One element of the fun of Zwift is finishing routes, eventually finishing them all only to have them add 50 more lol. It would be great if Trainer Road was able to use a riders power and speed data as it pertains to the prescribed power of the workout to help us determine if finishing a route is plausible with the given prescribed time. For instance, if my ride today is 45 min easy spin, I can guesstimate which route I will be able to finish. For example, It could be short with relatively high elevation or longer and flat. If I am a few minutes under or over (+/- 5 minutes) that is ok. But if I have to stay on for 15 more minutes or more to finish the route, or it ends 10 minutes before, I could have left that route for a longer or short workout. Yes we can guesstimate it, but it would be really convenient to not have calculate it, then search through all the routes to pick one which is appropriate. Especially on hard days when terminating a ride is better than going on for 5 or 10 minutes. Perhaps a “show me a list of routes predicted i can finish +/- 5 minutes” or something like that?
Doesn’t zwift give you an estimated time? I find the estimates pretty accurate.
It does not give you an estimated time. For instance my next ride is a 1:15 minute ovr/un, yes I can guestimate it, but I have to take into account how long the rest periods are and at what wattage, before I can choose which route I can finish within 5 minutes. It is easy when it is flatter, but if I have to decide to try a route with 500 meters of elevation and 33km, and in a rush, I can end up being 10 minutes from finishing that route when my workout ends or I can be right on the money - all based on how long my rest periods are and what the rest wattage is… in any respect its a calculation I am making. AI can predict this very easily without gueswork
You’ve both gone to route selection from different places @TheShmigs has picked a workout, then selected a route which doesn’t give a time preditction. @LacticacidMCB has gone directly to routes, which does (and you can select a workout when you’re there). The issue is that time is based on a fixed w/kg (I can’t remember how it’s calculated exactly but it can be waaay off (endurance vs VO2 vs sweet spot all give very different distances, especially if you hit a long VO2 recovery on a steep climb!)
Honestly, while I would like to see this, I see it as a feature request for Zwift, not TR. The baked in Zwift workouts don’t do this either do they?
Agree. They have more data and motivation. The estimates are close enough.
That is a good point. I checked and they do not. They have your data so it should not be too hard to predict. That way you do not have to fish around for routes which fit. How this plays out is something like this: I am 1.5km from the end of the route, my workout ends, I am on a steep hill climb with 200 metres left and now need to ride out a 10-15% grade on my lightest gear to finish the route after 3 rounds of overunders when I should be going light. 10 minutes later I finish it, but had to hold a high wattage to do so and add 10 minutes to the workout, or abandon the route I just spent 1:15 to try to do a first complete on… Perhaps not a TR problem, but I wonder if they can superimpose that data if Zwift does not.
Just to mention it, on zwiftinsider you get reasonably accurate duration predictions for multiple W/kg values for all routes. Yes, it is an extra step, but you can estimate a time based on your expected power for a workout and their values.
And to add one more piece of technology. I’ve pointed ChatGPT at the options and a picture of the workout and it’s decent at picking the best one.
You can do this by plugging the duration and average power into Zwift Route Time Predictor | ZwiftGopher
Nice! Didn’t know about this. This is a good tool. Thanks
Take a look here…although you have to put in an average power and tweak things like estimated time drafting it is still a comprehensive tool:
Best Bike Split also has a tool where you can enter your power and weight to estimate the time it’ll take to complete various Zwift routes: Zwift Route Analysis & Pacing Guide — Best Bike Split
It would be nice if they had some type of conversion that could calculate this.
I’ve been doing events on Zwift trying to guesstimate what distance I would cover only to have to do a bit more at the end.
Anywhere from 3 mins to 30mins.
Below I have what should have been an 1:30 hour workout that I had to add time to finish the stage. I believe it was for Tour de Zwift.
The Zwift Route Time Predictor mentioned above is pretty accurate. It also allows you to import your Zwift profile and autofill your power and completed routes. However for some reason, for me anyway, it imports old profile metrics and does not show me my routes completed. I have not investigated why it is not recognizing my latest stats yet - otherwise it is a good tool. But yes - would be great if zwift bought this program and incorporated it specific to one’s profile.