This morning I finally got started with Zwift Academy 2020. Alas, not without issue. In traditional Zwift fashion I ended up missing the group ride due to application crashes, and then not being able to rejoin.
Frustrating though that is / was, it didn’t stop me from completing the workout – as by this point I am a dab hand at working around Zwift’s numerous bugs and problems. However, if you’re new to Zwift you may not know how to work around such issues, so see below where I cover how to find this year and any previous years Zwift Academy workouts.
What is Zwift Academy?
Zwift Academy is an online cycling training program that consists of 8 mandatory workouts, and your own choice of 4 group rides or races. This could be 4 group rides, 4 races, 2 group rides and 2 races, or any other combination.
The Zwift Academy lasts for 8 consecutive weeks, where each weeks sees a new workout “unlocked” (though you can access them sooner, as below). The Zwift Academy workouts are done as part of a large group at set time intervals throughout the day. There should be a time slot in your time zone, though if none are a good fit, you can do the workouts individually on your own schedule.
Zwift Academy has roots as a talent identification program that sends amateur riders to the pro circuit. Past winners have won Young Rider and Sprinter jerseys at UCI races, and represented their countries at the Road World Championship. A few triathletes went pro after a single season on our team. Make 2020 your year and see how far you can go.
FIVE YEARS OF UNLOCKING THE FUTURE – Zwift.com
The ultimate aim of the Zwift Academy is to find a single male, and single female winner that receive a contract with a professional cycling team.
Zwift Academy 2019 saw two winners:
- Jessica Pratt – now riding for CANYON / SRAM
- Drew Christensen – now riding for NTT Continental Under 23s
However, for the rest of us, the Zwift Academy offers a set of structured workouts that genuinely push our fitness levels and, hopefully, improve your abilities across all aspects of your cycling.
You can find all previous years Zwift Academy workouts inside Zwift’s training menu.
Where Can I Find The Zwift Academy Workouts?
Before I get into the write up for Zwift Academy 2020 Road: Workout 1 | Aerobic Power, I’m going to quickly cover how to complete any Zwift Academy workout on your own schedule.
This technique will allow you to complete (or repeat) any of the Zwift Academy workouts from any year, current or previous at whatever time best suits you.
From the main menu, select a Ride Type of Training:
Once inside the Training menu, select the Workouts tab, and scroll through to locate all of this Zwift Academy 2020 workouts, and all the Zwift Academy (and Zwift Academy Tri) workouts from previous years.
These workouts behave identically as if you were doing them during the Zwift Academy time frame of previous years.
The only difference is that you won’t be doing this as part of a big group. And yes, that does detract somewhat from the overall experience. However, it’s better than nothing.
And crucially, this does mean you can then do any Zwift Academy workout whenever it best suits you.
Where Can I Find The Zwift Academy Workout Progress?
One question I had after completing Zwift Academy 2020 Road: Workout 1 | Aerobic Power was:
Where can I see that I have definitely completed this workout?
There are two ways to check. Maybe more. But definitely two.
One way is to exit Zwift and reload the entire game again. Quite a common occurrence for any regular Zwift user… (oof).
Once back in the main menu you will see the Zwift Academy panel showing you have now completed whatever workout you just did.
Another way, and the way I chose – and from where I got that screenshot – is to go in to Zwift.com. I’ve forgotten exactly what menu options I chose – but just click the link there and it should take you to the appropriate page.
However, if like last year, Zwift may choose to remove this page after the 8 week event has come to an end. So that link may be broken. And if so, well, there’s no real way to keep track other than the “Last Completed” menu text from the training menu screen above. See if you can spot the bug. It appears I am either immortal, or have lived a very long life indeed and am somehow posting this from the future. It wouldn’t surprise me if we did get to that date and Zwift still haven’t released their UI update. Sigh.
Workout 1 | Aerobic Power
As with last year, I went into Workout 1 feeling like it wouldn’t be that hard.
The previous Academy workouts have all featured nice warm up periods. This means for any given hour, you are typically doing – at most – 30 minutes of real work.
But the Zwift Academy rides do work you. Basing your opinion of how easy / difficult a ride will be purely on the colour of the intervals can (and has previously) be(en) very misleading.
And this one was no different.
The hardest part of this ride comes in the final 20 minutes. We’ll get to why that is a little later, but essentially it involves an FTP test.
Though a strange one.
The warm up phase is a tad misleading. It feels almost too easy.
This is deceptive as the work ahead is intense – providing you have set an appropriate FTP before hand.
Now, the goal of this workout is – apparently – to help determine your FTP. However, this is the first time I’ve ever heard of an 8 minute FTP test. That said, I’m far from the worlds most experienced cyclist, so what do I know?
It’s nice to have a solid structure to follow. The on-screen prompts do a great job of introducing the workout, why we are doing it, and generally setting the scene for the hours work ahead.
