Following up on February’s improvements to Cycling Training Plans - the next block of improvements add more flexibility. Here are some of the things you can look forward to in this week’s v1.23 game release
Cycling Training Plan Updates
Big improvements to make Training Plans more flexible!
Once unlocked, workouts will remain unlocked in a training plan.
Workouts will continue to become available on a weekly basis.
2 additional weeks to complete the training plan.
Going on vacation? Happen to get sick during? Don’t stress! The extra 2 weeks of time ensure you are able to complete the training plan - on your own time.
Removal of the 8-hour rest period after completing a workout.
Added the ramp test and zone benchmarking workouts as pre-plan workouts.
The ramp test should be done first to establish an FTP estimate, then validated by the zone benchmarking workout. If you are confident with your FTP, or have tested within the last 21 days, feel free to skip the ramp test and just do the zone benchmarking for fine tuning.
Workout Mode Updates
Receive full-star credit for recovery intervals. As long as you’re pedaling, regardless of your power being too high or low, you’ll get full credit.
Fixing arches in Workouts to ensure they match the color of the next interval
In Coming Releases
We’re enabling Zwifters to extend the duration of their workout blocks. This allows you to add more time to warm-ups and cool downs, or increase recovery time between hard intervals.
For Type 2 fun, you can extend the duration of your hard efforts as well.
These are great improvements to training plans. Wes mentioned improvements to the UI flow and I’m wondering if you can expand on that? Many users have complained recently when starting a plan they immediately have to wait to start a workout, and with the removal of the 8 hour rest period I’m guessing that will go away now. Do these changes also mean that you don’t need to start a plan on Monday, can you start on any day of the week now?
Thanks @Wes, @Shayne-Gaffney, and the developers for finally implementing these changes after years of complaints.
EDIT: and next month can you PLEASE alphabetize the list of workouts, you’re driving my OCD off a cliff
These updates sound great. I’ll second the question above about the fixed Monday start… if I enroll on a Wednesday, do I have to wait 5 days to start the workout?
Some plans seem to be based on a few ‘shorter’ rides and a long ride at ‘the weekend’. The forced Monday start suits a Mon-Fri worker, but that’s not everyone’s life.
I don’t think “flexible training plans” are a good idea, no coach in their right mind would give you weeks of sessions and it’s up to you when and what order you do them. This update reminds me of the great Morecambe and Wise sketch with Andre Previn, “I’m playing all the right notes, just not necessarily in the right order”. For example, I was halfway through a 6 week plan and it was ramping up slightly, after the update it appears I’ve already done next week’s (4) training and week 2 (5 x easier sessions I’ve already done) are available again What happened to progression, if you want to get the desired results, flexibility is not your friend. .
Edit 04APR22: Klicked the two missed workouts away manually to go direct to the FTP Test…
Could you please update the FAQs? I have the following question: I skipped two workouts from Build me up and was in my last week. With the update, I suddenly have those two workouts back again. Can I ignore them and finish the BMU Plan with the FTP Test or do I have to do all the workouts now?
Thanks in advance for your answer,
Ride on,
Stephan
Sorry for the delay - I checked in with our Performance Training Manager. Everyone gets an extra 2 weeks now to complete their training plans. So you can skip those two workouts and do the FTP tests.
What happened to progression, if you want to get the desired results, flexibility is not your friend. .