surak

Zwift has definitely kept things interesting for me this winter. I haven't received all the gear I ordered to deal with the cold and wet conditions, plus I dislike getting my bike dirty after every ride and having to wash it outside, so I've been doing intervals and base group rides. Seeing another Zwifter up the road at the end of a tough interval has kept me mentally sane as I think about reaching them if I can keep pushing, and my first group ride was a metric century plus where I didn't get bored at all because the simplified drafting dynamics were enough to stay engaged.

Have to agree with the other criticisms of Zwift's UI being terrible. I've quickly learned to rely on ZwiftInsider and ZwiftHacks for even the most rudimentary information, like keyboard shortcuts, event and route descriptions, and picking which display to show up when I have my laptop hooked up to my TV.

Dan333SP

Zwift got me through the entire Mandalorian series recently which reignited my decades-dormant scifi nerdery.

OBoile

He (Vegan Cyclist) did do 330 a couple of weeks ago on a Zwift FTP test, so 350 isn't that far off.
I'm about 15 or so watts under I'd guess. My best 20 minutes on my aero bars is 270, but this wasn't quite all out as I had another 5 minutes or so in my Zwift race. My best on the hoods is 288 during an FTP test a couple of weeks later. Given that I didn't do anything besides putting the bars on... I'm pretty pleased by that.

burnthesheep

Good work! That’s pretty close. Most folks are further apart for the two.

In general I’m trying to do a better job doing workouts in realistic riding positions. Not sitting crazy upright.

dmanthree

True, but it can be really close. I've seen and read a few comparisons from riders who have climbed Alp d'Huez and compared it with AdZ. It's within a few minutes! I think the difference is altitude and wind resistance, but the Zwift simulation is really close.

zacster

Which is more boring, riding indoors or The Mandalorian? I turned it off halfway through episode 4 because I couldn't figure out why or what I was watching. I've seen all 9 films plus Rogue One at the theater in the opening week, usually on a very big screen, but I don't consider myself a fanboy. I just couldn't figure out why I should care about what is going on. There is no character development, very little dialog, and no continuity of story. At least with Zwift I feel like I've accomplished something.

mstateglfr 

I had to watch the first half of the first episode 3 times because I fell asleep twice it was so boring. I then just stopped it the 3rd time. My kids like it, but based on what else they watch, that isnt saying much.
The only way The Mandalorian would be good incentive for a trainer is if you had to ride fast enough to keep it off the TV. Slow down and it plays.

MoAlpha

How does one accomplish any training, e.g., maintain a cadence, and watch a movie anyway? It's all I can do to follow a middle-brow podcast or audio book.

caloso

Only if it's just a tempo or recovery spin. If it's focused intervals, I need to focus.

WalksOn2Wheels

Last night was a good example of why Zwift is nice for flatlanders like me. I did a route with like 3k feet of climbing in about 25 miles. And also for flatlanders like me: the 50% default setting for gradient reality is a blessing because my meager ftp combined with my currently overweight status would make all that climbing a nightmare on 100%. In time...

zacster

I had to rewatch episode 3 too, and then went to episode 4 at which point I turned it off halfway. I kept expecting it to lead to something but it doesn't. And a lot of reviews I've read say it doesn't get any better. I'm still trying to figure out what other show people are watching that it gets any good reviews. It's an episodic buddy western dressed up in Star Wars garb. That unfortunately doesn't make it interesting or watchable.

Dan333SP

+1. If I don't plan on going over 80% of my max HR for a ride, it's pretty easy to watch a movie or show at that level of intensity. Any sort of hard efforts and I can't focus on anything except the effort.

Thomas15

This is a very interesting thread. I don't quite understand some of the negativity with respect to supposed artificial delusions of grandeur that Zwift might cause. I personally accept that my speed on Zwift might be a few mph higher than IRL and I accept that riding an indoor trainer is not the exact same experience as outdoors. But none of this has anything to do with my reasons for using Zwift.


We (my wife and me) have had stationary bikes on and off for 35 years. There is zero chance that I would be putting in an hour to 3 hours per day, 5 or 6 days a week on a stationary bike. Zero chance. As others have said Zwift make a boring chore considerably more interesting. There is also zero chance I would at this point in my life start racing bicycles. What I am interested in is organized and group rides and I want to do better at them is year than I did last year.


Also as others have said, watts per kilogram are watts per kilogram.


