I’m comfortable with my training but it has evolved over 3 years.
I initially just did workouts that felt hard
Then I learned about zone 2.
Then the next year, I did zone 2 and VO2 max.
Then I learned about durability and repeatability with Sweetspot intervals.
Each step was a year.
Sure, I could have got a coach but I didn’t and many people don’t either.
I learned from YouTube.
Zwift could try to teach others and, I will need to learn how to progress and work in periodization.
Now, knowing what I think I know, if I work with a coach, I can give specific goals.
This discussion got me reviewing my past rides and workouts.
2 notes to pass on.
- Skip the Zwift assigned titles and title your workouts with a brief description that will remind you what you did that day
- I think my biggest improvement, defined as a local up hill segment, appears to be more directly related to reps in the weight room and squats
Hi all, after 4 months keeping myself well inside the “Productive” zone on the companion app, with the very rare jump into “overreaching” I decided to give the AI suggestions a trial period.
Since going down that road I have managed to find myself imprisoned in the fresh zone. This is despite numerous increases in racing score and FTP plus many new PR’s, all of which I got doing activities outside of the AI suggestions. It has become demoralising to be fair.
Is there any way to dive a bit deeper into how this thing works? Or is “ignore it” the best course of action?
I’m not sure what Zwift is using to determine these fresh/productive zones, but I find it extremely hard to get into productive while my other apps like intervals.icu have me well into the similar productive (optimal) zone and not at all fresh.
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For me intervals and Zwift seem pretty similar in terms of ‘freshness’ at least at the moment. Is it possible your FTP is set differently on intervals vs. Zwift? That could make a difference in freshness calculations.
To the original post - yeah, I noticed the workouts Zwift was suggesting would not keep me at the TSS I would need to stay in productive Zone, so I just ignored the suggestions. That said, if you’re seeing numerous increases in racing score and FTP what you’re doing seems to be working, so not sure I would mess with it too much 
Please please please can we make this optional?
This week is the first week in 6 that I’ve been allowed to put my hands on the handlebars after shoulder surgery, but still not riding anywhere near the same level of frequency or intensity, which is tough for me.
The last thing I need is for Zwift to tell me that I’ve been riding with ‘intermittent frequency’ on start up: I know, it’s doing my head in, and I don’t need an AI generated message to remind me.
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I broke a couple ribs 6 weeks ago, but I did get on the bike for some low intensity rides. I had some horrible workout or route recommendations and was repeatedly told I was “DETRAINING” by the after ride summary screen.
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Yeah, I was out most of January and a lot of Feb with some really bad lung issues, having the UX keep telling me what workout was in store for me every day got old pretty quick.
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FTP or zFTP?
Zwift doesn’t know you are injured so it will do this. It just doesn’t have the ability to cater for that variable.
I had to back off from my level of riding as well, couldn’t keep 30 hours a week going after going to back to work so I got similar. Also had a little bit of injury woes - this is something that would be good to flag in this feature to make it more useful.
I also disabled the AI reports in Strava, they werent’t all that useful.
That’s right, a lot of your power comes from leg strength and your core strength. Then you add in the volume of riding and that’s most of it.
Hill repeats can do a lot as well if done with lower cadence. You don’t even have to go flat out.
I would ignore it to be honest, the only thing that matters is your FTP and the racing results.
Or if you are doing big climbs in Zwift, then seeing the times there getting faster. Also getting out on the real bike as a reality check, if you are getting faster on a real bike then that’s the ultimate proof you are doing things right.
Ignore Zwift specific measurements, only use accepted standard measurements of power and performance to guide your training. That way you can easily pick up transfer into other training plans.
Zwift’s Holoreplay, previous best sprint time or KOM. Garmin’s VO2MAX, pedometer, intensive training minutes, and what else. Strava, weekly calendar, graphs, challenges… Fun and motivating as long as your performance is open to improvement. Confronting in the event of illness or the inevitable aging process. To measure is to know, and the available technology is forcing us to face the facts more and more these days. Perhaps an off switch is no longer a luxury. But there will always be people who benefit from it. For me personally, AI will serve more for “damage control.”
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I looked at the Intense Recovery workout that AI keeps recommending and it seems like a nice VO2 max / threshold workout that uses traditional over/under intervals
I think AI is confused by the title.
This is not an easy day.
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The workout is training you to recover from intense intervals.
Is it rated 2/5 ? That seems to be a constant issue.
Over/unders don’t feel 2 out of 5 to me.
Me either, the question is why are they all rated 2/5?
is the app release with the training recommendations already publish for everyone?
Not yet, at least not for me (Germany). I’ll be gone the moment it appears without the option to switch it off. Absolute no-go for me.