NOT GOOD! Zwift Academy Road Workout 5

[@andyking8464]

Sarah, it is SO GOOD To have you back on KZbin deck!

[@EverythingIsPhotogenic]

Thank you!! Glad my ranting did not scare you off 😂

[@madiantin]

Agreed!

[@patrickbaker6978]

After the academy is over a vid on best Zwift workouts would be very interesting.Personally I always use the sst short medium and long and sometimes 2 times 20 at ftp but a top 10 would mean you could cherry pick and be able to structure an entire winters training based around effective workouts and zone 2.

[@rodcosta2345]

That would be great!

[@EverythingIsPhotogenic]

I have been thinking about that. That one just needs some time to sit and go through them all. There are so many folders now, but I should do it.

[@patrickbaker6978]

@@EverythingIsPhotogenic That’s the problem I’m having there are so many workout .I just get lazy and stick to the ones I know .I realise I’m probably missing out on some fantastic time efficient workouts .I try to keep it simple , what am I working today ,what zones do I need to hit.Many ZWIFT workouts seem as if they gave a five year old some crayons and said colour this in.Also I think your subscriber’s could help you narrow down the research with recommendations

[@shelleynichols9626]

@@EverythingIsPhotogenic I'm a nerd. Tag me to assist.

[@benjapolcycling]

@@EverythingIsPhotogenic Agree please do. Althought I have seen the same subject from other youtuber and I also evaluating workout myself but I love your presentation style!

[@lukamalic486]

Always appreciative Sarah on the review , after your comments , a modification was needed , the 7min sweetspot effort i biased up to 113% , a threshold effort and the 2 5min segments pre and post 7min was also a biased up , started the workout a second time , tabbed forward added another 7min threshold with the anaerobic block , yep , completed or depleted me , done

[@warwickzwifts]

I ran out of time to do 5 and 6 during the ZA period but have just done this one. Due to watching this video, I turned ERG off for the second set and did a manual pyramid instead before turning ERG back on for the third and final pyramid.

[@larryb200]

Sarah, thanks for the review of this workout! I'll do the short version for this one and not feel at all guilty about the choice.

[@AnvilAirsoftTV]

Zwift just can’t help turning every workout into a spin class.

[@harrydorrance-king6110]

Ended up subscribing due to the line on that there is no singular consensus on the best training, it depends on athlete! As others had said I would appreciate an overview of the best Zwift workouts for different training aims, i.e. best for aerobic base, best for vO2 max etc.

[@atmamont]

I love your ranting. This is so cool, it helps me to put much sense behind my monthly payments for my personal coach! :)

[@EverythingIsPhotogenic]

Sometimes there is nothing better than a good rant! LOL And I am glad you feel that way about your partnership with your coach. Some people just want someone to tell them what to do, but I believe the best relationships are more synergistic. When the athlete understands, at least at a high level, the concepts in play, they can better communicate with their coach and make the necessary adjustments. A good coach doesn't feel threatened by an athlete's understanding, they thrive on it!

[@treesnbikes]

What I’ve learned so far with ZA - stick with TrainerRoad for the training plan and workouts. Zwift makes those workouts a little easier to endure, and it’s a fun place to play. Great analysis Sarah, I always look forward to your videos. Poor Teddy though, I picture him saying “what the hell lady, it isn’t my workout, I didn’t put that in there!”

[@EverythingIsPhotogenic]

TR is really the king in my book for structured training. I've always enjoyed the Academy as a "last hurrah" before base season, but it's definitely a bit of a let down this year. And Teddy didn't think he was getting yelled at lol, we played fetch with his toy right after the clip so he thought I was enticing him not scolding. Let's face it, he never gets scolded, any time he hears a raised voice he thinks it is time for treats or time to play 🤣

[@MrLootshoot]

Absolutley no messing about, the lady comes out with both barrels blazing...🤬 You are correct the abilty to suffer is KEY and can be learnt, anyway the pain is short term🤨 Personally failing a set is just NOT allowed turn yourself inside out if required🥵 However the other half tells me i'm a mosochist🤪 Great content Sarah👍

[@EverythingIsPhotogenic]

Thanks so much! Perhaps doing these after a long work day is not always the best idea 🤣🤣

[@ivanlakyda9750]

But this was good! From a newcomer's perspective, this kind of analysis is of great help for understanding how systematic and structured training works. Thank you Sarah!

