Workout Refresh [October 2023]

[SeattleSauve (Aaron)]

Just digging into the power-based collections a bit deeper I wonder how they decided which workouts to put in there.

For the VO2 Max category, I’m somewhat surprised that two of the most iconic Zwift workouts (The Gorby and the Wringer) do not show up there. They do still remain in the “all” category, so that’s good.

For threshold, I mentioned above, but don’t see any of the simpler threshold workouts show up in there (the 2x15min, 2x20min, 2x30min, or maybe even a 3 or 4x10min). I would think those would be good candidates to put in the threshold bucket particularly since the 2x15,20,30 show up in “all workouts” already.

For sweet spot training, I’m surprised none of the SST (Short/Mid/Long) show up in the collection.

For the endurance collection I’m surprised there is not a single 90min+ workout, there are only 3 above 70mins in length, the longest in there (The Long Ride) is 85min, that includes the warm-up and cool-down time, and only has 29mins at Z2. I personally think it would be nice to have one endurance workout which is longer, and possibly more time in Z2.

Anyhow, I’m sure they had specific logic for what went in there, just wanted to point out a few I thought might be interesting to include in those collections.

[Dreg_Nettirb5190 (Dreg)]

First of all: Thank god, they didn’t touch “custom workouts”…!

Then: This change is another example proving that Zwift designers and programmers mainly focus on the design of the user interface, look and feel, tiles, etc. They don’t spend enough effort and money in quality and are lacking of know how - for sure, 5x5min@110%FTP aka “Gorby” is one of the standard workouts in VO2max training! In my opinion, the new tiles are ok, they have to pay a few bucks to a training expert to do the clean up.

Concering the beloved old workouts, for me it’s fine that they provide a zip container. I understand that ATV users have to deal with a computer to get their files in the custom category. Anyhow, it is possible.

Mayby, a function for searching by name could help to navigate in the workouts…

[Moyra_Deans (Moyra)]

Hi, i would like to do the 12 week FTP plan again this winter.
This will be my 3rd winter doing it. Last year, when i restarted the plan, it did not do a fresh staet. It remembered my privious years session. ( i beleieve i did not complete my origional attempt because i went away on a cycling holiday).
As is, i have to check back on strava to see where i am in the plan to choose next session. - not a big deal but there should be a full reset option, isnt there?

[Farid_Moayed (Farid)]

I was a week into the FTP Builder and now I can’t find it. I read that the legacy workouts could be transferred by zip files, but there are no directions. How do I do it? The development team should reconsider bringing back the legacy workouts to where it use to be. I am not happy. I have emailed Support, but they were not helpful. They want me to enroll in FTP Builder plan but I cannot commit due to frequent travel for work. As you know, if you miss a workout on any given day, you cannot go back to it. On a free workout, you can go as you wish. Can someone help please?

[Massimiliano_Torti (Massimiliano)]

Sono d’accordo

[Josh_Hunt]

Having imported my go to plans via my laptop really disappointed to see that placing the workouts in sub folders for different weeks and phases doesn’t work. Imported the L’Etape plan to find all the workouts jumbled together by name making it impossible to follow the plans progressions. Please fix this Zwift as you’ve rendered it impossible to do structured training on all but a handful of mostly gravel focused plans.

[LA_whatsonzwift (Laurens (What's on Zwift))]

@Josh_Hunt You could take a look at What’s on Zwift for the original structure of the training plans: Zwift workouts: L'Etape du Tour Training Club | What's on Zwift?.

[Josh_Hunt]

Appreciate that’s a workaround but it shouldn’t be the answer! If Zwift is a training platform then it needs to be able to deliver structured training with progression under a plan not just a haphazard selection from a library or having to search a non affiliated (but very useful!) website before each session to find out which is supposed to be next!

[Carla_Morton (Carla)]

Please bring them back!!! I’ve been making so much progress using the FTP Builder and the FTP Booster. I was gone for a week on vacation and came back to Zwifting today and the plans are all changed and my FTP Booster series is gone. Very frustrating!

[Nigel_Tufnel (Nigel)]

@manda_F this isn’t so much about the rearrangement/removal of workouts, so much as a sort of ‘bug’ or ‘annoyance’ with an aspect of the workouts. When viewing a workout using Zwift on iPadOS (and, I presume iOS) the user can slide their finger across the various workout segments to see the duration and effort for each segment. However, when doing this, the popup that shows this information is RIGHT UNDER where the finger is touching the workout bars, making it virtually impossible to read the information. Please make the pop up appear away from where the user’s finger would be so that the information is easily readable. Thanks!

[shooj (Shuji)]

Hey all - thank you to everyone who provided feedback! We have brought back the Baby On Board Collection since it was not organized as a sequence of workouts and serves a specific audience that is not served with any other current offering. Please log out of Zwift, log back in, and you’ll see Baby on Board again.

Let’s define terms: Collections are grouped workouts that you can complete in any order to benefit particular fitness goals. Training Plans are workouts in a designed sequence with a structure that takes you from A through Z over a planned timeline.

1. Training Plans that were previously called Collections are still available in the Plans tab.

If you are looking for the list below, you can enroll on the “Plans” tab (see picture).

