Workouts around academy

Zwift Academy Zwift Academy Men
1

Hello. First time poster!

Probably like many I got into zwift in lockdown and was looking forward to the academy being a full training plan I could follow to increase my fitness but now I’m realising it’s not quite that…

Can anyone help me with what I should/could be doing…?

My plan is to train Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays and I can give a full hour plus per session… So far I’ve done

Friday 2nd - ftp ramp
Sunday 4th - academy 1
Tuesday 6th - academy 2

Should I just keep doing the workouts every couple of days and be done by 20th October (can I even do that) and then do the group rides and races? Or repeat them in a week? Or just mix it up with other rides and do an academy every week until November??

Fwiw I’m 45yr, 103kg,6ft4 and my goal is just to be fitter and consistently train through the winter! Ftp is 279 and I have a wattbike trainer

Many thanks

2

Your goal is to “just to be fitter and constantly train”. So why not keep doing one every couple of days? The worst that would happen is that you’ll have got into a training routine (a goal) and, with the variety of the workouts, you might even learn about what area of fitness you’d like to improve through the winter.
And the more opportunities you give yourself to race, the more chances you have to practice your racing techniques! :wink:
I think “do whatever’s fun on Zwift and the fitness will follow.” :slight_smile:

3

Thanks Paul… Makes sense. I guess I just thought it was more structured over the 8 weeks…Will look to work some other rides in around

Quite possibly way too new and keen to appreciate how much I will fall apart over the next few weeks :joy:

And I agree, do the fun stuff and the fitness is the added bonus

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4

i think za is supposed to work into your existing schedule. you do one za workout each week, and maybe a group ride or race. the rest of the days you free ride, group ride, workout like normal.

also, the za workouts are supposed to be hard, and probably need a recovery day after wards.

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5

I am planning to 2 workouts and one group ride per week, that will take it to the end of October.
Then a recovery week just doing light stuff.
Then there are then 4 segment group rides and 2 races, not worked out a plan for that yet.

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6

I have a Garmin Fenix 5X and I use its training features to stay balanced across low-high aerobic and anaerobic workouts as well as maintaining an optimal 7day avg training load and lower my fitness age (increase VO2 max)… having that really helps me.

In the past I just focused on weekly miles and didn’t focus on fitness. just empty miles and I didn’t push myself as much as I do now.

I’m 6’ 225lbs mid 40s and in the same boat… Garmin claims I’m 28 per fitness age, so I just try to maintain that. It averages out to 3-4 hours per week of indoor/outdoor riding. garmin will recommend recovery time based on the load and intensity.

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7

That sounds like a pretty good way to tackle it. I’ve not done any group rides before, so much to explore :blush:

8

I’ve a garmin fenix too, will check this out as a way of tracking. Currently gets my age spot on at 45…this will be my first concerted effort at training on a bike with tech :bike::blush:

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