TSOZ Closer Look: Training Connections

May 7, 2024

LAST UPDATED June 21, 2024

The latest “This Season on Zwift” press release came out last week, detailing what’s in store on the platform over the next few months. One big update sure to change the structured workout landscape for indoor cyclists is the new Training Connections API, which provides a standardized way for third-party workout providers to send your scheduled workout each day to Zwift.

Let’s dig into how this will all work, why it matters, and when it will arrive!

How It Will Work

Zwift has integrated with various services over the years – you can see these under “Connections” in your profile at zwift.com or in the Companion app. But almost all of those connections have been, essentially, one-way connections from Zwift to the other service’s API. For example, if you’ve connected your Garmin account to your Zwift account, when you save your Zwift activity, it sends that activity data over to Garmin, using Garmin’s API.

The connections available under your Zwift account were accomplished by Zwift coding up an integration with the other providers’ APIs, which meant each provider required custom development work on Zwift’s end. Not the most scaleable approach.

The only service that sends info to Zwift is TrainingPeaks. (Today’s Plan used to do it as well, but they are no longer in operation.) If you have a scheduled workout for the day on your TrainingPeaks account, and you open up Zwift, that scheduled workout will be available for you in Zwift.

The goal of Zwift’s new training API connection is to allow services to send their structure workouts to Zwift accounts, without Zwift needing to do custom programming to integrate with each service’s API. Instead of Zwift coding up a hookup to each service, now the other services will be able to hook into Zwift. So Zwift has built and documented their API, and now they can hand that to other providers and let those providers do the integration work.

And providers will want to do this work, because it adds value to their own service if Zwifters can easily access their workouts from within Zwift.

Zwift says, “Once the API Connection is set up and approved, workouts built outside of Zwift will pull directly into the Zwift platform and show in the Custom Workouts folder.”

Hopefully, if it’s my scheduled workout for today, it will also show up first in the “For You” carousel on the homepage (I believe this is how TrainingPeaks workouts work today). Less clicking is a good thing!

Which Training Providers?

That’s the big question, of course. Zwift’s press release says the feature will launch “with a few launch partners”, but they aren’t saying who. TrainerRoad would be the most popular choice among Zwifters, since many riders are already paying for a TrainerRoad subscription and running it alongside Zwift.

But there are other platforms providing workouts as well, including:

Hopefully we’ll see a huge list of providers coming on board once the feature is released.

The Platform, Not the Content

This is a smart move on Zwift’s part, as it greatly expands the library of potential workouts on Zwift and makes it the de-facto “host” for your indoor training.

Yes, Zwift still needs to maintain a healthy library of built-in free workouts and training plans. And it’s true that their existing library could be improved in various ways. But once the training connections API is in place, with workout partners Zwifters are already using, we’ll have access to our daily workouts from our selected providers, in our favorite virtual world. That’s a win all around.

Now Zwift just needs to bring lots of training partners on board!

When Does It Arrive?

Zwift’s press release says, “Launching Early Summer 2024”, but the text later on says “The training API will launch later this spring with a few launch partners.” So I’m guessing the initial launch will be in June or July, with more partners coming on in the months to follow once Zwift works out any kinks in the live system.