How to take the boring out of training

Set some goals like “I want to improve my PB on Box Hill by 30 seconds” or set a new 2 minute power PB. Make them challenging and if they are unattainable now, learn what you need to do in your training to achieve them.

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Find a community like DIRT or weekly event like ZRL, WTRL, or any of the others and incorporate that into your training. Having friends along for the ride helped a bunch!

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I have a training buddy we ride together every day doing mostly the same workouts, we use discord to chat.

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Minigames. @Jonathon_Levie_KRT_Z (Zwift Hype) IIRC has a bunch of mini games he uses (or used to use) to make his sessions more engaging.

I’ve done my own things as a test using Unity and an ANT+ stick. It can be fun to, for example, do a power-based flappy bird. Increase power to fly up, back off to fly down etc.

Can do the same with cadence games, where you have a target and virtual bow, and the closer you are to target cadence the nearer the bullseye you are when the arrow’s let loose (every 30 seconds say).

Obviously you also accumulate a score, which means you then have a high score table and personal bests to compete on.

Or a mission based game where you pick up a cargo from point A and have to get it to point B within a certain time, via whichever route you prefer. The closer to the time, the more you score.

Just some off the top of my head examples, but there are so many things that people could up with along these lines.

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Those are very important goals for sure, but I think the focus of training leads to the Leonard Zinn problem as discussed in his book, Haywire Heart. I think Zwift has started with training, but what is the broader market training towards? I have a friend I convinced to bike every day, and he is older, and bikes everyday for one reason, to meet hot younger women. That is a super important motivator for him. For me, that would not be a motivator at all. My goal is to live to 95 extremely fit and cognitively sharp.

For many women, the goal of training, lose weight. For me, losing weight is the goal of solid daily nutrition, as mentioned in the Audio Book, Ride Inside, “You cannot outrun a bad diet”. So perhaps having some type of stupid caloric goal displayed on screen, but absolutely not weight, women do not want their weight broadcasted to the world, whereas super fit guys, we want our weight broadcasted to the world.

Interestingly, I learned from Zwift, my maximum power output over 1 hour is set, like it or not, as below 200 Watts. Above that, it is not going to happen.

Sounds like you need to set your first goal to a 1 hour power of 201w :grin:

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Just remember that being able to ride on Zwift is pretty good fun.

Boring is not being physically able to even get on any bike or walk properly. It’s a very different perspective when you spend every day knowing you are getting more and more unfit.

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What are your training objectives that you want to use Zwift for? For me the biggest boredom problem has always been the steady low intensity days. I tend to always ride hard outdoors. Pace partners and easy group rides on Zwift have been a good answer to that. Also badge hunting, and trying to do 110 RPM rides. I don’t do workouts on Zwift.

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Get your buddy on discord if he uses zwift.

I’d say 99% of my riders my on discord with somebody whether it be a race or social ride. (i’m not much into training :rofl:) it really helps the time go by.

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Raising your FTP, losing weight, setting new PRs, riding with faster groups, watching your miles and hours go up?

Are you fairly new to indoor training? If so, try it the old way… no Zwift, RGT, Rouvy, or anything interactive. Static resistance. Stare at the wall and listen to a podcast or music. Maybe get fancy and watch a bike race or movie while you ride. You’ll gain a new appreciation for Zwift after about 30 minutes of that :grin:.

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For me, it’s just maintaining volume of riding which Zwift helps with.

I started by doing the challenges (I did nothing but climbing hills for 4 months to get the Z1), and working through all the routes. I have only the six hardest ones left and I think I’ll leave those for winter, or group rides for company and drafting.

Achievement badge hunting is another that’s been fun. I posted about my mission to get the 100kph badge and it sparked a great discussion on different methods for getting that.

Mixing up different routes helps with variety - pan-flat are good for steady-state but rollers like The Esses and Titan’s Grove are more intense.

There are some great organized rides by SZR (Swedish Zwift Riders) and Herd. The latter has a “Bull Run” that helps bridge the gap between Cat D and Cat C - as a solid Cat D rider trying to move to C, Bull Run was intense and awesome. GREAT energy and communication from ride organizers. THAT stuff keeps me interested. (of note: I don’t race at all)

There’s a pinned resource guide with some useful and fun tools here: https://forums.zwift.com/t/links-to-zwift-resources/

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I suggest extending the pace partner routes so people don’t get bored with the same loops/terrain. Have an epic pace partner route for guys that want to ride for multiple hours. Also if you could add a bathroom power up for group rides longer than 2 hours. Give everyone a five minute break and allow them to jump back into the same/similar position or have their bot autopilot link to the group leader beacon during their break.

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Maybe he automatically follows back people who follow him; he’s following around 40,000 people. :rofl:

There’s no way anyone can keep up with following more than a few tens of people I think. I follow around 500 and that’s far too many.

Him and Stephen Fry are my coolest followers I think, although only the latter has ever responded to something I tweeted.

I just follow everyone back that follows me. I use the favourite feature to follow those I really want to see (about 7 or 8 I think).

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I should curate my feed better. Assign people to lists etc. The people I follow I all follow for a reason, but those are spread across so many different areas. Friends, cycling, web development, WoW…

It’s too much! It’s too much! :rofl:

loading up into an app to cycle with people from all over the world is good enough for me to take the boring part out of cardio training :smiley:

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I think I might have seen that programme. Bushnell was very influential in the early days of the video game industry. Well, I guess there was no such thing before Bushnell really, although videogames themselves existed.

I don’t know anything about Ken Arrow though. Not my area! =)

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Let’s hope not, because “fun is fast” apparently, but I don’t find riding indoors that much fun.

Of course, it’s all relative. Zwift is a lot more fun than staring at a blank wall. =)

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