“Immersive, fun, engaging”?
Not sure im doing it right. Its buggy and stutters between zone changes. I started at week3 of the 12wk ftp builder after a first session on jons mix and spent 55minutes being ridden past.
I figured i wasnt having that so exceeded the wattage and dealt with the flashing info to slow down as i wanted to at least pass one guy in front of me… However no dice, my cadence and recorded power output goes up but my screen speed stays the same and i get no closer to the digital arse ahead of me. Its as thought i’m along for a preset ride and cant do anything to affect my road position.

Im not sure what i was hoping for?

Its certainly not motivated me to find the time (that admittedly I wasnt finding before) to do wk3 day 2.
Am i missing something?

Sufferfest? Trainer road? any better as a training tool?

do a race.

That sounds amiss. Your speed should obviously increase the harder you ride. What have you got in the way of turbo/smart trainer, or are you using “Zwift Power”?

I use it regularly, 3-5 times a week (depedning on weather)and have no issue other than some times a long start up time. Works for for free rides, races and currently doing the 12 week ftp builder.

Have you set your FTP correctly for the training programme?

Is your pc, laptop whatever up to spec to run zwift?

Yes you are zwifting wrong, been on it for approaching a year now and none of what you’re describing matches my experience of Zwift. Most people on the facebook groups who post similar posts, its always down to individual setups rather than the program itself. I was having issues the other day, all down to my ANT+ signal.

If you’re doing a workout, you will get ridden past because they’re not doing your workout and being told exactly what to do. They’re either freeriding or doing something completely different. Only worry about people overtaking you in a race or when you’re freeriding.

Sufferfest? Trainer road? any better as a training tool?

I prefer Sufferfest for interval stuff, using a smart trainer anyway. I don’t need the distraction of other riders around me and virtual terrain that’s out of synch with what I’m doing, but I love Zwift for just riding around having comedy virtual dust-ups. And I’ve discovered that I’m a sucker for stupid power-ups, level upgrades and hideous jerseys…

I hate pottering about in zone 2 for precisely that reason. Where’s the fun in having people just ride past you, eh? But everyone’s different, I’m sure there are folk out there who like looking at virtual butterflies andplaying with drone view mode.

Im not sure what i was hoping for?

I’d say you’re probably in the best position to be the judge of that. If you stop pedalling, do you stop moving btw? Your avatar that is. Obviously your legs will stop…

Yes, you’re doing it wrong. The workouts are fine and I suspect not unlike Trainer Road or Sufferfest, where it gets interesting are the races which are genuinely engaging as you’re racing others. Enter a WBR race, maybe a 1 lap race to begin with and see what you think then.

Ant+ speed and cadence on a cyclops mag trainer.
Not set my ftp, i guess i should look around the settings more than just pressing ‘ride’ 😉
Laptop, first gen i7 ssd and discrete gpu.

Was the training program using ERG mode on an interactive trainer? If so, resistance will change to try and match the power plan.

Thinking back to when I did the short FTP test last week, while in ERG mode during the warmup phase, I’m pretty sure that the gradients I was riding over were ignored, it was all about power output.

Not set my ftp

Is an FTP test not day 1 or an FTP builder??

if you are training are you in ergo mode? in that case there is a disconnect between speed on the road and your power output, it’s not feeding resistance in to the trainer based on the road but on the power requirement you have for that phase of the workout. You just maintain cadence and the trainer will decide how much resistance you need.

Just go for a ride on a flat course and see if you can get speed to change as you turn the power up

Is an FTP test not day 1 or an FTP builder??

There’s 2, a 90 ish minute version and a 45 minute version. Do the short one to set a number and then have some fun.

It doesn’t matter what others are doing when you’re on a workout, its about you.

Workouts only really work when there set to the correct power for you (Jon’s mix should leave you ****ed.)

Even an i7 laptop without a graphics card may struggle, although some say its got easier on pc spec recently

Cyclops is a known trainer so you should have it selected and the correct resistance selected if its adjustable

Try a “Pack” social ride or KISS race for a more interactive ride.

Generally doing interval workouts in Zwift, I spend a lot of time being overtaken by lots of riders during the longer recovery blocks. Only manage to catch and pass relatively few during the shorter, intense blocks.

If you want to compete with people then enter a race. It’s good training as well and much more interesting. Alternatively, just ride and chase other people for a workout as the fancy takes you. It’s all good!

“Immersive, fun, engaging”?

Compared to what? Watching paint dry? Maybe.

Sounds like you are trying to do a free ride, in workout mode.

If you wanna chase people, or avoid being overtaken then don’t do a workout.
Zwift will adjust your resistance based on cadence to meet the power output it wants you to meet.
So if you try going too fast, it will keep dropping resistance to keep you in the power zone.

Basically you are fighting what it is trying to achieve in workout mode.

Try a race or just do a free ride and make sure you do a calibration too, using the Utility app.

Your doing it wrong.

You were in a workout.

In a workout the program and erg mode will limit you to watts you’ve set regardless of cadence. That’s why you cant catch anyone.

On the open road you pedal like normal, the incline retards your progress.

Don’t mix the two. Their different modes.

Its great fun and gets you fit. Join a group ride, try a race.

