Nutrition, rest, managing fatigue, focusing on you, and split days are critical to a successful training camp.
Download Greg’s Race Day Simulations Workout
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).
I was minding my own business recently when I got a private message from Theia Friestedt of Endurance Lab fame. Basically, she told me I HAVE to see the art of one of the gals doing the Zwift Academy. I checked it out and knew the Zwift community needed to meet this gal as well. I set up an e-mail interview, but her quirkiness and incredible writing were so endearing that I chose instead to have her tell the story herself. Please meet Fran Bambust.
(Fran says this about the image above: “I soon got the feeling that my Zwifting experience could be a life changer… Out with the old (couch potato Fran), in with the new (Watopian Fran)…” – The cake in couch potato’s hands references our constant mentioning of cake during group rides and in the ZA Facebook group.) Scroll down for more of Fran’s incredible art.
I am considering moving to Watopia, maybe rent an apartment in the Italian Village or in the Spruce Goose if it’s for hire. I could work from there, logging into the real world from time to time if I really have to.
I live in Breda, the Netherlands, now with my two little robots, R2D2 and BB-8. I’m a Belgian by birth and still work a lot for Belgian customers. I started out as a copywriter in the early nineties and since then I’ve made television programs, wrote children’s books, developed musea, created a behavior change model that is used by the Belgian government, worked in a factory, advised that government and several cities on all sorts of topics, been a spokeswoman for LGBT rights, chief editor for magazines… and I’m always surrounded by computer screens. I love computer screens.
Yet I knew I had to get this body moving. It tends to start looking like a hump of meat with bones sticking out, and since I do need to go amongst the living from time to time, I do have to take care of it at least a little. I am not a sportive woman. Ever since I was little I dreaded sports. I was clumsy, short of breath, too heavy and I have problems with depth perception. Don’t throw the ball at me. The only movement I did enjoy, was sitting on a bike. Not that I could ride very fast. I couldn’t. I can’t. But I thought it was fun.
When I turned 35 I bought myself a racing bicycle. A Kuota Kharma. I have no idea whatsoever if that’s a fine bike or a piece of rubbish. I liked the color. So I started riding. And I kept on riding. I rode the Tour of Flanders ten times – the abbreviated version, mind you, and I took my time. I even started climbing. Up the Alps, up the Tourmalet. And I went down as well. Having no depth perception is a bummer on a bike as well. I would advise against it. You get the urge to bump into things, into people and steer off cliffs. After my last earthward plummet, I decided to stop biking all together. I seem to have at least a minimal sense of self-preservation.
I had pondered selling my faithful Kharma when I read about Zwift. A virtual world? Where you can bike without falling? Where no one laughs at you because you’re slow or because you look weird? Sounds like my kind of place. I got there last year, but it didn’t stick. I was overwhelmed, I supposed. I tried again this year during the Tour de France, and obliged myself to ride whenever the pros were entering the last 40 km. And that’s when I got the taste of it. I started liking the fun and the pain. And I didn’t fall anymore. Yes, I know how to fall with my Tacx. At first, every time I descended a Zwifty hill or another rider came too close, I panicked and jerked myself to the ground. But by the end of the Tour I got used to the whole experience… and I loved it. I loved the scenery, the routes, the sweat, the heightened heartbeat… and the lowered body weight. But what would I do now the Tour had crowned the Welshman?
Zwift Academy to the rescue! I jumped from joy when I read the announcement. There was such a thing as an Academy! With challenges! Workouts! Group rides! Even races! I could be a genuine racer! Yeehaw! I started picturing myself as Marianne Vos, Annemiek Van Vleuten and Anna van der Breggen all rolled into one, weight and age included.
And it was fun. It hurt like hell, but it was bliss. I loved it. And the weirdest part was all the people who started saying: Ride On. I am not a sentimental girl, but I do admit that I got emotional. A professional rider like Leah Thorvilson took her time to answer our questions and gave us tips and cheered us on. This was a new world and I loved it. And I grew thinner. I haven’t been this thin in ages.
And so, I started sharing my joy, my amazement and the wonder I experienced in the only way I know: with silly words and drawings. In that way I wanted to give something back to all the people who have given so much to me, adding on the experience. For slow people like me, it isn’t about the first prize or the fastest lap, it’s about the wonder. Watopia is a wonderful place and a wonderful experience where even silly me can feel like a superhero on wheels. Watopia has been my holiday destination, a place where I have spent several dreams. I talk about it to whomever I meet. I have even incorporated it into a speech I need to give to Flemish government officials. It is changing me. I am becoming a better person; I even start thinking that I might get better at biking as I get fitter. I will try out the other workouts and plans… and then I’ll move in to Watopia. My bags are packed.