I can look back at my performance from 3 months ago and compare to now and I see much improvement due to my time using Zwift. Even if the power factor isn't accurate compared to reality, it should still be a relative indication of fitness improvement.


Where I'm located it is winter and thus not a good time to ride outside. If it were not for Zwift I would not be on the bike at all. The few times I have been outside and on my bike this winter my performance has been improved over where I was last fall.


I'm not going to ever be a pro cyclist, I'm not ever going to race bicycles and I'm not going to pay someone to coach me. I spent 40 hours on my trainer using Zwift last month and paid $15 for the service. That's like 40 cents and hour. Plus I didn't have to brave the cold night or snow/sleet, drivers on my narrow roads and if I spend an hour on my trainer I might spend another 10 minutes getting ready and shutting down as opposed to a half hour getting my stuff ready for a road ride. I don't get virtual flat tires and if I need to take a bathroom break no problem. I cannot get lost or suffer a mechanical breakdown or crash. The minor annoyances are nothing compared to the benefits,


Again if it were not for Zwift I would not be exercising that much until spring. But with Zwift I can have what I think is a reasonable expectation of starting the 2020 season in much better condition than if I had simply sat before the TV beer in hand from November to March.


We get out of it what we put into it.

zacster

That's exactly how I feel about it. Anything that gets me on the bike indoors in the winter is a plus. Add to that the tracking of the apps and you can see improvement over that time. I ride Central Park IRL and on Zwift and while similar I doubt I could do what I do on Zwift the same in the park. The sprint alone is not realistic at all in Zwift, it comes at the busiest part of the park and you'd never be able ride like that unless you're in a sanctioned race and the road is closed, not just to cars but to everyone else too. Harlem hill is not nearly as steep IRL even if it feels it to untrained riders. And the glass elevated roadways in the park are only good for riding if you are completely delusional. Otherwise they don't really exist. Just don't come to your senses while on them, it's a long drop.

colnago62

I don’t live in an area where it is impossible to ride outside. I use Zwift mainly for doing intervals and zone 3 work. The groups rides are great for steady zone 3 work. Because avatars are able to ride through each other, it is easy to keep yourself in zone. When I first got on, I would do hours. What I realized eventually, was that indoor riding too much messes with outdoor riding. The real world isn’t as smooth as the indoor world. Last a Sunday I did my sweet spot work outside. It was difficult trying to maintain the proper wattage while avoiding potholes, shifting to maintain wattage. I was way more tired doing two 20 minute sessions outside than inside.

dmanthree

Your experience with Zwift is similar to mine. In the past, I'd ride the roads int he cold and dark, using a headlight, until the roads were impassable due to winter. Now, I ride all winter, and no longer at night. Yes, Zwift is a grand illusion, but a good one. We know all we're doing is riding with increased resistance, but having that mountain appear on screen, and know what the end goal is goes a long was to alleviating the boredom of indoor cycling.

I'll never a pro, either. I don't care if others cheat to inflate their results. Honestly, that's just plain stupid. Who, exactly, are they cheating? I'll keep riding until the roads are clear. Until then...I'll enjoy Zwift as an alternative to ice and snow.

Psimet2001 

I have never had much luck at doing structured intervals outside. Structured training has always been more effective for me if done inside. While I haven't used it myself the feedback from others would seem to imply that Trainer Road is much better at training vs Zwift. Something to consider if all you are doing on the trainer is training.

colnago62

what I do is use TrainingPeaks to build my own interval sessions. Where I live, there is a little used path/farm road that is nice for intervals. Starting in about mid March, I go out to the velodrome to do interval work. The velodrome is great because it is easy to measure your effort.

Psimet2001 

Velodrome is a fabulous place to do stuff outdoors. You able to ride geared there? You local to me - Northbrook?

Cypress

Didn't read the whole thread, so this may or may not be on topic.

These are my thoughts and experiences on this controversial (for some reason) topic. It's probably also pertinent to know that I'm (probably) faster than you, and I attribute a lot of it to Zwift, so there might be bias.

I used Zwift through the entire winter save for a few gracious weather days here and there. I'm sure I'll be on it a lot more before the weather actually becomes consistently nice. I actually had someone unfollow me on Strava because most of my rides were on Zwift. I'm still a bit confused at what message he was trying to convey by telling me. Maybe "only real men ride in miserable conditions" or "I love to rebuild my bike once a week because of water damage, and so should you"? I hate being cold and wet. Thanks to Zwift, I don't have to choose between being cold and wet, or being out of shape.

