Has anyone used the workout creator in Zwift, is it similar to Trainerroad?
Are the workouts executed in ERG, with island showing as entertainment? Or is it more of a guidance, as in slope mode?
The workout creator in Zwift just came out this morning. In less than an hour I had entered all the cycling workouts from my 12-week plan into the creator.
ERG mode works only with smart trainers in workout or freestyle/race mode. There is a slider called trainer difficulty in the settings which can control how ‘ERGy’ you want it. There is also a radio button that turns ERG mode on or off.
When you do an FTP test, Zwift automatically turns ERG mode off for the 20’ test (but not the warmup).
I like ERG mode a lot–hills feel like hills and I might only shift between two gears for the entire ride.
During workouts or races (I haven’t raced yet) that will require sprinting I turn ERG mode off, or at least way down. It’s too hard to quickly change speeds I’ve found.
The workout creator in Zwift is new as of today but it appears to be very simple to use.
If you have an ERG capable trainer you can do the workouts in ERG mode with the island showing. Anytime a interval starts there is a banner on the road you go through.
The previous poster appears to be confusing slope and ERG. Slope mode is what does the hill/terrain simulation.
My kicker does slope mode in a normal ride and ERG mode in a workout on Zwift. I race in slope mode on Zwift.
The only limitation is to ERG on Zwift is it will not run a power meter and trainer in ERG. You must sync you trainer as the power source to get ERG functions. I get around this by using the Kickr software to sync the kickr with my Stages.
Has anyone used the workout creator in Zwift, is it similar to Trainerroad?
Are the workouts executed in ERG, with island showing as entertainment? Or is it more of a guidance, as in slope mode?
It is very similar and at this point I think the delta between the systems has narrowed considerably. TR is a bit more refined (but not much), has a larger battery of existing plans and runs on more commodity hardware but other than this I think it simply comes down to preference. If you have a smart trainer you can select if you want erg mode on or off for your work out. The workout plan is displayed on screen along with the regular visuals of the real time ride and terrain. It sounds confusing but it actually isn’t.
So if I have a coach that provides me with workouts, and the cost of the 2 systems are roughly the same, am I missing something or I should really look at moving to Zwift?
No interest in the plans, and never use their pre-created workouts.
Appreciate all the fedback.
Has anyone used the workout creator in Zwift, is it similar to Trainerroad?
Are the workouts executed in ERG, with island showing as entertainment? Or is it more of a guidance, as in slope mode?
It is very similar and at this point I think the delta between the systems has narrowed considerably. TR is a bit more refined (but not much), has a larger battery of existing plans and runs on more commodity hardware but other than this I think it simply comes down to preference. If you have a smart trainer you can select if you want erg mode on or off for your work out. The workout plan is displayed on screen along with the regular visuals of the real time ride and terrain. It sounds confusing but it actually isn’t.
The previous poster appears to be confusing slope and ERG. Slope mode is what does the hill/terrain simulation.
Absolutely incorrect. All dumb trainers are in slope mode as are the FTP tests in Zwift. They do not simulate anything. Instead they rely on the user to switch gears to the varying power targets.
Erg Mode automatically sets your trainer’s resistance for you.
So if I have a coach that provides me with workouts, and the cost of the 2 systems are roughly the same, am I missing something or I should really look at moving to Zwift?
No interest in the plans, and never use their pre-created workouts.
There are three parts I can see to making the whole scenario transferrable:
- Using Zwift yourself: I’m assuming here that you have affirmed that Zwift already works well with your equipment and that you generally like it already, but if not that is the first thing to establish. I’ll confess that I’m a bit of a Zwift-a-holic and really like it, but it doesn’t “click” for some people.
- Getting workouts into Zwift: There are actually some interesting things happening with some hands-on coaches who have jumped in doing some rides with clients, or at the very least watching along as their client rides. That is probably a bit of premium service but as for your question the change might be that you would need, at least in the near term, to take the coach’s instructions and build the work out in Zwift. If your coach uses Zwift they could of course build the workouts for you. The editor is easy to use.
- Reviewing Results: You can auto upload results to Strava but you also have .fit files locally if you need to share them directly, post to Training Peaks, or some other many of sharing with the coach. I can’t recall if TR had some client/coach features but this would all be pretty much outside of the core application.
That is really all I can think of. The TR process is probably a bit more streamlined since they have been doing the structured workout business for a while longer. I’ve used TR in the past but some of my description may be out of date or mistaken, so I welcome correction from others if that is the case.
So, this is totally a minor, inconsequential thing, but I’ll throw it out there anyway.
When* *I do a workout from my coach, I’ll plug it into TrainerRoad and use that to control my Kickr, then I’ll have Zwift ignore my Kickr, but pair with my HRM, and Power/Cadence. It works really well, although now that you can put workouts into Zwift it’s probably not nessesarey (had I known custom work outs would be out that quick on Zwift I probably wouldn’t have purchased the 2nd Ant+ USB).
Anyway, the point is that when you ride in ERG mode on your Kickr with TrainerRoad, TrainerRoad uses your kickr as the speed sensor. So if you ride in a low gear to reduce the noise of your Trainer (as I do), the result is TrainerRoad reports a lower speed, and hence shorter distances.
Zwift on the other hand cacluates speed (and fairly accurately, I think).
As an example, when they had the WBR ride last Sunday, I was riding a workout in TrainerRoad and siumultanously riding in Zwift. TrainerRoad reported 116km, and Zwift reported 162km.
I understand that when you’re riding indoors distance isn’t that important, but if your annual / weekly mileage is important to you, this does have an impact.
So going forward wouldn’t it be easier to just recreate in Zwift, and let that control the trainer in ERG mode?
So, this is totally a minor, inconsequential thing, but I’ll throw it out there anyway.
When* *I do a workout from my coach, I’ll plug it into TrainerRoad and use that to control my Kickr, then I’ll have Zwift ignore my Kickr, but pair with my HRM, and Power/Cadence. It works really well, although now that you can put workouts into Zwift it’s probably not nessesarey (had I known custom work outs would be out that quick on Zwift I probably wouldn’t have purchased the 2nd Ant+ USB).
Anyway, the point is that when you ride in ERG mode on your Kickr with TrainerRoad, TrainerRoad uses your kickr as the speed sensor. So if you ride in a low gear to reduce the noise of your Trainer (as I do), the result is TrainerRoad reports a lower speed, and hence shorter distances.
Zwift on the other hand cacluates speed (and fairly accurately, I think).
As an example, when they had the WBR ride last Sunday, I was riding a workout in TrainerRoad and siumultanously riding in Zwift. TrainerRoad reported 116km, and Zwift reported 162km.
I understand that when you’re riding indoors distance isn’t that important, but if your annual / weekly mileage is important to you, this does have an impact.
Yeah, that’s why I brought it up. If you were waffling between the 2 and the odometer reading was important, it’s something to be aware of.
I paid for a year of TR, so I’ve got both for a while.
I wish Zwift would offer a discount for pre-paying for a year.
The previous poster appears to be confusing slope and ERG. Slope mode is what does the hill/terrain simulation.
Absolutely incorrect. All dumb trainers are in slope mode as are the FTP tests in Zwift. They do not simulate anything. Instead they rely on the user to switch gears to the varying power targets.
Erg Mode automatically sets your trainer’s resistance for you.
Sorry - I said slope and meant SIM. The point was the 2 post was describing hill simulation as ERG and that is not true. I was just trying to eliminate that confusion. Slope mode is best thought of as a dumb trainer style resistance.
“There is a slider called trainer difficulty in the settings which can control how ‘ERGy’ you want it.” There is also a radio button that turns ERG mode on or off.
Can you please explain this better? I use the Tacx Neo and I’ve noticed the erg mode doesnt keep you right on the money like the kickr; however, the avgs turn out really close.
I thought the trainer difficulty was outside of erg mode… Like the most realistic feeling in SIM mode.
“There is a slider called trainer difficulty in the settings which can control how ‘ERGy’ you want it.” There is also a radio button that turns ERG mode on or off.
Can you please explain this better? I use the Tacx Neo and I’ve noticed the erg mode doesnt keep you right on the money like the kickr; however, the avgs turn out really close.
I thought the trainer difficulty was outside of erg mode… Like the most realistic feeling in SIM mode.
For illustrative purposes I’ll show the slider below:
There is also a radio button that turns ERG mode on or off on the menu that you choose the ride.
I can only speak from experience on my PowerBeam Pro trainer. If I have the slider on max, I never have to shift during the entire ride. I keep my cadence at the rpm I want and the trainer automatically sets the power on my trainer due to the inclines, declines, or power targets in workout mode for the course. Zwift has stated that 100% (max) equates to real life hills. Though I feel like 35 rpm cadence on a 20% grade would be more realistic than 100rpm.
“There is a slider called trainer difficulty in the settings which can control how ‘ERGy’ you want it.” There is also a radio button that turns ERG mode on or off.
Can you please explain this better? I use the Tacx Neo and I’ve noticed the erg mode doesnt keep you right on the money like the kickr; however, the avgs turn out really close.
I thought the trainer difficulty was outside of erg mode… Like the most realistic feeling in SIM mode.
For illustrative purposes I’ll show the slider below:
There is also a radio button that turns ERG mode on or off on the menu that you choose the ride.
I can only speak from experience on my PowerBeam Pro trainer. If I have the slider on max, I never have to shift during the entire ride. I keep my cadence at the rpm I want and the trainer automatically sets the power on my trainer due to the inclines, declines, or power targets in workout mode for the course. Zwift has stated that 100% (max) equates to real life hills. Though I feel like 35 rpm cadence on a 20% grade would be more realistic than 100rpm.
The slider is not impacting ERG mode. ERG mode is a function that holds the rider at the target watts in a workout. The slider is used to adjust how much the terrain changes impact the resistance in SIM mode. This slider is for when you ride regular rides and the trainer is adjusting for the terrain. ERG modes is on or off. The only adjustment for ERG is your FTP setting that will raise or lower the watts target in the workout.
Basically if you set to 100% the trainer exactly sets as the grade the games states. At 50% on the slider the game adjusts your sim mode at 50% of the stated gradiant. So a 14% grade is actually telling your trainer to simulate 7%. I keep my slider at 50% otherwise you lose the ability to put down power while going downhill. In races this will kill you trying to stay with a pack.