The new 2018 UCI Road World Championships Innsbruck-Tirol course is nearly here! In this special episode the coaches share their thoughts on the new course. You’ll also hear which Pros will be using it to train!
The Zwift PowerUp Cycling Podcast features training tips from host Matt Rowe (Rowe & King), with regular co-hosts Greg Henderson (Coach Hendy) and Kev Poulton (Powerhouse Cycling).
In this special interview episode, Greg talks to CVR World Cup Vancouver Champion Lionel Vujasin. Lionel provides insight on the overlap between Cyclocross and Zwift and gives new racers some tips on how to improve e-racing skills. For workout file and photos, visit the In The Pens Listeners facebook group.
Visit inthepens.com to access the podcast archives.
Greg and Adam discuss discuss drafting in Zwift and take a listener question “What do you wear to race indoors?”
Visit inthepens.com to access the podcast archives.
As we’ve often seen just prior to a new Zwift course being released, Jon Mayfield and Eric Min have both shared recon rides of the soon-to-be-released Innsbruck course. (See Jon’s ride here and Eric’s ride here.)
Thanks to these rides and some sleuthing from other Zwifters, we have a lot more details about what this new world holds for us. Here is my best guess at the five routes which Innsbruck will offer:
(Thanks to Jesper Rosenlund Nielsen and Søren Anderson who shared the above info.)
An interesting note: Jon Mayfield’s ride matches up to a virtual ride segment titled “Tacx T2058.94 2018 World Championship Innsbruck – Main Climb“. This segment includes rides from December 2017 (and possibly earlier), so my guess it is was created as a Strava virtual ride segment by users of Tacx’s Trainer Software. This is the first time we’ve seen this, as far as I can tell: two different virtual training platforms sharing a Strava segment! Leaderboards could get interesting if, for example, one platform didn’t replicate the climbs accurately.
Looking forward to riding the new Innsbruck course, which is on the course schedule for August 4th.
Zwift has partnered with Roka for their latest mission which has Zwifters running and/or riding to unlock some virtual glasses and a chance to win some real Rokas. If you’re anything like me, you love a new pair of quality sunglasses. So it was good news when I saw that yesterday’s Zwift update includes this new sunnies-centric mission!
To get your digital shades, just enroll in the challenge on your start screen.
Ride 100 cumulative miles (161 km) and/or run 20 cumulative miles (32 km) by July 31st to complete the mission. You can also do both! You’ll be entered for a chance to win a pair of real-world Rokas for each of the two challenges you complete.
2 men & 2 women will each win a pair of real Roka GP-1X performance sunglasses.
All those miles can wreak havoc on your muscles. In episode 12 the coaches share endurance training tips to maximize your energy on multi stage events. Learn about “bonking,” interval efforts, food tips, and much more useful takeaways.
The Zwift PowerUp Cycling Podcast features training tips from host Matt Rowe (Rowe & King), with regular co-hosts Greg Henderson (Coach Hendy) and Kev Poulton (Powerhouse Cycling).
Greg and Adam discuss the upcoming NYC course release and the strong connections between Zwift HQ and Central Park then take a listener question “Why do I keep getting dropped on downhills?” The answer may be the trainer difficulty setting…
Visit inthepens.com to access the podcast archives.
Editor’s note: Ian Murray is using Zwift to train for the International Triathlon Union Long Course World Championships held in Odense/Fyn, Denmark July 2018. His weekly Zwift Insider series discusses the previous week’s training and the plan for the upcoming week.
Ok folks. It’s that time. It’s race week! Well, it’s actually race eve right now as I type this. The bike is checked in, and the transition bags are nestled snuggly in their respective piles in transition. Now, I’m just waiting on a pizza dinner, final preparations, and bed time.
If you remember from Week 31, I had to buy a new bike the day before departing on the first leg of my trip. Prior to heading out on the final leg to Denmark, I got in one ride of about nine miles, so we were not yet very acquainted. Sunday and Monday were pretty much rest days due to travel, so I had to wait until Tuesday to get some time in the saddle. A few minutes after setting out on my ride, I got out of the congested area and put the pedals to the test out on the open road. Well, it wasn’t really the open road. It was a separated bike lane that ran alongside the open road. Oh yeah, this place is awesome for riding! After a quick 30 miles on the bike, I transitioned to the run to see how my legs would feel after 90 minutes on the new ride. It felt pretty good, so I was satisfied enough with the fit. On Wednesday and Thursday, we got in a couple short swims, working on a few skills to prep for the swim start.