I am the strongest (and lightest) I've ever been in February because of Zwift, a structured workout calendar (not Zwift's), Garmin Vector 2 powermeter pedals, and my E-Motion rollers. This is legitimate fitness that has translated directly to outdoor form. Without Zwift there is absolutely NO WAY I'd be able to mentally cope with the amount of indoor hours I've done over the past three months. An indoor trainer workout on Zwift is "worth" more than an outdoor ride of the same length and type (to a point). There is no coasting or micro-resting that you see in normal outdoor riding.

How to get the most out of Zwift::

• Use two fans. One on your upper legs/torso and one dedicated to your head/neck. My head/neck fan draws air in directly from outside.
• Get a dehumidifier specifically for that room. You're a moist nugget when you ride inside, so avoid mold issues and run that thing for at least two hours after every ride.
• Pipe the video feed into the largest screen you can manage centered IN FRONT of your bike
• Play music/movies of your choice at the same time (movie on a separate screen if you're using structured workouts and need to pay attention)
• If you're using any training plan, do an FTP test. FTP tests suck, but your training plan means jack **** if you don't have the correct zones from an accurate FTP number
• Sporadically alternate your cadence using your gearing every few mins. This is closer to what happens in the real world with wind, small rises on the road, etc.
• Go up two gears and get out of the saddle without changing your power for about 10 seconds every few minutes. This does wonders for alleviating soreness/tension in your back, crotch, and shoulders.
• Ignore what other people are doing.
• Seriously...IGNORE WHAT OTHER PEOPLE ARE DOING. I've been "dropped" by plenty of cheaters, but I've also been "dropped" by some of the fastest riders on the planet who use aliases to avoid attention.
• Search out your riding buddies. I've done 3-hour rides with real-life friends on opposite sides of the country. It's a hoot.
• Do a Zwift race if you have the hankerin', but don't be bummed when you get smoked by someone with an improperly-calibrated setup or a spurious weight input.
• Make it an easy habit. I keep my bikes, a pair of bibs, shoes, towel, and wrist/head bands near my Zwifting area with my laptop already plugged into a TV. I can be on the "road" in 4 mins.
• Ignore the haters that say Zwift isn't "real" riding, then drop them with your newfound fitness on the next outdoor ride you do.

phenry24 

TrainerRoad is definitely more focused on structured training than Zwift, and the workouts overall are much better on TR. When I first got a power meter and started training indoors on a dumb trainer I was on TR, a few months after that I got a smart trainer, and about a year later I dropped my TR subscription and got on Zwift. For me the big sell on Zwift is how much more mentally engaging it is than TR, even though it's just a low-res avatar on a bike spinning his legs at the same cadence as me riding around low-res Watopia it makes workouts seem to go by a lot faster than just staring at a blue graph for two hours. If Zwift did not have a workout creator I would still be on TR though.

jadocs

Spot on advice. Everyone should pay attention to this.

I never knew you had InsideRide Rollers as well? You can't beat really riding your bike indoors on Zwift.

Cypress

I got hooked on those rollers back in 2009 and can't imagine using anything else for stationary riding. No special trainer tires, no weird torque forces on a captive bike frame, easier on the "undercarriage" because the bike isn't rigid... It's as close to "outside" as it gets.

mstateglfr 

I talked a coworker into trying zwift by just buying a $40 speed and cadence sensor and he loved the first handful of rides he did. Then he complained hard because he tried a race and was promptly smoked by most in his division who all ended with w/kg numbers well above the division's max. I held back on not laughing because shocker- its a game and cheating happens in even the most meaningless of competitive situations. He now gets it and just ignores any results that are significantly over the max.

I would love to be on the road in 4min. Its like 10-15 for me for some reason and at times frustrating. 2 different laptops, same result- slower than me on a climb. If it werent nearing the end of cold temps, I would strongly consider buying an AppleTV and trying the Zwift App to see if that loads faster.

Cypress

I've got a friend that just joined in the Zwift world and he had the same experience. "I was killing myself and I couldn't even stay in their draft!" Now he just races as encouragement to see where his FTP is.

That same friend runs Zwift off of his iPhone then uses an adapter to his TV... Could be the way to go if your laptops are "seasoned"