Most of you know, if you have TrainingPeaks and Zwift connected you can access your bike workouts directly in Zwift which makes it much easier to follow them! But there are a few things to know about how workouts work in Zwift to get the most out of them:
FTP. B2G bike workouts are based on FTP. We will discuss FTP in more depth separately but, basically, it's the max power you can hold for around 20 minutes. The best test I've found? Pick a fairly flat, fairly competitive (lots of racers close to your ability level) Zwift race that will take 20-30 minutes and go all in. I get much higher FTP results this way than on a traditional FTP test (they're just too boring!). You can set your FTP in your user profile and then should periodically see it update based on your performances. It's important for this to be accurate to get effective workout targets!
ERG mode. ERG mode will automatically control the resistance on your trainer to force you to hit the the power targets. Some people love it, some people hate it. Try your workouts with and without and decide what works for you. You have to really focus on keeping cadence is a normal/target range when using ERG. This can be activated/inactivated when you choose the workout or from the menu at the bottom of the game screen.
Adjusting the difficulty of a workout. If your FTP is accurate and the workout still feels too hard (maybe it's just not your day, maybe your silly coach made it too hard, who knows), you can use the "bias" in the companion app or in the menu along the bottom of the game screen to decrease or increase all of the workout power targets by up to 10%.
Trainer difficulty. One last item to consider is "trainer difficulty" which is in your game settings. The name is misleading- regardless of this setting the same power gets you the same speed in the game. What it affects is your gearing, basically. At 100% you'll feel the gradient as it shows on the screen (14% incline will feel like 14% incline would feel in real life given your bikes actual gearing). Lowering the "trainer difficulty" effectively gives you a wider range of gearing. So at 50% difficulty that same 14% grade in the game will feel more like 7%- AKA it changes your bike's gearing to be more capable of handling 14% gradient. Because most of us ride triathlon bikes than are geared for going FAST and not for climbing mountains, and because Zwift is full of steep climbs, I recommend turning this setting down to somewhere between 25% and 50%. You'll still get a great workout but probably find Zwift far more enjoyable to ride around and have to shift a lot less.
Hope these tips help! Feel free to comment with any questions or other tips for fun and effective Zwifting!
Comments