Again, you may not understand all the terminology thrown at you. Anaerobic efforts? Huh?
There could – perhaps – be a more newbie friendly explanation of what the heck some of this stuff means, and why it is important. But at the same time, maybe we don’t need a science lesson during a workout.
It’s my opinion that you’d be better off doing a Ramp Test or true 20 minute FTP Test prior to this workout, as not only would you get a more accurate / efficient workout here (a better use of your hour), but also it might even negate the entire need for this lesson / session.
Also, and again, I keep alluding to it, this test is … useless(?) and frustrating anyway.
I find typically that I’m bad at warming up.
And I’m also bad at remaining hydrated.
These workouts do a great job of warming up. And last year, for a long time after completing the Zwift Academy, I did build these warm up steps into my rides. Today has served to remind me that I’ve slowly forgotten to warm up properly, and to take this part of the ride as seriously as any other phase.
There are several on screen prompts to sip water / fluid, and generally keep hydrated. It might seem basic but these prompts are very helpful for me. And for once I did get through my entire litre of water during the ride. Good stuff.
The warm up in Workout #1 is two pronged.
There’s the light ramp up.
And then there’s a more intensive couple of intervals to get the legs properly spinning. All good stuff.
After this you’re given something of a taster of what’s to come. These mini efforts only last for two minutes, just a quarter of the joy awaiting you at the end of this one.
The two minute blocks aren’t so bad, but those 30 second efforts at the end are biting.
Still, I find 30 seconds is over quickly enough if you focus on the prompt – by the time that’s gone from your screen you only have 15 seconds of the effort left.
If you’re anything like me, the first will be harder than the second, as even though you’re tired after the first, your legs kinda get used to spinning and you build that intuitive rhythm which on the second block, you slide into more easily.
After these first two harder efforts, this is where the realisation starts to kick in that hey, maybe I was wrong to think this workout looked fairly easy from the overview alone.
Suddenly, 5 minutes on with only a 2 minute breather between seems quite challenging.
What’s even more mentally taxing is when you look more closely at the interval schedule and spot that after the second 5 minutes on, you only get a 2 minute breather before you’re in to the 8 minute effort.
Oof. Coach, you are a swine.
The other killer of these two 5 minute blocks is the requirement to hit 100rpm.
I’m not sure if you fail the block if you don’t meet the cadence requirement, but it’s certainly taxing on the legs to sustain 100rpm and a high wattage for 5 minutes.
Again, somewhat unusually, I found the second of these two intervals to be the more manageable (not easier) of the two.
That said, I was definitely happy to see the arch and get to the 2 minute breather.
As above, you only get a 2 minute breather here. Though the 8 minute effort is at your own chosen cadence and power intensity. No targets to meet here, as such. Just a “best effort”.
Allegedly this 8 minute effort will be used by Zwift’s performance coaches and other associated experts to help determine who to give that elusive pro contract.
For the rest of us, this is much like a 20 minute FTP test. Only, for 8 minutes. And with a frustrating Zwift-style UX fail at the end.
My plan was to stick to 250w average (or greater, if I could).
I think I managed this.
As you’re left to use your own devices here, you can use whatever gearing you desire. I changed a few times between two gears. No idea which. Two of the more intensive ones.
The thing is, and the annoying bug / crappy UX here is this:
When you finish the 8 minutes the on screen average watts figure disappears.
There’s no further mention of it.
At the end of a ramp test or FTP test, that average is used to immediately show you your new FTP.
I expected the same.
But alas, no.
This is total pointless garbage and served to add frustration on the earlier Zwift fail of not allowing me into the group workout.
At this point, however, I accept this as “typical Zwift”. Poor.
Disregard the crappo UX and the workout itself felt decent.
Would I have chosen to max effort myself for 5, 5, and 8 minutes today. A random Wednesday in October? Heck no.
So it’s nice to be pushed. And it’s nice to have that structure to follow for 8 weeks because it forces me to do things that improve myself and my fitness without really having to think about it.
Ultimately I don’t know what to do with the information I gained from that 8 minute effort.
I guess… nothing.
So why not just have a ramp test as the first workout. Or a pre-req. Or something. I really have no idea.
According to the graphs below, this wasn’t my best ever 8 minutes, anyway.
No real surprises here though, as typically if I were going for an 8 minute max effort, I wouldn’t first do two 5 minute harder efforts with a 2 minute breather between.
The biggest question I had at the end of this one was:
Would I get the “credit” for completing the workout even though I didn’t do an “official” group workout.
The answer, thankfully, was yes.
If you can disregard Zwift “the game experience” and focus solely on the workout, then this was a useful hour of my time.
However, the ever growing frustration I feel when using the core product is so annoying to me at times that it detracts from the enjoyment I used to get when using Zwift. Which is a real shame.
Hopefully I’ll have a smoother experience in workout #2.
