When I used Sufferfest, I would jump on my trainer, load up Downward Spiral and do my best not to puke for 30mins or so.
I got Zwift earlier this year and am fine with connectivty etc but I am still struggling to understand what I should be doing and when, All I want to do is a group ride, race or training programme that pushes me to ride hard. However, probably through my own ineptitude, I still just don't get it.
My Zwift, Zwift Academy, Zwift.com, Zwift App, Zwift Power, Zwift Strava, ZWTFT
I just feel old and need a youth to explain to me how I can easily use Zwift to help me be less fat. I am seriously considering going back to Sufferfest and binning the smart bit, but millions of other people seem to get it, why don't I?
If you wanna just ride, then just ride.....choose a course and get started. You can ride as hard or easy as you want & assuming you have a smart trainer, the resistance will take care of itself.
If you fancy doing a workout, then choose select workout - find one that you fancy & off you go. There is a good website called whatsonzwift that lays out the workouts nicely & you can search them well, too.
whatsonzwift also has info on group rides & races. I would avoid a group ride if you just wanna bust a gut, because the group ride will be at a prescribed pace.
Most of the stuff you mention above like zwift academy, strava etc. you can ignore.
Just get on with it & you'll soon work it out!
You'll need to work out what pace group rides are - some are very slow, others way too fast. Some structured rides are quite good - in that there are long intervals as a group and they push you. I generally just ride, and push myself.
Power meter, big hills, chase down your PBs and/or focus on improving your best 20min power effort.
Got to confess last winter group rides and race became a bit of a farce with so many people in them and then so many more people not in them but around on the same bit of rode you could not work out what was what.
The new price structure for existing members must start soon - I'll be hanging around long enough to see if it is more sensible and less crowded and if not, I'll be off I think.
Race is the answer.
Use the Zwift App to make sense of what races are when and see how many people are registered.
Pick one and knock yourself out.
Don't race too low a category. If you don't know pick B and go from there.
Do register on Zwiftpower even if you don't look at it others do and it's nice to see results with the people you were actually racing against.
Racing now removes all the other people from the course during the race so you can see what's going on.
You are old. Stop whining and sign up for the 6:10pm 1-lap race round the Innsbruckring today. Start pedalling and then don't stop until the end.
Racing now removes all the other people from the course during the race so you can see what’s going on.
Happy days! I assume it works the other way around and you don't see people in a race if you are just going for a pootle? What about group rides - do they take place in empty lands now?
You doing that one EEMY ?
I think you still see race groups. You do see the Group rides.
No idea what you see when you're on a group ride as I don't do them.
Come November and new pricing I'm assuming they are going to allow world switching as Innsbruck will be incredibly busy when 4000+ are back online in winter.
I am seriously considering going back to Sufferfest and binning the smart bit, but millions of other people seem to get it, why don’t I?
If you've got a smart trainer and can ride in ERG mode, the latest iteration of The Sufferfest stuff is brilliant ime. It now measures your power levels for a 7-second sprint, one minute effort, five minutes and a 20-minute FTP and then tweaks the power levels of any workout you do to suit your own personal profile. They have a selection of training programmes too based mostly on their videos. And there's no cheating or backing off in ERG mode.
I prefer it to Zwift for training tbh, though I quite like the game-like stuff on Zwift. I mean, who wouldn't want a Tron Bike with glowing wheels and what better way to observe the curious characteristics of various nationalities - yes Italian men, I do mean you with your insane reluctance to be overtaken, ever.
useful post op I'm kind of the same, used to follow trainerroad programmes with quite a bit of success. I think zwift has so much going on its a bit confusing. I'm sure I'll get used to it. yet to do a race but think it's a great feature
It's all about the racing!
Just training on it is dull imo. - If you're just following a training plan, and a target power for X mins, then watching the little fella pedal soon gets boring, so just use Sufferfest/TrainerRoad or whatever.
Where Zwift excels is fun competition. I used to use the races as motivation to get in a really hard session, and I find it enables me to push much deeper (nearly puked a couple times). Doing a session really as hard as you can once every week or two, combined with working on long and slow endurance outside is a great way to improve fitness.
And yes, definitely register with ZwiftPower. Racing is pointless without results and Zwift themselves don’t provide a results service (ODD!) so it falls to ZwiftPower. Also for ZwiftPower results to be valid, you have to use a power meter AND a heart rate strap. And you have to make sure you select the appropriate category. If you don’t do these things you get DQ’d! I was in cat A when training and racing (I’m sure I won’t be now) and cat Bs were getting DQ’d if they raced at or above 4w/KG (cat a)
Can you use an ebike?
Pick a race, the sweet spot for me is 20-30km any long and I get a bit bored, and go and smash yourself. Bear in mind that you'll need to be well warmed up as the starts are fast and hard, expect to have to throw out 400w to get into a reasonable group.
The workouts are fine but I much prefer racing.
Can you use an ebike?
Yes, it's in the dropdown menu* on the right you select w/kg and bike weight.
*3rd option down after gullible
You doing that one EEMY ?
Thinking about it Weeksy, but 6pm is my tea time so always a chance I'll still be at the kitchen table when the race starts. I do like the new course though. That hill is very tough.
Can you use an ebike?
Yep, and your HR will show you're not trying hard and you'll get DQd from races. Next. If you're not racing then crack on.
I agree with the above that racing is the way to go. The new Innsbruck course is brutal, with a 20 minute climb and then a punchy 1 minute one in the town too. Be good in northern-hemisphere winter when the numbers swell again.
Agree, the Innsbruck course is really good, the flat course is also very good for quick blasts.
Lunge, I think the hill on the flat course is tough, never mind the other hills.
I love how everyone says racing is the best bit but Zwift and all their data think it’s a micro-niche.
I think their decision not to embrace, develop and even gamify racing is a travesty to be honest.
One of the guys on their team used to work on Road Rash I believe- clearly he’s become a dull, grey suited pacifist in his old age 🤷🏻♂️
Lobbing bottles at folk, putting a pump through their virtual spokes and knocking them over the barriers would be worth maintaining a summer subscription for 🤣🤣🤣
I only use Zwift to race or to do a proper recovery ride where you can stick between a certain HR and power .. its almost impossible to ride to the same recovery where I live with the hills in and out.
And of course sign up to Zwift power.
Just riding around the different courses is almost as boring as a normal turbo session; its all about the chasing for motivation.
I tend to just ride actually. I'll do the odd race or event but really I just like using it in place of a real world ride so I do what I'd do if I go for a road ride. I do like being able to head up a mountain whenever I want though with some people to pace off.
YMMV and I think that's the great thing with zwift, most people can find what you want in there.
I too just rode for a while & took great pleasure in riding hard & chasing others down & overtaking them & others me - unfortunately.
I then started doing some of the races to make me work much harder - & it works pretty well. You need to work out your category - I started in C & then realised I’m really at the bottom of B - so I have to work even harder to race those in my Cat.
Zwiftpower.com is a must, as others have said, although I struggle to understand all the abbreviations / colours etc . And there doesn’t seem to be a manual anywhere & the forum is limited.....