Zwift..... Am i doing it right?! Feedback/Advice needed please

General Discussion
1

Hi everyone, I am hoping you can give me some feedback or help.

I have been zwifiting for a couple of months now. I am a mountain biker, but wanted to keep riding through the dark winter months, so bought a kickr core, loaded a road bike to it and signed up to zwift.

I wasn’t 100% sure what I was doing, so went straight in and did the FTP Builder workout. I didn’t do an FTP test, but zwift set it at about 153.

Whilst doing the complete FTP builder workout I found that whilst I was sweating a lot, my heart rate never really got out of control and I never really struggle throughout it. I felt I was working out and could see my legs getting more toned etc.

After I completed it I did the new FTP ramp test. It put my FTP at 213.

I am yet to signed up to another longer workout plan, but I have been doing some of the short 30minute workouts, such as jons short mix and Emilys mix (I think it was called).

Now these 30 minutes workouts felt absolutely brutal. I had to reduce the intensity slightly and even failed two of the harder sections.

Now my main question is… did I struggle so much as these are super intensive 30 minute workouts or has my new FTP jumped so much that I cant actually do it?

I get that it should be hard, but I fear it being this hard will such the life out of it.

Or when I sign up for a longer workout plan it will be less intense and a lot more manageable.

Many thanks to anyone who has read this far and can offer some support/advice!

Thanks

Mat

2

You should have done a FTP Test before the workout, or at least some hard free riding or group rides. A FTP of 153 is way to low. Now you’ve done a FTP Builder workout for a 65+ year old untrained guy.
Of course that was easy, and now workouts with FTP 213 are harder :wink:

Ride On!

3

Hi Ben, thanks for the reply. Indeed hindsight is a wonderful thing. I’m not sure my first workout was quite that easy, I still sweated buckets!

And no surprise, that now I have done an FTP, the workouts are harder.

My question still remains, are the short sharp 30 minute plans a good representation of something like the 4 week FTP booster? Or will that be more steady, as they try and beast you during the 30 minute plans.

I guess I should just give it a go and see. But I was hoping for some feedback to see if someone thinks it will be super hard from here on out, or if I need to adjust my FTP or do another test?!

4

The short sharp 30min workouts need a proper warmup.
You can always varify your new FTP with that standard 20min test. It’s fun :smiley:

Or join the AHDR Bacon Rolls ride, and see if you can keep up. That’s always a way for me to see if I have a good or bad day :smiley: