Hello everyone,
I have a 5-day workout program with 3 interval endurance sessions. My question is, if I do my endurance intervals by riding on Zwift in zone 2, does the program consider these rides the same as if I were doing their prescribed workouts? Do any of you do this? 1:30 to 2:00 on a trainer for an endurance workout can be boring !
No, it won’t make that connection unless you set these up like “Outside Workouts”.
It is possible to associate a planned workout with an “unstructured ride” (TR’s term), but doing so should be done with care. You need to make sure you are adhering to the basic power targets and objectives of the planned workout. If your real work deviates too much, TR still doesn’t have the ability to see it and you may be creating a connection between two things without much in common.
This is planned to be addressed with the eventual release of Workout Levels 2.0, but we have no idea when that will be (2 years, 11 months and counting…).
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You can always use your phone with a TrainerRoad workout running using bluetooth, and have Zwift going at the same time using ANT+. TR controls the resistance but both get a power reading.
I just did that today for an otherwise very dull hour in Zone 2.
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Yup, that is the way I ride most of my workouts.
My alternate if I want to “ride” with Zwift only is to pick the pacer bot that has the right seed for my assigned Endurance workout and ride that, then associate it with my TR workout.
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I will occasionally do my Zone 2 sessions in Zwift to help break up the monotony of doing them in ERG (or resistance) in TR. For this, i’ll run both apps concurrently, set up as follows…
- TR connected via ANT+ for power (via my assiomas) and cadence…
- Zwift connected via BT for power, cadence AND controllable.
This allows me to feel the gradient changes in zwift while still adhering to the power levels (or as closely as possible) in TR.
This seems to work pretty well. It CAN be difficult at times doing it this way however unless you choose a relatively flat course on Z. If you pick anything too hilly, to stay near the power target in TR can require pretty slow cadences at times (at least for me). I always run Z at 100% trainer difficulty, so once I run out of gears, to keep the power down requires slowing my cadence as well.
That said, I do also utilize @mcneese.chad’s option as well and pick a pacer bot near my expected Z2 pace. That can work well also!
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I have my Kickr setup in the same way RCC describes.
I do all my TR workouts with Zwift running, I want the swag and badges, as incentives.
TR calendar handles the TR rides.
Strava posts the Zwift rides.
Sometimes I may go over, or cut cool down on TR short, and keep riding. At that point I’ll use Zwift’s power to get the right numbers into the file.
I’ll then use Garmin FIT tools to trim the ride fit file and tack it onto my TR calendar, just to keep track of any extra TSS.
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I did the same, but I used both Bluetooth on Z and TR because my Kickr can handle two. However, I’ve experienced power issues on Zwift. I’ll try using Ant+ on one instead.
You can pair both via Bluetooth via the 3x options on the Kickr, but you still must turn off the Controlled or Power box in Zwift. If you miss that step, both apps try to control the trainer and you end up with the yo-yo power problem.
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I don’t over complicate it - I jump into Zwift and ride roughly what TR endurance workout was, or just stay in endurance zones. March the rides after if I was close, or skip that part if not. Training benefit achieved and monotony broken up somewhat.
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