Later in the day on Thursday, Deirdre, an Evil Elf Racing and ODivaZ athlete, and I ran most of the run course to get a feel for the trail and the one hill on the four laps. If all goes well, it should be a fairly fast course. Friday came, and I knocked out a quick brick before heading to the athlete brief, bike turn in and the expo. At the expo, I had the opportunity to chat with Alex Rasmussen from Zwift and ride on the Wahoo Kickr Climb for a few minutes. Alex was logged in on his profile and was kind enough to lower the weight to my weight to really see my effort in W/kg while on the climb. After that, I spent about 10 minutes in some Normatec boots, which I did not like as much as my Air Relax boots. Well, they’re really comfortable but not five times the price as comfortable. Finally, we headed back to the house. Whew, it was a busy day.
Now, we’re ready to go. I about to sit down and chow down on some pizza to load my body up for tomorrow. After that, I’ll get the final nutrition ready in my bottles, prep my morning bag, and get some sleep. The weather looks a bit chilly, but favorable for tomorrow, so we’ll see how it goes. For anyone wanting to follow the live tracking, you can find it here at https://www.sportstiming.dk/event/5608/tracking.
Sorry for the short post, but it’s been crazy busy here on race week. Plus, I want to save up some words for the race report, as I tend to get a bit wordy on those.
There’s a great benefit when you sign up for the 2018 Zwift Academy: a free premium account at Today’s Plan during the course of the Academy! Your premium account with Today’s Plan will open just before the Academy begins. This is a great perk. It will also power a special feature this year: being able to see and compare your efforts with the top fifty results in the Academy.
Here is Today’s Plan page for those new to the Zwift Academy and Today’s Plan. There are a lot of unique analysis tools you will have available. You’ll want to familiarize yourself with them, especially if you are serious about the Academy.
When you open your account, you will need to fill in your information of course. You will be able to construct your dashboard. One thing I love is the PI (Performance Index). It is a graph that helps you see your strengths and weaknesses. Here is a video explaining how to use the PI:
My graph shows I do well in the long sprint zone but not in peak power or a short sprints. The zones are Peak Power, Sprint, Long Sprint, Lactate Tolerance, Maximum Aerobic Power, Sustained Aerobic Power, Short Endurance, and finally Long Endurance. It can be quite a challenge to target one of these zones as a max effort. At times you should work on your weaknesses and at times, on your strengths.
There are helpful articles on the Today’s Plan blog. I suggest you read how you can understand your activities. Here’s the page: Today’s Plan Blog – Activity Graph. You will also want to see your power curve and best efforts on your dashboard. It will list your best efforts from 3 seconds to 3 hours. To start with your background, you can do one of two things:
If you entered the 2017 Academy and opened your account last year, all your Zwift activities will have continued to upload. You can see your activities in the basic account. However, if you chose not to continue premium membership last year, you won’t be able to see the full analysis of your activities with the exception of your heart analysis. When the Zwift Premium access begins in August, your information will be up to date.
The Academy will undoubtedly begin with an updated FTP test workout. I would recommend doing a twenty minute test in July. Many trainers recommend doing some 5 second sprint efforts, a 20 second, a one minute, and a five minute effort to help in evaluating your abilities. This will start your Academy with a good data background. A twenty minute test in July will also help you successfully pace your August FTP test. Here is a view of the 2017 test:Â Zwift Academy 2017 FTP Test. Note: To get your first Zwift FTP number, you only need the 20 minute segment. First timers might want to skip the three 30 second sprints as they may take too much of your energy unless you are able to do that kind of a warm up.
Today’s Plan premium access includes training plans. You might not have time to do an entire plan during the schedule of Academy efforts. However, it will be well worth your time to select the type of training you want to do and allow them to show on your calendar. You can view them, watch a brief video introduction provided by Today’s Plan, and download them onto your computer. It is pretty easy to drag the workout into your Zwift ‘workouts’ file. They will stay in the ‘Custom Workout’ section of Zwift, ready any time you are.
I found the support from Today’s Plan to be very helpful last year. It was my first Academy and I needed a little help here and there. I went to my.zwift.com, downloaded a few previous rides, and uploaded them to Today’s Plan with some guidance from one of their videos. Go to your My Zwift Activities and click ‘download’ to retrieve the file you want. If you do email their support crew, please remember, Today’s Plan support team is located in Australia. They may be going to bed when you are sending a question to their support team.
It’s going to be a great summer (or winter) next month.
In this first episode of their new racing-centric podcast, Greg Leo and Adam Zimmerman introduce the podcast, discuss their top 3 Zwift race courses and recent training for live events.
See all Zwift route details here >
Visit inthepens.com to access the podcast archives.
