have 18in or snow right now haha. I tried fatbike riding but just don't enjoy it enough. I been doing a number of the climb portal rides, the fitness jumpstart workouts, and zone 2 riding.

You should explore group rides, club 10 TTs, or some of the crits on Moto tracks that are popular over there! Lots of ways to explore using the indoor fitness you're getting in a safe environment. Would be keen to watch any IRL cycling adventures you get up to this summer. Also I'd ignore all the z2 chatter, I doubt you do enough volume to make the 80/20 thing make sense. Just have fun riding your bike, and do more endurance rides/less intensity if you feel like you're too fatigued all the time and burning out.

By the end of the year you’ll be cleaning up the chat gpt generator Zwift races ;) Keep it up Benji!

You should do LRCP podcasts while riding zone 2 :) You'd see immense boost in fitness and endurance. :)

Hi Benji, thanks for your videos! Could you tell us which programs/workouts you have been following since the beginning and the way you handle your Zwift goals? To clarify, I would love to know what you do when you ride your home trainer: do you have an already established plan, with chosen workouts and an end goal or is it less planned? As a beginner on Zwift I find it super helpful to have goals and a precise schedule leading to them. Thanks!

Where in UK are u, there's a lot of nice places to ride in uk without many cars

God, i love this channel🚴‍♂️👌

The weekly ZRacing is a perfect way to get used to bigger groups and the pace needed. You will improve rapidly and will learn much quicker than an easy victory in a micky mouse race with 4 riders. And the format is great with 15 races a day and a week to complete the route for that week. and ps. the 1710, 1810, 1910 UK Time are usually the fastest ones. Remember that.

Its great to see you back on the Bike again Benji. I got all my money on you dropping a certain someone in the belgian crosswinds later this year. :D For the Z2 Rides. I think you could get creative there and kill two birds with one stone. If you would stream your trainingride, answer questions and talk to your audience, then you would get content and base training in one go. Or you play pcm and ride an extra hour for every thirsty rider on your team :D

I had no idea you're based in the UK! I'd love to join you for a ride, once things have warmed up of course!

I’ve gone from a w/kg of 1.46 to 1.76 thanks to working with a sports dietitian to dial in my nutrition for performance and recovery and doing 4 week training blocks of 2 days of intensity and 1 long endurance ride, filling in shorter endurance rides in between at around 7 hours a week. I am shocked by how much the endurance work has made huge impacts to my fitness. I plan to work up to 9 hours a week by bumping up the long ride to 3 hours and bumping up the duration of the shorter endurance rides as well.

Benji - your race coverage is great. Think of races as a vo2 max workouts to combine with your zone 2 workouts for overall fitness. Hope to see you in a category D race soon - and I suggest you not follow my wheel for the final sprint.

You should really try the zwift club ladder competition, 5v5 races with lots of team tactics

You’ll be racing in Cat C in no time

Great vid! How tall are you? Your watts seem high compared to your w/kg

Hi Benji! I’ve signed up, what cat you in ? I’m racing in the e cat. Good luck and have fun. You ride how you want to and whatever makes you feel better 💪🏻👍🏻

I hope you are doing the Tour de Zwift long rides. There is so many people signing in it is really motivating

Haha. At least I gave you a Ride On at 7:00 😜

I am just here for the good content you create, enjoying it, make sure you are enjoying yoursef when creating it. Wieltjeszuiger😅😅👍👋

I wish for a sound byte of you saying “I perished” ☠️ 7:15

Did I see a cheeky bike throw in the sprint in the 4th race?

Just ride as much as you can, don't give a shit about zone two, lactate threshold, etc. just do what you enjoy and gradually you can start adding in structure once you feel you are ready for it

Can you turn on your power and heart rate plot at the bottom of the screen please?

indoor trainers especially in erg mode or following a workout is so much more efficient for endurance therefore a 90 minute indoor ride is roughly equal to 2-2hr 15min. my coaches notes are always 80 percent for indoor endurance rides vs outdoor endurance rides. there is just way less downtime on the trainer you are always pedaling.

As you're in the UK their must be a local club you could try and go out and cycle with. But yea the driver's over here are a nightmare.

First Video in 2024 come on this be a Great year

I don’t know what bike you have in Zwift but with 2.8M drops you probably haven’t bought many things. At your level the felt AR and zipp 808 wheels are your best combo for flats and the Scott addict rn is the best all around frame in the game if you have a mixed route.

In koers 1 had je beter een rustiger tempo gepakt en dan kijken hoe de benen waren later in de koers

Try and increase your cadence to mid 80’s. You’re grinding, higher cadence might help with endurance and less muscle fatigue. Keep it up!

If you make a 1,5h z2 video I'll watch it beginning to end. Or we can make it a group workout.

Don't overdo, because you will finish to be Cat C rider and this will be ways tougher. It just happened to me 🤪

Know the feeling of everything going just fine and then there’s a hill… 😂

You could do content with z2 rides 90 Minutes and talk about something or tell a story or sth. You could use the Time for content aswell :) just a suggestion :)

At what time will you be racing this Sunday? If you're racing of course

Let's gooooo

You back to backing these races Benji? I wonder if you're just carrying too much fatigue into each race if that's the case? Consider trying a polarised training plan where you're doing a shit load more zone 2 type work, and then maybe 2 harder rides in your week MAXIMUM. Plenty of stuff out there on this training style, for me personally it's paid dividends.

Is this like a slovenian event? Like so many of the riders are fellow countrymen

Ultimately racing is fun. I ride for fun...

aslong you improve, there is no point to stop what you do right now. There are stilll a lot of newbie gains you can make . if you dont progesss, than do more GA1/strukture

5:23 ... is your thumb ok? 😂

God bless blokar

What time slot will you be racing in on Sunday? I might join you :) Ride on!

Never become a zone 2 lemming

If you want to improve you need to actually train and put in the work but if you just want to have fun Zwift racing ofc is the right thing to do

You're making progress and still have plenty of headroom! It's possible to work as a team in Zwift, but with enough race practice you'll also be able to better predict and use others' behaviours. For example letting someone else try to hold a gap, then closing it explosively as soon as he takes the foot off the gas means he probably won't be able to follow and you've got one less competitor.

You should join a racing team and take part in the Zwift Racing League! Can’t get more competitive than that in my opinion. Keep up the riding Benji!!

There is no acting here!.... GG on your efforts!

I don´t know if you already do it, but eating a caffeine + sugar gel before or during the race may help you a lot with the performance and the effort you are able to sustain. These are short efforts but nutrition is still makes a huge difference.

Give yourself time to recover between races no good racing every day and there are a lot of riders in the race that are above the limit of 2.4 wkg I am sure having watched their power output

you should follow the "norwegian method" and do 2 ZWIFT races on one day (morning and evening) / 2 times a week, to recover better inbetween

Awesome! Keep going, as you know, you will only get better and better the more you ride! Keep it up - if nothing else, it is good to see the suffering!

Agreed Benji, the U.K. isn’t a particularly friendly place to ride a bike unfortunately 🫤

Benji great jobs! I am not on Zwift and I have just had rotator cuff surgery so am off the bike for the foreseeable future. 🥲 at least I can watch you!