Hydrosloth wrote:
I guess you have likely read Dan's dinosaur-brain, er was that lizard-brain reason(s) for using Zwift. I think that five or ten years down the road that I will eventually use it, but am in no hurry.
Strava on the other hand will likely have to wait until the afterlife. My question is only directed toward the NON-USERS of Zwift & Strava.
Why don't you use Swift?
Why don't you use Strava?
Post-away. Then again if you DONT post, well, I get that too!
Well, I am a 'user' and I'm going to answer because I did not Zwift previously, but now do.
I've become a convert to actually liking the trainer, thanks to Zwift. I have been on Strava premium for years, to follow others and see what others are doing for bike training and I enjoy the feedback/social aspect of that. I still do 95% of my cycling solo-thanks to job and time constraints. I put my rides on strava for others to see and comment on-no more, no less.
Sadly, I always lose bike fitness over the winter months due to trainer hate. I just can't stand being on it for over an hour and the less frequent, the better. Life in NE is what it is, but it certainly cuts into outdoor riding with a lot of bad weather. It always takes months to regain that loss and after 5 years in the sport of triathlon now, I can see it has hurt me significantly and has held my progress back.
So Strava works for me for 2 reasons: seeing other bike workouts and connecting with them socially. I'm not a guy to hunts KOM's but I've attacked a few and wanted to show my Strava buddies that I can work hard on the bike. But I don't get any real training benefit from it at all.
Zwift, however, has opened my eyes this year as it has changed everything. The site itself has also changed significantly since I did the 'free' month trial for strava users 1 year ago. It is substantially better this year. I mean really a lot better. It is engaging to see the thousands of 'people' out cycling in the world of the day. Yes, there are too few options, but there's a lot of people out there, riding/training/racing, usually thousands at any one time.
And yes, there is now 3 'worlds' to go to and that is nice but still a bit limiting compared to what could be done ,but the fact is this company has embraced the fact that people like to race and do workouts. The cycling community and triathlon community go there, virtually every day. You can get immediate feedback on metrics like HR/power/cadence like TR and have visual stimulation with other PEOPLE who are out there cycling. It is pretty user friendly but still does have glitches and work to be done overall, IMO. But doing my workout hammering and looking at a line to hold power ie TR, well, that is just totally blah for me.
Because it is so much more visually stimulating and brings in both the competitive and social aspect, I have virtually biked all winter. I do my workouts on prescribed days, but it is easier to do 2x20 min at Sweet Spot during a virtual race, than hammering it out watching TV or a movie or a cycling CD. I can do my weekly SS and occasional vo2 max workouts that I would normally do, even if the weather is nasty outside-impossible to do in NE in the late fall/winter and early spring. This usually cuts out 4 months from the year. I don't have to wait for it to be light out or adjust my ride to 'safe' times of the day to avoid significant traffic.
And the result: Not only will I have no loss of bike fitness, I've raised my FTP. I'll be in the best cycling shape of my career this spring, thanks to Zwift.
A game. I am shocked by my confession but it is the truth. And I won't let anyone tell me that it's just virtual cycling when I've left considerable sweat on my floor for after a 60 minute 95% FTP workout/race. It's real cycling, done together in a virtual world, with real people.
Ride on>Let's Go!
Dale