Originally Posted by datlas

I just did another virtual ride on Zwift.

I have a question for people who have trained more with power. I notice that I can ride say "easy-all day" at something like Zone 2, no problem....Zone 3, mildly hard but can still maintain for a long time. Getting into Zone 4 is fine for a few minutes but I can't sustain it indefinitely, and of course Zone 5 is short term. I think that's "normal."

The problem is on Zwift, sometimes there is a sprint or a hill and I have to go beyond Zone 5, say 140-200% of FTP. I do that as best I can for several seconds to bridge the gap or not get dropped....but once I do that effort, even staying in Zone 3 is hard for me. I feel totally shot and have to drop to Zone 1 for a few minutes to recover. What happens on Zwift is that I burn matches, bridge the gap, only to get dropped because I can't maintain Zone 2/3.

It's hard to say how much of this weakness is mental and how much is physiologic, I suspect it's both.

Any comments or advice?