Zwift needs “Forever Group Workouts” of some sort; group workouts are underused because life doesn’t sync to a schedule. You miss the start time, you skip it. Simple as that. The fix isn’t better scheduling; it’s removing the schedule entirely.
I don’t make the big bucks, so Zwift development team should figure out all the ins and outs, but here’s how it could work:
Imagine a structured workout that loops continuously, like a pacer but with intervals. You join anytime, warm up in a holding zone, and when the next recovery block hits; you’re in. Fully synced with the group from that point forward.
The key is designing the workout for the format: short, punchy blocks, frequent recovery gates, nothing brutal enough to make a 20-minute wait in the airlock feel pointless. You ride as long as you want and leave when you’re done.
Run a few flavors simultaneously: endurance loop, tempo loop, VO2 punch loop, and Zwift’s global user base keeps them populated around the clock, add some pacers/bots and you will never train alone.
It’s not a scheduling problem. It’s an airlock problem. And the solution already exists; it’s called a pacer bot. Just add structure.
I think most do this with the pacer bots currently since the release of the teleport feature; so in theory this template already exists, except maybe the top end of riders in the A+ category; but… as the going solution is, just use a slower bike, gravel, or even an MTB.
I know of plenty of people that hop around bots though doing stuff similar to this.
Sometimes the solution exists you just have to be creative in applying it.
My take is group workouts that aren’t club driven should just get dropped entirely. I think it’s a confusing addition by ‘teaching’ users that that might be the only way workouts exist which isn’t true. But for a new user, they might see workout event happening… and not think twice about how the software works.
It takes significantly more effort to create, develop, and validate an idea than it does to dismiss it. Because the human brain naturally seeks to conserve energy, tearing something down is a low-effort way to feel intelligent, safe, and in control without doing any actual heavy lifting
this really limits it to very specific workouts… no longer blocks… only short efforts… I don’t see the point myself. I imagine that most people who do regular workouts are following some sort of plan or AI coach, and my question would be if your idea could fit into everyone’s specific plan in some general sense? I’m guessing that is not likely.
What probably already does fit in with most all plans, are long zone 2 or zone 3 rides… which the robo pacers already cover (lets not get into the dynamic pacing argument again… on flat routes this holds mostly true).
I think a bot which allowed you to hop on and do something like 4/5 mins on 4/5 mins off could be really popular.
I have tried similar by riding off the front of a pace group for 5 mins (a lap of the volcano circuit works well) then dropping into the draft for 5 mins.
Similarly they could run a bot around one of the loops with loads of sprint segments.
I’m for anything that helps help ‘gamify’ work outs, the recent Zwift insider series seems popular, so it looks like the is an appetite for this stuff.
one of them, I think Miguel, is doing laps of Jarvis right now… that one is really easy to treat as short intervals with the climb every lap, then ease off and let the bot catch you on the descent/flats before hiting the climb again.
I don’t think you can teleport if you are in workout mode, at least I don’t remember being able to do so when I last tried it.
You had to join a robopacer group, then quick smart choose a workout and get going in the time when “pedal-assist” (aka free distance for some folk) was running. Not a practical solution.
This used to exist with Bowie Brevet 80kg pace-partner (the period correct term) on Sand and Sequoias route. The interval was the Titans Grove KOM which everyone would do at 3:50-4:00min, then try to get back to the desert before the massive pace-partner group comes thundering back downhill at 3.2w/kg. It was perfect with the fixed w/kg the whole time, and the desert section was the recovery part.
Amelia Anquetil was also a great group with the rides going up Epic KOM, all 4.2w/kg with the pace-partner at 65kg. Excellent steady pace everywhere.
Anyhow, that’s gone, and someone will call “off-topic” on this I suspect.
OP isn’t talking about workout mode though; just asking for more bots that are even less consistent than what we have now, bots that to me I guess playing devils advocate here are going to be confusing to the masses.
OP is talking about something like me riding with Coco and Constance every few minutes to produce unders and overs.
Again; I fail to see how this isn’t something we can’t do right now with teleporting. As stated, I know lots of people that do this as a method for this already, so it’s a “feature” that exists if you… use it.
As opposed to, IMO, convoluting the robo partner system.
Or as I’ve said many times before, allow us to use a ghost for workouts for example or just as a personal pace partner.
That they do already, or they go from Tempus teleporting over to top of Alpe du Zwift to “rest their legs” downhill on the 12km descent then back and forwards.
