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I’m DC RAINMAKER…
I swim, bike and run. Then, I come here and write about my adventures. It’s as simple as that. Most of the time. If you’re new around these parts, here’s the long version of my story.
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Here’s my most recent GPS watch guide here, and cycling GPS computers here. Plus there are smart trainers here, all in these guides cover almost every category of sports gadgets out there. Looking for the equipment I use day-to-day? I also just put together my complete ‘Gear I Use’ equipment list, from swim to bike to run and everything in between (plus a few extra things). And to compliment that, here’s The Girl’s (my wife’s) list. Enjoy, and thanks for stopping by!
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The Swim/Bike/Run Gear I Use List
Many readers stumble into my website in search of information on the latest and greatest sports tech products. But at the end of the day, you might just be wondering “What does Ray use when not testing new products?”. So here is the most up to date list of products I like and fit the bill for me and my training needs best! DC Rainmaker 2021 swim, bike, run, and general gear list. But wait, are you a female and feel like these things might not apply to you? If that’s the case (but certainly not saying my choices aren’t good for women), and you just want to see a different gear junkies “picks”, check out The Girl’s Gear Guide too.
Is it possible to export to garmin/wahoo to train outside?
Not at this point, no. It would be cool to be able to export out a .FIT structured workout file and go to town.
I came here to ask this same thing. Definitely a +1 for this feature. Would be great if it could just sync to Todays Plan or Training Peaks.
Do you think that they going to rollout sync to Training Peaks soon? I agree no plan for triathletes…wait…what?
Heh, maybe that’ll come with the Triathlon training… because otherwise… swimming indoors? Also 6+ hours a week indoors (I hit ~10 on big weeks) and that would be very mentally taxing.
We are 2 years further now. Is there a workaround to get the Zwift workout plans to your Garmin computer to do outside?
@Koert: Check out trainerday.com. Use the workout name search to find the next zwift workout you are looking for… likely someone already recreated it there. Then there is a button to download the workout, and a button to send it to your Garmin. (you can also copy to a Wahoo ELEMNT, or sync via a TrainingPeaks account). Trainerday lets you do all this for free, very generous of them. Good stuff.
Do the training workouts in the plan “match up” with the course you see on the screen? So for example, if you are doing “hill repeats” kinda workout, does the video match those repeats with hills you see on the screen? Or is it more of an effort thing- and you see whatever you see? I tried Zwift a while back but it didn’t really “click” for me, so perhaps this is an obvious question to a current user. Back then there were only a few different courses you rode over and over again.
I’ve been thinking the same thing the last few months. For me, the key to opt for doing workouts on Zwift rather than TrainerRoad (my current platform of choice for workouts) I need the visuals to be replicated like the workout I’m doing.
Zwift has the world I see that, but all in al I wouldn’t mind being “alone” in workout world, where the hills matchup with the intervals needed. So the mountain would be 20 mins long, 10 mins recovery down and then 20 mins backup another mountain (other scenery for example).
Not sure how do-able it is for them but that would be nice.
If it’s anything like their other training plans then it’s essentially putting your trainer in erg mode and you see what you see on whichever route you have selected that day. I don’t see that as a deal breaker since a structured workout is a structured workout.
So yes, it’s more of an “effort thing” as you put it in your question. But it’s a worthwhile effort.
I spent most of the winter and spring doing other plans that Zwift offered and it got me on my bike far more often through the winter than I had been in previous years. The results are obvious now whenever I’m out on the road. Zwift made indoor training far less tedious and thus I was willing to do it more often. And isn’t that sort of the point? As Ray said, if you’re more “serious” you’re probably using a coach and structured plan anyway.
Thanks, that’s what I expected. I understand the value of a good app & training plans for the indoor trainer. No need to convince me on that point. I currently enjoy the Sufferfest app because the effort matches what I’m seeing on the screen and that motivates me a bit more.
Hi
How are those training plans compared to TrainerRoad?
I was doing Trainerroad all winter and it was great, very instructive. Now it got a bit boring and I might switch to zwift. Is it working well on the screen of an IPhone 7? Suitable for rollers and 4iiii sensor? Not to crowded? I do not have a tablet or PC in the cave…
I don’t think you can run Zwift itself on your iPhone. I can only use the companion app on my iPhone (5). Use Zwift on the iPad or Mac.
For workouts, I use Netflix while TrainerRoad runs from my iPhone. Never gets boring, although, it happened once! Left my mac charger at work, had to use the misses her Windows pc and halfway through my 30 min interval, it suddenly rebooted to do Windows Updates… No more Netflix for that time.
