New to Zwift and working my way through the features. Using a dedicated wheelless and bodged frameset on a Wahoo Kickr Core/Zwift Hub and a single 42t on the front. Difficulty set to 50%.
Today I tried a structured workout for the first time. In resistance mode I found it was quite difficult to match cadence and power to meet what was being called for but I understand this is an ongoing reality with the answer being prioritize power until I can catch up on cadence (if ever!). I have always been more of a grinder running an average of 75 rpm outdoors than a spinner but am trying to get FTP up by getting my RPMs up (pushing 80 - 90 on Zwift so far) but I do have more water under the bridge than most on Zwift so that may be wishful thinking. While I can increase the virtual gear (10/11 to hit the power target using a lower than target cadence, if I reduce gears so I can use a higher cadence to spin up to the power target and maybe get close to the cadence target (or at least closer to 100), I am spinning out on the lower virtual gears (for me that’s 8 or lower). In ERG mode, something similar happened - if I spin faster, the resistance dropped as it should to maintain power but again so I was spinning out. So it appears I am left with grinding my way to the power target. I did try coasting to see if the Hub would re-calibrate but that didn’t do anything. I have also found that when I stand on the bike, I need to be higher than 14 and maybe 16 to get any smoothness in pedaling. Certainly this gearing is relative to me and what the Hub gives.
So far my gearing is ok for my free rides given my power range and it looks like I can do work arounds for workouts but am I missing something? Is the difficulty set to 50% an issue? Is my chainring too small for the Hub? Or, having been off cycling for a while and being older, am I simply in the lower range for FTP and so am currently outside the sweet spot for these workouts?
Thanks for any insights.
Maybe I got the name wrong for my hardware - I have a Kickr Core with a Zwift Cog so the issues I am having are with the Cog and its virtual gearing. I think its the same anyway as the Hub but better to be accurate.
Trainer Difficulty only scales gradients, which don’t exist in ERG mode so that setting has no effect on what’s happening in the context of a workout.
Normally in an ERG mode workout you have to allow some time for the trainer to change resistance when the power target changes. If you try to apply power by spinning faster when you see an increased power target, if the trainer hasn’t responded yet it will lower resistance until that happens because it’s still working with the lower power target. Trainers vary in terms of how they process those changes.
Agreed. I did my first workout yesterday with my Kickr Core and Zwift Hub with virtual gearing. Coming from a non virtual gearing bike, there was a bit of a learning curve. I was spinning out the warmup at 90rpm, so I had to learn to slow my cadence. This wasn’t an issue on a normal bike because of I started to spin out, I’d jump to a bigger gear and let that artificially force me into a lower cadence. In ERG with virtual shifting, this is not possible.
I think it is just something we will need to get used to. Knowing if there is a sudden power decrease, start pairing back the cadence in anticipation of that, etc
Thanks for the comments. I still have to figure out ERG mode and how cadence impacts power but the fundamentals as described do make sense. However, my spinning out on Cog lower virtual gears was in sim/resistance mode, not ERG, when I tried to hit the power target by spinning up to the target cadence and not grinding like I normally would outdoors. And as suggested, if I was outside and spinning out, I too would change gears but would reduce cadence in doing so, which is not what the training plans want us to do.
After trying this a bit more I suspect my issue is quite simple and might be common to many older Zwifters. It may just be the game assumes that in training I can hit the target cadence in a more difficult gear that what I can actually do given my “older” physiology and current max HR, LT and VO2 max relative to most riders. Maybe 40 - 50 years ago but not today. Sure, if I push I can hit my current personal power target based on a mid D level but good FTP for my “experience” level at 85 - 90 rpm based on available muscle strength but to spin any faster I have to reduce the resistance too much to get the rpm up. So I spin out. Looks like I will just have to ignore cadence targets, figure out what parts of Zwift training are relevant for me and which parts are not, and figure out what will best translate outdoors. Maybe just enjoying free rides and races while training up to 85rpm from my current long ride 75 rpm avg outdoors will be a training win.
So now on to ERG mode. I will be curious to see even with training levels based on my FTP, if my lower cadence range will generate resistances I am not strong enough to grind through for full sessions. The body will do only what the body can do…
For ERG mode it appears there is a similar issue at the low resistance ranges for some training segments my FTP based training plans might generate . For my low target power segments I spin out at any decent or practical cadence so have to try pedaling much slower to get resistance up. However, that appears to be a skill in itself trying to get any smoothness at low RPM’s with lower resistances and that’s only if the ERG controlled resistance increases enough so I don’t keep spinning out and if the game doesn’t then assume low cadence means a stop. Not an issue most Zwifters with higher power outputs would likely have but a reality for those of us in the low power range as we would appear to go below the low end feasible power/cadence range for the game. Also not an issue outdoors where you can pedal slow without spinning by using a higher gear and not have the ride auto-stop. The work around might be to increase the workout difficulty temporarily for those low demand segments or drop out of and back into ERG as necessary. Maybe not much the coders can easily do about this but useful to recognize not all riders are 300W FTP when creating workouts, given these practical constraints in the game.