Originally Posted by Thomas15

I am not someone you want to take training advice from but perhaps something here will be of use.

One thing that Zwift has done for me is introduce me to a power meter and the constant use of an HRM. Pay attention to the numbers and learn where you can perform short and long. Train at 90%, the so called sweet spot, for you OP it is 180 watts. Ok exactly 1 year ago I was 159 pounds, 5'6" with an ftp of 135. To say I sucked on the hills is an understatement. But alas I live in the hills so for the sake of convenience I decided to get at least a small amount of hill climbing skills.

So exactly 1 year ago almost to the day I started using Zwift. My first (free) ride was NYC the elevated streets that are made of glass. Made it 11 miles about 900 feet ascent, ran out of gas. In my mind I needed both cardo and climbing help so I picked an easy route, the volcano loop and did laps, I mean i really pushed myself. If you pay attention on the volcano loop there is on the left side a grounded shipwreck, you can see the mast about 30 seconds before you get there. Right after you pass the ship there is a hairpin to the right then a left turn to the cave. All if this is an uphill.

Do 5 laps on this circuit and every time you get to the shipwreck spool up and push push push until you get to the cave. Back off in the cave but repeat on lap 2-5. This is really crude interval training but really work yourself on this part of the circuit, try to set records in w/kg.

There are interval workouts in Zwift. You might consider something like the ftp booster, 6 week plan. You really have nothing to lose.

The main thing is to really push yourself on the hills. There are short but steep climbs, example Innsbruckring has the legsnapper, get on it go balls out. Do this often. I did a race there tonight, finished about mid pack but all of my gains were in the hills. I went from sucking on the hills to using them to make hay. The only place I can make any progress is in the climbs. That is not saying much actually but the flats have become my weak point by comparison .

One of the things I did early last winter was ride the mountain route at least twice a week then after a month started climbing the Alpe. In the year for me I have climbed to the radio tower 24 times and up the Alpe 41 times. I think that I have made a mistake in that doing those climbs has been the bulk of my training. True I have some big hills in my area and I did many climbs this summer IRL. Zwift helped me so much in my hill climbing outside but again I think it was a mistake for me not to use a Zwift training plan as I tend to use big gears and mash. I think I should be doing more spinning but I cannot argue that hills that were fantasy to me in 2019 were totally within my abilities in 2020.

I'm currently for what it's worth doing the build me up workout series. Too soon to tell if it will work but my cadence is for sure getting faster. Again 1 year ago I was 159 pounds today I'm 136, my ftp was 135 now is 195, I can do hilly 20 mile rides in Zwift average 3.2 3.0w/kg which would have seemed impossible a year ago. Pain cave city! I can do IRL 28 mile loops with 3000 feet of climbing no problem now. My goal and I believe in setting goals is to to have an ftp of 225 by spring. If successful, this would actually put me really into B class. I'm not a racer I really don't care about it at all but I do like races just to see if I can improve my performance.

One thing that is very true about climbing, most that are not good at it hate it, those that are good at it love it. I have been on both sides of the fence and for me it all started with the desire and a positive attitude. Convince yourself that you like it and can be good at it. A negative attitude is not helpful at all. If you live in an area where riding outside isn't fun in winter now is a good time to use your trainer to improve your climbing skills. I went into last winter totally sucking on climbs, exited the winter not too bad. Trainer trainer trainer.

Again not advice just food for thought.