The Zwift app (not just the Companion app) is available from the Apple AppStore
link to itunes.apple.com
.. and should run fine on the iPhone 7. There’s a full list of supported iOS devices there – ‘phone-wise it’s the currently the following :-
Phone 5s, iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, iPhone 6s, iPhone 6s Plus, iPhone SE, iPhone 7, iPhone 7 Plus, iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, iPhone X
Do you have a tv down there? There’s a lightning to hdmi cable you can get so at least you’re seeing a bigger screen. It also runs on an Apple TV if you want to go that route.
Thanks for the review. Do you know if a way I can export the training plan to TrainingPeaks so I can see the workouts for the upcoming week/s and expected TSS ?
Good review thanks Ray. I went through the plans to try and picture how they might fit together into a season of training and basically couldn’t. For example, Crit and TT sèem more than specialisation phases, FTP build was lightweight, Build me up looked solid , etc .
It would be great if the designers of the plans elaborated on their purpose and content of their plans, outside the game so it could be better understood and digested than reading a scrolling window box! Covering how they can be sequenced with other plans in Zwift would be great too. The names and short blurb in game is not enough
Maybe I missed it but can I create my own plan and follow it? I am thinking not at this point.
I know I can create workouts and pick them but like them to automatically show up when I log in next time. One of things I like about TR as it makes it so easy.
Thx Ray,
I don’t see any configuration for the maximum time amount you could spent on the training plan. Is it correct that novice and experts are all in the same training plan? So for example a pro would have 40 hours a week to spent and gets 3 training days of 1 hour and a novice who has 8 hours a week to spent also gets 3 training days of 1 hour?
I have seen you took some rides in “Het groene Hart” (south from amsterdam) you have to love the scenery!
For the discussion about importing training plans to Zwift:
It should be fairly simple to import your workout plan to Zwift. Zwift had there workouts in XML and read from it so if you just create your workout(s) to a XML file then you are fine. I don’t know if it’s still a XML but if so i can create a simple app that creates the Zwift workout for you.Just let me know how many are interested an i could create it. All only if it’s legal for Zwift regulations of course.
+1 on this, Marvin! There is already ZWOfactory, but as the Zwift Workout Builder, it’s always based on FTP and it’s really a mess to always have to exchange FTP value for the Maximal Aerobic Power value during each race (I like seeing my zones) or workout. It would also simplify sharing those MAP-based workouts with friends.
How can a guy who is so savvy, not use proper grammar in such simple instances.
There ARE plural items.
There IS singular item.
You are not lazy in the other aspects of your world class career. One doesnt have to be a Pulitzer Prize winner to do it properly.
eat a dick
Joey — If you are going to complain you ought to be sure your comment is flawless. Putting aside the fact that it’s overall an awkward comment, there’s no justification for the comma you included between “savvy” and “not.” Also, your first sentence is a question and doesn’t end with a question mark, you are missing the apostrophe in “doesn’t” in your last sentence, and your use of “it” in the last sentence is improper because you don’t clearly tie it to a noun so the reader can’t be sure to what you are referring.
TL; DR? You have a number of errors in your comment, so stop throwing stones in a glass house.
I know there’s often discussion about a rider’s ability to output power on a trainer as opposed to a ‘real’ ride, but I do know that if I try to use my real world FTP as a basis for any trainer-based training it’s a waste of time, I’m wrecked before I’m even half way through a session. I don’t mean the measurement of my power output is wrong, I just mean I can’t output as much sustained power on a trainer as I can on the road, be it due to lack of cooling, rigid position, different muscle usage – there are many theories.
The bottom line though is that I reckon my trainer FTP is probably at least 15% less than my road one, though maybe a bit less by spring after a winter in the garage. I never seem to be able to get the value right on trainer training programs though!
Indeed, it’s a common problem that swings both ways. In my case, I’m the opposite of you. My indoor FTP is generally quite a bit higher than what I can sustain outdoors in most cases.
I could certainly see value in companies eventually getting to the point of having two FTP values to work from.
My question is have they gotten ride of the number one reason I hated doing any sort of structured effort on zwift, and what was the deal killer for me in regards to maintaining my membership, which was the lay of the land never matched the effort. So I was always doing the easy uphill and the hard down hill which just did my head in.
That’s actually on purpose.
In structured workouts, your goal is your specific power target, so the terrain is zero’d out. The reason for this is that if you managed to ‘luck-in’ to a downhill section right at the start of your 5 or 10 minute interval, you’d never be able to hit it.
