- Mountain biking is about the great outdoors.
Fresh air, getting a good workout.
- Yes, but for some of us,
mainly in the northern hemisphere, in the middle of winter,
the great outdoors is pretty grim place.
- Yeah, potentially but what's the alternative?
- What about supplementing your dirt action
with a bit of indoor training?
- I mean, yeah, but isn't that kind of a road side thing
for mountain bikers, really?
- Well, I know how many of you love going out
for a lunch time ride, whatever the weather.
Whilst I frankly can't be bothered to get my bike ready,
then all the cleaning afterwards.
So, I've got a different plan.
So I'm heading to my indoor trainer,
but what Henry doesn't realize is that the technology
has moved on a lot in the last few years,
so with the help of Zwift I've got us set up
and I'm going to have a go.
Is it proper training
and is it as much fun as a proper ride?
(upbeat music)
I only have an hour so timing is key
on a lunch time train.
Having my Zwift set up 24/7
means there's no delay to get straight on the bike.
- Alrighty then, so I have one hour,
so let's start your engines and away we go.
Now I need to do a quick warm up,
so might do some impromptu tai chi.
Just some of the old karate chops, yeah.
Yeah, feeling pretty good, few of these.
Limber.
All right, so, slippers.
Deactivate traction mode.
Phone, activate amphibian mode.
Now there's an old saying,
hope for the best, but prepare the worst.
My motto is hope for the best and also prepare for the best.
No jacket today.
Funny enough, I've only got one glove with me,
so I'm going to go el glove less.
But let's get going!
(soft upbeat music)
- For those of you that have no idea what Zwift is,
it's an indoor training app where you can ride, train,
and even race against thousands of other online riders
around the world.
So today I'm going to try one of Zwift's
intermediate training plans
and also go through some of the new features now available.
Let's get warmed up!
(upbeat music)
You can now ride a mountain bike and you can ride it
off road within a two mile section of single track,
called Repack Ridge.
It's so realistic even the fat mountain bike tires roll
just a bit slower than the skinny road tires.
Plus, you've got steering input
from your Zwift Companion app
that keeps you on the right life.
(upbeat music)
Let's see how Henry's getting on.
(upbeat music)
- Hello triple header.
Bus, bus fumes and traffic cones.
Absolute match made in heaven,
but we're making some progress.
Just a solid walking pace.
I wonder how Neil's getting on, sweating out his eyeballs.
(electronic dance music)
That's nice, that.
(mellow guitar music)
- The game changer with Zwift is how it gamifies
what is just turbo training.
To set up our bike, chose different equipment
and even win it as you progress through the levels
with more riding, plus actually getting into races
with other people around the world is fun.
And if you're anything like as competitive as me,
then you'll probably end up getting quiet a hard workout
trying to smash someone else.
You can even communicate with the other riders.
I can even choose a Canyon Lux
just like mine in real life.
There've been a load of mountain bikes released
like the Scott Spark and the Specialized S-Works Epic.
Choose the world you want to ride in and your route,
plus there's even the Zwift Companion app on your phone.
And there you go, you can get out riding
in the virtual world, but if you want a bit more structure,
there's loads of different workout plans
and that's what I'm going to do today.
(upbeat music)
- Geez Louise, oh my goodness.
Although, that was pretty hard riding
and yes, it is windy and rainy and cold.
It's pretty nice just to get out there and be wet
from the rain, you know and just sweating and working hard.
That's pretty cool!
Obviously, you might want less traffic
and you might want it to be 30 degrees,
but you can't have it all.
Just got to make due and build your strong.
Puts hairs on your chest.
Probably turns them gray, but that's just the way it goes.
(soft upbeat music)
But at least I'm off the road now.
(soft upbeat music)
It's going to be wet and greasy, oh it is wet and greasy.
Oh my.
(soft upbeat music)
Oh man, I hate slippy wet, ah!
Oh no, genius it's wet!
(upbeat music)
Oh my God. (laughs)
(soft upbeat music)
It's pretty wet. (laughs)
(upbeat dance music) ♪ You got me falling ♪
♪ You got me falling ♪
- You'll need a computer of some sort
to run the Zwift app like a laptop, a tablet, a phone
or it's even available on Apple TV.
You'll need a Zwift account,
although there is a free seven day trial
if you want to try that first.
A bike, either a mountain bike or a road bike, a trainer
and you need to download the Zwift app.
So you can use just about any trainer,
an old school turbo where the speed turns, rollers,
even stationary bikes you find in most gyms,
but to get the best experience, you want a smart trainer
'cause that's going to change the amount of resistance
you feel through the pedals.
Depends on loads of smart information
like the road surface you're riding on.
Also for drafting other riders,
that might be new to some mountain bikers.
There's always been loads of great road work action plans
on Zwift, but new are these.
Aimed at off road riders like ourselves.
I'm going for the Dirt Destroyer, this is intermediate,
might leave the advanced ones for a few weeks.
Also, Zwift is going to set up this to my ability
'cause it already knows my fitness level and FTP
from previous use, but you can set that up yourself
so you know you'll be able to do it.
