Training Plan Timing Flexibility

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#19

Hi All

I am certainly also in favour of a pause option for the trailing plans. I am currently 3 weeks into the 12 week Gravel Grinder and have work commitments (travel) for a week at the end of week 11 of the training plan that will result in me not being able to complete the training according to the set schedule.

One of the key values to joining a training plan is the commitment to daily riding and the personal achievement from completing all the training rides and the plan. The fact that I will not be able to complete the plan is already blighting my commitment to continue which I believe defeats the value and objective of the training plans. Just my 2 cents worth… I have voted.

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#20

Even though I’m well aware of how inflexible the training plans are, it’s really hard to make sure I select the right workout on the right day.

Like on Wednesday I had two workouts available for me: one expirering on Wednesday night, another expirering on Thursday night. I knew I had to ride the first one, as it was already Wednesday. So I started up Zwift, it offered me a choice between two workouts. I picked the first one (which Zwift had selected by default) and started the workout. And then in the middle of doing that workout I realized I had chosen the wrong one. Zwift had suggested I do a workout that expires tomorrow instead of workout that expires today.

To make matters worse, the information about when a workout expires is kind of hidden. If I want to make a plan for the next week, it’s almost impossible as the companion app only tells me when a workout becomes available, but not when it expires - it will only tell you that after the workout becomes available.

Disclaimer: I don’t have children and crazy work schedule. I actually have quite a bit of time in my hands to put it into cycling. I’m happy with spending Friday evenings on Zwift and sacrificing an entire weekend for cycling alone. My vacations for the whole year are actually all training camps. But these training plans are still so hard to schedule.

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#21

Maybe the mandatory pauses between workouts in the plan should be rethought. It’s not like I have ever eager to do another workout right after the one I just did but maybe some people can handle that. That being said, perhaps there are reasons for them being there that I am not aware of.

#22

I’ve been extremely frustrated with this. The plan should advise you, not lock you out of workouts you want to do when you can do them. I had the two choice dilemma the day before yesterday…I chose the harder option because I was feeling pretty good. I took a rest day yesterday and now my only option is a recovery ride when once again I feel great and want to do something more challenging. Tomorrow and Tuesday, I’m not sure I’ll have the time to get a ride in, and it looks like I will miss a very important session (when viewed in the context of the larger plan).

I get it…they don’t want people to overtrain I guess, but the inflexibility is killing the feature for me.

2 Likes
#23

In addition to missing a workout because of other commitments, maybe Zwift is just one part of your workout plan and you’re not interested in using it every day but you are interested in the training rides because they add variety and structure to a given workout. In this situation it would be nice to be able to pick a ride that matches what you’re interested in doing - maybe add an “audit mode” where either the rides don’t become unavailable after a period of time (although the folks who would like to pause for a week could use this as well) or maybe the audit mode is that nothing is locked and you can pick and choose the workouts in any order. Alternatively, there could be a training plan which is targeted for this group where the workouts aren’t locked - a “drop in” plan where people do a day here and there.

#24

Hi all and zwift management in particular

I totally agree with this thread. The lacking flexibility forces me to start new training plans instead of completing ones at my own pace. Using workouts is not a satisfying alternative. This limitation is ridiculous, and I will probably cancel my subscription unless this is fixed soon.

Maybe if enough people cancel their subscriptions, zwift will finally understand?

Does zwift record a “reason” when / if customers leave?

Best
-Christophe

5 Likes
Build Me Up Workouts Independent of plan?
#25

And another issue!!! It is Sunday, I am on the Dirt Destroyer Plan and I have done all the workouts for the week and saved the IRL workout for today as a group is going gravel riding this afternoon. I went to click “I Did It” on the plan for the IRL ride and now it is gone??? It was there yesterday prior to my last ride of the week and now that I did the last ride the IRL has disappeared even though it was supposed to be available for the whole week for me to do whenever I could??? This has happened to me before as well and I thought it was a glitch but now I know that you have to “cheat” and hit the I Did It button during the week even if you do not go out and do the ride just so you cover all your bases. Dumb Zwift!!!

