What better way to spend your dinner hour than with a Zwift Academy workout? And in particular, the second workout in the ZA 2020 series, today focusing on improving my sprint profile. Well, a better way would probably have been to slouch on the sofa and watch the latest episode of Bake Off but I guess we have to be grown ups.
Sprinting is one of the weakest aspects of my cycling. Along with climbing. And riding on the flats. Oh, and descending.
Frankly the possibility of an old man who can’t break the thousand watt mark in a sprint is never going to win this Zwift Academy Pro contract.
But that doesn’t mean I can’t have a bash at putting down a new 5 second sprint personal best.
And so that was my goal today. Try and set a new max effort sprint figure.
For reference, my all time best 5 second effort is 923w, set in August this year.
The workout today last 53 minutes. This entire workout consisted of mostly easy riding.
Aside from three “on” minutes at the end of the warm up phase, there was less than a minutes worth of effort during this entire ride.
However, the times you were expected to be on were full gas efforts.
After the warm up, there was a block of 4 repeated seated sprints.
The on-screen instructions didn’t do a brilliant job of explaining how these worked.
Essentially they worked like this:
- 30 second free ride lead in
- 10 second free ride max effort sprint, but you were only expected to sprint for 6 of the 10 seconds
- 30 second free ride cool down
Repeat that four times.
Unfortunately I really messed this up on the first effort.
As soon as I went through the first 30 second arch, I bolted.
I wasn’t alone. I saw a bunch of other rides sprinting immediately.
However, I knew I only had to be “on” for 6 seconds. So I timed that in my head, and then was met with the prompt that actually, the 10 second free ride portion was where I was meant to sprint.
Awesome. Two for the price of one!
As such I found I was absolutely thrashed for the very first proper sprint.
And also I found it really “meh” that they couldn’t rework the UI to time / bleep out the 6 seconds, rather than having to default to the minimum available period in a Zwift workout – 10 seconds – and make the rider (aka you or me) time it in our heads. I like the way even the official workouts highlight the flaws in the system.
What I did do correctly during these 4 5 sprints was to remain seated, and try my best with a hard gear.
I tried numerous gears on the different sprints. And I seem to have had most success with two clicks up from the bottom of the cassette. I have no idea what the correct terminology for that might be.
I did this ride on my laptop, so whilst I could see the screen from my bike, I couldn’t see the chat.
That was a shame as for a dinner time / midday ride, this one was well attended with over 230 other riders online. The chat was pretty free flowing from what I could see – and with all the down time between the efforts, I was able to get involved on a limited scale using the companion app.
With the four 6 second sprints done, only two more remained.
There was a 10 second and 20 second effort.
I figured my best shot at a new power figure would be the 10 second effort.
Going into the 10 second effort I felt good enough.
The workout did a pretty good job of ramping the legs back up – spinning at 105rpm before going into the sprint. I messed that up as I couldn’t see the screen that well, but when I realised what was happening I tried my best to adjust.
I reckon what I did wrong on the 10 second sprint was to grip the hoods.
Whilst I gave it my all, I was probably incorrectly positioned to give it absolutely everything I’ve got. I have never seen a pro sprint on the hoods. They always seem to use the drops. And god alone knows how they control that on a real life sprint. Madness.
Anyway, I didn’t set a new record. Sadly. I managed only 809w today as my best effort if you believe Zwift, or 872w if you take your stats from the Garmin, as I tend to do these days.
Not entirely sure how they can be so out of whack.
On the final sprint, the 20 second max effort, I did use the drops. And I did feel like I’d given a better performance. I certainly sustained for longer than I could typically seem to do.
It’s a shame I have no way (that I know of) to find other comparable 20 second efforts. All I have to hand are 5 second, 1 minute, 5, 20, and 60 minutes.
Anyway, I gave it my best shot.
So yeah, a shame not to have set a new record today.
If I was going to, it felt like this kind of workout would be my best shot.
Sadly, the Garmin announced I am in a “de-training” phase at the end of this ride. Oh my, it was all so unworthwhile on so many levels!
After this I had time for a shower, and then I did manage to squeeze in a bit of Bake Off whilst I ate my hastily prepared sandwiches.
Lunch hour. Lunch hour and a half… what’s the difference?
