Zwifters

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Big_G Nov 2023 2:21pm, 10 Nov 2023 3,052 posts	0 Big_G Oranj, I don’t actually have a road bike that is usable outside at the moment, so it would all be on Zwift for me. Yeah, I can totally understand why the purists don’t consider Zwift as viable, but it may give me something to focus on. My Zwift setup is a road bike on a turbo….and I’ve only got one road bike, plus I wouldn’t use this bike on the road without a thorough service as I would worry about the bolts failing outside! I know, I should hang my head in shame I’ll see though. Haven’t made my mind up yet. I’m possibly a bit unusual that I very, very rarely cycle outside. I haven’t for probably 2 years at least, and so don’t really class myself as a cyclist. For example, I’ve never raced outside, except one duathlon when events came back after Covid, but I didn’t have a clue what I was doing with the transitions etc. But yet I Zwift fairly regularly.
jda Nov 2023 2:44pm, 10 Nov 2023 15,848 posts	0 jda My wife did that last year, almost(?) all on zwift. A decent bit of motivation to keep moving over the festive period. Think there were some zwift rides designed for it, certainly a bunch of zwifters doing it. The weather and daylight here would make it a bit of a grind doing it outdoor IMO (and in her opinion too!)
Yorkshire Pie Nov 2023 2:52pm, 10 Nov 2023 15,420 posts	0 Yorkshire Pie I've never done it on the proper dates as we go away for Christmas, but I've done the equivalent starting on about the 27th December and doing at least some rides inside definitely helps because a big group on Zwift moves far faster than I do outside on my winter bike, not to mention it being warmer and not having to worry about daylight!
Gobi Nov 2023 3:26pm, 10 Nov 2023 80,685 posts	0 Gobi I've never done it as I just don't want to do that sort of mileage at this point in the year.
Oranj Nov 2023 7:55pm, 10 Nov 2023 3,955 posts	0 Oranj Shucks Gobi, don't you just want to do something for the hell of it? It's not meant to be constructive training, just motivation to get out the door. If it overbalanced your TSS or METs or whatever metric you're measuring your training by these days, just strike a balance by taking the next week real easy.
Gobi Nov 2023 9:49pm, 10 Nov 2023 80,686 posts	0 Gobi Oranj It's cx season mate, I'm racing too much
Big_G Nov 2023 11:07am, 13 Nov 2023 3,056 posts	0 Big_G I did the long version of workout 2 of ZA this morning. 84mins including warmup and cool down. Pretty tough session with 8mins at just above FTP at the end. A minor criticism, I would say, is that the shorter workouts I don’t think tie in with the title of the workout. This one was called Fatigue Fighter, where the idea is to build up fatigue in the previous intervals, and then do an effort at just above FTP at the end. I don’t think Zwift can fully simulate that in 40mins or whatever time the short workout is. I get that possibly a lot of Zwifters are pushed for time so I don’t know the way around this, except possibly have two distinct academies, one for those wanting to do short workouts and another for those wanting to do longer ones. Anyway, the longer one was quite tough. Harder than workout 1 I thought, but I got it done. For the 8mins at the end, the system turns ERG off, but I kept it pretty consistent through the effort, and finished strong. Tough workout though. Seeing the steps in the workout laid out in front of me I found a bit demotivating at the start, keeping in mind the 20min warmup certainly got the HR up, so I was pleased I completed it successfully! Last year there were loads of bugs, plus lots of grammar errors and typos in the prompts, which I thought made it seem like a project someone had slung together as a hobby project. They seem to have tidied that up a bit this year, which I think is good. I think Zwift possibly tried to overcomplicate things last year, and it wasn’t a great experience initially, as for example my first effort wasn’t really relevant due to the bugs.
Oranj Nov 2023 7:57pm, 13 Nov 2023 3,959 posts	0 Oranj Time pushed, I did the short ZA workout 1, but had more time today and did the long workout 2. I've got to admit that after +6 months of intervals and short TTs this year I didn't have much motivation for it and did the final 8mins at only a progressive sweet-spot effort. I'll get more focussed after Easter next year! There's a lot of faffing about in most Zwift workouts. When I'm tuning up for races, I warm up, do three 20s or 30s openers and then my main set. Cool down and then get off. I've downloaded a few older Zwift WKOs that have a similar focus from whatsonzwift.com for those days too.
Windsor Wool Nov 2023 11:01am, 14 Nov 2023 6,100 posts	0 Windsor Wool I've just completed ZA2 too and it's definitely tougher than the 1st instalment. I would have benefited from being set a target for that final 8 min push but I don't suppose it made too much difference in the big scheme of things. One question though: this is the 1st time I've really done this kind of thing, particularly using ERG mode. I'm finding that I'm really having to spin up the cadence on the higher target W sections - today I was at 110 rpm for large chunks of time and I find it pretty uncomfortable. Can I simply turn up the trainer difficulty a bit and it'll help? Seems like a stupid question but I'm not sure if it'll impact ERG mode. Ta.
jda Nov 2023 11:08am, 14 Nov 2023 15,887 posts	0 jda Changing trainer difficult won't help, but you can ride at whatever cadence you want, the resistance will change to draw the correct power. If you pedal slower it will get tougher, but might get too tough to turn the pedals (death spiral).