[@EverythingIsPhotogenic]

Glad it was helpful! That's my mission in this series, to have people understand enough out of the Academy to move on in their training and no what to look for. 🙂

[@jeffgates5868]

Yep - did 5, and it was a beating - but in a good way. Also - did ZRacing number 3 yesterday, and upped my FTP by 8 pts (about 5%) - and I THANK ZWIFT ACADEMY workouts for that! They're really doing a lot of good not only for my fitness, but for my confidence on the bike!

[@EverythingIsPhotogenic]

That's awesome to hear!!

[@harrygrey1625]

I enjoyed the anaerobic sets. Came into this with a cold and was expecting to be pretty flat, but the effort was better than expected. I’ll take it😊. The green blob in the middle just didn’t seem to fit, as you said. I’d have preferred a third pyramid and having to push myself to finish the third pyramid strong. Given your description and Zwift calling this a 9 out of 10 for difficulty, I expected much worse. I do use ERG, and always have it maxed. Just not interested in going in to play with it during the short efforts and having to go back and forth. That’s where I think the third pyramid would have been really beneficial. Overall it wasn’t easy, but I was expecting worse. On to workout 6👍

[@shkoddi]

just add 5-10% to bias, and You can easy hit 9-10 score :) I set it so that the middle segment is equal to ftp.

[@NoelSlevin]

Suggestion: why don’t you tweak the workouts and publish them after ZA is over, according to how you think they could be improved?

[@EverythingIsPhotogenic]

I've thought about it for a debrief video and host the ZWO files via google drive. Just need the time to do it.

[@miazga82]

Great idea!

[@getingbylla]

Yeah! If you could make all workouts (.zwo) according to your thoughts - that would be great! Go Sarah go! Thanks for all your great videos 🙏🏼😀

[@aaaahahahahahah4300]

You should write a book about training plans (w ZWIFT). Great content. Hope the algo shows u some love.

[@USMC7178]

Common sense here..tune in for more !!!!

[@prince3121]

I cannot believe that I got this far, but here I am. I found that I coped quite well with the recovery intervals in the middle of the workout, but that 7min green sector was just odd.

[@robb1267]

Great video, as always. Thanks! Also, "sweet spot sandwich" is the name of my next band. I call it!

[@EverythingIsPhotogenic]

That WOULD make a pretty good band name 😂

[@benjapolcycling]

First thought when I see the workout #5 profile I really agree with you... I guess to finish this just to unlock game item or try to manipulate the effort in the middle.

[@EverythingIsPhotogenic]

It was just a strange move, but you can make the best of it if you have the patience to play with it.

[@dejoskii]

First of all let me say a big thank you for all the content you are doing. I do enjoy them except when you go hyperbolic and use those not so kids friendly language😀. On the pyramids workout after watching your rant ( and also after I realized the depleting workout was too easy for me ( had to do the ten minutes at 100% FTP for it to feel like it was worth it), I upped my FTP bias to 136% during the working sets and 94% during the 7 minutes and that felt great. And yes I ignored the heart rate verbiage on the screen.🤣 Thank you again.

[@salsalawyer]

Woyuld you do a video on creating your own work outs on Zwift? And what might make a good one to start with and tweaks for self coached people?

[@djrlloyd]

Another great video. You make me smile with your commentary. BTW it’s not a rant if it’s based on knowledge……it’s a critique 😂😂

[@valiantabello]

TEDDY DOES NOT DESERVE TO BE SPOKEN TO WITH THAT TONE. Also I very much appreciate your videos on Zwift's plethora of issues.

[@EverythingIsPhotogenic]

Funny enough, he gets excited when I yell, because I use a similar volume and tone to play with him. He got a hug and we played fetch immediately after 🤣

[@SignorLuigi]

When do we take on that sugar? Just before the workout starts? 15 minutes before it starts? ?????????😊

[@louiselee2464]

I need help after Zwift Academy what is good set of workouts or training plans to follow on Zwift. In the past I have paid a a coach $ $$ but looking for something to do on Zwift to keep up with training during off season. Any thoughts/Suggestions I was looking into Build Me Up or FTP Builder?

