Road simulation during workouts... what's your take?

The Archives Archived: General Discussion
1

Today, there’s no way to use road simulation mode during workouts. When ERG is selected, the watts goal drives resistance, and when ERG is disabled, the Watt goal is driven by an external device. I understand the logic from Zwift behind this, since this is the preferred way for trainers, but it would be nice to offer an option for the resistance to be controlled by the road inclines and downhills during workouts. I’ve been thinking of a potential option: for free ride segments included in custom workouts, let the road determine the resistance. I would like to get a sense of what other Zwift riders think about this idea.

2

Hi Ricardo, 

Using the SIM mode in FreeRide Workout segments has already been suggested and I will add your vote there. At the moment you can control the resistance manually with “+” and “-” keys on your keyboard or by tapping the ''up" and “down” arrows in the Zwift Mobile Link.

I hope it helps.

Thanks

3

I do workouts all the time on Zwift without workout mode. I ride the course and nail the throttle for x minutes at x watts. Just like road riding. I get the variety of cadence depending on grade, I am forced to work hard to maintain an average, intensity, etc. In Zwift workout mode you are working at a fixed, stable wattage load. Both have their benefits. Terrain can cause a rider to drop watts on downhills for example. But on uphills we all know that most of the time watts go up, cadence drops a bit. On Zwift mode it is steady. Both have their place in building fitness. If a person only does Zwift style workouts at the steady efforts they may get surprised on the real road as terrain changes. So…the solution is to do Zwift group rides and races. You get the variety of unstructured hard efforts. It teaches the body well :slight_smile: Use Zwift smartly and it will have you stronger than ever and flying on the open road.

Another thing I do is to do a shorter workout. Skip the cool down portion and end workout. Then I ride Zwift out of workout mode. DO a few laps or whatever. The hit E and load a second workout. I do the transition between during a easy recovery period. Works fine that way too.