Hi all! I’m an avid mountain biker and have been riding since ‘93. I just completed the “Grind Finale” training session on Dirt Destroyer and need to rant. Whoever designed this session appears to know nothing about the demands of mountain biking. This session is anything but a grind. It alternates between low-cadence (65) at FTP and high-cadence (100) at very low watts. I don’t know what this is meant to simulate but I find it hard to believe that the designer has ever had dirt in their teeth! I am hoping to get some support for my rant and perhaps the good folks at Zwift will overhaul this session. I can’t think of a scenario where I am alternating at 30 second intervals between low and high cadence with wattage from full FTP to next-to-nothing. The session is equally frustrating with Erg on or off and does not represent anything I would meet in a typical cross-country ride IRL. Who’s with me? Anyone else frustrated by this training session? In general, I like both training regimes (wish there were more mountain bike specific training programs) but this session has to go, as it has minimal training benefit. Almost 50% of this 50-minute session is performed at or below 100 watts, so not much “grind” here either.
your first mistake was using a training plan in Zwift, they aren’t great to begin with… there are much better options out there, I bet even chat gpt is better at being your coach at this point.
I agree with you.
For my area of the Midwest, 30 - 90 sec efforts at 120 - 150 % FTP then “recovery” at sweet spot or a little less and intervals out of saddle.
That’s how I designed mine, sort of an over/under on steroids and out of saddle.
Forget the steering gimmicks.
I use Zwift to build endurance and weight room to build strength.
I find improved endurance greatly improves my bike handling skills IRL.
I would suggest doing some reading on training plans from the usual knowledgeable folks (Friel, etc) and some local pro cyclists if you know them, see what they do and piece together your own plans, mix and match and find what works for you. It’s what I do.
The bulk of my training in Zwift is no all out sprint efforts, it’s just riding up the steep mountain courses daily (1 or 2x per day) at moderate pace (on the days when you feel rubbish) to semi-fast pace (on the good days). I’ve had super results from this with my riding outside. Average power over 4 hours is well up. On steep hills my power is up a lot. I’m just quicker everywhere. As you progress you should see your lap times go down and consistently get quicker back to back, eg, first lap versus second lap, you might even find second lap is quicker. Use the same bike/wheels in Zwift all the time, keep trainer difficulty the same to minimise variables and track everything:
- how many laps you did on the day,
- the times (look at first lap versus second lap)
- heart rates (versus power)
- room temperature (hot and humid means harder)
- perceived effort
- sleep quality overnight (poor sleep, no energy)
- what you’ve eaten (fuelled up well, or not)
- stresses away from riding (work, etc)
All of this for me is a combination of volume of training/riding and the consistent daily riding on the hilly courses (good for leg strength). My endurance rides are outside - they are 4-5 hours. None of it is complicated but it really works. This all works out to be 20-30 hours per week.
Agree with comments on weight room, a lot of power comes from doing that.
In old days I found a way using the Computrainer (on a big steel trainer bike frame) was to set up some longer steady intervals, then let the speed fall off and try to push 20-30 revolutions of the pedals against the massive resistance. Then back off and spin easy. Then repeat. This is kind of like a gym workout, but on a bike. I wouldn’t recommend doing this on your normal smart trainer as it’s probably not good for it. 
Other off bike exercises like for core and balance are also good. Some of your power comes from that and these will really help your bike handling. I had to do a lot of these after my crash and hospital/surgery in 2022 because I was so badly unbalanced, coordination was off and one side of my body was much weaker.
This is often a thing in Zwift workouts, the easy blocks are far too easy, and sometimes the all out blocks are excessively hard. With more knowledge you can tweak this.
Another old workout set I would do is set 3-4x 10-15min intervals with the blocks at 6-7% gradients, and the recovery 3 minute parts in between at 2% gradient. Then you control your effort with gears, cadence and watch your heart rate. As they get easier, add another block and or reduce the recovery time between the blocks or increase the power level. Mega effective at least for me. These were ridden at 70rpm cadence and trying to stay really steady on the bike. I don’t have big hills in my area, so this was my hilly training.
These are excellent suggestions and some I am already doing. I do weights and core exercises 3 days a week and am already climbing as part of my weekly Zwift activities. Maybe I’ll ditch the training programs entirely and just focus on climbs each session. My IRL riding features lots of very technical climbs so it makes sense to mirror this indoors.
Thanks for the details Chris.
Agree Tim. I built weights into my weekly Zwift activities 3 years ago and do them religiously 3 days per week. Nothing crazy, free weights in my pain cave. This really helped with my bike control and my bunny’s IRL
I have never tried the mtn bike specific trails on Zwift. They seem like an unnecessary gimmick.
Your mid-west riding sounds a bit like mine in southern/mid Ontario 
. Not tons of vertical but lots of undulating overs-unders on very technical, rocky/rooty terrain (Canadian Shield granite).