And when I say ‘could’ in the title, I mean ‘will’. But…more on that in a second.
First , Zwift announced a smattering of new things today in their ‘This Season on Zwift’ update. That update happens roughly every quarter, and outlines the bulk of the new stuff coming over the next 90ish days. Historically speaking, it doesn’t tend to include hardware announcements (like the Zwift Play/Click/trainers/etc that we’ve seen in the past). Those get their own announcements.
The New Features:
Today’s announcement includes the following items, s described by Zwift:
Watopia Expansion – The Grade (June 2024): Rolling out to Zwifters in June, The Grade is designed to be a testing climb for Zwifters. Built on the West side of Zwift’s most recent expansion, Watopia’s Southern Coast, The Grade will start among the vibrant buildings of Ciudad de La Cumbre, and connect Watopia’s Southern Coast with the backside of the Epic KOM. The Grade creates a direct, very steep passage from Ciudad de La Cumbre to the top of Epic KOM. The expansion will launch with several new routes available for freeride exploration, training, and racing.
My List (Today): We’ve all been there – you’ve found an hour window, jump onto Zwift to squeeze in a good workout, only lose a precious five minutes choosing between a new route and a structured workout. My List helps Zwifters plan their next session in advance so they can maximize every minute. Using the Zwift Companion app, Zwifters will soon be able to browse the full library of Zwift workouts and routes (perfect for badge hunters) and add them to their list. These will then be shown in For You on the Zwift Home Screen the next time they log in. Never waste a minute with My List!
HUD Refresh (Summer 2024): Zwift’s in-game HUD is about to get a fresh new look and provide you with more information right where you need it. One of the standout features of the updated HUD is a new ‘Climb Mode’ dynamic elevation profile display. The new display will help Zwifters better pace their climbing efforts and prepare for the road ahead by utilising the same gradient shading found in the Climb Portal.
The HUD update will also allow Zwifters to customise the data fields shown in the power tile of the HUD via the in-game settings menu. At launch, Zwifters will be able to choose from Speed, Average Power, Power-to-Weight Ratio (W/KG), Cadence and Heart Rate.
With this update, the mini-map will also receive a refresh.
The updated mini-map will provide greater clarity on route progression, including elevation. (Below you can see the customization of the HUD).
In addition to those software changes, there’s the new ‘Training Connections’ API that I’m gonna dive into below, as well as a bunch of new (French) climbs being added this summer as part of tie-ins with the Tour de France. Further, there’s also a bunch of other events and such for the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift. All of those things are outlined on Zwift’s site here.
The Training Connections API:
The most interesting thing to me is actually the least graphically exciting one – it’s the new Zwift ‘Training Connections API’ that was listed in the press release. It’s the first of a number of upcoming APIs into Zwift, as the company aims to make itself more open than it’s been in the past.
To begin, here’s how Zwift describes this in the press release kit:
Training Connections API: There are many ways to train on Zwift – whether using a flexible training plan, joining a Group Workout, choosing from the 1000+ on-demand workouts, or building your own via the Custom Workout builder. For those with very specific plans in mind – whether from a coach, or another third-party training provider – Zwift’s new training API Connection will give Zwifters greater flexibility with how they want to train on the platform by providing better integration with other platforms and coaching services.
Functionally, this new API will behave much like existing third-party connections on Zwift. Once the API Connection is set up and approved, workouts built outside of Zwift will pull directly into the Zwift platform and show in the Custom Workouts folder. The training API will launch later this spring with a few launch partners. Other providers will be able to sign up for this open-API later in the summer.
As a quick reminder, up till now, Zwift has had an API of sorts, but it’s basically been private and hyper-select. It also hasn’t really changed much since the beginning of time. But it’s how you connect your Zwift account to Training Peaks and others. You can see it in the Zwift Connections dashboard today:
At the moment, this includes Strava, TrainingPeaks, MapMyRun, MapMyRide, Adidas Runtastic, Fitbit, Garmin, Technogym, and Wahoo.
But as you might imagine, that leaves a ton of other structured training partners off the list. In fact, it leaves most companies that might be considered ‘competitors’ off the list, as some other structured training platform providers have their own indoor cycling apps.
But what Zwift is slowly realizing is that many Zwift customers actually have dual accounts and are (relatively) happy to keep paying for both platforms. Each platform provides something different. Thus adding in connectivity to execute your structured workout from a different platform only enhances the Zwift value-prop, it doesn’t actually diminish it.
