Please improve Training Plan schedule flexibility

Agreed.
The pause function would be very useful to avoid resuming workouts after having a one-week stop and find yourself doing much harder sessions.

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I agree. It would be much appreciated if a missed workout wouldn’t simply be unavailable. Occasionally it happens that I miss one workout in a given week, but would have plenty of time to complete the workout, say, the following day. But, unfortunately I can’t. Please make the training plans more flexibility. Thanks!

Absolutely agree. This lack of flexibility is probably the most stupid thing I have ever seen of any kind of service or product you can buy.

Even the liquor or gambling comissions are not as restrictive! They recommend for you not to drink 3 bottles of wine per day, but If I want to, I can buy and drink them anyways…

This whole restrictive training plan is also unfair. I am paying the same amount as someone who has a regular schedule, but I can’t take advantage of the same programs because my job does not allow me to train as per this schedule.

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I guess you dont get what a training plan/schedule is about?!
If you cant follow the training schedule you are out or your schedule doenst fit your lifestyle.
If you need a training schedule because you are unable to train (alone), for yourself you dont have what you need in order to move, move faster, train. Because training starts in your brain. Imagination, self reflection, diversification.
If you want to continue lifestyle and training schedule xyz you need to modulate your schedule xyz to your desire. You dont need more than your brain for this …

I would also love more flexibility, such as doing a workout 1-2 day in advance or late, or even the ability to pause for a few days. Cycling is already a big part of my life and my girlfriend is quite supportive, but I don’t think she’ll understand if I tell her that we have to leave one day later or come back from a holiday weekend earlier because I don’t want to miss one my Zwift workout as part of my training plan !

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I would like to choose 2-3 day ftp builder or some sort whenever i can during the week.
Who have time for 6 day workout?

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Another vote for this feature. Some options…

  • pause plan
  • repeat workouts (on/off)
  • go back 1 week
  • go fwd 1 week (start next weeks workouts on a Saturday if you’re ready for them)
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I agree with this as well. Currently, there are four workouts available to me that need to be completed in the next three days. I can only do a workout on one of these days. After these, there are two days of no workouts-- and these are days I have lots of time to workout! It’s very frustrating. I’ve enjoyed the training plan feature up until now.

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My workaround to get unlimited flexibility with training plans:

This takes maybe 5 minutes per workout (after the first couple of practice runs), the files can be used by anyone you share them with, and you can make any changes you like to the individual workout (I just add a few minutes of warmup).

I hope some of you find this useful. Happy new Zwift year :bike:

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I completely agree. It seems like a very strict implementation for a community focused on positive and inclusive environment. Please add some native flexibility to the training plans!

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Dear Zwift,

The mandatory rest period embedded in the workout plans is INSANE!

Please, for the love of all that is holy for busy individuals, allow us to toggle this function on/off.

As any busy person with a family, job, etc., will tell you, real world schedules can be unpredictable. Some days I only have time in the morning, sometimes I only have time at night, but the fact that I get locked out of a workout is obnoxious.

I think you have a great platform and a growing community, but you’re alienating individuals that can’t fit into your prescribed schedule.

Adding a feature to allow this function to be toggled on/off does not detract from your platform. It only adds to its flexibility and allows us to further invest and enjoy in what Zwift has to offer. Seriously, what’s the harm in adding this feature? Is it liability? Are you afraid we will overtrain and then blame Zwift? Add a liability release statement. But, if I want to do 24 workouts of a workout plan in a week, why stop me from doing so.

I simply don’t understand why you would force your users into a prescribed schedule.

Sincerely,

Anyone who has a busy and/or unpredictable schedule

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Hi Zwift

It is ridiculous that if you cant do a scheduled ride as part of a plan, you lose it completely and cant access it again. Also, it doesnt allow you to do more than one in a day. For instance I had pedaling skills for 30 mins and then wanted to do the next ride which it wouldnt allow me to do until the next day, which I then couldnt do!!

Great plans but this element ruins it and just dont understand why its in place. Please remove this and allow flexibility. You can in Trainer Road.

Thanks
Hadley

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Another vote to add flexibility within the training plans. I have several work-related trips planned over the coming weeks, including an overseas business trip, so it’s not reasonable to hit all of the prescribed workouts. Apart from work, I have 4 young children to help raise, so stuff happens.

Having flexibility is great, but it get complicated, if you take a week of two off from a training plan you cant just pick up from where you left of if you want to get the benefit of a program.

The goal of this program is to have structured training with structured rest periods to maximize performance.

So to have a pause function is not just stop and restart it will take some programming to determine where you need to restart, that is why cycling coaches can make a living because they can do this for every client.

I am sure Zwift would want to have a program that can do all of this nice things, but it take time to develop.

I can appreciate the difficulty in developing something like this and I understand that plans are structured rigidly for a reason. Still, stuff happens in the real world and it’s tough to find a block of time to complete a multi-week plan without interruptions. I wish I could make each scheduled workout, but not always possible. Hopefully the team at Zwift can eventually develop a solution.

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Also if you want to do events like the tour de zwift or the gran fondo series, not easy to get those events plus your plan done. Would be nice if you could pair the two together, first part of the event be the scheduled workout, then the rest at your own pace and get both complete.

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Agreed, I would like to have more flexibility. Last night I did a foundation tonight was tempo tomorrow is another foundation, my legs are dead and I need a rest day. So I will miss the foundation tomorrow and have no new work out for 3 days. But will want to ride Friday…

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I really like the Plans but I also need some flexibility.

In my case, I’d like to do the Gran Fondo plan but need to do the long ride on a Wednesday. Unfortunately the Plan only makes the long ride available on a Thursday and it’s disappeared by the following Wednesday. Hence I’ve cancelled the plan as it doesn’t work for me.

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Would love a pause feature.

Sometimes I need to focus on my running due to events, and this causes me to fall a few days behind in the plan - can’t come back and continue because it locks you out!

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I am new to the Zwift forums. I searched google to address this very issue concerning the inflexibility of the plans. The first comment was made back in October 2018, over 3 months ago. To my knowledge, unless I have misunderstood something, there has been no response from Zwift staff commenting, acknowledging these concerns or stating what steps will be taken to address this. This would seem to be the minimum expected in terms of customer service. I hope this generates a response from Zwift so I don’t need to escalate it. Finally, thank you for building a great platform to enable us to train indoors but please bear in mind that any company is only as good as its customer basis and the extent to which it meets those needs. Don’t let down what is otherwise a good concept. Hope to have the plans made flexible very soon. Kind regards.

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