rm -rf

I got the Kickr and Zwift in Sept 2022. I didn't like it at first -- the watts were considerably lower than my outdoor watt numbers. And my cadence would get bogged down. I had to learn a different pedaling technique, smoother "rounder" pedaling, and more unweighting of the upward pedal stroke. I think the resistance is different than outdoors, where letting off force is an instant response, compared to a slight lag in the lowered resistance on the Kickr. (And the low cadence "death spiral" is easily fixed by coasting for a second or two -- the resistance will reset to a low value and I can spin again.) And lowering the Trainer Difficulty setting lets me keep a faster cadence that I like. (It should be called Gearing or Cadence adjustment, not Difficulty, since the watts are the same either way, it's just simulating lower bike gearing.)

For Zwift group rides, there's essentially no coasting on the flats, or I get gapped off far enough that it's quite difficult to connect back to the draft. That's different than my outdoor group rides, where I can just stand and do a few hard pedal strokes to get back in the draft.

The next spring outdoors, I could really feel the improvement after Zwift. A feeling of more power while seated. A better pedal stroke. Nice!

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Zwift activities I like lately:

--some of the big event rides, like the current Tour de Zwift. I've been doing the short course at full effort, taking about 30 minutes. I can't hold that strong pace for the longer courses.
--some of the easier group rides from some organized groups, with ride leader pacers and a cutoff fence in front of the group. A moderate cruise speed is nice. The fence can be set so that riders that pass in front of it for more than 60 seconds are off the ride, or just as a warning/reminder. It depends on the group.

--Some riders I know set up private group rides. It's very easy to make one of these events and send out invites. We use the "keep group together" option -- slow riders that are more than a few seconds off the back get automatically towed back to the group, as long as they aren't just coasting. So strong and weaker riders can ride together. The rides are either "finish this selected Zwift course", or "ride for 60 minutes", etc.

--The Climb Portal. It's interesting to try the big climbs. The really tall ones are a bit much for me, but I like the 1000-2500 foot elevation climbs. Ha, I can't fall over, no matter how slow I go. I have the Settings--Trainer Difficulty set to 30% - 40% so I can keep a faster cadence on these steep climbs. It's still the same wattage as at 100% difficulty, but much lower gearing.

-- The pacer bot "24/7 Group Rides". This is much better now, with the new Teleport button on the companion app or screen menu. Click Teleport, and it shows all the different W/kg speed groups. Pick one, and you are transported to it, with the 10 second countdown to start pedaling. Got gapped off? just reconnect. The best use is for warmup and "intervals": I start with a long easier warmup speed group, then jump to either a maintainable faster group, or else a "hold on for 3-5 minutes" too-fast group. That's fun to see how long I can hang on at those speeds. I end up with one ride recording session that includes all these different groups.

-- Workouts: I have a custom Zone 2 ERG mode workout, at steady Zone 2 watts, with periodic 30 second "free ride" sections for standing and/or stretching. The Zwift workout maintains the target wattage no matter what gearing I'm using, as long as I keep a fairly steady effort. Bump the watts a bit to have Zwift allow an increased cadence, or ease off briefly below the target watts to go to a lower cadence. I can't ride that steadily outdoors at all.