Zwift Camp: Baseline is now underway, with over 140,000 Zwifters taking part so far in this new style of assessment-oriented training program.
I’m one of those Zwifters, and plan to share my experience in three posts – one for each section of the program:
- Sprinting
- Attacking
- Endurance
As you may or may not know, each of these sections consists of two activities: first a workout, then a test. I cover the sprinting workout and test below.
Sprint Booster Workout
The Sprint Booster workout has you tackle several high-intensity 20-second sprint intervals, with recovery sections in between. The full workout is 55 minutes long with 10 sprint segments, while the lite version is 29 minutes with 6 sprints. Here’s what the workouts look like with my FTP set at 310W:
I went with the full 55-minute workout, and did it as a group workout event. (You can do these as on-demand workouts by yourself as well, but I wanted to try the group workout experience.)
Watch me ride this workout:
Going into the event, I could tell it wouldn’t be terribly hard for me. (That’s not a brag. It’s just that, as an experienced cyclist, I know that sprinting and sub-1-minute efforts are where I’m strongest. My educated guess is that this section of Zwift Camp: Baseline will be the easiest of the three for me.)
After a warmup with three 30-second efforts to get your blood pumping, this workout has you complete 2 matching sets of 5×20-second sprints. The efforts increase each time throughout the set of 5, so for me with my FTP set at 310 each set of 5 was:
- 560W (180% FTP)
- 590W (190% of FTP)
- 620W (200% of FTP)
- 650W (210% of FTP)
- 680W (220% of FTP)
The text popups for the workout did a good job of warning me to increase my cadence before beginning the sprint. This is a crucial tip for ERG workouts, because if your cadence is low (let’s say below 85RPM) heading into a high-powered interval, when that resistance ramps up on your trainer, you may not have the torque in your legs to turn the pedals over, and you’ll enter the dreaded ERG spiral of death.
Power (watts) on a bike are a function of torque (how hard you’re pushing on the pedals, measured in Newton-meters, Nm) and cadence (how quickly you’re spinning the pedals, measured in rotations per minute, RPM). So if you’re trying to hold a particular power number, and you decrease your cadence, you’ll have to increase your torque to compensate. Or if you decrease your torque, you’ll need to increase your cadence to compensate.
Ramping up your cadence to 100+RPM heading into the sprint intervals helps ease the torque requirements, so when the resistance ramps up your legs will still be able to turn the pedals over.
I mixed seated and standing efforts during this sprint workout, because it’s good to be able to do both, and I wanted to compare how they felt. I found the standing efforts to be easier than anticipated, and I found I was comfortable sprinting out of the saddle at 93-100 RPM, while seated was closer to 105-112 RPM.
Overall I found the text instructions to be helpful/inspiring. But I would tweak them a bit, especially the one at the end of the very first sprint that says, “Final push! Empty the tank!” (Because if you’re emptying the tank on the first of 10 sprints, you’re in trouble.)
The group workout used the Tides and Temples route, which was actually a great choice for the event because the workout ended with us near the top of the climb portion. I just had to ride a few more minutes, then it turned me left onto The Grade descent for an easy cooldown.
Takeaways from the Sprint Booster Workout
I received an email from Zwift immediately after finishing the sprint workout, telling me I’d unlocked the Zwift Camp: Baseline kit and inviting me to visit zwift.com/zwift-camp and sign up for more events.
My only takeaway from this workout was that I need to keep working on higher cadence standing sprints. For whatever reason, indoors, I tend to do out-of-the-saddle sprints at a lower cadence than outdoors. But I think if I can get my standing sprint cadence up above 95 I’ll see higher sprint power numbers out of the saddle.
Sprint Test
The sprint test has you complete three all-out 15-second sprint efforts. Your goal is to get your best possible 10-second power in these segments so Zwift can accurately assess your sprinting abilities. Here’s what it looks like with my FTP set at 310W (the power requirements will change depending on your personal FTP):
Two days after my sprint booster workout, I started my Saturday long ride with the sprint test.
This a simple workout in terms of layout: a standard warmup followed by three 15-second all-out efforts. The efforts are separated by 7-minute rest intervals to give your legs time to recharge.
