Hi, I’ve just finished my first work out on Active off season.
Warm up 10 mins
150watts 90 mins
cool down 10 mins.
Warm up starts at 145 watts… why? This makes no sense whatsoever or have I missed something? I had to take 20watts off my FTP just to do the warm up.
Hi @Alberto_Venturino welcome to Zwift forums.
That 145 watt target in workouts is a percentage of your Functional Threashold Power number. So manually bumping down your FTP number was the right move.
Did you get a different trainer recently that reads your power more accurately than your previous trainer? Did you lose some fitness and maybe your FTP needs to adjusted down?
Hi, thanks for the reply. I’m new to structured training and I just finished the excellent 6 week beginner FTP builder and I was looking to progress further. Active off season seemed perfect to increase my fitness level. I’m also coming back from a lower back injury and after more than 50 years of cycling I’m very wary of overloading my knees.
I started using a smart trainer in November and my FTP was 135w after 6 weeks that increased to 160w. I did my first ramp test and my FTP increased to 209w and the active off season is based on that number.
I always warm up before riding and I like to spin my legs up when I start riding. The warmup I did yesterday didn’t give me the opportunity to spin up from say 100w to the 150w workout. Starting at 145w for 10 mins and then holding 150 for 90 mins and then cooling down at 150w makes no sense to the word warm up or cool down btw holding 150w for 90 mins wasn’t a problem. I’m just concerned that the warmup starts at an intensity that is just too hard for my knees.
I’m going to do the second workout later on today but I’ll probably do a ten minute spin up before I do the warmup just in case.
I absolutely love indoor training as it has brought back my love of road cycling which I stopped doing about 10 years ago when I discovered mountain biking.
Cheers, all the best Alberto
Here’s a link to week 1 of the Active Offseason training plan. Perhaps this will give you a little more insight. The entire workout for Day 1 is pretty light, which is probably why the ‘warm up’ seems so strange. It definitely shouldn’t be hurting your knees, though. Perhaps try spinning a little faster? (You haven’t listed what sort of trainer you’re on, so I’m not sure if you’re on a dumb trainer, or using ERG mode on a smart trainer.)
Hi Nigel
Thanks for the link, I’m using a Wahoo Kickr v4.
In future I’ll be spinning up for about 10 mins before doing any workouts.
Cheers Alberto
Just finished the second workout, warmup 100w for 10 minutes. Maybe there’s a glitch on the first session? Cool down from 110w happy days 
I wouldn’t say it’s a ‘glitch’, it’s just how whoever designed the training program thought that Day 1 should be structured. It’s possible you might come across some other days in the program where you find yourself thinking “That’s not the way I would do it.”
Definitely not a glitch, I’ve just read through the “What’s On Zwift” link you sent and it is definitely written in on certain days. It says to warm up at zone 2, So on those days I’ll bear that in mind and spin up before I start.
Cheers