In this episode coaches Jason Flores, Theia Friestedt and Mitch Dangremond cover:
And more!
The Endurance Lab is a group coaching program for cyclists and triathletes of all levels and abilities. Each program in the Lab typically runs for 6-8 weeks and is designed to help athletes achieve their training goals. Participants will have direct access to several certified coaches and experts in the various aspects of endurance training, while also learning from peers participating in the same Lab. To facilitate the group interaction we use online platforms such as Training Peaks, TrainerRoad, and Zwift, among others. Participants may choose to use any platform or ride outside to perform the workouts by using a power meter and bike computer (e.g., Garmin, Wahoo, etc.).
For more information on the Endurance Lab head over to www.endurancelab.fit
Editors’ note: find the original version of this post along ZwiftMap, ZwiftPref, and other tools and hacks for Zwifters at ZwiftHacks.com.
Your Zwift user ID is something you need for two important purposes: Logging in to ZwiftGPS and signing up at ZwiftPower.
In this post – the second of a series – I show you how to find it via my.zwift.com in a couple of ways.
… regardless of which platform you run Zwift on. It only requires a browser.
Below you find described how to do it with most popular browsers regardless of whether you do it on a desktop computer (Windows or macOS) or a mobile device (iOS or Android).
At the end you can also find a bookmarklet for automating the lookup, and a glimpse of an ultra-geeky way (not particular usefull for most, I admit, but perhaps fun for the hackers and coders 
).
Go to my.zwift.com in your web browser and log in with user name (e-mail address) and password if prompted. When you are logged in locate one of the download links on the page.
Now, you can find your user ID from any of the download links. How you do so depends on which browser you are using:
Hover over the download link with the mouse and look for the details of the download URL (for e.g. Chrome and Edge in the lower left corner of the browser window).
Your user ID is the number just behind the /prod/ part of the URL.
If you find it hard to hover over the link and read the ID number, you can also copy the download link (in Chrome with a right click on the link and and Copy link address) and paste it into a text editor such as Notepad. Then you won’t have to hold the mouse still while locating the ID. ?
Safari does not show the detailed download URL but it is easy to find it anyway, either with Inspect Element or by copying the URL and the paste it into TextEdit.
Directly in Safari you can also just right click and select ‘Inspect Element’. This opens an inspector pane in Safari where you can see the detailed URL.
Your ID is the number right after the /prod/ part of the URL.
Launch TextEdit and make sure that it is in plain text mode (choose ‘Make Plain Text’ in the ‘Format’ menu if it is not.
Right click the download link in Safari, choose ‘Copy Link’, and paste the link into your TextEdit window.
Again, your ID is the number right after the /prod/ part of the URL.
A very easy way to find it is to go to my.zwift.com in Safari, pick any of your activities, and long press on the download link. The user ID is part of the URL to the .fit file, right after where it says ‘prod/’.
(Previously posted on ZwiftHacks)
Go to my.zwift.com in e.g. Chrome, pick any of your activities, and long press on the download link. The user ID is part of the URL to the .fit file, right after where it says ‘prod/’.
If you cannot see the full URL in the popup menu (it may be cut off depending on the screen resolution of your device) then simply choose ‘Copy link address’ and paste the link address into the address bar of the browser. Then you can see the full URL and locate your user ID in it.
Just for the fun of it, this is method which works in a desktop browser. You won’t have to analyse the download URL yourself, but get the answer directly in a message box.
The result is like this:
Install the bookmarklet from the ZwiftHacks bookmarklets repository.
If you are interested in the code itself, this is it:
javascript:(function(){ B = document.body.innerHTML; const regex = /https:\/\/s3-fit.+amazonaws.com\/prod\/(\d+)\/\w{8}-\w{8}/; var id; if ((m = regex.exec(B)) !== null) { id = m[1]; }; alert(Your id ${((id) ? 'is ' + id : 'was not found in this page')}); })();
This is really just a bit of fun – loading my.zwift.com into a custom app (acting as your browser) and retrieving the user profile. You get just a video showing what it looks like – stick to #1 or #2 to find the user profile yourself:
This was the second post in a two-part series. The first post was Find your Zwift user ID.
Editors’ note: find the original version of this post along ZwiftMap, ZwiftPref, and other tools and hacks for Zwifters at ZwiftHacks.com.
Your Zwift user ID is something you need for two important purposes: logging in to ZwiftGPS and signing up at ZwiftPower.