Watch me complete the sprint test:
My first sprint was a standing sprint, but I felt like I was in too hard of a gear (22), sitting right at 80RPM. Strava shows a 1026W peak, 978W 10s average, at 80RPM.
So I went with gear 20 the next time. This was my best interval, with Strava showing a 1055W peak, 1006W 10s average at 92RPM.
I still felt like I was still mashing a bit in gear 20, but I only had one more sprint interval left, and wanted to try it seated. So that’s what I did! But the results weren’t great: 993W peak, 885W average, 117RPM.
Virtual Shifting + Erg Mode Tip
If you use Zwift’s virtual shifting and Erg mode in this workout, here’s an important tip: be sure to turn off Erg mode well before you hit each of the 15s sprints, so you can get your gearing correct before the sprint begins!
UPDATE Dec 12, 2024: Zwift updated the sprint test (see below) by adding 30-second free ride blocks before the 15-second test blocks, allowing you to get into the best gear for your sprints.
Takeaways from the Sprint Test
Immediately after finishing the Sprint Test, I received an email from Zwift:
That 10s power number of 1028 is a new PR for me, at least compared to anything I did in the last two years. But I think if I dialed in my gearing for a fresh out of the saddle effort I could do slightly better! So my big takeaway here is… the same as my takeaway from the sprint workout. (Apparently I’m a slow learner). I need to keep working on higher cadence standing sprints.
One important callout that I want to mention a second time is that Zwift is evaluating your 10-second power in this test… not your 15-second power! This is the right move by Zwift, because they rightly realize that it can take riders a few seconds to ramp up power in a 15-second interval.
Questions or Comments?
I’m really excited about the direction Zwift is going in with Zwift Camp: Baseline, and I hope you are too. Are you taking part in this program? Share your thoughts or questions below!
One question about the Sprint Test: can it be re-done to have the report again?
I have vShiftng via Zwift Click, but every time I switched off ERG before the 15sec free ride segment, once I tried to gear up, it changed my training bias instead (from 101% and above, e.g.).
Yes, you can do it as many times as you’d like. It will only send one result email per day to you, though. So don’t do it twice in a day. 😁
Great news! Thx Eric! (P.S.: no risk to do it twice a day, this for sure😅)
Thanks for the heads up about switching off ERG mode with virtual shifting. I’m about to do mine and didn’t realise I had to do that!
You definitely don’t HAVE to do it… but it’ll be really hard to put out maximal power for 15s if you don’t.
Worked great for me, I missed star by pushing a bit too hard too early though on the previous segment to one of the free rides, but this doesn’t seem to matter I don’t think. I got the email and the stage has been marked as completed. Great site by the way!!
Yeah, I don’t think stars really matter. You just can’t skip through the sections…
What if you don’t have virtual shifting? Should I still turn off ERG mode a little bit before the sprint so I can get into the right gearing? I assume so, but thought I’d check. I haven’t done a lot of workouts, and none with free ride sections, so I’m not sure how those work. Thanks.
Just keep your rear cassette in a fast gear (small cog) during the erg portions or if your have a 2x front ring, keep the rear in a middle-small cog and the shift from small ring to big ring.
If you have a physical cassette you can gear up during the ERG portion. ERG is going to adjust resistance accordingly.
If you don’t plan on shifting during the sprint, you can just put it in the correct gear before the start of the workout and never touch it.
Basically with mechanical shifting, you kind of need to know which gear you’ll be sprinting in before the segment begins. Just shift to that gear, then when the segment starts you’re already geared correctly.
You can always shift during the sprint interval, of course. It’s just harder to put out maximal watts if you’re shifting…
Thank you Griff, Alex, and Eric. That all makes sense, and should have been obvious to me. I was just over-thinking it (a Zwifter, overthinking something? Shocking!).
I completed the sprint workout last sunday but never received the email from Zwift…
The email comes after the test and not the workout
Make sure you’ve opted in to receive emails from Zwift, otherwise you won’t get those emails. Info here: https://zwiftinsider.com/zwift-camp-baseline
Thanks. Everything was turned on, still, no email received! I’ll survive anyway!
I also have emails turned on from Zwift but didn’t receive the Sprint test results email either.
Similar issue. Did not receive sprint test results email following Stage 2. Opted in to email as well…
After the first ERG workout I did with my virtual shifting (new to me this season) I submitted a request for Zwift to just remember the gear I was in during the free ride. It’s probably not as simple as your method (which I will use!) but that would be helpful.
