[Closed] Zwift - overview for an idiot

It was fun and it made the turbo bearable but I've just quit as the price is going to £15 a month and I can't justify it for my usage.

Gone back to custom workouts, music and cycling vids - I find a custom workout with frequent changes doesn't give me time to get bored.

<span style="color: #444444; background-color: #eeeeee;">Did first short turbo session in nearly 2 years on Tues and remembered just how dull it is. Anything to make it more enjoyable/bearable would help – is Zwift it?</span><br style="color: #444444;" /><span style="color: #444444; background-color: #eeeeee;">Have a Mac but I’m not very techy – worth trying a free week long demo?</span><br style="color: #444444;" /><span style="color: #444444; background-color: #eeeeee;">Will I be hooked or load of balls? Cheers</span>

Zwift might be it. It probably depends on how you're wired. It runs fine on my 2012 MacBook Pro. And yes, why wouldn't you try the demo. The worse that can happen is that you don't find it engaging.

I guess a bit depends on your expectations. It's not the same as riding outdoors, no fresh air or smells or real conversation, but if gives you people to chase and compete with, or not, and if you're wired competitively you can go racing. Or you can do workouts.

I was totally unconvinced till I tried it, now I use it regularly. Also maybe take a look at The Sufferfest videos if your happy just burying yourself with structured intervals on your own.

It' not as boring as just turbo'ing on it' own.

It's still mind numbingly boring though.

Can't sit on the turbo just plodding away, managing to use zwift a few times a week and quite enjoying it. Don't have the time to get out and ride much during the week so it's going to really help keep my fitness up. Done more on the turbo on the last two weeks than the previous two years.

I like it, makes turbo work a lot more interesting.

Bear in mind that you'll need a way to make your turbo talk to your computer, like a ANT+ dongle and the sensors on your bike.

I found Trainer Road combined with the sufferfest distracting/focused enough to make the turbo bearable.

I lack the focus/ability to do intervals to my own perceived effort I always go far too hard so having a graph and numbers to follow is what helps for me. I might try Zwift but TBH I don't treat it like riding a bike, turbo training is to cycling what doing push ups is to sex, they might use the same muscles and doing one might beneffit the other, but it's not the same.

I like it. Last night it blowing a gale and there was no way I would have gone out so I went in the garage and blasted the London climbs. Really feel my legs today, its more than I would do otherwise. Tried Trainer Road but I'm not disciplined enough to follow it and its a bit boring watching a power line, Zwift is much more engaging. From a tech point of view I have just got myself a cheap refurbished pc tower cos my dated laptop couldn't keep up. Its so popular now that 5000 riders are on and I don't think my laptop graphics card could keep up and just buffered. I did a climb that Zwift timed at 14mins odd but my stopwatch said 17 mins. 3 mins of pauses!!!. Its loads better now. Big TV and I can do a couple of hours before my ass get numb. Better on a smart turbo but better than staring at a wall with a normal one?.

Slight hijack, but does anyone know of a way to block zwift workouts on the strava feed. ?

Definitely makes it more interesting but a smart trainer is a must for this IMHO as it makes it much more engaging.

TrainerRoad ans follow one of the sweetspot base plans, you only have 5 weeks so won't complete by the March Hare but you should get some good increases. Further benefits if you carry on afterwards

Each to their own but I find concentrating on following a structured workout is as engaging as Zwift, with the added motivation that it's potentially more productive than aimlessly pedalling around for an hour..

Can only recommend what I've tried though and I haven't tried the workout mode on Zwift, it may well offer the same direction with generic plans etc.

Slight hijack, but does anyone know of a way to block zwift workouts on the strava feed. ?

What, other people's Zwift sessions? I upload mine to Strava but then make the activity private as I can't imagine why anyone else would want to see them, but I want to keep them as part of a training record.

I think there's a Chrome plug-in that might give you the option though - this maybe. I used that, or something like it, to restore chronological order to my feed for a while.

I've recently just got back into the turbo and been finding the workouts on the GCN youtube channel pretty good for a structured session.

I'm sure trainer road might give a more structured approach overall, progressing sessions over several weeks rather than me just picking the one I've got time for.

Forget it - didn't quote the person I was replying to - blockquote function did something weird - got bored........

I love Zwift. It is the only way I could stand spending time on a turbo. It is totally engaging.

The racing is brilliant fun and pushes you so hard. Not often I can ride that hard for an hour but races do it for you.

Slight hijack, but does anyone know of a way to block non zwift workouts on the strava feed. ?

Definitely makes it more interesting but a smart trainer is a must for this IMHO as it makes it much more engaging.</span><span style="color: #444444; font-size: 12.8px;">

Totally agree, with a 'dumb' trainer you'll have to use a speed sensor and an assumed power curve (aka Zwiftpower/Zpower) which is shit. Can you try it somewhere else to see if it would work for you? Amazon are doing the Tacx Vortex for £200, which is a great price.

I'm not quite as much of an evangelist as some, but I do think it's good, and certainly makes turbo training more interesting. TrainerRoad has more advanced training sessions if that's what you want to do. Zwift is more like going for a ride, but indoors.

If you are going to trial it (once you have ant+ dongle and speed/cadence sensor), don't make the same mistake I did and make sure you set an actual FTP value in your profile. I did my first session at 0 FTP and was ready to sack it off as useless.
Bumped my FTP to a more reasonable amount and its actually a workout now.
I've only done workout based rides.. I wouldn't call them engaging but I appreciate the structured nature.

