does it change in 15 second jumps if you do longer ones? it does for me
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Youâre right - Iâve tested it on a simple ramp from 50w to 250w for 5 minutes and the watt target is only updated every 15 seconds. It really makes these smaller intervals unusable, but wonât have much impact on longer ones.
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If youâre wanting to change 200 watts in 30 seconds iâm not sure how practical that would be in erg mode - the resistance would need to change a reasonable amount with pretty much every pedal stroke.
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Itâs part of a warmup routine, and it goes from Z1 - Z6 five times which for me is 140 to 340w. A bit extreme yes, but thatâs what my coach tells me to do 
So I gotta find a way to do it.
Do they say you have to ramp up for 30 seconds, or just go from low to high? seems like a crazy thing to want to do in 30 seconds?
you could make 10 3 second blocks and increase them by 20 watts each time, probably as good as youâll get but canât see any trainer managing to do that with erg mode
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I dunno. If a trainer can handle going from eg. 100w to 400w in a few seconds during a typical interval workout (eg. âThe Wringerâ), it should be able to handle a steady 6-7 watt increase each second.
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I assume that Zwift made a conscious decision to limit the ramp up to 15 seconds. Mostly the ramp up is used for warmup where you would go from Z1 to Z3 in 5 minutes.
If I were in your situation I would just make it Z1 and then 30 seconds Z3 it will be a quick jump but your legs will naturally ramp up. Or if that is too much Z1 then Z3 10 sec then Z4 10 sec and Z6 10 sec.
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Yes, that is what Iâm thinking of doing, which is a pain and not ideal, but itâll get the job done. Thanks!
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it would have no problem going from one to the other but to continuously change 6 or 7 watts every second would mean it would never stabilise on the target and would constantly be trying to increase/decrease the power to get you on target - like the first bit of a segment where it overshoots slightly then under then gets it, itâd be doing that all the time without ever getting to the right point
Sure but thatâs the trainerâs responsibility, not Zwiftâs. Over the 30 second timeframe it would likely be directionally correct and achieve a somewhat close-to-desired result. It would just be nice to have some explanation from Zwift on why theyâve assumingly designed it this way, combined as well with the somewhat related newish âfeatureâ that it has to round target wattages to a 5 watt increment. I think this is what folks are all scratching their heads on.
Exactly this There is no indication over why this wouldnât be possible and no indication on the workout builder that this is a limitation. Would love to get some feedback to close the topic and maybe get this recorded as a need somewhere.
Wow, interesting that this hasnât been fixed from Zwift dev team till date lol
It clearly a software issue when Zwift app doesnât signal to the trainer to adjust power more frequently. Use a Bluetooth sniffer, and you can see how infrequent the power adjustment message is being sent to the trainer.
Side note: I stopped using Zwift for workouts that time and used Trainerroad app, as there are no such problems. Irrespective if big ring front / small ring back, or vice versa. Smooth power increments even for steep ramps in ERG mode (as the app signals to the trainer constantly).
Still using a Tacx Neo, 2T model meanwhile.
Good luck!
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As an aside - donât do that!
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Just giving an update after doing another round of power testing. Yesterday I did the workout with the power ramping up every 5 seconds, and it worked perfectly.
My workout was setup like this in Intervals.icu:
5x
5s 173w
5s 206w
5s 240w
5s 273w
5s 306w
5s 340w
1m30s Z1
IMHO 30W jumps every 5sec are far from smooth. To get steep ramps right, the software needs to signal power adjustments much more frequently - especially to hit maximum power correctly, e.g. like this:
Letâs calculate power ramp from 150W to 850W in 15sec. This equals to an increase of ~47W per second, and you should hit the max 1-2secs at the end.
If this is finally fixed with Zwift, happy to give it a go!
I donât believe it was fixed, since I havenât seen it mentioned in any release notes, I just wanted to update regarding the solution that is working for me, at the moment, despite the limitations.
Agree with you on all counts above. Would really like to not need these workarounds to get this type of workout done.
Thanks for your follow up Rene!
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I donât see what the purpose is to go from 150w to 850w in 15 seconds. Having a 3 blocks of 5 seconds at 400 5s 600 5s then 850w 5s.
If this is sprint training then just have a 10sec 850w block.
If you train in ERG mode it makes a significant difference on how the software signals to the smart trainer to avoid spiral of death.
The purpose of this forum post hasnât been about to find alternative workout, but to have a software insufficiency fixed.
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As I said above I would assume this is a decision by Zwift to it this way.
This look like Sprint training. That most people do with ERG off.
This is how TrainerRoad Sprint workouts look, we do it in ERG and it does not have ramps.
Itâs fine if you donât see that value. This is a warmup used by my coach before doing an evaluation routine, and I try to veer as close to what he prescribes as possible.
I wouldnât be able to justify why this is the routine he uses, and donât see the need to.
But I would expect this to work better, since zwift specifically supports building ramps with these lengths and gives no indication that it might be limited due to the inadequate update time for said lengths.