[@miazga82]

I've been smiling to myself through the whole video :)

[@matlindell5022]

Hi why don’t you do these workouts live?it would be pretty damn fun😉🤩

[@EverythingIsPhotogenic]

I'm not quite set up for it, wouldn't take much, but I will probably tweak the area to allow for streaming at some point. 😉

[@S9999Frank]

I was also wondering about the heart rate drift thing. As it turns out I drifted from 155 after towo minutes, to 161 at the end of the dreaded 7 minutes block. I would expect some of the drift to come from heat building up, but might as well come from my estimation of FTP being too high. How it would come from a need for more anaerobic work is a mystery to me. As a fan of not being too time efficient, I dont mind the mix of different elements, which more emulates what we do out on the road, but the talk about heart rate drift would only make sense if they specified it more. Is drifting 5 beats up regarded as HR drift ? Does it matter if you go up 3 beats or 15 ? Of course it would, so then give us some explanation of it :-) Thanks for going through the workouts by the way :-)

[@S9999Frank]

I might add, the third set would be really hard. I also wonder, if the green set with HR drift should indicate lack of anaerobic capacity, how did I manage the "real" set quite well, yes it hurt badly, but not like I could not do it. The middle set did not feel like sweet spot. So I guess it is the opposite, my aerobic system needs strengthening.

[@authorjohnwquinn]

Agree with you on this one! I did it to complete the Academy, but as I as riding, I was thinking, "WTF is this middle section?" I just did SST (short) today and love that workout so much better!

[@EverythingIsPhotogenic]

It really is rather bizarre. Throughout this series I have not previewed the workouts until the day of. I saw the pictures of the profiles when the Academy was formally announced, but there wasn't much detail available.. I didn't want to bias my perception of the workout in advance, because there is the intellectual exercise of dissecting the workouts and then there is the practical one. I think to properly evaluate the quality of the workout, you need to see AND do. But this one just put a bad taste in my mouth by the time I had it loaded, and didn't change my mind while doing it. Probably the worst workout of the bunch from a design perspective.

[@authorjohnwquinn]

@@EverythingIsPhotogenic Thanks for the response. Quick question - I've done all the Academy workouts to include the first baseline ride. Now, I just need to complete another baseline ride, correct? There isn't a Final Baseline Ride that I have to wait for? Thanks!

[@EverythingIsPhotogenic]

@@authorjohnwquinn good question, and there IS. It's called finish line and won't show up until next week, so don't waste an effort on one that wont count 🙂

[@authorjohnwquinn]

@@EverythingIsPhotogenic Roger that! Glad that I asked! Again, thanks for the assist. Love your vids!

[@tubbytoast2]

100 % agree with ya on this one , that green section is just stupid ( sorry Zwift) for intermediate and above either do another set in the red or wack a longer 115 % 2 + minute section

[@EverythingIsPhotogenic]

Exactly... put some VO2 max sets in there if they were feeling squirrelly about more anaerobic. It would end up just being a variation of workout 6, but who cares. Just because workouts have a lot of variation, doesn't make them good 😉

[@nathanhoks2291]

Love the video! Quick question-just in terms of getting the most out the workout, do you think that during that 7 min sweet spot block it would be more sensible to lower the ftp bias so it’s in Zone 2? Still a dumb mix and match of systems, but do you see that any better? Maybe one could then do a third set of the anaerobic intervals?

[@EverythingIsPhotogenic]

It's a good question, but I would actually go the other way. I know it sounds sadistic, but to enhance the benefit of the workout, I might go threshold or maybe just sub-threshold. I would have been less harsh on the workout at 95-100% of FTP for the 7 minutes. At lease hovering closer to FTP, you're getting close to maxing out your lactate clearance capacity and you're not mixing energy systems as drastically. My real problem with the zone 2 adjustment is that it just isn't a long enough block to get anything out of it from an aerobic standpoint, and the last set really should be done with a mess of lactate and biproducts still swirling around that your body has been trying to deal with. It's teaching your body to deal with them. To your point about the third set, maybe splitting the difference and making those recoveries a little longer and dropping them to 40% to facilitate full recovery would be a good option to make it more achievable to those who are just being introduced to this type of work. I just don't think they put all that much thought into it, unfortunately.

[@patrickj4747]

When I did the sweet spot sandwich and saw their comment about drift, I had a different reaction. They fatigued you with the pyramid then they gave you 5 minutes to recover so your heart rate is going to recover then they do 7 minutes of sweet spot. Of course your heart rate is going to drift, you're riding at 90% of FTP after having a recovery.

[@FrankFiorentino]

I appreciate your videos and commentary but honestly, the entire ZA is leaving me perplexed. I will finish the program but for me this will likely be the end of using Zwift for training. The weird workouts and the text prompts that often make no sense are not for me. I will continue using Zwift as eye candy with other platforms.

[@EverythingIsPhotogenic]

You're not wrong. I have to compile my thoughts on the whole academy, but I think they are moving the wrong way. From a strict training perspective, Zwift does not stand up well on its own.

