With the darker nights drawing in, summer in the northern hemisphere is quickly disappearing down the road with all the enthusiasm of a breakaway on the first day of the Tour de France. On the positive side, it means a return of the masses to Zwift!
Given the number of events and races on Zwift that involve climbs, Mountain Massif linked up with Rowe & King to offer a structured 6-week training program aimed to improve your climbing. Each workout in the Mountain Massif training series has a specific purpose, and when you stitch them all together in a structured training plan, you will improve your climbing ability on Zwift and in real life!
The sessions on Zwift are hosted on a Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays at 5pm BST (see schedule here). With the first week of training now complete, I wanted to share how it unfolded.
Baseline Event
On Monday, September 25, the training program kicked off with a short time trial race (10.1km) to baseline people’s fitness. The event was hosted on a shortened Knickerbocker course in New York. This course was carefully selected because it provided two key aspects, the first being an undulating segment and the second being a climb that was steep enough to test even the strongest rider. Having not raced much recently (as a result of cycling accident that saw me take a trip in a Spanish ambulance) I was keen to see how I would do.
The answer – better than expected. For the first part of the event I battled with the changing gradient and consequently found myself surging, pushing too hard on the short inclines and backing off too much on the descents. Then before I knew it, I was on the climb. I was good for a few minutes but ultimately, with my heart rate maxing out, my power levels dropped and I was overtaken, making the 500-meter drag to the finish that much more painful. I was literally powerless as I watched the rider ahead of me effortlessly pulled away.
Still, this was what the training program was created for, with sessions specifically designed to help riders reach new levels of fitness.
Week 1 & 2
The 6-week training program is designed to build your aerobic fitness and improve your strength. Wednesday marked the first formal structured training session, and given the high intensity of the baseline race, this Sustained Tempo session felt more relaxed.
This particular workout was designed to help improve sustainable power, which is critical for maintaining your effort all the way to the top of a climb. It is the cornerstone of the program, in fact, with the intensity and duration of this session increasing as the weeks progress.
I personally found the event painful, not because the session was difficult but for the fact that as I participated, I waited nervously for each and every instruction and encouragement (all of which I had pre-programmed) to flash on the screen, hoping that I hadn’t made any typing mistakes! To my relief, there were no issues and the session went as planned, including the group being decked out in the updated Mountain Massif jersey being showcased for the new event.
Session 2, in contrast to session 1, had people counting the seconds to the end. Called “FTP Nudges @ 105%,” the workout has you operate above your FTP for a short period of time. However, the phrase “short” is certainly subjective as the 5 minutes over FTP seemed to get longer with each interval! By the fifth and final one, it felt like an eternity. At that point I’d given up checking on the accuracy of my pre-recorded words of encouragement!
Session 3 marked the start of the second week of training, and this Sustained Tempo session built upon that of the previous, with difficulty increasing duration to 5 minutes per interval. Similarly, session 4, FTP Nudges, increased in difficulty to 108% with 7 reps in total, 3 minutes in length. For me personally, this was the most difficult by far, resulting in having to turn off ERG mode for the last 2 reps, allowing me to manually control the power, and thus being able to complete the set without lowering the difficulty.
It was here that I noticed my first typing error in the instructions – it had to come at some point.
The week’s final session was Sweet Spot training, which is 75-85% of your maximum heart rate. With the first two weeks completed, I was relieved that despite a minor typing error in the instructions, everything had gone to plan, including creating and establishing the training plan on TrainingPeaks so anyone who missed a session could have the workout files (minus the commentary) and keep pace with the program.
TrainingPeaks
To create a truly authentic training experience and provide maximum flexibility, we linked up with TrainingPeaks, an insightful training app that allows you to plan, track, and analyze your training, all in one place.
Those who are keen can download the 6-week training plan and track progress via the following link https://www.trainingpeaks.com/my-training-plans/mountainmassif23
Obtaining the 6-week training plan is free. However, you will need a TrainingPeaks Premium account. TrainingPeaks is offering a 20% discount on their Premium account for members of the Mountain Massif club on Zwift. Simply join the club by clicking here and get access to the discount code located in the Chat. Download the session and apply it to your TrainingPeaks calendar, ensuring you select the start date as September 27 and thus align the sessions to the start of the 6-week program.
As mentioned, one of the benefits of downloading the plan into your TrainingPeaks calendar is that, if you cannot attend one of the Zwift scheduled sessions, using TrainingPeaks you can undertake the training session independently, provided you have synched your TrainingPeaks account with Zwift. It will be available in the “TrainingPeaks Custom Workouts” folder in the training plan section of Zwift. (Syncing your TrainingPeaks account with Zwift is simple and instructions on how to do this can be read here.)
It is important to note that the session will appear on the day you have it in your TrainingPeaks calendar, which you can adjust to your timetable. The only difference between undertaking the training independently is you will not have my onscreen commentary to encourage you through the session.
Accessing TrainingPeaks
If you are new to TrainingPeaks and want to try it, you can sign up here. There are two levels of accounts: Basic and Premium. The Basic account is like a training diary, where if you sync the app to Zwift, your data is uploaded after each ride and you can see basic information about your session such as the duration, distance, and your Training Stress Score (TSS) — a metric used to quantify the amount of stress a workout puts on your body.
Along with these features, the Premium version allows you to reschedule missed sessions so you have greater control over how you schedule your workouts. Other benefits include:
- Plan future workouts and reschedule missed ones.
- Build your own workouts and gain unlimited access to the TrainingPeaks workout library.
- Track your fitness progress via the Performance Management Charts.
- Analyze your fitness trends with power, HR, pace, distance, and other charts.
About the Sessions and Rowe & King
These sessions are high quality and have been designed by Rowe & King’s father-son coaches Courtney and Matt Rowe.
Age 62, with an FTP of 358, Courtney is as fit as they come thanks to a lifetime of cycling and racing. He won World Championship medals on the track at the Masters level and has numerous British and Welsh Championship titles to his name on both the Road and Track.
Courtney has been coaching for the last 30 years, including his sons Matt, Luke who is a pro racing for INEOS Grenadiers, and daughter-in-law Dani Rowe MBE (nee King), who has won an Olympic Gold and 3 World titles.
Rowe & King offers a range of coaching services to cater to all levels. Their monthly subscription service is popular since it offers a generic training plan, virtual sessions such as strength and conditioning, yoga, nutritional advice and guidance, weekly social Zwift rides, and IRL group rides from locations all around the UK – effectively creating a supportive cycling community.
Summing Up
As this event kicks into high gear, you are welcome to join us on this unique and complete structured training program. It will push you beyond your perceived limits, helping improve your fitness and in particular your climbing skills.
Don’t worry if you have missed any sessions! You can catch up using the plan in TrainingPeaks and join the live events which are hosted on Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 5pm BST.
It is important to note that you should only undertake vigorous exercise if you are healthy and fit to do so. If you are at all unsure, consult your doctor. Additionally, all training equipment, including bikes and turbo trainers, should be in full working order. Do not use any piece of equipment that does not come up to the required standard.
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