#1: No Easy Days
Simply put, you want to make your hard days hard, and your easy days easy.
Zwift can be addicting, that’s for sure. And it’s a healthy addiction to have… until it’s not! (I know this from personal experience–I hit Zwift hard in my first 3 months before I noticed my power numbers dropping in races. Taking a week off helped me get back on my feet.)
Be sure to give your body time to recover between hard rides; otherwise, you’ll overtrain and be forced to take extended time off.
If your riding schedule includes racing on Zwift, consider racing no more than three times per week, with recovery rides, days off, and lighter training in between. And even if your training load is more steady (with few “race day efforts”) taking a day or two for recovery per week is smart.
Lastly, taking an “easy week” every ~4 weeks is a common practice in many structured programs.
#2: Miscalibrated Power
Serious Zwift training requires the use of a power meter. On Zwift you can get accurate power numbers by using a standard power meter or a smart trainer which calculates your power output. Either way, make sure your power meter or smart trainer is calibrated properly so your power numbers are accurate!
Even something as small as calibrating with a cold tire can make a difference of 20-30w, which can mess up your training calculations.
Tacx Vortex or other wheel-on users: check out the “Calibrating your Tacx Vortex Smart” page.
#3: Not Replacing Your Sweat
You typically sweat more on indoor rides than outdoor due to reduced air movement and increased effort. That pool of sweat beneath your bike and that condensation on your windows is all fluid from your body that you need to replace before bad things happen.
So make sure you drink plenty of water–but not just water. Make sure whatever you drink also replaces the electrolytes you’re losing.
How much you need to drink depends on your physiology and effort level, but 25-30 ounces per hour of riding is a good start.
Here are a few popular electrolyte drink mixes for cyclists:
#4: Skipping Your Warmup or Cooldown
It is tempting to hop on the trainer and go hard, then hop off once you’re done. But a proper warmup helps your body prepare for a solid effort, and a nice cooldown is the first step towards recovering from the ride you just finished. So don’t skip either of these portions of your ride!
Warmups and cooldowns should last at least 5 minutes, but 10-20 minutes or more may work even better for you.
Get tips for pre-race warmups on Zwift >
#5: Junk Miles
If you are truly wanting to train on Zwift, and not just ride for pleasure, you need to go into each ride with a plan. Otherwise, you risk riding too hard (or not hard enough) or too long (or not long enough). When your miles aren’t doing all they can to help meet your fitness goals they are just junk miles.
When you have a training plan in place, each ride you take is done with a specific goal in mind–such as building sprint power, increasing aerobic endurance, recovering, etc. If you have a hard time avoiding junk miles, consider jumping into one of Zwift’s training plans, or paying a coach to plan your training.
New to training and want a good resource? Look no further than these two books:
What About You?
Which training mistake(s) above do you tend to make? Did we miss any other big ones? Comment below!
Absolutely number 4. I rarely warm up for more than 5 min for a race and for every “I’m gonna stay on an get miles after the race” I never actually do it. One of the ways I make myself do IRL miles is making it a really long out and back. Chances are I’m going to feel pumped in the out. Once there, it’s not like I can quit. In the garage, I can always quit.
I’m a notorious over-trainer.
no such thing as junk miles in zwift… its all collecting drops my friend!
Tailor your training to your age. I’m 71 and I found out during the 2018 Zwift Academy that I REALLY needed more rest than some of the plans were ready to give
I don’t think I did a zone 2 ride for 5 months at the start of 2019. Had to make a 1hr workout that was just one 65% interval (Greg Leo inspired training = 1 easy session for every 2 hard). Looking at the TrainerRoad base workouts also gave me a much better idea of what I should be doing. I’m not cured… today I was going to get some tempo intervals in ToL but instantly started racing and didn’t see any green for 30minutes… and was basically all out for a 60min race. Looking for Z2 motivation; pick a… Read more »
It would be great if there were training plans that took into account the needs of older riders. Now, we just have to guess how much additional rest we need, if any, or whether we should adjust the intensity of the workouts. I’d like to get stronger, but I’d also like to not overtrain and get injured as a result.
It’s really easy. Just feel how your legs are, check your resting heart rate and you will know if you are to tired to do a hard training session and should do some recovery or Z2 work instead. When I was in my 20ies I road bike races on C level, and often took 2 days off the bike before a race. It worked great for me. But feeling the state your body is in are the most important aspect of training since all the training plans on training platforms are often standard programs which will be too hard to… Read more »
I am in the middle of a structured program, but need to be a way for 9 days. I would like to pick up where I leave off. Is there a way to do that?
i have same issue…. missed a couple of days and want to restart