GreatScott wrote:
Talk to me about Trainer Road vs Zwift. I'm a regular on Trainer Road with no experience with Zwift. Trainer road works for me as coach prescribes my intervals and I just hop on the trainer and hit the numbers. Could I do that on Zwift?
In other words, I understand how Zwift presents a virtual alternative to the Saturday group ride. But does it serve those of us on Dawn Patrol?
Scott
I find it hard to do structured workouts on Zwift because the terrain is so natural. Instead, I pick routes based on what kind of workout I want to get in and that works great. If I want to do long hill repeats, I go over to the mountain and ride up it 20 minutes, then U-turn and coast back down for several minutes, then ride back up it for 20 minutes again... stuff like that. Using the terrain for the resistance, which feels more real and fulfilling. For example, here's the profile from when I climbed the big mountain during a workout. It's a real beast.
https://www.strava.com/activities/573159203 Much like having the Rockies right out your back door, you can go climb this thing any time you want. Over and over again. I trained on that mountain a ton before IM Canada last year and the bike portion of that race felt pretty easy compared to other races I've done where I hadn't been training on that mountain.
But, I wanted to keep it mellow this morning so I rode the "flat course" with some extra out-and-backs thrown in. Here's the output from it on strava.
https://www.strava.com/activities/920565734 Definitely a way different ride.
They've recently added about a 10 minute climb on the volcano and there's always been a couple of 3 to 5 minute climbs on the island.
You can "hack" a file in your computer so you always get the big island instead of the other locations. I don't like the other locations anywhere near as much. And it's funny to ride the island and there's only about 5 other people on the whole thing most days. It's kinda calming and relaxing. Then when it's a regular day and everybody is on it, it gets exciting with all the action. That's how it was today... packed!
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