Thomas15

If your trainer or bike has a power meter or is supported by Zwift and is able to give you power in watts and watts per kilogram of body weight then you will be all set. I think all smart trainers have this feature and some not-so-smart trainers such as my Kinetic Road Machine with InRide 3 which uses software to determine watts. So if you don't already have a trainer I urge you to get something at a minimum as the Wahoo Kickr Snap.

The HRM is good/ very useful, the speed sensor is used only if you have a certifiable "dumb" trainer. I put a cadence sensor on to verify the sensor in the InRide and it is quite accurate (the InRide) I've compared my output to Garmin Vector 3 power meters and it is quite close. Just to be clear I'm not suggesting the Kinetic, I have one because I bought it used and cheap before everything bike related prices went nutz.

Ok to complete the above thought all of my ride data is uploaded to Strava from Zwift. So you get the normal analysis of the ride from Strava. My personal set-up: I use an ANT+ dongle connected to my windows laptop (you need 64 bits windows). The laptop is hard wire connected to a 54" flat screen (and sound system) using an HDMI cable. The laptop is on a stand close enough to the bike that I can use it while riding. I have the laptop on my wireless router and my iPhone on the same wireless network where I use the Zwift Companion app. I text other riders and do a few other things via the companion app, I do voice communications using the Discord app on my phone (I lose the Zwift sounds when I do this) and I use a blue tooth earbuds to use Discord or listen to Apple Music. For my complete set up I have all the above plus a plastic front wheel riser and a special rear tire made for wheel-on trainers mounted on a dedicated rear wheel. My iPhone is mounted on the bars using a Quad-Lock mount. I wear the same kit as riding outside except no helmet. I have two fans, one fore the other aft, you sweat like crazy on the trainer. I also have a dehumidifier in the room.

The Zwift program has a lot of functions and programs. You can solo (free) ride or social rides, races, leagues plus a wide variety of training programs. I personally have not used any of the training programs. Zwift has I think 8 worlds to choose from. Each world have a number of pre-defined routes, all together I think there are 76 routes ranging from easy to century rides, pancake flat to 8500 feet ascent. There are currently 50 levels in Zwift, you move up levels by getting XPs. By just riding you get 30 XPs for every mile. Also there are bonus XPs, the first time you complete a route you get close to double the mileage XPs. There are other ways of getting XPs. Also there are challenges, three of them. Two of them (Tour of Italy and Tour of California) are based on riding miles, when you complete them you get a virtual bike, the third (Everest Challenge) is hands down the hardest but once you complete it you get the coveted TRON bike. You also get sweat drops which you use as money to buy virtual bikes, wheelsets, kit and so forth. The gear you use makes a difference, for example use a good climbing frame and wheels to do the Alpe du Zwift (3500 feet of ascent in 8 miles) and a mountain bike for the trails.

When I started last November I quickly settled on getting the Tron bike (because of the emphasis on climbing) and finishing all 76 routes (it was 64 routes then). For the Tron you need to climb I think a total of 246,000 feet of ascent, I think. It took me about 5 months to do that. That is what took me from "I can't climb squat" to an individual that will try just about any climb. Before I hated climbs, now I'm a lets do this kind of guy. A lot of the more challenging routes have a lot of climbing, so you get on those XPs, bonus XPs, and on some bonuses for completing say a metric or full century. Other things that I worked for you get a badges for climbing the Alpe 5 times and another for climbing it 25 times. Also a the top of the Alpe there is a prize spinner you get a helmet, gloves and the best climbing wheelset, once you get those prizes the spinner awards bonus XPs either 250 or 1000.

So I made getting all of the routes completed and getting the Tron my motivation and training goal for last year. This year is different, I now have all of that and bonus XPs are slim pickings for me (I'm at level 33), have so many sweat drops (about 5 million) and a garage full of virtual bikes and wheelsets.

To keep things interesting and keep motivation, I will do two or three social rides a week. There are BTW, 100s of social rides and/or races on Zwift every day. The ones I do are usually about 20 miles, I do a warm up of about 10 miles and sometimes an after party so I get in 30 +/- miles on those . I have ridden up the Alpe 40 times to date (since last November), tomorrow I'm riding for the second time VEN-TOP (Mont Ventoux) which is 5000 feet of ascent over 13 miles, this is a race although I'm not going to try to win just survive. I treat some routes as an interval training (such as the Volcano Loop). So I'm going to just try to get in as much miles between now and the end of the year, then in January will set up something like 2 easy rides per week, 2 days days of intervals, one day of big climbing such as the Alpe and one day of "racing" on the flats. My plan is to put more emphasis on climbing Jan-May, then switch over to high cadence endurance on the flats May-July. I'm not good at rigid training programs so I'm not going to take advantage of those.

I hope there is some useful information here.

A great resource you should investigate is Zwift Insider dot com

Another thing not related to Zwift or trainers but something to think about. I belong to The Lehigh Wheelmens Association. They have several group rides IRL (In real life) in the Lehigh Valley every day. I did at least 1 ride a week all summer with them. Things have slowed down as the weather gets colder and daylight less abundant. There is another club Western Jersey Wheelmen in your area. You should check them out. I find club rides to be a bit more challenging than rides sponsored by LBS.