I’M AN ACADEMY RIDER!
I can’t wait to tell my workmates, “gotta leave early today for my academy training” 
Hit the ride button and entered pen, thanks for the heads up 
Well the 1st 10km was fun (got the 1st sprint jersey) after hyper ventilating that I wasn’t gonna last 25km…recovered and cleaned up 2nd sprint… Then met the KOM… I swear I have tourettes when I ride hills 
Somehow I missed the idea that there were only certain ‘segments’ that were needed for the Baseline, and rode the whole thing like it was a normal race/ride. There doesn’t seem much use in trying to repeat the ride since I’m already done with the academy and just waiting for the final ride(s) to show up (which happens when?).
I wish I had known. I saw the end banners, and just assumed that they were decoration, and wish the whole process had been better defined in the beginning. I think I’d have had better performance, better times. Now I may look like a monster, when the Final ride happens.
I also had the second Recovery ride not register in the Academy counter. I’m still at 80%.
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The second recovery ride is not yet available.
Really?
How many people are already through with the Academy rides, and are just waiting for the last ones to become available? I need the last recovery ride, and the ‘final/finish’ ride.
I must have not understood that this was supposed to be such a forced long duration event. Guess I’ll have to circle around and start redoing event rides then. shrug Sorry for not understanding. Maybe I should have waited until closer to the end to start then.
It could have been made clearer that the intended schedule is basically one workout per week - you can do it solo at your own pace, but that’s how the group workouts are scheduled. OTOH if you really did them all in a week I wonder if your FTP may be set a little on the low side. Many of us have been finding them pretty much impossible as written, even starting on well-rested legs.
This is exactly why for such a high profile event on Zwift, there needs to be a “Ride Leader” giving instructions in the pen and during the event. It can be a bot; it doesn’t need to be a live person just put the info out there for those of us that don’t read the instructions. I don’t believe it would even be hard to do since they have them for each of the workouts.
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I wondered that too. The last time I did a test, it came back lower than what I had, so I have just kept the ‘high number’, and didn’t lower it. Yeah, some of those 6 were really hard. One I had to quit because I thought I was going to literally die. I bonked like heck after one other ride. I tried to figure out why my last FTP test would come out so wrong, and gave up. Plus I am facing hip surgery and stopped riding for about a week, only to be told by my ortho doc to NOT!!! stop riding under any circumstances, and if anything I should push myself a little harder because it’ll be at least 6 weeks, more like 12, before I’m able to ride again. So I ride…
I should retest, but it was such a weird outcome, I’m not sure if I should. Technically I should be higher than I should be, based on that test. shrug
Yeah, I ‘found out’ about the segments watching a GCN video on YouTube. ‘You ride easy, and then when you get to the spot, you go like heck’. Spot? Banner? Segment? What? That was when it was a specific mile/km.
Yes, a ‘ride leader’ bot that would say ‘BACK OFF NOW!!!’ and ‘GO LIKE HECK!!! GO!!! GO!!! GO!!!’.
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This is funny, the info is out there… in the instructions!
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I know that but really, how many of us read the instructions for an online game before we dive in? 50%? 30%? Did you, Mike? The only reason I did was because my buddy ran off the rails when he Baselined and let me know what I needed know: RTFM. 
If they’re going to employ a bot on the workouts why not in the Baseline, Recovery and Finishline rides? The bot does the same thing in the workouts: We’re going to warm up. We’re going to ramp up. We’re going to kill you, etc… Just set one up to let people know what to do in those rides.
I get it when some club (wait a minnit, there’s no clubs) has a workout and you need to know what’s what before you start. This is The Zwift Academy and it’s school. Make it do what it’s supposed to do: teach people how to train and improve performance.
Sure did, and tried to help others by messaging during the ride to go hard on segments only.
There are no bots in the workout, maybe you mean the messaging that comes up on screen during the workout. That type of messaging isn’t available in group ride events.
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I did too. Explained what the focus of the Baseline ride was in the pens, let them know when the test segments started by KM/Mile marker and did some cheerleading. I got lots of thanks and Ride On’s for my efforts and it felt pretty darn good.
For my trouble, I got questioned about why I was “so concerned about how other riders do” in this very thread. Pretty surprising to have that response from a Zwift Ambassador.
The Baseline, Recovery and Finishline rides could be set up as workouts with limits on power between segments and then freeride during the test areas. The entire recovery ride could be set up with limited power so riders LEARN how to recover. Remember, this is about LEARNING. At least I think it is…
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That was all in the ride description on the companion app. I posted a screen shot above.
there is only so much Zwift can do before they decide that it is not worth all the programming to make the Academy worth it.
Of all the years I did the academy this one had the most information.
How will you learn to recover if you are forced like a workout. The idea is to have fun and go at your own pace. Many people don’t do the workouts in group mode because it is not natural and slow.