In this post – the first of a series – I show you how to find it in a secure manner.
… or at least it contains your Zwift user ID hidden among the many log lines. This makes it very easy to find your user ID. Here are a couple of way to do it without you having to read through the log file yourself.
Copy this line, press Windows+R, paste the line into the Run dialogue, and press Enter:
cmd /k find /i "player id" %UserProfile%\documents\zwift\logs\log.txt
The result is like this:
(You can just close the window when you are done)
Copy this line, paste it into a Terminal window, and press Enter:
grep -i 'player id' ~/Documents/Zwift/Logs/log.txt
The result is like this:
The app at https://zwifthacks.com/app/ip/ does essentially the same as the searches above, just in a browser. You can drag a log file into the dropzone (look for log.txt in your Documents/Zwift/Logs folder or send it to yourself from the iOS version of Zwift).
In a moment your user ID will be shown:
Coming up: Part Two: Finding your ID on my.zwift.com
Greg discusses powerups in Zwift–what they do, when to use them in a race, and a tip on how to get the one you want in less time.
For a thorough post on powerups, read Your Guide to Power Ups in Zwift.
Visit inthepens.com to access the podcast archives.
Episode 54 of Zwiftcast has been released, and it marks the Zwiftcasters’ return to their winter schedule of regular episodes packed with Zwiftiness.
The Zwiftcasters are back on their winter schedule… with more regular episodes packed with Zwiftiness. Simon, Shane and Nathan discuss when we might see New York, what we might see in it and speculate on whether it may be the best course ever.
The podcasters discuss the potential implications of Zwift’s acquisition of an interest in technology owned Virtu Pro who make a highly rated smart bike–could we see a Zwift-branded Smart Bike any time soon?
The Academies are roaring ahead with record levels of completion. Zwift commits to their future and Simon, Shane and Nathan discuss their participation and we hear from a husband and wife enrolled on the programmes.
After a newsy roundup covering Zwift’s TV advertising; recent game updates; an attempt to deal with gender doping in Zwift racing and the relaunch of a Zwift forum, Simon interviews Julie Haugh, one of the most dedicated ride leaders who has perfected the art of riding slow.
We hope you enjoy listening!
In this episode:
And more! Join The Endurance Lab Coaches!
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1oaeUKpPes&w=560&h=315]
Editor’s note: Jordan Cheyne’s “The Open Pro” series details his experiences with high-level Zwift training as a rider in the pro Continental ranks. You can read his past posts here.
“Remember the arc. Remember what these guys expect from Elevate-KHS”. My teammates and I have heard this metaphor more than a few time this season in our pre-race meetings. As the team has rolled through races and collected breakthrough results this year, our Director Paul Abrahams has made a point to remind us where we stand in the peloton and of our new responsibilities as legitimate contenders. We can’t skulk in the shadows of the field and surprise the big teams in key moments anymore. We come to races to win. Going into the highly ranked Tour of Utah and Colorado Classic, we had traveled up the arc using our collective strength and an element of surprise. To maintain our success and perhaps climb higher towards a stage win or a General Classification however we would face a steeper incline.
The team certainly acted as if in our final preparation for the races. Starting two weeks out from the start of the Tour of Utah we traveled and previewed 80-90% of the course starting in St. George and finishing in Park City. We made efforts on key climbs and made note of the unique challenges of each stage. Nothing would be a surprise on race day. We worked hard together, cooked and ate together and helped each other manage the expectations and anticipation that naturally came with our biggest event of the year.
Personally, I was working hard to manage what has been my biggest Achilles Heel and frustration in racing: altitude. Ever since my first Tour of Utah as a green 18 year old in 2010, I have suffered mightily in thin air. I have a lot of genetic good fortune as an endurance athlete but physiologically, I seem to lose more power at altitude than the norm and my acclimation is unpredictable. I remember racing in Park City at 7500′ that first year and feeling like I had only two gears: glass-crank easy spin or red zone explosion.
With a lot of effort I have closed a lot of that gap in my preparation over the years and as I prepared in Park City this time around I had some fantastic workouts that convinced me I could leave my altitude struggles behind. Still, there were seemingly inexplicable bad days that clicked my apprehension back into sharp focus. The team was under pressure for results and I fought to keep my mind clear of my own worries.
Pressure and expectation are funny things. They can linger and build and seem absolutely immovable in the face of a big objective. But in an instant they can deflate and become afterthoughts as circumstances change. That is exactly what happened on the first stage of the Tour of Utah. In the space of a couple hours we lost our GC leader James to a fever and asthma complications and sprinter Alfredo who ran into trouble on the highest, hardest climb of the Tour only 40km into the event. Everything changed and suddenly we were racing to get the best out of the race with what we had left.