Yes, I’ve thought of this solution as well! I do think it would at least be better than what they’re doing now…
Thanks for the review and an even bigger thanks for addressing the ERG/gearing issue with Zwift directly. Even with an added freeride portion it sounds pretty annoying to gear up from 8 to 20 though. I already hate having to gear up from 8 to 16 in the 10 second window to start a pace partner ride.
FWIW, I think the sprint workout is going to feel easiest to anyone, no matter if they’re a sprinter or not. I’m on the opposite end of the spectrum (lightweight climber) and sprint work feels much easier than endurance work anyway because of the much lower overall average power. (Pretty sure it’s significantly lower normalized power, too?)
When do you expect to have the basecamp wheels tested and a post up about them?
Maybe this week. Already got them (using my bot) and tested them. (Spoiler alert: like other Zwift wheels, they’re nothing special.)
Thanks, “nothing special” is what I really wanted to know. Good workouts but not sure I’ll bother with the tests, especially the grade one.
Look forward to seeing the actual test but agreed, the Zwift garage weight and aero star rating was disappointing when I unlocked them. 🙁
I also set some new power PBs (even without the turning off ERG mode trick) – finally got the 800W badge! The gearing was definitely the tricky bit. In the first interval I hadn’t realised virtual gearing would come on so I got into a real mess shifting my real gears for a few seconds, then the virtual ones when I saw they were on (and then confusing the trainer for a good few minutes after once I’d put the real gears back on the cog i normally have it on whilst it was back in ERG mode). I think your solution of a 30s free ride block to get your gearing sorted would be much better. I just started shifting really close to the buzzer (you could tell I’d gone a few clicks early as the workout %age tapped up a few steps). I think the fact is was 10s out of 15 that was assessed meant it worked overall though (all of my 1-10s numbers were bests by about 50-80W).
I got the email and the kit unlock…..but I also got the email and the kit after Stage 1 like your original post! Not sure what happened there! 😛
Great article….I should have read this before I did the sprint test. 15s window for 10s power, didn’t turn off erg mode and then ended up shifting down(!) the virtual cog too by accident, was in gear 4 sprinting! Managed to save it just about.
I don’t know where Zwift takes that “previous best”…
From your last 90 days of activities.
Is this a sneaky way of getting values for your ZRS? 🤔
Kind of funny thing: I did Elevation Evaluation and Zwift gave me stage 6 completed, endurance test with obviously a poor result
An I also got Katos sunglasses
I missed the workout last week due to sickness. Is it still possible to do the workout before the Test?
Think so. I picked it 2 days ago manually
Yup.
Viola? Or Voila? 😉
It’s my favorite classical instrument. Bigger than a violin, smaller than a cello! 😜
same ERG issue was present in Zwift Academy and it really messes up your sprint being dropped into gear 8.
It was harder to turn off as some of the ZA modules had you ramp up through the zones before the free ride.
In the end I turned ERG off completely and held the power I was asked.
I’m not keen to do something like this again, especially as there was zero feedback from Zwift on how you performed in Zwift Academy.
Is there any issue turning ERG off for the whole workout?
What does the Sprint report show? Other than your best 10sec power?
Not much. Just your previous best 10sec power. Though that’s not your actual Personal Best, but probably a 90 day best.
I had email notifications off before my test. I was wondering if there was more detailed analysis. Perhaps a percentile comparison ranking or something like that. I hope the final report is more informative.
Looking forward to your report on the attacking workout. I found it very challenging.
I am receiving unlocks. I have a dashboard where Baseline Progress is posted and accurately shows that I completed workouts one and two…but no Baseline Strength Report email after completing a workout. What am I doing “wrong?”
You should have received an unlock notification email after workout 1. Then a sprint test report after workout 2.
If you didn’t, check your Zwift profile online and make sure you’ve got email notifications allowed.
i have completed stage 1 and 2, i had and have email notifications enabled. i never get eny mail, no mail in spam too.
UPDATE Dec 12, 2024: Zwift updated the sprint test (see below) by adding 30-second free ride blocks before the 15-second test blocks, allowing you to get into the best gear for your sprints. Nice!