This afternoon I took part in the eighth and final Zwift Academy 2019 workout, and ultimately, my last required event of the ZA2019 program.
As this was to be my final session in Zwift Academy 2019 I wanted to do this as an online group ride (rather than the solo rides that have made up most of my workouts), and as the only day to do workout 8 was today (or tomorrow I think), I made sure I was there and on time to ride this one.
Originally I had planned to ride yesterday. Last night, once home from work, I decided maybe a rest day would be best.
Workout #7 of the Zwift Academy was really intense.
I didn’t want to go into this last ride feeling fatigued.
However, I needn’t have worried.
Yes, I can be accused (fairly) of being over cocky at times throughout this training plan. However, the one time I go in with caution it turns out to be (amongst) the easiest rides of the lot.
I have a theory:
They made workout #8 easier so that when you think back to how the Academy was next year, you don’t remember workout #7, but you remember that workout #8 wasn’t actually that bad…
Honestly though, and all kidding aside (wait, that was a joke?), this one really wasn’t that intense.
Except the 4 minute effort. That bit was hard work.
But even then, not overly so.
Probably the hardest part of this ride was the mental aspect.
I checked my previous screenshots to see what my previous maximum 5 minute effort was in order to have some idea what my maximum 4 minute effort might be.
It’s kinda weird that the last workout was about 4 minute effort when it seems nowhere in Zwift is the 4 minute max power prominently displayed.
Surely 5 minutes would be a better metric, as that’s displayed after every ride.
The unsettling part of this ride came in the fairly constant questioning of how hard I might need to work in that final 4 minutes.
This was mentioned – by the on screen coach – several times. I’d say at least 5x.
As ever, the initial efforts were all based on my current FTP (195w) and were of a much lower intensity than what I gathered would be my final effort.
This felt really weird.
Compared with the previous workout, where might I add we had a very hard 5 minute effort and very little recovery, this ride had only two fairly intense efforts and a ton of recovery.
Not that I’m really complaining about the recovery portion. Easy riding is fine by me.
After several prompts and having taken a look at screenshots from my last ride, I was guessing my final 4 minute effort would be around 240w. I was honestly unsure how feasible this would be, but was at least confident the pre-effort intervals wouldn’t be to blame if I couldn’t hold that wattage, or higher, for the duration.
I was thinking back to my FTP test at various times during this ride. Keeping up 200 plus watts for over 20 minutes gives me a fairly good understand of where I’m at in terms of capability.
And given that this was significantly shorter, my gut said I should be able to hold around 240w average for that time.
But those constant on screen prompts sowed much doubt.
In the end I decided to start at 230w and try to lift if I had it in me in the final minute or two.
With the lower intensity intervals and the significant recovery periods between each block I felt like this would be achievable.
Whilst this was an online group ride there were very few people talking. There were a lot of ride ons given, however. In general I think most people were just glad to be getting the academy done and dusted.
Skipping ahead somewhat (at least with what you see in the screenshots), this ride was on the Watopia Waistband route and given that we had an hours riding, I was surprised that we didn’t manage to cover the circuit before the ride ended.
This gives some indication as to the laid back pacing of most of this ride.
It was interesting to watch the average watts per kilo read outs of other riders during each effort and take a guess at how much harder their rides were than my own.
About half way around the circuit I managed to hit my weekly 100km riding goal. I fully expect to ride tomorrow, and likely on the longer FTP builder ride, so may get closer to 140km this week, all being well.
In order to get the legs working, the final two efforts in this workout – pre free ride section – were ramp up blocks.
The first block ramped from about 150w to about 175w.
The second ramp started where the first left off, but only lasted for two minutes.
In between each ramp was another comfortable 6 minute recovery.
Honestly, by comparison to pretty much every academy workout, this one felt a little too easy.
Finally, we were warmed up thoroughly enough to tackle the meat of this training session.
The 4 minute max effort.
During this second long recovery period I switched my music selection over from green day to something a little more pumping.
I deliberately chose a track that would last just over 4 minutes, so I knew roughly where I’d be at without having to look at the screen.
One thing that I do find I do quite a lot in the harder efforts is I tend to look down, or close my eyes.
This wouldn’t work quite so well outdoors.
With a target of 240w in mind, and my music set, I was ready to tackle the max effort.
Such that it was, I feel I handled the first two minutes really well. My legs felt great, helped I’m sure by resting yesterday.
My cadence was lower than I’d have liked, but I was in a hard gear. One off the bottom cog.
In to the third minute, my legs started to complain. I was tempted to drop a gear and maybe get the pedals turning that much quicker.
I resisted the urge and continued to push on.
Whilst I was able to get some screenshots of the first two minutes, the second two were much harder and required hard gripping of the bars to see through.
Each minute, the on screen coach suggested we give more if we had it in the tank. And for once I did have it to give.
I managed to ramp up further and further for the final two minutes, knowing that the effort was comparatively short really helped me through.
One complaint would be that whilst the average wattage was shown on screen all through the max effort, it inexplicably disappeared as soon as the effort was over.
I know I wasn’t the only one who had their eyes shut and was working at maximum by the end of this effort (I asked) so for the average watts to be immediately cleared off the screen was frustrating.
For the record I scored a 253w average.
And with that, and not knowing what I’d managed to achieve in the 4 minute max effort, the Zwift Academy workouts – and by extension the ZA 2019 as a whole – came to an end.
Getting through the workouts was a bit of a slog, in truth.
As ever with these things, the initial high sees you through the first few activities, and then once that wears off, the grind begins and it takes determination and perseverance to see it through to the end.
There have been some hard rides during these workouts. Workouts 2, 6, and 7 were all particularly tough.
As with all of the larger shared activities, I enjoyed the group rides.
But the real benefit – for me – came from the racing. I really enjoyed both races.
That said, I’m glad to see the end of Zwift Academy 2019 also.
Sometimes I’ve not wanted to do workouts, but have had to in order to meet the schedule. I’m not a huge fan of that amount of rigidity with my riding schedule. I’d rather have more flexibility, but this has been particularly difficult with my job situation.
As can be seen from the end of ride stats, this one really wasn’t that intense.
As mentioned earlier, this ride finished before the full circuit of Watopia Waistband was completed. I finished up the last ~1.5km on my own to see the circuit through – hence the weird blip at the end of the timeline.
I’m really pleased with my 4 minute max effort result in this one.
As the critical power graph shows, it’s a new record for me. Good stuff.
I genuinely believe the Zwift Academy process has been beneficial for my fitness. It has certainly been more intense than the FTP Builder series I am also undertaking concurrently.
I’m not planning on joining another longer schedule event like this – should one come up – in the immediate future.
I am considering activating my Tacx Neo subscription thing – not quite sure what that is – but it’s some alternative to Zwift.
I will keep Zwift active at the same time, but would also like to vary things up for a month or two. There are so many competitors around to try, and I think it’s time I saw what else is available.
Lastly, after completing the Zwift Academy 2019 I got the email above.
I quite like the kit – the socks and shoes match, which is a nice touch. Not sure about the green bonce hat though. I doubt I’ll wear the kit, after all this. Green isn’t my colour 😀