[@adonis993]

I don't even look at the responses. I probably should have skipped the Academy considering I did the crit crusher before doing this. Have fun everyone!

[@EverythingIsPhotogenic]

I'm a little bummed with the offerings this year, to be sure.

[@thatguy9051]

Preach Sister!!

[@bjovers1]

The only beef I have with zwift is the purple unicorn.. I die everytime(and I dont even get to go to heaven..)

[@EverythingIsPhotogenic]

😁

[@LeeBoris974]

I did this one yesterday and didn’t find it too bad. I was tired at the end. That middle section was long and boring, I could have done without that. It felt out of place as well. Should have been another pyramid.

[@EverythingIsPhotogenic]

It really was quite a drag... Can't win them all I guess...

[@chrisobyrne5675]

Have a good book to hand for the middle green section…….why didn’t they just make it 3 sets!?!?

[@EverythingIsPhotogenic]

If I had to guess... giving them as charitable a consideration as possible... they may have thought that beginner to intermediate cyclists might fail the workout so tried to compromise a solution. I don't think it is a GOOD reason, there were other ways to do that, but I can't imagine a coach thinks that is an objectively good workout design.

[@chrisobyrne5675]

@@EverythingIsPhotogenic yes and an aim must be to make it as inclusive as possible which is a good thing.

[@trevorduncan9863]

Is this sandwich the result of creation by committee?

[@EverythingIsPhotogenic]

The green booger committee I think 😄

[@patrickj4747]

I hope you haven't implanted an earworm with that Archie's song. I may be cursing you later today. 😳

[@EverythingIsPhotogenic]

**Hides in a bush**

[@JV_Allstar]

Earmuffs!

[@MrLootshoot]

Workout 3 just completed🥳the final set was a proper tester😵

[@EverythingIsPhotogenic]

Sure is!!! 😉

[@zaahierstanley955]

I wonder who put their these workouts together that get roasted so easily and I wonder what successful athletes they coach

[@EverythingIsPhotogenic]

I have thoughts. Last year's workouts were much more effective as scaled versions of high-level workouts. I think Zwift had an adherence/completion deficit that they wanted to close with some distillation here. But, I do worry that this causes a somewhat poor perception of the coaches listed for the Academy that might not be wholly justified as they could be doing what they are asked. That's just my personal theory, though.

[@zaahierstanley955]

@@EverythingIsPhotogenic what's your thoughts on that Zero to Hero workouts of GCN ? Better to dive into that for 7 weeks instead of these ?

[@EverythingIsPhotogenic]

@@zaahierstanley955 I definitely see the plan as much more robust. They plot in a week's worth of rides. Not sure how keen I am on the inclusion of "race day" being plotted every week versus a session, but if you're inclined to jump on a race this plan is a decent fit. The workouts are decent, albeit a little kitchen sinky across the weeks. That said, not a bad general fitness builder/introductory program. They work through different energy systems and demonstrate their utility in the real world, which I think has a lot of value. Value for time and fitness building I think are better met on the GCN plan, for sure!

[@zaahierstanley955]

@@EverythingIsPhotogenic from what I see you definitely spent so much time looking into training and because you seem very knowledgable in picking them part it would be interesting to get your view on what 4 weeks or 7 weeks of training in your view would be ideal during the off season and perhaps then going into season or just simply picking them from zwift for gains over a period of time. Thanx for the time and vids ... swift need this to shift their own bar

[@kevinderung8524]

Come on Zwift....do better

[@MrLeovdmeer]

RAGE

[@EverythingIsPhotogenic]

**throws trainer out the window** 😂

[@johneriknatland1806]

What she said 👆👌

[@EverythingIsPhotogenic]

😁 AND ANOTHER THING.... 🤣

[@JibbaJabber]

Hi there. First!!

[@Kaufi87]

Another complainer... wonder why swift is not adding you to their trainer team... think about it!

[@EverythingIsPhotogenic]

So... Your expectation is that I only kiss zwift's ass so I can be part of their "trainer team?" Is that really your argument? People should lie to get preferential treatment from a company? Sorry, that's not my bag. There is no "trainer team" nor would I want to be on one. I have a job, and my opinions are not bought. I've paid Zwift their dues for 7 years and talked to several of their employees who have expressed appreciation for honest feedback. Moreover, I am not complaining, I am critiquing a workout based on training science. Zwift isn't going to put you on their "trainer team" just because you kissed their ass in my comments.... Think about it.