Using Zwift for your workout

A question that comes up often is, “Can I use Zwift to complete my workout?” The answer is yes!

In Zwift you can choose a multitude of workouts to complete. Under these options is TrainingPeaks. If you have Zwift and TrainingPeaks linked you can choose this option it will load in that days workout from TrainingPeaks. It will show you the target watts and durations for each step of the workout.

Here is another option that I share with my athletes to help make the workout a little more fun. It is very similar to Strava-vals that we discussed this summer.

Say you have 2 x 15 minute Tempo or sweet spot intervals. What I recommend is picking a climb, route, or lap on Strava that takes around 15 minutes and complete that as your interval. Such as Watopia hilly route which can be a 14 - 18 minute effort. Just do a lap on and lap off. This way you are not looking at a timer, but more so of a goal. There are plenty of options now with Zwift.

Have to do Vo2 intervals look to the KOM and reverse KOM (2 - 6 minute efforts). Threshold maybe Volcano Climb or Epic KOM (8 - 24 minutes). Long tempo or sweet spot (12 - 60 minutes) Lap of Watopia, Epic KOM, the Alp, Fugio Flats, or etc.

I know a lot of riders like to do races and group rides out on Zwift. These can be fantastic and you always feel like you got a good workout. However even though you are riding hard, get a good workout in and lots of TSS it might not be the best work you can do. With a Zwift race the power tends to be all over the place so you are never really working on any particular training system. Too hard to be aerobic workout and at times you let up where you are not getting the full threshold / anaerobic workout you can get in.

What I recommend is picking group rides that fit your need by advertised watts / kg. Now with the new fence feature it keeps riding from going to hard and stretching the group out making the ride harder than advertised. It’s a great way to pass some zone 2 time.

Another option is picking a race but racing a category down so you are not going to hard, especially on a sweet spot day. You can lead the pack of a C or D category race as opposed to hanging in a B race. There are also loads of time trial events! You don’t have to ride it at your TT pace, but what a great way to do some sweet spot and tempo. Say you have to get in a total of 36 minutes of sweet spot (3 x 12 minutes), you can do the first 20 - 30 minute of this just by doing a TT. Personally I find it more motivating with others around doing similar effort.

What you want to avoid is going to hard and harder than planned each and everyday. And that is the biggest struggle with Zwift. The competition can all get the best of us. I’ll just sprint for this one sprint, or one KOM, but all this adds up and is not following the plan. Save all this pent up energy and competitiveness for when it matters most!

As always just #FtFP! Lol!

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So true and using Zwift to #FtFP is so easy - one click in the app after you’ve connected your TrainingPeaks account:

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