Zwift Academy 2019 Workout #2: Race Practice

Yesterday was rest day.

Today was hard. Hard af.

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Of the Zwift Academy 2019 workouts I have done so far, this was by far the most intense.

It’s difficult to comprehend this during the workout, but afterwards – in hindsight – it all seems worthwhile.

This was really tough though.

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This was more in line with what I expected the Zwift Academy program to be like.

Unfortunately, I don’t consider that I completed this one to 100%. I’ll cover why as I go through.

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Things started off well enough.

The workout had a fairly gentle warm up period. From following the Zwift Academy program so far, I’ve learned that throwing in a lower cadence, higher torque effort into the warm up is a really good idea. I like this a lot.

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After the warm up I was feeling decent about things. I’d just finished work, and had sat through a 40 minute commute / 10 hour day, so was not at my optimum, but also had some stress and tension to blow off.

From previous advice I’ve seen, turning off ERG mode for any sprint sections is a good idea. I’m not entirely sure why Zwift didn’t program each sprint section as a free ride like they did in Zwift Academy 2019 Workout #3. But I went rogue and dropped ERG for the sprint sections.

Unfortunately that meant I did not get my star for the red intervals, but I feel this was worth it.

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Going rogue meant I could really unwind. That felt good.

I decided to go for it on the third red block, which then dropped immediately into 3 minutes at 195w.

This was tough. A sign of things to come. But then, this (to me) is the kind of thing I have seen in racing, so it’s all good.

That said, my third sprint was a bit… lacking.

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Lacking or not, dropping straight from a sprint into a 3 minute effort was full on.

As this was only race practice however, after three minutes I was rewarded with a 2 minute 80w break. Lovely jubbly.

Do that in a race and it’s game over.

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Really interestingly from my point of view, according to Training Peaks, the TSS score from this workout was 174, which is higher than any of my last 30+ rides.

This includes a real race I did, the SRAM Send It Series 4 race, which had a TSS of 159. Not quite sure what to make of that.

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After the sprint effort, there was another tough block of over/unders.

4 repeats of 1 minute at 180w followed by 1 minute at 220w. This was hard in itself. I do like this kind of thing, however, as this is what it’s like in races. There’s no blue zone recovery. You kind of have to make do with recovering in the green zone. Or in this case, the yellow zone. Brutal.

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After this one, things eased off a touch.

5 minutes rest at 100w. Much needed. I was really feeling it by this point.

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Again, with another sprint, followed this time by 3 minutes at 200w. Only 5w difference for me, though at a higher FTP this would be much more intense.

That said, I found this one a stretch. And worse still, the recovery between this block and the next was only a measly 2 minutes at an admittedly very low 80w.

I was really feeling it after this block, and 2 minutes just wasn’t enough. I know that was the intent, and I resolved to see the final block through as best I could.

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During the short recovery I tried my best to keep a low cadence. Still struggling with this. Having learned from other workouts that lower cadence means lower heart rate, I did try here, but came up short.

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And then we were into the final effort.

The punisher.

And punish me it did.

Unfortunately, ~5 minutes in I cramped up like I have never had cramp before in my life.

If you have seen the film Alien then you will have some idea of what happened to me here. At around the 4 minute mark my right calf muscle began to ache.

It felt like there was a ball under my skin, and each time the pedal drove round, this ball – feeling like the size of a golf ball – moved around my calf. I tried everything to soldier through this, but after a minute or so, it became unbearable.

I had to get off the bike.

Epic fail.

I ended up led on the floor, sweat dripping into my eyes, moaning and writhing around, trying to stretch it out. It subsided after a rather agonising minute or so. I didn’t keep track of the time. I had paused the workout.

I can still feel it now.

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I did manage to get back on the bike and finish the block out. But I don’t consider it a true completion of the workout.

Interestingly, Zwift gave me a full star for that section, whereas it held stars back for my warm up (not sure why), and the sprint’s I de-ERG’d.

All in all, this was a great workout.

I mean, if you’re looking to work hard, this is a great one to do.

I will definitely come back to retry this, and hopefully see it through. But not for a while. I’m not a sadist.

I’m a little wary of this sore calf issue. Fortunately – depending on how you look at it – I’m on a rest day tomorrow (for a meal out… the calories!).

Hopefully this gives the pain time to subside before recommencing activities on Thursday.

Getting 530 calories done after work is a major win for me at the moment. The days are long, and I’m feeling very tired still. Any exercise is good, and tough workouts like this, even more so.

To put this into perspective, I had my typical office job awful lunch today – Tesco meal deal of Honey Mustard Chicken Pasta, and doritos (and water).

That’s 524 calories for the pasta alone. And 150 calories for the doritos.