Pausing a workout?

New to zwift;
I have done only a couple of workouts. There have been several times where I needed to hop off the bike to adjust a fan for example, and I click ‘menu’ and up at the top of the screen it says it’s paused but when I click ‘back’ to get back to riding I see the time has continued to elapse and my meter at the bottom of the screen show so that I haven’t been riding, and I fail to collect my star for that segment of the training session.
Is there a way to pause in case I need to for a couple seconds?

Hi Zwift, why do not I have the whole event saved today with Andre Greipel?

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Welcome to Zwift. Here’s a link to the Zwift user manual regarding workouts.

https://support.zwift.com/de/using-workout-mode-r1Z4eA1WHX

The pause button is in the pop up menu at the bottom of the game screen and in the workout window in the companion app while in workout mode.

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Here is what I see, I don’t see a pause button

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I’ve recently had the same issue using the Companion. I hit pause in the workout UI, but the timer continues to run. I’d expect pause to actually Pause the game/workout.

I don’t think you can PAUSE a workout without incurring a penalty. When I need to get off my bike for any reason, I wait for one the the recovery periods. Even when the work out is “paused” I still fail that segment. Since the recovery periods have fewer points to gain, I don’t lose as much compared to a really hard segment which usually gives a lot more points.

Does anyone know of a way to Pause the work out and not fail that segment?

The pause button is not in the main menu. It’s in the pop up menu with direction controls and actions. Swipe up or hit the up arrow during the ride or workout to make it pop up.

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Ah thanks Aaron! I’ll have to try to get that pop up to come up. I use a computer and have clicked all over the screen and haven’t seen that pop up yet!
At the moment my zwift companion has worked my first ride but never since so that is my next thing to battle

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The up arrow key will make it pop up. IIRC you can also click with the mouse in the bottom center of the screen to make it pop up.

For Zwift Companion there is a trouble shooting guide: https://support.zwift.com/en/zwift-companion-app-doesn’t-pair-(cycling)-HJ5WR1ZHX

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Thanks for the great reply.

Tim

If you pause it while still pedalling, then restart and wait for your wattage to stabilize into the segment zone before unpausing, you won’t fail a segment due to the pause.

If you unpause immediately, you’ll fail because your wattage will jump around for a few seconds.

The key is to be at the required wattage before pausing and unpausing. I’ve taken quite a few rest breaks to stretch and haven’t failed a segment since I started doing this.

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It worked today! I was 15 minutes into a 80 min work out and when I turned my fan on after warming up, I realized it had got bumped and was not pointing at me. Hit the pause and all was good.
Great Tip.
After 3 years, I’m still learning great tricks with the program!

What I have found is that if you pause right at the beginning of a segment, you usually get the star. You can’t pause in the middle of any segment except a warm up or cool down or a free ride and still get the star. Haven’t quite figured out the end of segment rule yet. Intervals count as a segment, so if there are say 6 repeats of 5 minutes at 200W with 3 minutes at 135 rest, you can only pause right at the beginning of the first 5 minute interval. However, if you’re like me and get a sore butt, you can stop pedaling for a second or two without pausing and still get the star.

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Linda, my experience has been different.
This “pausing” has saved me twice in my last 2 rides.
I was in a workout yesterday and was on a segment with 6 repeats like you said.
In fact it was exactly like you said, 200 W X 5 min with 3 min of 135, maybe same workout.
On the 5th seg, my speed sensor battery started to wonk out.
I quickly hit pause, changed the battery and tried to resume.
I was using Ant+ and when I resumed, the cadence was weird.
I hit pause again, switched my speed / cadence sensor to Blue tooth sensor and was able to complete the segment and the entire workout with all stars.
I made sure I was pedaling up to speed for resuming the workout.
My speed/cadence sensor is all in one and is Ant+ and Blue tooth.
My HRM in Ant+ and blue tooth too.
In the example above, I had to finish without use of my HRM because Blue tooth will only connect to 1 device and that 1 device for me, gave me speed and cadence info. I saved the workout and now am only 5 miles short of level 24 and my Cervelo, which I will get later today!

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Thank you for the good information. It helps a beginner.

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6 posts were split to a new topic: End of trial period

Thank you MattM for clarifying.

I have these 2 questions as wel Jason, thanks for starting this up