This way you can enjoy seeing other real-life people on the course (and the scenery), wile still getting in a legit workout.
Which is what always drove me insane. What i saw on the screen did not match what i was doing in terms of effort. Given that the riding around and bunch rides had no interest i just saw no value. Especially given the wider range of sessions and plans in TrainerRoad, plus its cheaper.
I get around that problem by doing my workouts on flat routes.
+1
Hey thanks for the review! After reading it I decided to give the workout program a try, but I’ve already run into a problem. I did my first workout yesterday at around 1 pm, and today I’m trying to do the second one a few hours earlier (10am). Annoyingly, it won’t let me do the workout until exactly 24hours has passed. And now, the ‘flexible’ training plan, is not able to accommodate to a change in my workout schedule. Any tips or work arounds this?
I have he same problem, I wish zwift would allow a certain number of over rides for short time differences. Annoying when you wake up early to get a ride done only to see “unlocks in one hour”
My apologies – but i just came across this post and likely too late – but here goes anyway. The timer function of the program workouts can be annoying “when you wake up at 4am and then have an hour left before unlocks” here is is the easiest fix:
Find the intended workout from the full list of workouts and ride.
Then when you log back in for your next workout of the training plan, simply select “I did this” and you will get credit.’
Total flex – by far my favorite way to train in our “real world lives.”
Wohoo an FTP of 291W! Not bad!
Hi Ray! Have you considered adding a “sort by date” feature to your search bar? I was searching for information on what app(s) you use for running, and many of the results were from 2013 and earlier. 🙂
Also, if you’re able to recommend your favorite running apps (and an app for an aspiring triathlete) that would be amazing!
Hi Ray,
After seeing your various posts and activities on Strava I decided to try for the runner I am Zwift out. it is nice but unfortunately they should improve the runners part; more activities, more trainings, etc…. however it is nice to have such an App. when running on a (boring) treadmill !
I just can’t understand how they cannot link TrainingPeaks workout to Zwift – even the HR-based ones…
Hi Ray, great review as usual 🙂
I’d love to use Zwift, but actually I’m riding on a kettler bike. do you know why it is not compatible,if they are planning to add it, or if there is any way to make it work? I dropped them a note but not a clear answer but just postponing…
thanks for your (or anyone of the readers) comment
Hmm, I’m not sure either unfortunately. 🙁
Hi Ray,
Another great review. Is it me or are these plans more biased towards beginners?
I think either beginners or those that don’t need a super-duper structured plan.
But that’s somewhat logical to be honest. If you’re looking for a super-structured plan or are pointy end of the pack, I suspect most already have coaches/etc…
Which isn’t to say there’s not a place for Zwift to get there (I’m sure they will, after-all, training plan upsells would be solid revenue).
Has anyone else noticed that the Zwift Companion mobile app does not update the Training Plan section regularly enough? For example, I completed the specified workout last night, but this morning, it is still showing that workout as “available” for the next 20 hours. You would think as soon as that workout was done, it would remove it from the mobile app the next time you refresh.
Argh, finally got around to trying to login and sign up for a training plan, and that uppermost tab just isn’t there for me. I didn’t catch anywhere in your description that the plans are locked into a specific level (unlike the big climbs, for example), but regardless I’m a level 8. Re-installed Zwift on my laptop and everything. Frustrating.
Is there any way to manually unlock a new workout? Sometimes I’ll wake up early and there will be an hour left until I can start the next one and that’s the only time I have to ride that day so I cannot wait an hour for it to unlock. Really frustrating
I am currently in week 8 of the Gravel Grinder program and so far the only real complaint I have is that while you can extend the plan out from 8 to 12 weeks I would like to be able to extend the week so to speak.
At my age doing 4-5 workouts a week (7 days) can be a little much sometimes because I need more recovering time on some weeks, or I might want to ride outside one or two days if the weather permits.
So the plan only gives you so much time to complete the workout and then it locks it again if you didn’t do it.
So basically I end up building my own plan using the Zwift plan but base it on a 9 day week instead of 7 days.
I am nearing the completion of a Zwift Training Plan. My cycling ability has definitely improved but it looks like I will be locked out of any further activity on the plan. How can I continue without having to do something like Zwo Factory? Even with a zwo editor, I don’t think I could recreate all of the coaching hints that occasionally popup.
Very informative
Is there any way to send/export the Zwift Plans to TrainingPeaks to see future workouts on the ATP chart? I know it can go the other way when you complete a workout.
Very informative but how do you delete a plan that you signed up to by mistake? 😱