I have once again emerged from a winter of riding the turbo expecting my 27mph mass group rides around Tempus Fugit to somehow translate directly into the real world where I can quickly dominate the Strava leaderboards.

Reality has very quickly bitten. Just like it does Every Single Year. Anyone else?

Yep. I don’t expect to be as speedy as I am in Zwift, but for some reason my “Zwift fitness” doesn’t seem to translate quite as well to real life fitness.

I wonder how much that has to do with the trainer difficulty setting…? I keep meaning to try setting it to 100% for free rides, but never remember to do it.

Trainer difficulty just affects how much you have to change gears.

Power is power, it’s not affected by the trainer difficulty %.

And unless you’ve been doing a training plan or been racing, group rides have probably just maintained your fitness. I’ve been doing training plans for 12 weeks straight and can notice a difference riding outside.

In my head I don’t really associate Zwift and Real Life Riding. They are separate activities that just happen to mostly use the same muscles.

I have used my Trainer with my Garmin so that I can simulate real-world courses. The results are comparable so I reckon my trainer calibration is pretty close.

Yeah I think you’re right. The gears on my turbo bike are so shonky though so 100% difficulty doesn’t work so well for me. Think it’s also that it’s more stop/start so harder to do a steady effort.

Yes. But riding IRL is always hard. Zwift helps keep the weight off in winter where I’d usually be nearly a stone heavier without it. Imagine someone giving you a bag with 5kg in weight. No thanks.
Also, without Zwift it takes me longer to build up the core cycling muscles…usually located sometime end of April/May. It just means I can head out earlier in the year with less fatigue.

It’s just you :p

I know we’re in Fool’s Spring, but I’m enjoying the speed that’s come with it.

Nope, I did it the first year and came to the realisation that although its alright for your legs and cardio it doesnt do anything for the rest of the muscles. I now try to only do 1 ride a week over the winter on zwift and just carry on with the winter road bike outside for the rest of the time. Much better and means the 20 mile route I just did for the first time this year on the summer bike meant a 17.6mph average.

Without Zwift I’d be nowhere when it comes to fitness – I’d have to start running again – last year with no zwift at this point in the year I’d done 90km of riding. This year I’m at 1300km.

I’ve lost 4-5kg since January too, that probably wouldn’t have happened without the extra 1500-2000 calories a week burned thanks to Zwift.

I’ve been doing a bit of Zwift racing since Jan, mainly the 1215 Mon-Fri lunchtime 1 lap sprints that are typically sub 15mins, plus more recently the odd 30-60min race on top of plenty of z1/2. I’ve taken my road bike outside in the last couple of weeks for the first time since early Oct, when I had a ~4 week flu followed by ~2 weeks of Covid vaccine side effects in Dec. I’ve very surprisingly set PBs or missed my PB by seconds up every approx 260-1200 foot hill I’ve attempted to give beans to so far (6?).

If you have a power meter on your bike that you use indoors and out, Zwift can be great for giving you a ballpark idea of what you can sustain outdoors for any given time duration.

I don’t know if it’s down to the shonkyness of my wheel on turbo (really noisy/rough feeling), but feel way stronger on the bike IRL. Obviously the average speeds are lower. Traffic lights, junctions, traffic, wind all make a difference.

Obviously the MTB is even slower by its nature.

Zwift will help cardio, fitness and leg strength, but you are not really training the core muscle groups that are keeping you balanced, or needed for manipulating an MTB.

I’m currently cruising through 15-20 threshold sessions twice a week on Zwift but doing the rest – 4 to 6 min vo2max sessions – on a nearby hill which allows me to come down and back around via some single track. Most of my training will be outdoors from here on in.

Power is power,

Inside that will mostly go towards speed, outside there’s road friction and aerodynamic effects to overcome, plus the effect of starting and stopping regularly when in traffic/town and dealing with hazards.

Best thing you can do for any turbo setup is completely ignore speed and distance

outside there’s road friction and aerodynamic effects to overcome,

and which should go against the same things in Zwift – hopefully pretty accurately if their model is good. The one thing that is an impact on the open road is wind, Zwift is of course always a flat calm.

I live near Box Hill and find my times riding up IRL are very close to my times in Zwift – both mainly determined by my W/kg.

My HR outside is generally a little higher compared to Zwift but it’s definitely harder work inside, especially during workouts, there’s no rests on the downhills, no stopping for a picture at the top of a climb.

Zwift – high end (virtual) road bike, no junctions to stop at, a long ride is one that goes over an hour, data in metric

IRL – MTB, no power data, techincal features that expend energy, often stopping to chat, a short ride is 2hrs, data in imperial.

The two are so far removed from each other for me that there is no direct comparison between them

Box hill in Zwift does have that weird lump when you get to the top though. Thankfully that doesn’t exist irl

On the road it always seems pretty reasonable to me. But mountain biking is just inherently harder, more weight, more drag, more anaerobic kick efforts. That said, one of the unpublicised side effects of long covid is that after spending 18 months doing very little at all, the last thing you want to do is sit inside on a trainer, so this winter I have mostly been riding outside 🙂

Zwift will help cardio, fitness and leg strength, but you are not really training the core muscle groups that are keeping you balanced, or needed for manipulating an MTB.

But to flip that around, after a winter of “inside biking” you go into “outside biking” with decent cardio, fitness and leg strength, which gives you a decent base to work on the core-strength type real-world stuff.

Without Zwift there’s no way I’d ride as much as I do through the winter, and it definitely pays off in the spring

Indoor trainer user here (but not Zwift) as others have posted, I find that it doesn’t straight transfer from the trainer to IRL, but it does mean I am not starting from scratch with fitness when I break from my indoor hibernation!

Depends what you do on Zwift innit. I have been racing all winter with a team, which is high intensity – higher than I would riding outside on my own.