(The most recent photo I had in my phone of an indoor TrainerRoad workout…a very sweaty one.)
Let’s take, for example, one potential platform, TrainerRoad, which obviously, from a strict definition standpoint, is a competitor to Zwift. Except in reality, there’s significant overlap in the customer base of both TrainerRoad and Zwift. I’m one of those people. I pay for and use TrainerRoad for my training plan (triathlon) and do my structured workouts there. Yet my non-structured workouts I’ll likely do on Zwift, which I also pay for. Even more – I’ll often have TrainerRoad control my trainer for a structured workout, but still let Zwift connect to the trainer passively so that I can ride ‘in Zwift’ (to gain points). This is more common than most people realize.
Thus, this new Training Connections API is aimed at making this combo dish better for their customers. It expands the existing structured workout partnerships, but in a way that’s actually scaleable to countless companies, akin to signing up for a developer integration/account at Strava. Zwift says there will be no cost to other companies to access the API.
Zwift says that starting later this spring, they’ll announce and open up the first slate of structured workout apps/platforms that are included (three companies). Then, this summer, they’ll open it up more broadly to other companies to sign-up for.
Obviously, I can’t say who these companies in the first slate are – other than to say that I think it’s going to make things super interesting.
With that – thanks for reading!
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Hopefully they won’t be as restrictive and gatekeepy as Garmin with their API and allow anyone to sign up and use it. I’ve been messing around with generating workouts with ChatGPT and would love to have a way to bring those into Zwift programmatically.
Have you tried filling out an application? My understanding is really the only thing you have to have is a privacy policy on a site somewhere.
Please say Fast Cat is one of the three.
Sadly we did not make the cut … not a potential big enough user base to earn Zwift more subs.
we are hoping to be in the next round which I’m told will be ‘quick’
I certainly hope that TrainerRoad will use the new open door and make the connection for their workouts. There is plenty of interest in that judging from their forum and I see it as a win for both sides.
Xert Workouts please!!!
I second this :). Most the time I’m in Zwift I have Xert running the workout anyway. If it wasn’t for the occasional Zwift race I would probably quit Zwift.
Same. Until this was announced I have seriously considered dumping my Zwift membership and just keeping Xert.
Zwift currently give users the ability to run custom workouts provided the software they’re using is capable of saving a workout in the .zwo xml format. All you have to do is save the .zwo file to the \Zwift\Workouts\nnn where nnn is your Zwift user id. When Zwift starts up it will locate the new workout and make it available from the Custom Workouts screen. I’m wondering whether the advent of the new API will affect this existing functionality.
I’ll confirm, but I don’t expect any changes at all there. My impression when I visited them a month or so ago, was that I got the impression Zwift is learning not to eff with things that don’t need effing with. It only upsets users for no good reason.
“We’ve all been there – you’ve found an hour window, jump onto Zwift to squeeze in a good workout, only lose a precious five minutes choosing between a new route and a structured workout. ”
I’d like to quickly scroll trough the events, like group rides or group workouts, to see if there is anything I’d like to join in. The stupid thing is, that as soon as you start up Zwift on your zwiftbox, the events disappear from the companion app on your phone…
The events remain accessible under “more”…
haha, I have been Zwifting for over 3 years now…
Another gripe is that I have never been able to figure out the upcoming hills, so that I know when to bst use the “feather” powerup. So good that they will be fixing that in the HUD update.
Thanks DC, if I well understood I should be already able to create a Garmin connect workout and move it into zwift? At the moment I always edit workouts in zwift via notepad or building them with zwofactor for example…
At present, no, the ‘Connections’ API covers pushes to other platforms, moreso than pulls. Meaning your completed workout from Zwift to Garmin Connect.
Perhaps Garmin will adopt the inverse, I don’t know. I’m trying to think of any other platforms that Garmin pushes a scheduled structured workout to, and at the moment I can’t think of any. Whereas for most training platforms, having such an API in place is pretty commonplace, therefor the work-effort is likely pretty trivial.
It would be interesting if the suggested workouts by Garmin devices followed this path; albeit probably via Garmin Connect.
Very promising. So far I’ve recreated TR workouts in the Zwift workout editor which is quite annoying especially since I had to install the Zwift app on my MacBook for that because the iPad editor is almost unusable.
I use both TR and Zwift in the manner that you do. TR to control the trainer and Zwift passively in the background to get the XP. Please please please Trainerroad, use this new connection!
