Zwift Academy Road: [Short] Workout 4 | Depleting Workout

The second of today’s two Zwift Academy Road 2022 rides was the fun sound Depleting Workout:

With workout #3 done, I guess I was already feeling kinda depleted. More so than I suspect they had in mind for most people doing the workout.

Being a bit of a chimp I hadn’t realised the first three blocks were descending in watts but increasing in time.

Fortunately they weren’t overly long.

After the first big effort I was alarmingly fine.

Already well warmed up, I noticed my breathing / heart rate had barely moved.

Alas, that did not continue for the next two efforts.

By the third push I was back to dripping wet. Lovely stuff.

I think this kind of workout suits me best. The long, fairly hard (but not overly so) steady effort.

Perfect for the turbo.

I was a little worried that whilst only 225w / 92% FTP, that I would definitely be feeling knackered by the middle / end of it because of the previous workout in the legs.

That turned out not quite to be the case.

I was definitely tired by the end of it. No question.

But most of the fatigue was mental… and also physical, but in my ass.

Having done three rides in a row, I was down to my cheapo bib shorts that I got from Amazon way back when. The padding on them has gone, so it becomes uncomfortable quick. More so indoors actually, as there’s so much more… moisture 🤢

Anyway, yeah, I’d have to say this one was another 6 out of 10 in terms of difficulty.

The gaps between the efforts was short, but the 225w / 10 minute segment just wasn’t overly taxing.

By comparison I’d say an SST session is an 8/10 for me.

Looking at the longer variant of this ride, we would repeat that effort twice. I do think that would make this one closer to a 7/10.

Maybe if we then did 10 minutes at FTP then this would be more serious.

But anyway, I’m glad to get two of the 6 done, taking me to 4 done in total and 2 remaining.

The plan is to do shorter workouts #5 and #6 on Saturday. I get longer then so can squeeze in that longer session length.

And then Sunday it’s time for the Finish Line.

I mean… the chances of me seeing any improvement are slim.

I’d guess I’m going to come out slightly worse off because of fatigue.

But we shall see.