Lol. I also have 4kg to drop to get back to the weight I was at when I last set a time up AduZ
Yeah. My ride was definitely almost all tempo range so I could definitely bump it up some.
If I was to do something like a sweet spot workout I’d need to change my Kickr bike profile for some mtb gearing to be a me to spin easy during recovery.
Well you can just do that in the app.
I am shook
Never done this… but I am curious…
So does Zwift increase resistance to simulate the different inclines you would get on the climb? If you have a wahoo climb, does it simulate the virtual elevation gain?
I haven;t used Zwift in quite a while but doesn’t changing the difficulty setting, basically, simulate having a bigger cassette?
Yes. Zwift will increase resistance on an incline. On my Kickr bike it will also adjust the climb as you move up and down hills.
In zwift, there’s a trainer difficulty which is adjustable from 0%-100% which affects the resistance for the climbs. I think it defaults to 50%. so a 10% climbs will feel like a 5% climb.
The way zwift describes it, it just adjusts resistance for the % gradient. So if climb is 10% and trainer difficulty is 50% the climb should feel like a 5% climb
But, crucially, your watts are still your watts. You won’t* ascend any faster whether you have the trainer difficulty at 0% or 100%. It’s just that at 0% you can sit at your comfortable spin cadence, whereas at 100% you’ll have to stand and grind whatever your easiest gear is.
(*ok, so you will go faster, as you can probably put more watts out at your comfortable cadence)
Zwift is like 50% of what it feels like in real life. So if you set your Zwift “Trainer Difficulty” settings to be Full then it’ll feel half as hard as the same gradient would in real life.
IMO there is zero excuse for setting Zwift to be anything other than Full difficulty as it’s already made easy for you.
[edit: i’ve been reading about this and i might be wrong and it might be realistic after all. But I still leave mine at 100%]
I never have to stand going up the Alpe on Zwift. Just put it in your easiest gear and spin at like 85rpm.
Fair enough, I’ve not tried it other than when running a TR workout (meaning zwift is 0% difficulty) for years.
That is not correct. If you have the trainer difficulty set at 100%, it simulates a real-world gradient of the same %.
However, IIRC, the default setting on Zwift is 50%, so unless you manually adjust it to 100%, it will feel like half of the gradient show on screen.
yeah, i think you’re right. I’m sure it feels easier than in real life though.
Does this mean you’ll go 50% slower on the climbs, or just adjust the resistance to be higher meaning you’ll just use easier gears on your bike?
No, your ascent time is based on your wattage….if you go up the Alpe at 250w, your time will be the same regardless if you have your trainer set to 50% or 100%. It takes xx amount of time to climb it at 250w….because physics.
But the resistance will “feel” different…like when you are on the flats at 250w and you hit a small climb, you can “feel” the extra resistance, even if you keep your wattage at 250w.
ETA - I have my trainer set at 65%, I think….i am using an old 9spd bike on the trainer and it does not have sufficient gear range for extend Zwift climbs. So I back the resistance down and it is fine now.
The downside is that it works in reverse too….so a 10% descent at 50% resistance only feels like a 5% descent. So if you are looking to coast and recover in an event, those that have it set at 100% can drop you.
My time is not fast enough for me to remember it. I’m on the wrong side of that watts per kilo equation
Well… that can be remedied
https://www.strava.com/segments/17267489?filter=overall
I think what’s funny is as I was grinding up the climb I was wondering “I wonder what my weight is set to in zwift” lol
I was looking at Zwift events and it looks like 2nd and 3rd Saturdays of the month there are some pace group rides for alpe du zwift.
That can definitely help. Just keep up with the group