Knowing very little about training or road riding but in a bid to improve strength and stamina on the mountain bike I find myself with a smart trainer and a Zwift account.

I’ve got a cx bike that doesn’t get much use so have fitted a trainer tyre and happy to use it just for training at the moment.

So far I’ve done an FTP test and a few SST (med) rides which seemed pretty good but am trying to find out which workouts are best for what I need.

I can’t stick to a strict routine so will be using the trainer one or two times a week whenever possible. If anyone can offer any advice I’d much appreciate it.

Depends on your normal riding really – I mean, everybody would like more strength & stamina but do you mean a faster sprint in xc races or more energy for a full day out, or what ? Also depending on how (& how much) you ride currently, my bet is that anything you do on there will improve you (see weeksy’s giant thread if you haven’t already) if you stick with it

I’ve only ever done one – “the wringer” – lowish pace with 30 seconds or so of hard (but not max sprint) efforts chucked in every couple of minutes

I don’t know what it’s good for but I secretly quite like it

Other than that, do a couple of group rides or a race. I’m not sure it has to be a workout

They’re all good, if you’re just riding to get fitter just do a mix of them when you can.

Following a set plan is the best bet, but anything is better than nothing.

for most ‘normal’ riders building your FTP (in layman’s terms, the amount of power you can sustain for an hour) is key. You can train specifically other areas (as said, sprints, etc.) but to the normal rider if the FTP goes up, everything else will go up with it.

Hence I’d suggest just having a go at something like their 6 week FTP builder.

https://whatsonzwift.com/workouts/6wk-beginner-ftp-builder

and if you can’t be doing that number of sessions per week, then focus less on the foundation stuff and more on the strength and tempo work from that plan

Depending on your set-up, it might be worth avoiding the workouts with really short sprint efforts in them…..(like the 10seconds ones)

I find anything less than a 30 second effort I can’t get to the requested power because the resistance doesn’t ramp up quickly enough & I can never get the gear ratio correct before that segment ends.

Even on the 30second efforts it take me a couple of intervals to ‘learn’ how the trainer reacts and get my gearing/cadence right.

Thanks for the replies. I guess I’m really looking to improve my strength in order to keep up with the maniacs I ride with every week on two to three hour rides.
Just want to make the most of the limited time I have on the trainer.

OK, maybe depends how they ride away from you then – do they fly away up the first steep hill or do they just wear you down after the first hour ?

(regardless, do a race or two – they’ll show you how hard you really can push for a short time and how/if you can recover after that effort… and they’re more fun than a workout)

I’ve been told I’m not allowed to do the workouts on Zwift unless the children are out of the house. Apparently the frequent swearing from the spare room is unacceptable.

Jon’s mix is my favourite i like the 30 minute one too when pushed for time. I found them all a bit easy at first as I think my FTP was probably a bit low. After having it pushed up from pushing myself to keep up with people while riding round the workouts have now gotten really sweary.

For info – 123 pages on Zwift here.

Just doing a race/TT or two on Zwift each week is a workout in itself! There is literally nowhere to hide, no let up at all.

A lot of the guys I ride with start fast and don’t seem to fade, whereas it takes me a while to warm up and find myself falling back towards the end of the ride.

As a complete road novice, what’s the etiquette for racing on Zwift? Is it just a matter of turning up and hanging on?

I’ve not yet done a race on Zwift, but you basically just find a race you want to enter, enter it & make sure you are on Zwift with plenty of time in hand to warm up etc.
Zwift puts you in a holding pen before the start & then you just give it the beans once the race starts.
Apparently most people wind up to a sprint as the start approaches to get a flyer at the start.

There are various websites with race schedules. The Zwift one is here:

You have to choose a category that suits your power band. If you are averaging 3.5w/kg and enter as a cat D you’ll be disqualified from the results.

I don’t think that Zwift gives you the results. You have to sign up to zwiftpower for that….

Regarding workouts to try….

From the ones I have done so far (not that many) – I found:

GNC Seated & Standing
Hunter’s Challenge Wk2 Day 4 – Tractor Pulls
GNC Random Lengths

have felt the hardest so far & have been enjoyable.
But, I don’t have much time in the evenings – so I think these fall under the 60-75min category.

Racing on Zwift is just a mad hammer it from the start and keep going as hard as you can to the end 🙂 if you try and pace it the maniacs at the front are just gone, i’ve hung on for a few top 10 finishes.
I pick most of the workouts on how I feel and what I can manage to finish some are pretty brutal.

I tried the workouts but I just didn’t get on with them.

Races are great. I check zwiftpower.com for the day and time that suits me and see what’s happening (worth signing up to that site if racing for results too). Races are a very good way of going very deep and making very good use of minimal time. I found I could go much deeper than a normal solo session.

In general I’ve found doing regular 20-40min sessions enough as you are constantly putting in effort unlike most real world rides. Also keeping rides short I can do it most days of the week if needed without feeling fatigue (unless doing real rides). After a couple of months my fitness massively improved, my endurance at intensity was a lot better as well as recovery. Shorter punchy MTB climbs that needed brute force were a lot easier\faster and my pedaling on the road bike was a lot more fluid and constant at higher outputs. I still need to shift some weight though (5-10kg) as dragging 85kg up climbs fast enough to nick local KOMS is satisfying but my knees aren’t enjoying it!

I find the gorby is a great workout.

Jon’s mix I found too difficult to get short sprints to work properly.

As for racing, yikes it’s just flat out. I have only done 1 and it was manic.

Zwift racing is good, but is it a better training tool than training itself? Everything is pretty much at limit and the potential to overdo it is high.

Although as noted with Weeksy on the other thread; it is more interesting than holding a power for x minutes and then holding another – even with something to look at other than the shed wall – so if the options are:

a/ a structured training program that you jack in after a few sessions because it’s boring

b/ an unstructured beasting but one you look forward to every time

it’s tough to knock

On a smart trainer, should zwifting be harder work than actually riding is?

Impossible to answer. You can go full gas on either, you can bimble as well. people who’ve run outside power meter tests vs indoor zwift power tests (using proper trainers, not rough algorithm ones) generally report similar results, ie: same effort indoors vs outdoors give basically same results.

If you want there to be a difference then i find with no massive turbo fan i overheat far more which makes it feel harder for the same number data.

Thank you.

just to clarify – having reread my post – by feel harder I mean you’re totally aware you’re bathed in sweat, there a puddle under your bike and you’re aware of it running off your nose and onto your phone screen to show how hard it is. The physical effort sensation – as I said, full gas is full gas…..