My own fears were soon realized. I was probably as good as I have ever been at altitude but still well short of what I needed. I was fighting my body every time the race demanded sustained effort and oxygen uptake, which is a fairly common occurrence in a race featuring over 14000m of climbing. Not much feels worse than being sub par at such a high level race. It feels like being dealt a bad hand in poker while sitting across from some of the best card sharks in the world. You know the odds immediately. You desperately eye the dealer hoping that the next day’s card will be a miracle and your legs will come back. There is only one hand to be played and you won’t get a second chance if you fold. There is no choice but to do your job, play the odds and even bluff when appropriate. That is what a pro does and that is what I tried to do through 11 trying days in Utah and Colorado.
To the team’s credit, everyone kept playing and we had some high moments amid a trying couple of weeks. We rallied around strongman sprinter Sam Bassetti in Utah and delivered him well to 2 bunch sprints where he placed 7th and 4th, narrowly missing the podium in the circuit race in Salt Lake City. Everyone fought hard for the breakaways and I managed to claw my way into one on the final mountain stage. We got James back for Colorado and he lit up the time trial to take 7th overall and hold it all the way to the end.
In my own race, I tried to play my hand the best way I could each day for the team. I would try for the breakaway. If that failed I would do everything I could for a teammate so they could try to win the race; fetching bottles, offering a helpful draft and riding my guts out to set up a sprint or close critical gaps. Sometimes it was even as glamorous as that.
One of the most satisfying results of the trip for me was Sam’s 5th place finish in our final race in Denver. The top 5 was nice but the process to get there was a gratifying example of how our team operates and what has made up successful in 2018.
Sam was among the five best racers on Stage 4 but a bad day on the previous day’s mountainous Queen Stage had him in the bottom three on the road. The other two were myself and teammate Kevin Girkins and with 80km to go in the stage we were willing Sam on as cramps forced him out of the grupetto for the final time. The time cut on the stage was a meager 7% or about 15 minutes and we lost ground quickly trying to pace Sam up the climbs. We crested the final climb over 10 minutes back and I knew the final 60 gently descending, headwind kilometers didn’t look good for us. But just as we have all year, we went to work.
We rotated as hard as we could for well over an hour while receiving nothing but encouragement and cans of coke from the team car. We couldn’t see anybody from the race and the fans we passed gave us awkward, surprised cheers thinking that they had seen the last of the riders. Inside 20km to go, the race marshal loomed and informed us that we were right on the cusp of the time cut, virtually needing to ride the same speed as the screaming peloton to survive and race another day. We never lost sight of the fact that Sam could win the next day and we never missed a turn. Somehow, as we caught sight of the mostly deserted finish line the clock read: 14:42 and we were recorded as finishers–the final three.
Sam made good the next day of course with his top 5 but the dull satisfaction was already there for me along with the fatigue and vague disappointment. I was happy to walk away from this block of racing knowing that I offered something to the team and was a professional as much as I could be. It is a bit tougher to walk away from the season that way though. Even with all of our wins and the breakthroughs I have had this year I want more. I know there is an answer to my altitude woes and there are also answers to the near miss race results I have had this season. Whether it is in late season racing in 2018 or in a fresh 2019 calendar, I can’t wait to play my next hand.
PowerUps in Zwift give you either immediate XP or a very short “boost.” In Zwift’s early days powerups were outlawed by most race organizers, but over time Zwifters have come to embrace the use of powerups as a virtual substitute for the mechanicals, shifting winds, and other variables common to outdoor riding. They truly add a necessary element of randomness and strategy to Zwift racing.
Here is everything you need to know about powerups in Zwift.
Use the spacebar on your keyboard, the play button on your AppleTV remote, or Zwift Companion also provides a button. You can also simply click the powerup circle from your computer, or touch it on a touchscreen device.
With the exception of the Small Bonus and Large Bonus which activate immediately, powerups show a white timer bar when activated, so you know how much time you have left.
PowerUps are randomly given when you go through an arch (start/finish, end of KOM, end of sprint). If you have an unused powerup as you pass through an arch, you won’t receive a new one. In official events, powerups can be disabled entirely, or set to be distributed in a customized way (for example, a 50/50 split between the aero boost and burrito).
Curious how often each powerup is given out when free riding? Here’s a handy chart >
Read “PowerUps in Zwift: Advanced Usage Tips” for more advanced tips on powerups. And check out our Misused Powerups Series for tips on when not to use powerups!
