I can only assume so. I have the Wahoo KICKR in a permanent position in my office. Spin downs performed on it. Not sure what more it would need?
The ultimate verification would be for you to do a ride/test on one of your friend’s smart trainer.
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TBH the training plan I did put me at my limit and that was when my ftp was 165, so I guess I’m just not as strong as I think I am. I’ll keep working hard and see where I am in the summer. Will plan to do one every 6 months or so.
Quick question - I am fairly new to Zwift only at level 11 and have started this training plan. I am trying to complete all the workouts but know that won’t be possible because of being out of town. Does missing a few of the workouts cause any issues with the rest of the training days?
I am also female, sitting at 150w. Nothing huge but these workouts thus far have me sweating buckets.
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I think it depends on how many you miss and where you are in the plan when you skip them. That is, missing the workouts in Week 4 won’t really have a big impact on your ability to pick back up in Week 5. On the other hand, skipping week(s) 6 & 7 might make it harder to get through the tougher workouts in weeks 9 - 11.
In the end, you should just do the best you can to stick to the plan - regardless of what you miss - and see what happens.
Good luck!
I wouldn’t worry too much. I missed a few towards the end due to being out of town and managed to pick them up again relatively easily.
This is off the subject of gains, but has to do with the plan. I noticed the uphill battle workout is coming up for me and I’m trying to time it along with a group workout that is on the calendar to try to make it more interesting. Does anyone know if it will still count towards the plan if I choose the group workout?
Thanks
Steven
Not sure if it will count towards the plan, but isn’t there a “I did it” button or something like that you can mark off in the plan?
There should be, I found it on my plan.
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Oh yeah. Totally forgot about that. Thanks
Hello fellow zwifters,
I am in week 9 in the build me up, and decided to do an FTP test. I jumped 13 watts. But now I can barely complete the workouts. I’ve had to pause the workout so my heart doesn’t explode. Does anyone know if the workouts are designed around your original FTP you entered the plan with? I realized there is no FTP test until the end, so I thought maybe I messed it up. These are killing me now
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@Steve_n_Jackson if you took an FTP test and got a higher result Zwift saved that as your new FTP so from that point forward the training plan would be using the newer FTP number. You can change it back by going to training plans before starting a ride and edit it:
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You jumped the gun, lol. What @DKE_Watson is true. You can change it back to what it was.
But you should also consider that the whole point of the plan was to…well… build you up and increase your FTP. It looks like it’s succeeding at that. So, why change it back?
Think about it this way: if you’d NOT taken the FTP test now and, instead, stuck to the plan through week 12 using your initial FTP - you’d take the FTP test at the end and (presumably) come up with a result that is +13 Watts or better.
What then? You wouldn’t want to ‘undo’ that result to make future workouts easier, right?
Now, you’re at a point where you are really in the thick of the Build Me Up plan - when the workouts get longer, harder, and more frequent. i.e. where you’re most likely to see some gains. If you can get through them with your new FTP, you might boost a bit more before the end.
If you CAN’T finish them with your +13W FTP? You might as well go back to the beginning of the plan and start over (keeping your higher FTP setting unchanged) - or just move on to something else altogether.
The problem as I see it with that particular plan is that week nine is the start of the third phase of putting threshold endurance and VO2 Max all together at your old FTP. It should be far too hard not having accustomed oneself to your new FTP to keep it together on the final phase of the plan. Either keep going with your old FTP or start it over with your new one I think. There are some long and hard workouts in the final phase.
Thanks for the feedback. After today’s workout, it’s pretty clear that I need to set my FTP lower a little. 4 of 4 workouts after “jumping the gun” that I couldn’t get through without hitting pause.
Hi! Im just confuse in the workouts. Does this mean I have to do both workout on the same day? Like one in the AM and one in the PM or i should do them both right after the another?
You do not have to do them on the same day. There are mandatory breaks in between training plan workouts but you don’t have to do them on the same day even though in some cases you can. From your example I would generally do Monday-Tuesday and Thursday then Saturday for a 4 day week. Btw, always start a training plan on a Monday.
Thank you!
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No. Monday morning is just when they become available to you for completion. Once ‘Mon Morning’ arrives, the workouts will change to a ‘complete by’ day & time.
In a given week, you can choose to complete any workout that is available to you on any day prior to the due by date. That is, you don’t necessarily have to do them in the order that they are presented. But you generally won’t be allowed to complete two workouts on the same day - because once you do one of the available workouts, the others that were available will become ‘unavailable’ for some amount of time. I can’t remember how long it is - maybe 8 or 12 hours. It could be longer.
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Hello Zwifters, here’s my feedback on the build me up 12week training.
I’m a pretty active outdoor cyclist but also have quite a lot going on in my personal life. I’m sure I’m not unusual in any way there. I started the program after quite a long break from indoor training and picked this activity as I thought it offered good flexibility around my other activities.
Although I enjoyed the initial few weeks, I began to find that the schedule clashed with other Zwift group rides and events (particularly those on at the weekend). The real problem arises when you then have two rides to do before the end of the day. Because of the enforced rest period you are obliged to miss a training set. There is then no facility to catch up. Maintaining an unblemished training record is in itself a good motivator. I think the plan could be improved by not ‘timing out’ events so quickly. I’d prefer more days grace in either starting a new training ride or catching up with a missed one. In my case I’m still getting my ‘fix’ of intensive riding but the program is not accounting for that the same way a human trainer would.
In the end I abandoned the plan because I was frustrated by its lack of flexibility. I’m also doing harder workouts on Zwift events as noted by detected FTP rate increase detected messages.
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My problem is that I need flexibility around the hour of the workout. I just started Build Me Up, and am finding that I need to do my ride at 9am NZT but it won’t unlock until 10:30-11am. How can I fix this? I need to be able to do the workout at anytime that day. Please advise? Cheers, Steven.