Thinking out loud, whilst having a blissfully peaceful breakfast at a favourite Camden town cafe I don’t get to visit often enough! …
If it’s TLDR then feel free to scroll on!
No one seems to be talking training plans recently. I wonder if that’s a general trend or just specific to this small enclave. Apart from a brief flirtation with TrainerRoad some years ago now I’ve always just based my ‘regime’ around racing, endurance rides and recovery rides (mostly my commutes).
I know for me if I don’t include longer endurance type rides at least once a week or worst case fortnightly then I get found out in the summer in the real world. My best form in the mountains has been a reflection of my best combination of those three elements (race, recover, endurance). But in recent years I’ve done less of the latter, and my ‘staying power’ in the summer has been noticeably down.
I feel like this has been compounded by WRTL type races the last couple of years. The rise of prime style races seems to have changed the landscape dramatically. Very short high intensity efforts, but with very exaggerated lulls inbetween. Zwift always leant toward short effort and then recovery droids. But think now the point structure has really exaggerated this element to the extreme. In my opinion they can stunt growth. You have people intentionally avoiding promotion, in more sophisticated forms of sandbagging. But you also have people who are simply being stunted by the format of the leagues. This is fine of course if your end goal is optimal performance in the league, or in the case of samdbaggers just best point results the WRTL. But for people wanting to push forward and transfer their riding gains to other formats, I think maybe it’s a little stifling.
I’m hoping from a personal perspective getting promoted out of the team will help me move away from a focus on 15s,1 & 5 min power. And allow me to focus on increasing my all round strength over longer periods.
This group generally seems very focussed on short term power. And just going full circle in this debate of one I am having in my head in this cafe. I wonder if that’s a reflection of how zwift racing is going as a whole, or that it’s just the current trend of this group. I can see the mass appeal of WRTL. Why prime racing would appeal to the majority, as it allows the most amount of people in the peloton to feel like they can contribute in some meaningful way. As opposed to traditional racing where less people go away with a virtual medal. But is it stifling trainerroad style training plans and more ambitious goals in general for any of you?
