dmanthree

Well, the low temps and ice-covered roads finally drove me inside to the trainer. I made my first Zwift ride and it's a decent way to ride a trainer. For those of you with Zwift experience, can you offer some tips? Favorite routes? Best features?

Love how it "talks" to the trainer to change resistance. Really enhances indoor riding.

Jakedatc

Fans and a side table for water bottles, phone etc

Go find the Challenges and put it on Everest so all the elevation counts towards the Tron bike... it takes a long time but every bit helps.

I like the 3 Lap Hilly races and the TGIF Friday night ride (8pm east) all found in Events page on Zwift.com

motosonic

For Zwift, just try and change it up. I was excited about Zwift when I first got my smart trainer and now I'm so bored of it that I'm taking a break from it and using Rouvy (which is nice because you ride real courses, not the CGI generated Zwift courses and there are way more than the 3 that Zwift provides). My advice is, try another application if you can because while Zwift is nice, the lack of courses gets boring fast. I wish they had more than Watopia, London and Richmond.

Sy Reene

I'm only about a half-dozen rides on Zwift so far, and likewise finding it's a good experience for being indoors.

Thought I was doing something wrong, but evidently a fundamental design flaw (IMO).. When finishing eg. a workout or race or whatnot, and wanting to do something else (eg. another ride/workout/race whatever).. the only option seems to be to Save & Exit.. there's no way to Save your ride and then do another without a complete exit and restart of Zwift (and re-pairing of devices), etc.. Crazy flaw.

Other than that, works well. ERG mode is cool, but sometimes during a w/kg based workout ride, strange to hit a 8% hill and have no resistance feel change on the trainer, rather just see my MPH drop drastically.

datlas 

Make it more fun by riding with your friends, who will appear as orange dots on the map.

Also, try some of the Zwift group rides. They are worth considering too.

Jakedatc

I haven't tried going from one event to another but you can try doing it through the Zwift mobile app... there is an Events tab that you can hit Join like at the start of a ride.

dmanthree

Never heard of Rouvy. I'll take a look. Real routes sounds good.

dmanthree

Bummah. No Mac support.

rubiksoval

Do some group workouts and races. It's all the rave these days.

dmanthree

If I do, it will be the first time I've ever raced.

ddub

BigringVR is a nice change. Real routes and hellacious climbs. Mac friendly. I still like Zwift better. The group rides and challenges are entertaining.

RShantz

I'm getting somewhat addicted to it. Did a 100km race today and let me tell you, I got a proper workout. I've never had success with structured intervals on the trainer. Just too boring. If you do the races, you'll see it's very good for a trainer/computer and it makes me really go hard.


A lot of my buddies whine about the fudging some folks obviously do on Zwift - weight, unrealistic power numbers and such. But this doesn't bother me. I'm doing it for a workout. I'm not worried about my results on a virtual race. I just want to make sure I'm in a pack that makes me work hard to hang on.

Jakedatc

It is fun.. do some group rides first though to get used to riding around and figuring out the power-ups and knowing where to look for your different power numbers, distance etc..

also when you start... be doing 120% FTP before the gate drops lol Then hold that for a while until things settle in

datlas 

Agree. The few “races” I have done on Zwift have been full gas from the start.

rubiksoval

Nothing really like actual racing, but a good workout nonetheless.

dmanthree

ftp?

ericy

Functional Threshold Power. Essentially it is an estimate of the average number of watts that you can hold for an hour. Strava can give you a ballpark figure based on previous rides - then there are special "FTP test" workouts that you can do to measure it, and there are FTP builder workouts to help you try and increase the number.

Another metric that people bandy about is "w/kg" - basically just the number of watts divided by your weight in kg.

dmanthree

Ah, OK. At my age, this could get embarrassing.

ericy

I have not yet gotten bored with it.

If you are using ANT, and you have your ANT dongle down on the floor, you might want to put it in a plastic bag to protect it from getting wet (from sweat dripping on it). The thing will stop working if you get enough sweat on it (but if you dry it off again, it will again work).

Favorite route varies - if I have more time, I will do Epic KOM, but that's a pretty serious climb and can take a while (and I had to build up to it since I don't normally do lots of climbing). If I have only 30 minutes or so, I will do one of the shorter loops (flat, hilly, volcano). But when you approach an intersection, you can click on one of the little boxes that pop up, and you can go anywhere you like. The downarrow button lets you make a U-turn.

ericy

FTP is just a number, and as best I can tell, other people can't see it, so there isn't much to be concerned about.

I personally haven't bothered with FTP tests yet, but I haven't been doing it long enough, and before Christmas I was still fighting off bronchitis. My sense is that it is more useful for people who are more competitive. Other people might have other opinions.

That being said, I usually just ride around, but for some reason, I ride harder and faster than I would ride when I am outdoors.

Sy Reene

A tandem set of articles that Zwift published recently:
https://community.zwift.com/news/408...n18-newsletter
https://community.zwift.com/news/410...n18-newsletter

dmanthree

Thanks, good info. I need to get the mobile link since I'm too far from the PC mouse and keyboard to make changes while I'm riding. I'll mount the phone on the bars.

I'm connecting to a Mac using bluetooth so no dongle issues. So far connectivity isn't an issue.

qajaq

Zwift really works well with a smart trainer. Try some group rides and races on Zwift. Some of the group rides will have breakaway flyers off the front you can draft or "race" with.. Look over the events list and you can find all sorts of stuff. You can also meet up with friends (from anywhere on the planet) and do a group ride or pace line.

One event I found particularly amusing was a cat and mouse event on Volcano Flat. Staggered start with D class riders getting a 6 minute head start over C class riders who got a 6 minute head start over the B class riders. Catch me if you can! Theoretically everyone would cross the line together.

You can also run the app Discord on your phone and converse with group leaders, sweeps and other riders.

atwl77

FTP is useful for structured interval training, like in Trainerroad or Sufferfest, because the intensity of the workouts will be based on that number.
The actual process of doing FTP tests is also useful for time-trailling, as it helps you learn to pace yourself over long durations.

highrpm

I really like Zwift. There were more than 6,000 people online last weekend together.


And like folks already mentioned, you are seriously dropping the hammer when you get on there. My friends used to tell me that and I didn't think it could be real until I go on and started hammering in attempts to get good segment times.