As a retired pro, I used to use a couple of turbo training
sessions pretty much every week, year around.
So, I know from experience that turbo training
for mountain bikers is a thing.
It's sort of an easy way to do some really targeted
training and even now, as a retired pro,
I do still get on and ride a Zwift occasionally.
(soft upbeat music)
- Some of that was actually a bit sketchy (laughs),
like, it got the adrenaline pumping,
sometimes I think you just want to have a nice workout
and maybe I got bit more than I bargained for,
but with that being said, I've got to get back to work
and I've got to get there quickly,
so I'm absolutely charge back
and get with cleaning all this mess.
Oh, the brake.
(laughs) Jesus wept.
Oh my God, it's good to be back.
- Henry. - Good ride?
- Good. - Did I have a good ride?
Look at me! - Bit muddy.
- I just have to get showered down in the court.
I can't even go inside.
- Back to work, shower's free.
- Unbelievable.
- So, is indoor training a thing for mountain bikers?
- I would say probably.
It's not something I've done a lot of, but I think today
you have probably a far better use of your time.
I spent most of it cleaning the bike.
- Yeah, for me, I mean, riding on Zwift
or on a turbo trainer doesn't replace
a fun mountain bike ride,
it's just a piece of the puzzle for training for me.
I can go to the gym or can jump on the Turbo
or I can go for a long ride, but winter in the UK,
I find in the last few weeks I've spent so much time
cleaning my kit and my bike,
that rather than go out for an hour,
I think I'd rather go on my Zwift.
- Yeah, I think if you ride
for a half an hour or three hours,
you're going to get the same amount of muddy, really.
- [Neil] Yeah.
- And the same amount of cleaning involved.
So for the short blast into the tune up,
maybe Zwift is a good option.
- Well the numbers are the numbers.
You did a 36 minute 51 ride, but I've almost doubled that,
so an hour and five. - Oh right, yeah.
- But you can see, you went hard, you went really hard.
You did 1,108 maximum watts.
That's good. - Is that good?
- Yeah, that's really good.
So actually your average watts as well was 187.
Whereas my wattage are 293 max and 168 average.
So I've had a mellower time out, but yours is much shorter
so you'll see that actually I've burned 612 calories,
compared to your 412.
And I've had a really specific workout,
that's the big difference. - That's what I was going to say.
- Is this was the Dirt Destroyer, 70 RPM strength ramps,
so it really focuses on a fitness thing.
You had more fun than me, I'm sure you did.
- Well, yes and no.
For me, the way I would train and I use inverted commas,
by no mistake there.
Is there's a hill, so I just go okay,
now it's time to go fast. - Go for it.
- [Henry] Go for it, and then but once you run out of hills,
that's your training pretty much over.
- Yeah. - Similarly, it was so wet
and it depends on the area you live in
and if you're even lucky enough to have a power leap
outside your door. - Yeah, true.
- But, some of it wasn't actually fun for me.
- Yeah. - It was just like,
oh, you know, it was beyond saturated.
It was-- - Yeah.
- [Henry] It was an absolute bog fest.
- But fun and indoor trainings,
they go hand in hand.
Personally in the past, it would be more of a satisfaction,
it wouldn't be fun.
Zwift does make it way more engaging,
it's changed turbo training for me totally
because no longer do I stare at a wall
and just look at the watch waiting for it tick down.
I'll quite happily sit there and engage with other riders,
I'm watching what's going on,
that is a big difference for me.
- Yeah, I mean, they always say time's a constant,
go on a turbo trainer and stare at a wall.
- Yeah. - Honestly, it slows down.
- Yeah.
- But I'm actually really curious to try it
and in fact, I'm actually going to commit to the Zwift life.
I'm going to give it a go. - Give it a blast,
see how you feel. - Yeah.
- [Neil] How are you going to set it up?
- I think I'm just going to get quite an entry level road bike
and leave it set up, 24/7. - Yeah that is a thing.
We didn't go into the set up in this video
because it does take a little bit of time,
but in winter personally,
at home my road bike sits there permanently
so, that time is down to nothing.
I just get kit up and jump on the thing, good to go.
- I think in some ways, you know, cyclists in general,
we sort of take indoor training for granted.
We think aw, it's the Boogie Man that I'm never going to do,
but I think if you told riders 50 years ago,
that over winter they can keep their fitness up,
in the comfort of their own home, only a meter away
from a cup of tea once they're done.
They'd bite your arm off!
- I know people sent to me things on social media,
why don't you just go outside?
And it's not always as easy as that.
Especially when you've got a family
and your time might be limited,
so for me that's the biggest advantage to this,
is just being able to do it, as well as ride.
- Yeah, I think it's definitely got it's place.
- Okay, if you want to see a video from GCN,
Zwift for Beginners, it's a great one if you're thinking
about getting into Zwift, click there for that one.
- As always guys, don't forget to like and subscribe
and we will see you next time, thank you very much!
- Thumbs up if you like indoor training!