#26

I just started my first training plan Dirt Destroyer. I’ve been fighting with what I thought was step 2 “Surge to the Max” I was going to try to redo it because it’s a screwed up step, but I when I went into my Zwift account I see it’s actually not step 2. It looks like I missed Step 2 because I didn’t do it in time.
This is stupid.
Dear Zwift. WTF?
I know I didn’t get it done in time because I took a day to ride my mountain bike outside, in the dirt, rather than sit-n-spin in my garage.
If the individual workouts were available I could maybe follow my own timeline.
So lame
So So lame

#27

Did you start the training plan on a Monday? You have to start them on a Monday because otherwise it will try and fit all of the week’s workouts in what is left of the days of the week. If you do not do a workout or if you do poorly you just move on to the next one, assuming that your FTP is set correctly.

#28

This whole plan thing is not for me.
I like the structured, tiered, workouts, especially this one that’s geared for MTB.
Low cadence, ramp ups, etc …
However being stuck with a specific timeline, not being able to go back and pick up missed sessions, or redoing past sessions is 'effing stupid.
Really Zwift. Anyone actually reading these forums?
This is dumb, and I’m dropping the plan after 2 efforts.
I looked in workouts, and through “Whatsonzwift.com” to see if I could do any of the plan’s workouts as individual efforts to try to make up for what I missed.
No
If this were a Yelp review you’d get 1 star

#29

The problem with not sticking to a timeline is that you are supposed to be training under fatigue in a training plan. If don’t stick to a timeline then you will not get the full benefit of the training and then people will complain that the plan sucks when they took twice as long to complete it. There is a thread that you can vote in that asks Zwift to add the training plan workouts individually to the workout section which would be nice. No one can give you extra time in the week to fully commit to a training plan though.

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#30

That may be fine for some people, but not everyone has the same intention when selecting a training plan. For some people it may be as you say, to “get the full benefit”. For others, it may be as simple as having a structured series of workouts laid out in sequence. Zwift is assuming they understand people’s goals/interests better than they do.

Say someone wants to combine cycling with running or swimming. Zwift assumes the user is all-Zwift, which is just silly. The thing that is bananas about the position Zwift has taken is that it’s costing them customers for no reason. No one wants to feel like they’re fighting with their workout app. Life’s too short. I left when I realized they didn’t care about me. I keep following this thread in case they change their mind.

#31

That is why there is two options to do workout, one is to follow the plan with set dates, then there is the workout selection witch has the workouts in order.

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Yes it will be nice if all the Plans is also available as workouts.

Edit: I see I already said this further up in this thread.

#32

I’ve voted for this. Only done the one plan so far Pebble Pounder, but took two attempts as the first was interrupted by work travel. Still managed to miss one of the sessions due to a busy work/family day.

#33

I would also like the flexibility to access rides I missed in the Build Me Up plan or at least be able to access the individual rides available in the plan. I myself have work obligations and am now mountain biking and road riding outside rather than using the trainer 4x per week. I was rather frustrated that it is not possible to go back and either do a ride that expired or find it in the workout section. Please consider fixing this.

1 Like
#34

All on this thread - I’ve passed your feedback to our management teams. It’s a big shift in the programming of these plans, and the way we think of training plans. If there’s going to be forward movement, it will not be a quick implementation (setting expectations here). All the same, we acknowledge the passion behind your requests, and we thank you for that!

7 Likes
#35

Shuji, I just want to thank you for taking the time to reply. Hearing a response (of any kind) at this point is a breath of fresh air. Sincerely, thank you. :+1:

1 Like
#36

Thank you for your response. I got into Zwift in response to Stay at Home/Work from Home, and I’ve enjoyed it. That said, I would like to outline my input for any update to the training plans:

  • Allow for more flexibility between workouts in a Plan - maybe allow for a Pause Button, or provide more than 15 hours do a workout.
  • Set the time for a plan to the local time of the user - there have been cases when the majority of the time when a workout is available is over an evening, extending to the next morning.
  • Provide for a cool down period in each workout - I was shocked to have a workout with a block of 5x5 at Zone 3 and then have two minutes at 90 watts.
  • Provide for more copy editing in the plan.

Thanks so much!

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#37

I have mentioned this before, but a lot of these requests will be solved if the training plans (The Plans tab) is also available in the the workouts tab.

2 Likes
#38

Yes, but if I did a workout that I missed because the time window closes, I don’t get credit for it in the plan. People want to get appropriate credit for the work they’ve done.