I train with Zwift on my bike often, and aim to smoothly hit the power/color zones set by my FTP the best I can. When I look at other people’s workouts on Zwift, it baffles me how incredibly straight and smooth the colors of their power zones are. Use Lucy as an example, and look at some of her rides in the Companion app. The zones and color of them are incredibly smooth and linear. When I ride, there’s a lot of variability in the peaks and valleys and colors - some people have nearly a straight line. Are they just that good??? How is that otherwise achieved? I’m genuinely curious. Thank you.
Are you using ERG mode? More than likely what you see on others’ files is the result of the controlled resistance in ERG mode that limits any drastic deviations from the rider’s power target, resulting in a smooth, consistent power file.
My guess is that you’re not using ERG mode, which varies the resistance to maintain the power intervals even when your cadence varies. This is either a setting, or you’re on an old trainer that doesn’t offer it.
Zwift settings have an option for instant or 3-second power readings. It won’t have the same smoothness but changing this from instant to 3-seconds will smooth it out a little.
This is usually a purely visual thing. For example, Wahoo’s “Erg Mode Power Smoothing” (which you can toggle off) just shows a straight line at the target power in erg mode even though the trainer is accurately capturing the power variation actually happening in the background. Meanwhile, my SB20 just displays the power bouncing around in erg mode. I guess some people find it distracting to have your power bounce around, it doesn’t bother me. Regardless, this is just a setting you can change.