But who reads instructions? I want to ride like the wind, and experience my life passing before my eyes, and feel the sudden realization that the ride just started. Who reads instructions for that? You just kiss your butt goodbye, right…
((Not aimed at you) I was a programmer in a past life, and you can’t assume that your user knows anything. As a support person too, you can’t assume that people know what the program does, and you can’t assume they know how, and why, it works. If they really wanted to make Zwift easier to use, they wouldn’t assume as much from the user, and would, possibly, create a subchannel, or even subtitles, that would prompt the user to what’s coming up. Yes, exactly like a ‘workout’ ride, but allow people to turn the subtitles off. I remember having an interesting conversation with a client’s employee. Their computer was having problems communicating with the corporate server. I was trying to explain what was going on, and they innocently assumed that the ‘server’ was ‘Google’. I had a hard time not laughing, and told them that no, the ‘server’ was in the basement. They very seriously told me they never went to the basement because it was ‘scary down there’. I had many conversations with them in the past and they would just nod, and carry on. I assumed they knew what they were doing. Yeah, that went far. Never assume. Always provide as much help as you can, but allow people to turn it off, if possible, or have it be popups, or some other method that could be turned off for more experienced users)
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As a programmer you should know what it would take to add subtitles and buttons for something that is used once a year. When there’s need for other tasks that users use daily like pacer bot advancement or racing auto categories.
At some point you have to assume that some won’t or don’t want to read the instructions and live with it.
This baseline ride is a new part of the academy to give more people the sense of improvement.
Thanks Shane, yeah, I felt somewhat humiliated after watching the GCN video. ‘There’s ZONES?’ Wait, what? The whole thing doesn’t count?
I read somewhere that there are now beginning and ending banners. That’s a start. How about a splash screen that says ‘Hey, ride like heck when you see the ‘Start’, and ease off when you see the ‘Finish’. We are only calculating your score based on those three intervals.’ I mean, I busted my butt on the WHOLE ride. I was riding early too without the recent changes, but I’m sure if I was recovering during the gaps, I would show better in the ‘big show’…
Sorry to flog the overly dead horse here, but now that I have to wait for the second recovery ride, and the Finish ride, I probably should redo the Beginning ride so I can say that at least I did it again. Bottom line, things could have been done better. I keep remembering the rants from my college comp prof: ‘Be self-contained. Never assume anything from your reader. Don’t make them look for something elsewhere because you will likely never get them back, and don’t insult them for not knowing something that you find simple and ‘well known’. Inform them along the way, that’s your job.’. I have valued having that drilled into me over the years.
Ride on!!! I LOVE the Academy. I don’t like having limits, I wish I could ride the whole thing in a week and a half. Challenge me!!!
And thanks…
But again, as a programmer, we are a lazy lot. Seriously!
Make one year ‘perfect’. Do subtitles, do as much as you can. Why? Why indeed! Because you can copy the whole block over, and change the guts of it, the particulars for the calendar for that year, and have the same amazing level of service for your users the next Academy!
I reused code, and code blocks, quite a lot. If you don’t, as a programmer, you should be fired. Reinventing the wheel takes a lot of time. Properly commenting code blocks and knowing what you need to change from one year to another is elegant coding. It works. It seems that writing the framework for the Academy and reusing the same framework for each year would allow consistency, and help all users.
It’s the ‘not knowing’ that I hated. You can’t assume that people will sit through videos and long posts to find out what to do. Provide some guidance, and that can be reused next time.
Not to sound like a broken record. But they created the companion app with a place for a ride description and they did a awesome job to write a detailed description. That can be open while you ride.
All group rides have the option to use that and it is a good place to put ride spesific information.
No Zwift ride have the option to create pop-up text so all of that needs to be programmed from scratch.
Zwift was very pro active with additional banners when it was needed.
Sorry to hammer the poor donkey even more than he’s already been beat but what you’re saying here doesn’t make sense and I think you’ll understand if you think about it.
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Posted on the Companion App? Next time out, take a look at the leaderboard of any ride and see just how many people use the ZC. 50%? Maybe. And then, how many of them actually read a ride description on the app. Another 20%? I don’t personally know anybody that does that and I know quite a few Zwifters. This was like WTRL saying the information for the Zwift Classics was on the Forum! From the time I’ve been on Zwift and the Forum my own take is about 1-2% of all Zwifters frequent the Forum. Again, I know nobody that does, other than myself. All of us here know how to get on the Forum. Some time log off, shut everything down and then try to find the Forum button on the website. It’s not as easy as it should be that’s for sure.
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“Only so much Zwift can do before they decide it is not worth all the programming to make the Academy worth it”? REALLY? Are you serious? This stuff is their job. That’s what we’re paying for. If they can’t even get this sh*t right why are we even here? The things I’ve pointed out are BASIC things for a group event. Each one of those things should be on a checklist somewhere. But they’re not, because ZHQ is satisfied with half-assed events.
When was the last time any of us rode in one of the Zwift event series and thought that was pretty darn good? For me it wasn’t a fully Zwift run series but the ABSA Cape Epic earlier this year was the best series I’ve ridden here. Other than that, it’s ranged from almost good to What in the World was Zwift Thinking?
Yeah, there was more information available it just wasn’t where a new Zwifter would find nor was it where the average Zwifter would find it. I thought about signing up for more Baseline rides and seeing how many Zwifters had a clue about what was going on. Just ask the question: “How many of you know what we’re doing here?” Then count noses or something but it really doesn’t matter. ZHQ is going to do what ZHQ always does: SSDD.
I just imagine how great this would be if they would listen to the feedback we’re layin’ down here. I see the monthly, “Hey, this is great stuff and we’re really listening and this is gonna happen Zoon!” Then three years later we get ONE of the things we’ve been screaming about for YEARS. Literally YEARS. It’s truly a bummer.
So yeah, I get spun up when an Ambassador questions why I care about other Zwifter’s experience here. If it matters to me, it should matter to you and it should really matter to ZHQ.
I would say I’m done here but that would be stupid. I’ll be back pounding on the poor donkey…
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