I use Zwift a fair amount, probably a couple of times a week, squeezed in between work and family stuff.  It's a really efficient use of time, and I know the better fitness will make the outdoor rides better.  I tend to use the structured workouts rather than "just riding".

If your FTP is set correctly, the prescribed workouts are hard, but not too hard (if you know what I mean).  I used the turbo about twice a year before Zwift; much more now.  Wife has also invested it Zwift, and she likes it too.

It's obviously motivating a lot more people to jump on the turbo, that can't be a bad thing.

To reiterate what a couple of posts have already mentioned, friends of mine who do ride it agree that it's a totally better experience with a smart trainer.

I would also say the group rides and races are overwhelmingly the best feature. Riding around aimlessly is ok, but quickly gets dull, and the workouts aren't as well developed as with (for example) Trainer Road.

Not getting a smart turbo.
Using my old-skool one, where do I get the hardware I need to Zwift and what does it cost?

It’s obviously motivating a lot more people to jump on the turbo, that can’t be a bad thing.

From what I've observed from people I follow, it's also causing many people to not go out and ride, and rather stick indoors because they enjoy it more indoors rather than enjoy it more outside.

Not just fair weather riders. Seen lovely sunny summer days and they're inside on Zwift! 😮

Yeah, I know, they're looking after the kids and trying to exercise at the same time. Just stick the kids on a bike and go out there 😛

And can understand when it's muddy out there, but the same people might have made the effort in the past but I'm losing them to the indoor excuse because it's easier to do a quick spin on Zwift and stay clean than get out there and have to deal with a bit of mud.

The group ride stuff gets me though. Seen some chatting about a group ride they're looking forward to... on Zwift! All been planned in advance and not a weather related thing.

I find it best it think of it as a place. A place to do workouts, a place to do group rides, a place to plod around and recover for an hour, a place to race and a place to chase KOM’s.

A place that’s warm, dry, convenient, consistent, free from headwinds and where several thousand others will be doing their thing too.

I use it as a place to do my Trainerroad workouts. I could copy them over to Zwifts workouts mode but there’s no point, I just run TR on my phone controlling my ERG trainer and let Zwift see my Power too so my Avatar bombs around and makes me feel like I’m going somewhere.

There are loads of irritating quirks but it’s a great tool.

You need an ANT+ dongle, and ANT+ speed and (ideally) cadence sensors. It’ll cost about £40ish.

If you’re an idiot get on it!  It’s right up your street.

As a way to make an unpleasant aspect of cycling even more expensive it’s great.

Just did a 45 min session...watching a highlights stage from TDF 2016...even that was better than nothing!

£10 ANT+stick https://www.amazon.co.uk/Anself-Compatible-Garmin-Forerunner-011-02209-00/dp/B00LIIMHP4/ref=pd_bxgy_107_img_2

£6 USB3 extension cable  https://www.amazon.co.uk/AmazonBasics-Male-Female-Extension-Cable/dp/B00NH12O5I/ref=dp_ob_title_ce

£20 ANT+/Bluetooth speed/cadence kit https://www.amazon.co.uk/Cadence-Wireless-Bluetooth-Speedmeter-MapMyRide/dp/B01MR8ZYNZ/ref=pd_bxgy_107_img_3

£25 ANT+/Bluetooth HRM  https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01M8QD9Z4/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Now use BIGTHANKS to get £10 off before midnight tonight. 😉

Thanks nobody...so even to try Zwift 'free' for a week it's actually going to cost £40+ to get up and running...errr...riding

I did my free trial of Zwift a couple of weeks ago using Bluetooth sensors and it was incredibly frustrating at times. The Zwift game on PC does not support Bluetooth directly, it used the Zwift Mobile Link app as a "bridge" for such devices.

I bought the above ant+ stick and cable to connect my turbo, thinking I could use my polar H7 heart rate monitor through the app, only to find I lost heart data on most workouts. Consequently, I bought that H6 Coospo HRM above and it's been rock solid, half the price of the popular Wahoo one.

It sounds like your turbo does not communicate directly with apps like Zwift, so at the very least, you will need a speed/cadence kit that Zwift will use to estimate your efforts.

I’m not sure I’d bother to be honest. You’d have been much better to put that money towards a smart trainer and used your normal bike rather than buy a turbo bike. As you say, it’s not free, and the experience with your equipment won’t be much fun IMO, I tried it once, but it was crap.

Try Sufferfest. All you need is your trainer and use the perceived effort guidance.

Had the turbo for 2 years, and not used for nearly 2 years!
Since then I've seen vids of carbon bikes flexing on them and thought that's not for me hence the cheap bike. All sounds like a faff TBH...will try other methods of boredom diversion first...

With only a month to play with, no smart trainer and none of the appropriate sensors i'd be looking at the GCN training videos.  There's quite a selection now, and by the time you add a short warmup and cooldown most give a solid hours workout.

For me it is all about motivation. I have non on the Turbo, little to non on a real ride but a Zwift race gets me going and I can push way harder than I would normally.

Seems to be doing me some good. Will be a lot more betterer when the garage is not 38 degrees. I am thinking it might stop the winter decline this year.