I recently tried a Zwift event and actually found it quite fun. However, I don’t want to commit to a Zwift subscription as I find the races may interfere with the quality of my TR workouts. I was curious to know how some of you implement Zwift races into your TR plans and found that some people add Zwift races once a week as ‘C races.’ Although I’m intrigued by implementing that idea into my TR plan, I find that subscribing to Zwift just to use it 4 times a month is a bit of a waste. Moreover, I’d probably feel tempted to throw in more races in the month and waste time looking at Zwiftpower stats.
Anyhow, after looking for a Zwift discount, I noticed this on Zwift’s website:
“On the 1st of every month, we’ll give you another chance to try Zwift with another 25km (15.5mi).”
Does this mean that I can race a 25km race on the first of every month without needing to pay for Zwift? Or is it just going to happen once, and after the free 25km is consumed, that’s it? I’d be more than happy to add a once-a-month 23km Zwift ‘C race’ to my training plan, just as long as it’s free. I’m going to try this after my Zwift trial ends, but I was curious to know if any of you tried this yet.
It does replenish every month. I do it every now and then and you can even ride more than 25k (did almost 40 today). It will say “trial ended”, but I haven’t been kicked from a ride yet. Not sure how that works with a race longer than 25 k though.
Another option is to create multiple accounts and use the free 25km on each account till they re set, you could create as many as you like so in theory get unlimited usage.
Yes it does reset for free. Better yet without having to subscribe monthly/annually or wait till your next free trial comes up is to buy yourself a Gift Card for 3 months. That way if you do want to finish a longer ride or do more later you have that option.
I did this last year during the winter months and doing it again now. Helps to throw in some variety and I do the C or D rides on the off days or recovery weeks. Also when I need a break from TR I can at least ride or chat with friends or new riders! After the 3 months are up, my training rides are ramping up as planned in TR with my event schedule.
Yeah I subscribed earlier in the year but recently I’ve used the free monthly 25kms. I’m in almost the exact same position, wouldn’t mind the odd race/ride on zwift but not often enough to justify a ongoing subscription - be interested to hear how you get on!
I think this will probably work for you, but if you’re actually serious about racing then one problem you’ll have with this approach is that it will take forever for you to advance through the levels and to build up enough drops to buy faster bikes and wheels. Not going to debate the gamification aspects of Zwift, but if you want to race well then you’ll definitely want better tools than what you start with.
Actually buying in to a Zwift account and running both TR and Zwift concurrently during your TR workouts is a really fast and easy way to advance in the game.
Can I ask how you run your connections on both applications? I have a smart trainer and would like to run TR alongside Zwift using an ipad for Zwift and Samsund S20+ for TR?
Would it be a case of pairing my trainer to Zwift via ipad and the smart trainer speed sensor alone, then pair smart trainer power/cadence/HR to TR on my S20?
As a general rule of thumb, when doing dual-recording (Zwift & TrainerRoad), whereby TrainerRoad is your structured workout that it’s controlling, you want to:
A) Always pair the smart trainer to TrainerRoad as FTMS/FE-C, ideally as ANT+ if you can (since it leaves open another channel). Then pair HR/etc, also ideally as ANT+ since it leaves open the BT channels.
B) Then pair Zwift as the power sensors/cadence/HR, but never as the controllable trainer - otherwise the two will fight.
The main challenge one will typically have here is if you’ve only got iOS devices that can only pair on Bluetooth Smart, you’ll run out of concurrent channels on the sensor quickly. That’s because most Bluetooth Sensors only accept one concurrent connection at a time. Newer ones (Wahoo KICKR 2018/2020/CORE, Garmin HRM-DUAL/HRM-PRO/SpeedV2/CadenceV2) do accept dual Bluetooth Smart channels). Thus the preference to always connect ANT+ with whatever devices can, since that’s unlimited connections.
I just want to echo that I also had an event that was longer than 25km. I actually had ridden some of the free 25km before the race and when the 25km was up I was prompted of I wanted to continue, right during the race. This was a bit frustrating since my computer is not close enough for me to press OK and I had to step off my bike, press OK on the computer and then finish the race. Either way, I am a subscriber now and do the dual thing as many already stated. Might go back to free version of Zwift since I do not think I get much out of it.
