I’m progressing my way through the PRL100 training program, during most of the sessions Zwift puts text questions on the screen such as “did your heart rate increase?” Or did your heart rate reduce as low as the previous interval?”
It’s rather annoying as the question is asked, which clearly I can answer, but what does it mean? It’s like a joke with no punch line! Is there a reference somewhere so I can determine the reasons behind the questions??
It’s for you to mindfully assess your workout or progress. You can take your training to the next level by evaluating your performance as opposed to just mindlessly riding to power. Be mindful of your heart rate, for example, as it can tell you a lot about your body - recovery status, daily performance, how much gas you have left in the tank, etc.
I agree with Andrew in the sense that if I can answer the questions with any real benefit, then I probably don’t need to be asked the question in the first place. I see messages like “how did your heart rate recover compared to the last interval?” I can clearly answer that question, but the my answer does little to help me help me understand the end goal of what is good, not so good, needs improving, etc. Adding context to the questions may add more text to the screen, but would also help bring understanding to my training progress. Trainer Road is good at this.
Yeah, I think the idea is that Zwift is a more “entry level” training partner in the respect it evaluates these aspects from a qualitative standpoint. Answers Steve is referring to is better suited to a more advanced training interface, such as Trainer Road. But maybe the majority of the people using Zwift in the “game” sense, the questions work. I, for example, use the training program and don’t pay much attention to those prompts because they don’t add anything for me.
I use Trainer Road because of the richer coaching environment. With two ANT+ dongles, I can run TR as an overlay on Zwift. It would be appreciated if Zwift followed their lead.
+1 Andrew
I also would like to be able to find the answers to the questions done during the plan workouts.
It would be beneficial to know the meaning of the answers to the questions. If my heart rate has gone (let’s say)10 bpm up from the first sub-threshold effort to the third, I would like to know if this is what should be expected. Or if it could mean FTP should be adjusted. Or if otherwise when the heart rate doesn’t change much, it could mean good progress, low FTP or what.
It sounds like they are wanting zwifters to hire proffesional training services to get the answers.
On a semi-related note -
I’ve been doing one of the new Training Plans (Gravel Grinder) for a few weeks now. Generally speaking, I like the new plan structure a lot. I appreciate that there is more ‘coaching’ interaction/commentary during the workout explaining how or why a particular workout or block is relevant to the type of event that the plan is intended to train one for.
My question is: is the commentary wholly canned or is it ‘smart’?
For example, if I’m plugging away and hitting all the right metrics for power, cadence, etc… at the end of a block, a comment might appear lavishing some sort of praise: “Great job on that last build! Enjoy some rest now before we get into the real work!” (paraphrasing).
So, would I get the same positive message even if I completely missed the mark? Or would I get realistic feedback based on my actual performance (or lack thereof)? I hope it would be the latter - just wondering if anyone knows?