Don’t forget to do a FTP test and set your weight (honestly) 😀

Just popped my Zwift cherry myself and was wondering about this.

The first session I did was a shorter FTP test.

The second session, I joined the FTP builder on Week 3 myself and found it a bit undemanding.

How do you get it set for your appropriate level of FTP?

Also I don’t have trainer that varies resistance according to terrain. So if somebody else does, and I decide to overtake them, or they me, I take it Zwift does the math and aggregates effort levels and virtual gradient etc so that races are valid contests?

@StefMcDef – from other threads the general opinion is that the 12wk builder starts easy for a few weeks and then ramps up.
Going to try this workout for myself, unless someone has better suggestions of training plans to improve hill climbing ability. Just rely on a reasonable 3.0w/kg @95.5kg at the moment, but run out of steam on RL steep climbs.
Last few rides have been on the Watopia Three Sisters course.

I was only trying to catch someone just once because I was mostly uninspired by being asked to sit at 60w for my effort section.
If I felt like I was actually working out I’d be fine with it.
I see now where to enter ftp in profile but I don’t recall it asking me for anything but name/weight/height to start with, which is odd as evidently the whole workout side of it is based on your ftp number.
Will try that and see if theres anymore reward.
appreciate the tips

Zwift will adjust your resistance based on cadence to meet the power output it wants you to meet.
So if you try going too fast, it will keep dropping resistance to keep you in the power zone.

Only if you’ve got a Smart Trainer, sounds like the OP doesn’t.

I was only trying to catch someone just once because I was mostly uninspired by being asked to sit at 60w for my effort section.

60w is staggeringly low, unless you weigh 20kg that’s possibly why.

Njee +1

Given where you live (Squamish) and what you do try putting your ftp to 300 and then try again…..

At the risk of opening another can of worms how are you measuring the power?

Zwift is measuring the power for me i assune against speed/cadence.

60w is staggeringly low,

I did the last minute of my cool down at 80w today, I was almost having to hold the weight of my shoes up to stay there.

thetallpaul – Member

@StefMcDef – from other threads the general opinion is that the 12wk builder starts easy for a few weeks and then ramps up.
Going to try this workout for myself

I’m currently doing this plan.
It did start off very easily. I ended up putting my FTP from 190 to 200 watts in the erg mode slider within the chosen workout.
That definitely made it harder. I considered putting it up another 10, but now I’m further into the plan it’s fine as it is I think.
I’m on wk 9 though.

One thing I would do is check the recovery times within the workouts.
A lot of them have a recovery phase (say, 5mins) as part of the last interval followed by a 10min recovery of 10mins. Some of them seem a bit excessive.
I have started cutting the obviously duplicated recovery intervals down.

Steffmcdef et al

Without a smart trainer it bases it on your weight FTP etc. Its called Zpower. Its not remotely accurate I’m afraid. To get a proper work out you need a trainer with erg mode, smart trainer IMHO. Otherwise frankly I wouldn’t bother.

Ive been on Zwift since the beta. The workouts are based on your FTP. Obviously if you haven’t put a FTP in your profile it wont work correctly. Same for weight.

There is loads of how to advice on Zwift, recommended reading. https://support.zwift.com/hc/en-us/articles/203968635-Setting-up-a-Classic-Trainer-Rollers-zPower-

Bearback

you enter FTP in your profile https://support.zwift.com/hc/en-us/articles/206438003-User-Profile-Age-Weight-FTP-

I’m going to disagree slightly there, my dumb trainer shows about the same power as my smart trainer, there all based on the known resistance curve other than one or two that have atrain gauges. If you want mega accurate power you will need separate power gauges.

There are actually benfits to dumb trainers in that you keep cadence up when on a hill etc so dont let it stop you.

Take a punt at your ftp ( something like 5 min max x 0.75) then try a nice simple workout like the Gorby.

Better still theres a pack social starting in 20 mins just ride that and zwift will give you an ftp after.

Is it really a Gen 1 i7? That’s pretty old, so I expect the GPU will also be pretty old. Could explain the stuttering.

Thanks for the replies.

My Zwift set-up is a Kinetic Road Machine 2 “smart” with an Inride sensor which measures power and cadence, but it doesn’t vary resistance according to terrain. I also have the Apple TV version of Zwift. I had put in most of my vital statistics – just can’t think where it gave me any results of the FTP test to input anywhere, so I was wondering whether it had somehow logged it itself.

I’ve had it before when I’ve finished a ride and Zwift has said something like ‘your FTP appears to have increased to XXX. Do you want to update Zwift?

I can’t remember the exact circumstances though….I think just a normal ride of probably an hour or a bit more.

Just found some time to zwift again… Set my ftp to 200 pre short ftp test, burried myswlf tonstay on the watt guidelines in the warmup and struggled to deliver for 20mins. Anyway 144 for now so at least i can jump back into the ftp builder program at an appropriate number rather than 0 😉
Thats been a tough 2months of infrequent riding to hurt the fitness levelmthats for sure.

Thats a decent starting place. IME ftp improves readily to training, unfortunatly it also drops when you stop.

If you havent already I would also suggest you get a fan that can be turned on from your bike.