Did anyone else find W/O #2 insanely hard? Last week’s W/O #1 was ok for me and I’m confident my FTP is set to a reasonable value. But by the second piece in W/O #2 I was reaching for the bias button and by the end I was down to 90% and still missing out the middle minute entirely. I was possibly a little off my best but it really felt like it was just written wrong or something, and it looks way out of line with what the other workouts demand. I know a couple of other riders who didn’t manage it either.
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I didn’t have too much trouble managing the W/O which was surprising given what I’d heard about it this week. My FTP went up a point last weekend so I was even more concerned. A friend had to turn off ERG mode to complete it yesterday and there were a number of riders having a major struggle with the last couple of intervals. That wasn’t my experience; it was hard but it’s supposed to be. I didn’t have trouble completing it.
I thought W/O#7 in last year’s ZA was harder. MUCH harder.
The scary thing for me: These usually get harder as we go along… 
It was definitely tough - the last three were mentally challenging compared to the first three. I managed to keep it at 100% bias until the final 1min30s at 95%
#2 is a vo2 workout and vo2 should not be easy.
If you routinely generate power through high cadence, then WO #2 is likely to be easier than for those who ride at lower cadences. I’m in the former camp and found it ok.
For sure, I was pretty tired by the end, but I was surprised by the level of complaints in the chat, and also by the (low) cadence people were saying they were doing during the hard sections, while I was doing 110-115rpm.
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After my mate had told me he turned the bias down to 90% due to #2 being tough, I gave my self some extra motivation to get me to the end.
The prompts said if you are breathing hard and it will be challenging, 100% accurate with those comments. It was a mental challenge as well not to lower the bias.
After last year’s ZA I had already expected the workouts to be challenging, maybe that mindset helped me somewhat.
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I was turning 110-115 too so that may have been the difference. Excellent observation.
I’ve found higher cadence is very useful on Zwift as it gives another gear or two…
Thanks for comments. Maybe I should have another go when feeling good. Those 30s and 60s sections are alarmingly close to my max power for those periods though!
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I think the 30s effort should be about 70% of your Baseline 30s number. I pulled about 500 in the Baseline ride and the Workout had me at 340. My 60s Baseline is 390 and in the WO I was at 270. I cannot imagine if they wanted me to put down much more than 340/270. I guess I could give it a shot for scientific research with the Bias setting: 110%… naahhh… 
I was starting each of those pieces at 77% of my max 30s power, which I set just recently in the ZA baseline ride. I have a rather flat power curve.
Yeah, that would be about 365/295 for me. My testicles hurt thinking about it.
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