Thanks Ray, hope you are right.
Im excited for my list…navigating and finding workouts in Zwift is ridiculous…even if you are following a plan.
I’d love to see more done to prevent ‘cheaters’, nothing worse than seeing someone riding at 3.2w/kg at 50rpm with no HR cruising through the routes (uphill and downhill).
3.2 w/kg is about high zone 2/endurance pace for me, and it’s not very hard to do that up and downhill…
Its the guys that are doing 12-14 wkg for several minutes that need to be cracked down on.
For starters using ERG mode will keep you at the same w/kg going up or down hills so it’s not that uncommon to see. Also 3.2w/kg is not exactly a massive effort so seeing people ride at that for long periods of timing isn’t super uncommon.
Also, in free roam does it really matter if someone is cheating themselves? So they pick up drops and garage items faster. Eh. Racing on the other hand, for sure needs to be dealt with.
“I’ll often have TrainerRoad control my trainer for a structured workout, but still let Zwift connect to the trainer passively so that I can ride ‘in Zwift’ (to gain points). This is more common than most people realize.”
Exactly this, I am just using intervals.icu to feed to my Elemnt Bolt V1.
I would like to execute the structured workouts directly in Zwift – However, since I use ERG mode a lot of the time, I would also like the possibility to scale the workout intensity as I have on the Elemnt. Eg. if the structured workout seems to hard I can scale it down during execution. Or I can scale it while riding group rides when going up-hill or downhill in order to keep up with the pack.
Thanks for the TrainerRoad with passive Zwift tip. I use TR when I want a known quantity – time, effort profile.
Or I want to read a book – since I don’t have to continuously look at the Zwift scenery.
I wish that Zwift would allow one to increase the size of text / dialog boxes in the App. I use a Note 24 and almost need a magnifying lens to read the Zwift text, status display.
Today’s Plan just went out of business. I used it for 7 years and for many years, I was able to have my workouts automatically load into the custom workout on Zwift. It will be nice to have the same with Trainerroad.
Curious to see if the new friendship between Zwift ans Wahoo will lead the latter to push the SYSTM WO to zwift or not :)
Anyway, those are really good things, all across different levels, on the zwift side.
I am still paying the intro rate for TR for the few times a year that I use it. If it integrates into Zwift more directly it would make life so much easier. (Don’t know who put the kibosh on that partnership initially , but it was a mistake).
Training connections api could be interesting depending on its limits. Simple download of workouts for the user and the next few days? i.e. a better UI to download zwo files and maybe dates they are for (download x days in the future of your training plan). Nice, but still seems pretty restrictive.
Many like Trainerroad require the user to give feedback at the start and end. Is the workout hard set. Xert workouts on their workout player are smart and change based on how things are going. Will this API do that? How about training like aiendurance that needs r-r timing data to compute alpha1? Or if your couch needs data from another sensor like a Moxy for SmO2 or Core for body temp?
Yeah, they’re just going for the core feature of being able to execute a workout from within Zwift – which is really what everyone wants.
For things like TrainerRoad requiring feedback, it’ll still ask you post-workout on the app for that feedback, just like it does today for an outdoor workout. So no different there.
If the zwift app doesn’t provide the UI to give that feedback it can kind of limit the apps that depend on that data to influence the workouts done. With outdoor workouts you still use the training program app but with this some may think there is no need to do so. Think of the user who would use this feature to follow a training program who then doesn’t spend any time using the app meant for that training program and so never gives feedback.
In much the same way as TR is strongly “we’ll provide the structure, you bring your own entertainment”, is it fair to assume that Z is now “we’ll provide the entertainment, you bring your own structure” and leave the training plan side of things to a third party? I think most would agree that if Z took the training side seriously and the price was right, they’d clean up – why pay for two (or more) subs if Z was a one stop shop?
Ray, Maybe you can post a video on how you did this. On my Android phone I can have either TrainerRoad or Zwift connected to my Zwift Hub One. thanks
“… I’ll often have TrainerRoad control my trainer for a structured workout, but still let Zwift connect to the trainer passively …”
Found Ray’s post: How-To: Using Zwift and TrainerRoad Concurrently
link to dcrainmaker.com
So it looks like I will need to move my Garmin Rally pedals over.
Or maybe see if I can get an ANT+ dongle to play nicely.
Recommended ANT+ Sticks (Dongles) for Zwift link to zwiftinsider.com