How the Race Was Lost: Tiny Races as VO2 Workouts

April 9, 2025

LAST UPDATED March 24, 2025

The Tiny Races concept came to me while I was riding outdoors one day, trying to figure out a way to make workouts on Zwift more enjoyable. Like many Zwifters, I’d done a lot of structured workouts on Zwift, and I’ll readily admit that they provide very efficient and targeted training stimulus.

There’s just one problem: I find structured workouts to be lonely, painful, and boring.

So the Tiny Races were created, with the goal of pushing riders hard in 4 back-to-back events lasting 5-10 minutes each. The hope was that you’d get a lot of VO2-level work in on each race, effectively turning your hour of racing into an hour-long VO2 workout.

But Tiny Races aren’t a perfectly structured VO2 workout. Yes, you’ll get a lot of VO2-level work in. But it may vary greatly depending on your strengths as a rider, and the course chosen for the day.

So on this Saturday, I decided to try something I’d never done before. I would simply treat the first 4 minutes of each race as a VO2 interval, shooting to average 350W during that time. Then I would ease and recover as I finished the race.

Then do it again, and again. And again. Four VO2 intervals. Because on this particular day, I was more interested in getting a quality workout in than I was in finishing high in the race rankings.

Here’s how the races (workouts?) unfolded…

Race 1

The first race was 6km of The Muckle Yin, ending at the Breakaway Brae Reverse banner. I chatted a bit with the other racers, even telling them what my plan was:

Soon enough, we were off! I found myself in the wind as we climbed The Cliffs section, and as a racer, this just felt wrong. I was wasting watts! But not today. Today, I needed to hold 350W for the first 4 minutes.

I stayed on or near the front for most of that climb, then the clock hit 4 minutes and I eased up.

4 minutes at 352W, HR 173bpm

We were so close to the top of the climb and the descent that followed that I put in a little extra work to hold onto the pack so I could stay in the draft until the Corkscrew Castle climb. When we hit that climb the pack flew away, and I finished the last 1.5km easy, clicking to watch the front riders finish before I crossed the line in 36th.

My racing score dropped from 549 to 529 in this single race.

Race 2

The second race was on 6.2km of Loch Loop, ending at the entrance to Corkscrew Castle. This race begins with a long, slack descent down The Cliffs section that we climbed in the previous race. Again, I had to hold 350W for the first 4 minutes, so against my racing instincts I went hard out of the gate onto the descent where I would normally be recovering.

I got an aero powerup at the start, and decided to use it as I went off the front, to make the race more interesting. One rider, A. Sherman, saw my attack and followed. Let’s go!

I was using my steering to shorten the course a bit, but Sherman didn’t have steering, so eventually I gave up and let the game autosteer so we could work together. (Although “work together” really isn’t accurate, because all I was doing was holding 350W. Sherman would have to decide if he wanted to sit on my wheel or push hard and be in the wind.)

I’d say he chose poorly, sitting in the wind just ahead of me for most of my 4-minute effort instead of taking some time to recover. But maybe he was doing a VO2 interval too!

When I sat up at the 4-minute mark, I messaged, “Good luck!” and let Sherman ride away. We had a 6-second gap on the peloton.

4 minutes at 352W, HR 176bpm

I clicked to watch how Sherman got along. He ended up getting caught on Breakaway Brae with 1.2km to go. Nice try, sir!

I rolled in at 34th place out of 36. My racing score dropped from 529 to 509. Woah!

Race 3

For our third race, we were taking on 2 laps of Glasgow Crit Circuit. The VO2 intervals weren’t killing me yet, so I knew I had the power to do it again. But how hard would it be to hit that 350W average on Glasgow’s undulating roads?

Only one way to find out.

Once again I was off the front early. Then we hit the Clyde Kicker, and I almost got dropped as everyone revved up the power big-time and I tried to keep it fairly steady! I used my aero powerup to chase back onto the group, finding myself off the front again before the lap was finished.

4 minutes at 350W, HR 178bpm

I finished 31 out of 39, dropping my racing score to 503. One race/interval left!

Race 4

The final race was on City and the Sgurr, a route I rather despise since it quickly takes you up the gravel side of the Sgurr climb, where I always get dropped.

No pressure today, though. I just needed to hold 350W for 4 minutes, which would put me somewhere in the middle of that climb.

Again, I found myself on the front for most of the lead-in to the climb. And I stayed there for the initial bit of the climb before the pack swamped me when things got steep:

I finished my last 4-minute interval just a few meters off the back of the peloton. Job done!

4 minutes at 354W, HR 177bpm

I finished the dirt climb, descended the other side, then climbed the paved side to complete the race at the top of the Sgurr 30th out of 35., dropping my racing score to 490.

Watch my race video:

Takeaways

My “Tiny Racing as VO2 Workout” experience left me with two key takeaways to discuss.

A VO2 Workout that Doesn’t Suck?

I must say that doing a VO2 workout this way was much more enjoyable than doing a typical structured VO2 workout. And I’ve done a lot of structured VO2 workouts! I found it easier than anticipated to hit the target average wattage, and in fact impressed myself with how close I got.

I think it’s a combination of the rush of being off the front of a race (which pushes you to keep pushing) as well as the rush of just being in a pack of riders who are all pushing hard. It took my mind off of the suffering of the VO2 effort somewhat, and the intervals didn’t feel as long.

If structured workouts are lonely, painful, and boring, doing them in a race wasn’t lonely at all, less painful (thanks to some distraction) and much less boring, partly due to the challenge of hitting the target power without ERG mode, and partly due to being in the middle of a race.

What I’d like to do next is work to extend these intervals by increasing the target wattage (increments of 10W) or time (increments of 30s). I’d like to work up to 5 minutes at 360, then see if we can keep pushing!

Tanking My Zwift Racing Score

I’m a fan of Zwift Racing Score, but I must say I was surprised by how precipitously it dropped in these four races.

It was particularly surprising because the three races I’d done leading up to these had been Zwift Games climbing races where I’d lost badly, but my score had only dropped a total of 6 points across those events:

Stage 3: 550 to 549 when I finished 94th out of 128 (see results)
Stage 4: 549 to 548 when I finished 39th out of 60 (see results)
Stage 5: 548 to 544 when I finished 25th out of 33 (see results)

I’m at a bit of a loss to explain how those three events lowered my score by only 6 points, while the four Tiny Races dropped my score by a total of 54 points. All I can figure is that placing very near the bottom of the race impacts your score a lot more than placing, say, in the bottom 1/3 of the group.

(If you’ve got any great insights into how my score dropped so significantly, please share them in the comments below! I’ve reached out to my contacts at ZHQ to see if they can provide any insight…)