So I’m new to cycling and looking to do my first race on zwift.
What I am trying to do is build a plan that will have me at peak race condition for the race event date.
The issue I have is I cannot find any races that are further out than July? I was thinking of doing 8 weeks of training (I started cycling back in March so hopefully an 8 week plan will work?) and get in the base, build taper stages in those 8 weeks then race.
But I don’t think Zwift shows dates for zwift races that far out? How am I suppose to build a plan and have it set for a race date when I don’t know the race date.
We will have our monthly racing events (which are great for beginners) on a daily basis until the end of time. Most events aren’t scheduled that far in advance.
Don’t worry about being at your peak. I found them a great way to improve my fitness and power.
there are numerous races every day, so it doesn’t really matter as there will always be a race around the time that you want one. However, I wouldn’t wait until your training is done to do my first race, you should just start entering one every now and again to learn how Zwift racing works… it might be different than what you are used to if you race IRL.
start off easy, choose a shorter race like the monthly race series that @James_Zwift organizes. They are typically around a 30 - 40 minute races and go off just about every hour all day long.
Then, no more than once per week. Use them as your hard effort day, and do lots of zone 2 on other days.
From my experience you should expect to do half a dozen races to figure out how it works. Robo Pacer rides and social rides can also be good opportunities to learn how to modulate your power to stay in the draft. If you’re happy with the shorter and flatter events that dominate the calendar, you can find those pretty much whenever you want. If you want to do longer (more than 1 hour) or harder races (with climbs) then you’ll have to work more to find them and you may need to block out a window of 3 days or so to get an event that works for you.
Depends on how many days of a week you’re doing intensity. If it’s two or fewer, say on Tuesday and Thursday, just add a race in on top every (or every other) Saturday, for example.
If you’re doing 3 or more days at intensity, substitute the race for one of those workouts.
Of course, bear in mind that not all races are created equal. Something that’s done and dusted in 20 minutes is very different to a race on a route like Quatch Quest