Last Sunday I went out for my first outdoor ride in ages with some intensity (I’ve only done a few over the winter) and it was awful. Everything ached and I felt terrible. On Tuesday I went for another, MTB this time, and I went to stretch my legs a bit on the climbs. I felt pretty good. Then as I was rolling home I glanced down at my timer and realised I was well on course for a PB despite only having given it about 75%. So I smashed the last couple of kms and got the PB.

So Zwifting works if you race, preferably with a team, and give it everything. But I think that the fixed bike position (if you don’t have a rocker plate) actually means your core doesn’t get the workout it would on a real bike.

Zwift has done incredible wonders for my fitness. It means that fireroad climbs no longer make me tired, so I can invest most of my energy into developing downhill fitness. Yes it’s not 1-1 but you’d be mad to think it doesn’t help.

Some great points made. I was being a bit hyperbolic in my OP as a few outdoor rides in and I can definitely feel it’s an improvement compared to an idle winter, especially in my recovery time. But nothing really beats riding outdoors. At least not while the sun is out!

I don’t think it’s just zwift, Ive been commuting most of winter, did a big ride at weekend aching all over next day, what especially got me was a long downhill, my calves and thighs were killing me a third of the way down. Lots of turbo training gets you good at turning pedals on a bike, that’s all, pedalling along smoothish flattish NCN routes in the winter has a similar effect but muddier.

I find it translates pretty well from zwift to the real world.

I only do training plans on zwift, so 6 days a week, typically an hour an evening.

Haven’t ridden since September as once winter comes I stick to the trainer these days.

I went out and comfortably did a 60k 1700m elevation mountain bike ride this week, there’s no way I would be able to ride that distance with 6 months of no activity or just riding once a week or a couple of times a month, I say comfortably as I still had plenty left in the tank at the end of the ride.

Some big climbs on the ride and some tough technical climbs that force you into your max heart rate zone if you want to clean them.

I’m normally in the top 1/4 of strava times at a minimum for any climbs or descents that I do. (Not that it means a lot, granted) and my times are consistent if not better after 8-10 weeks on the trainer.

I used to find I’d have to be out a minimum of 3 times a week to see any real fitness gains, once a week would just maintain what I had.

So for me the trainer has been a great investment for my mtb fitness, I’m a big believer of you only get out what you put in, so do push myself hard on the trainer

Your body doesn’t know you’re on the turbo 🤣

One of the biggest differences I’ve noticed between Pro’s and Joe’s riding on Zwift (on livestreams) is position.

Pro’s ride their real outdoor aero position far more whereas average folk tend to let their hip angle open up way more than even steady outdoor riding calls for. Me included.

Best cure for that I’ve found is using a set of clip on aero bars. That way you can ride your outdoor position more comfortably even without the wind holding you up.

Some handy tips from DJ:

A lot of the Zwift activity clogging up my Strava feed is high intensity, in fact some of the folks I see look like they’ve done nothing but all winter!

I got the impression that for the average Joe, lots of easy base level was still important and necessary, I really hope so in fact as that’s the approach I’m hanging my hat on this year in an attempt to avoid lots of silly injuries like in past years.

I tried doing lots of regular Z1 and Z2 on my rollers but ultimately it’s so much easier logging easy rides outdoors.

So far so good, have come out of winter with no high intensity turbo time feeling really strong, so in answer to the OP maybe a winter of Zwift isn’t the perfect training strategy?

I’ve been using trainer road rather than Zwift – so I guess there’s no aimless just pedalling about sessions – everything is a specific workout.

If I were using Zwift I think I’d mostly race because the workout sessions / plans sound too rigid in Zwift to work for me.

I like to loosely follow a plan in TR- sometimes I haven’t got the time to fit in the full session planned and it lets you pick similar alternatives based on duration etc.

I’ve come out of winter the fittest cycling wise I’ve ever been + the lightest I’ve been since I got married in 2014 and before I had kids.

The interval sessions where you’re doing between 5-10 mins of work with only a short break has really made a difference. Last night out on my hardtail for a bit of a fitness smash around an easy trail centre (Ashton court / 50 acre wood / Leigh woods) I nailed loads of pbs all over the place. I could really feel I could hold more intensity and power for longer on the pedally sections.

I’m finding the same at bigger places on my big bike – at Risca on the weekend I cleared a load of climbs I’d never have got up last year or any previous year.

I’ve not relied solely in the turbo though – I’ve been slogging through mud pretty much once a week all over winter.

For me, @13thfloormonk motivation was a big factor this winter so I Zwift raced ALOT! Back to back races Tuesdays and Thursdays and a longer (30mile) one at the weekend. With an occasional 100 or 50 mile Zwift endurance ride thrown in.

Now it’s sunny- I can get the base miles in outdoors.

Zwift racing got my ftp to an all time pb of 346w so I can now do my Z2 rides at 240w rather than the 210 they were in the Autumn.

There’s many ways to skin a cat 😀

and which should go against the same things in Zwift – hopefully pretty accurately if their model is good.

Any potholes to swerve around on the racing line?

Went out last night for a saunter on the road bike.
I felt pretty good I suppose, considering all I have done all winter is Zwift; not many long rides either. I didn’t really push it, as I had a workout planned for 6:45 this morning.

I definitely noticed that it was easier to push on any inclines (not that there are many round my way) and I got my breath back much quicker.

Looking forward to the clocks going forward so I can hopefully get out in the light!

A lot of the Zwift activity clogging up my Strava feed is high intensity, in fact some of the folks I see look like they’ve done nothing but all winter!

+1

And now they’ve started riding outside again their gains are showing!

I just ride pretty much the same all year round outside – but further and faster in summer, but the number of hours is pretty constant.