Failing Full Gas training segments for using too much power

Bugs and Support
1

Hi all, I’m new here, so sorry if this is posted in the incorrect spot, I did search the forums to see if this was already posted, but maybe my search-fu isn’t so good.

Anyhow…
I am on the first week of the 6 week FTP builder - after taking my first FTP test. Today I hit my first “full gas” segment (on the “FTP Builder - Strength” day from week 1), where the in-game messaging said to turn off ERG mode and go as hard as you can for 10 seconds a bunch of times during the hour. The ‘target’ for my FTP on these full gas segments is 420W (yeah I know), and going well above that for 10 seconds is not that hard to do.

So I found that I failed every single 10 second “Full Gas” segment by averaging higher than what was requested. This somewhat sucks because a) It feels bad to look like I failed the workout, and b) The experience gained on any segment is lowered if you do not get a full star.

So, I guess my questions are… 1) Are these segments truly meant to be full gas, or should I just keep the power close to the max they are asking for? If so, I’ll just keep ERG mode on, and 2) Do all training segments that require full gas fail you if you exceed the target or are some programs created such that they treat full gas power as a minimum rather than a target? If it’s the latter then maybe there’s just a bug in this “FTP Builder - Strength” day.

If it is not a bug in the “FTP builder - Strength” day, then I guess it would be a feature request to treat the wattage targets for full gas segments as a minimum, not a target for the purpose of awarding stars/experience rather than telling me to reduce power throughout the whole segment - which is a bit demotivational.

2

Hi @SeattleSauve

Welcome to the forum.

I would say if the training program say go full gas the you should go as hard as possible and don’t worry about the stars.

It is not a bug, that is just how it work. Zwift don’t have a option for all out sprints. So not getting stars is fine.

1 Like
3

I’m finding the same thing. The stars seem like a pointless feature, because on the workout it says 300W for 10 seconds, but also to go full gas? I’m finding that the recorded wattage of 300 too easy to reach, not even close to full gas and then I’m being punished for it?

1 Like
4

The reason for the low target is that when you are in erg that it doesn’t force you into the spiral of death.

The creator of the workouts does not know your Sprint power.

The other option is to say full gas and set the target at 1000w.

1 Like
5

So, it sounds like the main issue is there’s no formal way to do a “go has hard as you can” segment when people are building the workouts. In an ideal world there would be a ‘min’ power for these segments (which is what ERG would use to avoid death spiral), but you could do what the program suggests and turn off ERG and go as hard as you want and not get penalized (and by this I’m just saying losing the star and whatever small experience you lose for not having that small segment full starred) if there was a type of segment that gave credit for anything over the min enabling the user to get a star for that segment as long as they were over the min etc… If ‘max efforts’ are a part of a lot of training regiments it would probably be worth them doing something like this, but maybe they are not that common - I’m not sure I’ve only done two training plans in Zwift so far…

But it is somewhat funny to have the text prior to the segment say “go as hard as you can” and have the game blinking a huge red “REDUCE POWER” for the whole max effort segment :slight_smile: Not super motivational, but it’s really a feature request to allow a different type of segment like this it seems.

2 Likes
6

would seem more sensible to just have a short free-ride segment with no specified power…other workouts do this sometimes…

1 Like
7

That would work too, and seems like it should be a pretty simple fix as long as that type of segment is supported. Whoever built the 6 week FTP Builder should have probably done that rather than set a random non-max effort target for the “full gas” segments.

2 Likes