Who's doing what this winter - TrainerRoad, Zwift, Sufferfest, Xert etc?

A light bike doesn't replace good fitness.

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K4m1k4z3
Posts: 334
Joined: Sun Nov 05, 2017 1:33 pm

by K4m1k4z3

TobinHatesYou wrote:
Thu Jan 10, 2019 10:11 am
Just my opinion, but using the "world hack" means solo workouts and free riding in Zwift...and that's mind-numbingly boring.
This is only true for worlds other than Watopia.
On any give day, even when not on schedule, there are hundreds of people in Watopia.
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TimW
Posts: 536
Joined: Sat May 09, 2009 1:52 pm
Location: England, UK

by TimW

TobinHatesYou wrote:I found the NPE CABLE to be fine for workouts, but not great for competing in Zwift. It introduces noticeable latency and also gets "stuck" on wattages if you spin up really fast and coast.
I have not seen this problem with either type of event with my Apple TV 4K. It's been super reliable.

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gangbang
Posts: 58
Joined: Thu Sep 10, 2015 2:23 pm

by gangbang

Using TR SS Base on Zwift (converted) so got best from both worlds (structural workouts and group rides).

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Sjoerd
Posts: 321
Joined: Fri Jan 15, 2010 7:22 pm
Location: Les Pays Bas

by Sjoerd

Finally bought a smart trainer this year and started out with TrainerRoad with a base plan. I really like the no nonsense interface, the structure and the workout-options. I also tried Zwift in trial mode for a week and decided to get a subscription. I'll use the upcoming month to decide on which app stays. I've only used Zwift in free ride mode so far. It's nice to be able to do a bit of climbing when you live in a pancake flat country.

Jbass
Posts: 47
Joined: Tue Nov 06, 2018 3:16 am

by Jbass

Been using Zwift for group rides and races. Perfpro and/or Trainer Road for intervals.

ParisCarbon
Posts: 1914
Joined: Mon Feb 05, 2007 5:39 am
Location: Winnipeg Canada

by ParisCarbon

Tacx TDA, BigringVR, Veloreality and Ergvideo..

I have zwift but only ever use it once a week for a race.. I just find zwift to cartoonish... why climb an innacurate hack cartoon Alpe Dhuez when I can load up a video and ride the video of the real thing with accurate gradients!

Jugi
Posts: 678
Joined: Sun Jun 24, 2018 8:10 am

by Jugi

I was on Trainerroad for four winters in a row, always starting the General Build program (med) at the beginning of the year. It was fun to compare the executed workouts from previous years, as I was doing the same workouts on same calendar weeks, usually even on same days of week. I think I usually over achieved in the 20min FTP test, which meant that some points in the program became very hard, especially if job and other life stress peaked during those weeks. After four winters of the same I decided that although Trainerroad had proven it's worth by giving me tremendous improvements on fitness, I wasn't enjoying off-season training as much as I could. I think there should be some enjoyment in a thing one spends hours on and feeling good only afterwards didn't cut it anymore.

I had dwelled in Zwift previously, but after getting a Tacx Neo last winter it suddenly sprung to life. I decided to approach this winter completely differently - train exlusively on Zwift, riding a bit more than during previous years (as that is possible because it's more fun) and not stick to a stringent program, but build training weeks around life's other commitments and just make sure I do enough of easy and hard riding in relation to my objectives next season. So far I'm feeling a lot better about the training, have been doing more of it and I'm pretty sure I'll achieve comparable improvements to previous years.

cerb
Posts: 14
Joined: Wed Jun 29, 2016 4:59 am

by cerb

I've been using Zwift for the past 1.5 years. I enjoy the racing aspect of it as it gets me more involved and I can do longer sessions. However, I didn't like the workout function and the choice of training plans is very limited. I therefore ended up doing mostly races as training and while this was ok for maintaining fitness, I wasn't able to improve my fitness.

I was on TrainerRoad prior to Zwift coming out and always saw good imporvements from it. I'm back on TR again now and am already seeing improvements again after just 1 month. The sheer number of workouts in their catalogue is great and the design of their plans leads to continual improvement for me.

Going forward, I'm going to stick with TR as my primary training platform, but will keep Zwift going to use for some non-structured indoor riding when i've got the time/motivation and as an alternative to an outdoor ride/race in poor weather.

