Hey there,
I’m a newbie, just started. My goal with Zwift or anyway virtual training is to improve my climbing. I’m used to ride flats (btw I’ve plenty of flats nearby, so this is where I do most of my outdoor riding) and I feel to be doing OK there.
First time I’ve approached a climb however, I was surprised to see how poorly I did it. Short breath and slow cadence in a few minutes. And the fun thing is that once the climb was finished, I was OK and could easily ride back home through flats, so I was not exhausted… it was simply that the climb was too hard for me and I was probably not used to it. I’ve got better by doing some few more climbs, but I’m nowhere near I’d like to be, with other riders easily passing me right and left on any climb.
Anyway, since it’s hard for me to find climbs nearby, I want to have more frequent climb training through my virtual setup.
I’ve bought a Saris H3 and I started using Rouvy and Zwift so to decide on which to remain for my virtual trainings.
In Zwift I’ve understood that there’s this Gradient setting, where, to have an experience similar to reality, I should use 100%.
Since, as said, my performance is really poor on climbs, I want to get a relevant experience and I suppose I have to do it with 100%.
I understand that Watts are Watts (I saw some topics about this discussion), but my problem seems to be that it’s easier for me to maintain 1 Watt on a flat than 1 Watt on a climb, and so I assume that by setting difficulty at 100% I’ll get what I’m looking for.
Anyway, my question to you all is if my assumption is right, and if doing climbs with 100% difficulty setting is a good way to increase my capability to maintain power on a climb.
I will look also for some training plans about it, but right now I want to get a feel about how it is through normal riding so to quickly decide between Zwift and Rouvy.
Second question is if there’s any filter which would make easy to compare my results with people using the same difficulty/gradient settings, so to evaluate where I am vs. other users using the same training conditions, and if my ability to maintain power on climbs is really out of the average as I feel or not…
Thanks !