Training Plans Available in the “Plans” tab:
Active Offseason, Back to Fitness, Build Me Up, Build Me Up Lite, Crit Crusher, Dirt Destroyer, FTP Builder, Fast Track Fitness, Fondo, Gran Fondo, Gravel Grinder, Multisport Mixer, Pebble Pounder, Singletrack Slayer, TT Tune-Up, Zwift 101, Zwift Racing.

Please note that we built in more flexibility to Training Plans earlier in 2023 that allows you to start a structured plan on any day of the week, pick the workout you want to do out of the recommended sequence, or even switch between plans. Those outcomes are described in this support article. If you are accustomed to the way Training Plans used to work in 2022 - please familiarize yourself with those changes.

2. There are also current plans that are great substitutes for these collections.
For example, if you are looking for a 10-12 week program to improve your FTP (similar to the 10-12 weeks FTP Builder), the “Build Me Up” Training Plan is a great substitute. If you do this, we would love to hear if this meets your needs.

3. We understand that some of the plans that were previous collections are not available in the “Plans” tab. Note that they are currently all available in the zip file in the first post upstream.

We hear that the main concern is, “I was doing this collection as a Training Plan, and now I am missing this collection”. We hear that it is not the best experience to lose your progress, but wanted to provide several suggestions to get back on track with similar, if not identical, workout plans. Thanks again for the feedback, please know that it is extremely helpful for us to continue improving the workouts and training experience moving forward.

[Jerome_Carron (Jerome)]

Hi Amanda - I realize you are the face of the update on the support group, so I get it. But some communications would have been helpful. I assume that the product team has instrumented zwift to the extent they could determine that many of the training plans people are asking about that are gone were unused? Wouldn’t have been simpler to stack them under a “legacy” tab?

I did download the “legacy” plans, cracked open the zip and placed various legacy plan folders under the documents\zwift\workouts{zwiftid}\ {legacy plan}, if the workouts in each folder have say the same name “workout 1”, the result is messy!

[Jerome_Carron (Jerome)]

My suggestion is rename each workout in each phase preceding each file with the phase number.

i.e. in Phase 1, you could rename 1_Aerobic_12s_1.zwo to 1_1_Aerobic_12s_1.zwo and for phase 2 workouts 1_Sub_Threshold__1.zwo to 2_1_Sub_Threshold__1.zwo

This is not ideal but it should restructure chronologically the workout? Alternatively change the names to say Phase1_Workout_1 etc…

[Vasilios_Pantazis (Vasilios)]

@shooj

Let’s define terms: Collections are grouped workouts that you can complete in any order to benefit particular fitness goals. Training Plans are workouts in a designed sequence with a structure that takes you from A through Z over a planned timeline.

you should understand that a properly structured plan is not followed alphabetically or as it suits you, but in the correct sequence. before the changes there was a good sequence, after the changes you ruined everything. the secret to improvement is not the exercises but the correct sequence which does not exist.

[DavidP (David)]

you should understand that a properly structured plan is not followed alphabetically or as it suits you, but in the correct sequence.

You are absolutely right, and that’s one of the reasons we did this change in the first place.
The workout collections are now just a collection of workouts from the same “theme” where the users can pick any to do in a unstructured way depending on what their goal for the day.

before the changes there was a good sequence, after the changes you ruined everything

You can now access the Training Plans if you want to do the workouts in a sequential and ordered way like they are intended. And, even have the option of picking certain workouts individually from them if you want to complete only certain ones. I’m not sure what it was ruined

[Vasilios_Pantazis (Vasilios)]

@DavidP

You are absolutely right, and that’s one of the reasons we did this change in the first place.
The workout collections are now just a collection of workouts from the same “theme” where the users can pick any to do in a unstructured way depending on what their goal for the day.

if i want to do an unstructured workout why should i choose a plan?? before it was changed, anyone who wanted a structured training plan had it. the one who didn’t want a structured plan simply made the plan as he wanted. after the change, someone who wants a structured plan does NOT have it, while someone who wants an unstructured plan does. before the change they were both happy. after the change there is only one. is this a change for the better??? NO. we are forced to find a coach to do a structured workout. before we had this. not now. was that your goal? to chase us?

[DavidP (David)]

@Vasilios_Pantazis

after the change, someone who wants a structured plan does NOT have it

There’s probably some misunderstanding here.
You can go to one of the existing Training Plans and do it both in a structured way or unstructured (select certain workouts when it fits your schedule), so you have both options.

[Vasilios_Pantazis (Vasilios)]

@DavidP

There’s probably some misunderstanding here.
You can go to one of the existing Training Plans and do it both in a structured way or unstructured (select certain workouts when it fits your schedule), so you have both options.

no you can not. go to crit crusher week 8.
go to 4wpl . it’s alphabetical. why??

[Vasilios_Pantazis (Vasilios)]

[DavidP (David)]

The alphabetical order is just coincidental in this case. They are in the order that they are defined in the plan. However I do see that the order is most likely inverted, because the Pre-Race and Taper Intervals should be before the actual race day. So this is probably a bug in that Plan in particular. Thanks for bringing it to our attention!