TobinHatesYou
Posts: 12443
Joined: Mon Jul 24, 2017 12:02 pm

by TobinHatesYou

cerb, what category were you racing in? I find I get all kinds of interval work done in A races because I'm at the bottom end of the category in terms of raw power. Those 1-4 minute short ramps/climbs on courses like Watopia Hilly and Watopia Figure 8 are killer for overall fitness. You can always attempt a breakaway for sprint/jumps and longer sustained intervals.

Because of Zwift racing, I've decided to dabble in the real thing this year. We'll see how it goes...

cerb
Posts: 14
Joined: Wed Jun 29, 2016 4:59 am

by cerb

TobinHatesYou wrote:
Wed Jan 30, 2019 9:01 am
cerb, what category were you racing in? I find I get all kinds of interval work done in A races because I'm at the bottom end of the category in terms of raw power. Those 1-4 minute short ramps/climbs on courses like Watopia Hilly and Watopia Figure 8 are killer for overall fitness. You can always attempt a breakaway for sprint/jumps and longer sustained intervals.
Throughout the period, I was sitting at between 3.6-3.96W/kg, meaning that I was in the middle of B, or right at the top of B.

I'm 88kg, so due to raw power output, I could hang with A most of the time on flat courses, but didn't stand a chance on anything with a hill. As such, I mostly stuck to the flat courses and ended up riding with A at my threshold for most of the race... Variability to my power output was generally only 3-5% to the average.

When my fitness dropped in the off season, I would often get dropped from the A-group on the 2nd or 3rd time up short hard rises, then end up riding with 2-5 others ahead of the main B-bunch. This meant it was effectively a threshold effort again, but attacking each other above threshold up the rises and coming into the finish was still fun.

All of it was pretty fun (and more engaging than I find doing TR sessions), however, I was trying it out as a method of building fitness - and it didn't work for me... When it came to real-life racing season, my fitness was down on the past few years and it wasn't as enjoyable. Training for real-life racing is my goal, so that's why i've swung primarily back to TR.

I fully recommend you get into some real racing! It's a bit different to Zwift, and a whole heap more fun! :)

3Pio
Posts: 1577
Joined: Wed Mar 09, 2016 7:13 pm

by 3Pio

Im doing Trainerroad ShortPowerBild MidVolume at a moment..

Sometimes Zwift, but find a boring for me...

Also combine with outdoor riding when possible and some skiing...

Cant wait for better weather to ride outdoor more often..

PokojniToza
Posts: 202
Joined: Mon Nov 26, 2018 10:41 pm

by PokojniToza

I might pull the plug on a better trainer for nex winter. The Blue Matic is quite ok for training purposes, but due to the silly power limit I get dropped all of the time.

Dannnnn
Posts: 225
Joined: Wed Apr 04, 2018 1:00 pm

by Dannnnn

I've just cancelled my zwift sub and signed up to sufferfest instead

The workouts in zwift just weren't doing it for me anymore as I spent more time looking at the time/inteval progress than anything else, so figured I'd try sufferfest instead (and it's cheaper)

TheRich
Posts: 1037
Joined: Tue Jan 01, 2019 1:36 am

by TheRich

robertbb wrote:
Tue Jan 08, 2019 12:22 am
glepore wrote:
Thu Dec 27, 2018 12:47 am
My take on xert after a full season-MPA is great if you have it real time. Using their platform for training was meh. The analytics? Ok, but not worth paying for over GC unless you find gc overwhelming. For some folks, the "gas gauge" train/recovery thingie on xert is awesome, but for me, I'd rather just use PMC. And its free.
Completely agree.
Just signed up for the trial and these things are true. The power curves are rather...aspirational, which has value to some people.

After analyzing three months of data, it calculated my FTP within 1-2w of what Strava and GC (CP ext) did. I'm also using a PMC Excel spreadsheet and TP for TSS data which tells me most of what I need to know...for free. Bells and whistles are nice, but the best training plan is the one you follow most consistently.

LeMomo
Posts: 98
Joined: Mon Apr 23, 2018 1:28 pm

by LeMomo

I have Zwift a try in November/December, the interactive world thing just wasn’t doing it for me and the training plans weren’t engaging enough so I switched to Sufferfest over Christmas/New Years break (driven in part by Dan Lloyd from GCN) so far I’ve added 35w to my FTP and about to start the Century prep plan ready for my first big ride in May.
I’ve also just bought a wahoo kickr to upgrade my old Tacx sartori wheel on trainer.

I like the humour in sufferfest, the music isn’t always to my taste but I’m happy to stick it in ERG mode and mute the laptop and stick Spotify on for longer sessions

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