(intense techno music)
- Right, well Zwift is great for indoor training
as I'm sure many of you are already aware.
- But what if we told you that it could be better?
- Yeah, because today,
we're going to let you in on a few tips, tricks, and hacks.
(mechanical typing)
- As you can see behind us,
we've got a full indoor bike trainer setup
and we have got a treadmill over there too
because well, we are triathletes after all.
- Yeah, so today, we're actually going to let you in
on a some tips, some hacks, for cycling on Zwift,
running on Zwift, and if you're fortunate enough to have
a setup like this,
then brick sessions on Zwift too.
- Right then, Mark, so which one first?
- Well, I'm feeling quite generous today,
you can go first.
(upbeat techno music)
Okay, so let's assume you're on Zwift already,
you've figured out how to get riding on there,
you're enjoying the community,
perhaps you're even fortunate enough
to be receiving the odd ride on
from other fellow Zwift users.
But I'm going to let you in on a little secret here
because it took me an embarrassing long time
to figure out how to send a ride on back to
those other Zwift users.
So what I'm saying is, you're not alone,
don't feel ashamed if you are in the same boat,
I've been there too.
So with that in mind, I thought we could start
on a couple of the basics to help you enjoy Zwift more.
So starting with that ride on,
to give someone a ride on in game or a thumbs up,
you have a couple of options.
Click on a name on the right-hand panel,
an orange thumb will pop up.
Select that and that will give that person a ride on.
Or you can go into you companion app on your mobile,
hit the white circle around your navigation pointer
on the map and it will give ride ons to Zwifters
within that circle near by.
Alright, so that's the fun bit out of the way,
making sure that you're making some friends on Zwift.
But now, let's go onto a few tips
that actually are going to help your training.
So a fairly small but actually quite crucial thing
is considering the location of your TV and the fan
because if you have that TV too high,
you're going to be craning your neck to see it
and this is particularly important
if you're going to be using aero bars
as Fraser's doing right now.
You're actually going to want to have that TV really low
so it's a nice natural view sight for you.
And then with the fan,
you're going to want to have that
pointing straight at your face
so that you got a nice, cool airflow over your body.
And a pro tip here is go for two fans.
Super helpful, who'd had thought?
And that is really helpful when you're going to be
working hard on Zwift,
as Fraser is about to demonstrate for us now.
- What, I am?
- Yeah, mate, just leave the controls with me.
So obviously, you can just roll around on Zwift
and freestyle, as Fraser is doing right now.
Or you can get stuck into some specific workouts.
Now you got a couple of options here
on how you get involved in those.
When you load up Zwift, you can hit a workout
and start off on that.
Or you can do, as I often do, and Fraser's doing now,
is start rolling around on Zwift, freestyling,
and then just E on your keyboard
and select a workout from there.
Now I've actually got a few tricks here
that I think you'll like.
So if you're selecting a workout,
you can actually adjust your FTP
over here on the right-hand side using this little slider
and that'll actually change your numbers
for that entire session.
Or alternatively, you can select a session
and you'll see these little square icons appear here.
And if we click on that, that then actually loads up
a slightly more advanced editor
where we can modify individual sections of that session.
Now personally, I'm actually a really big fan of linking
my Training Peaks account with my Zwift account
and what happens then is that any workout that's planned in
in Training Peaks for that day
will automatically appear within Zwift for that given day.
You can select that and follow that within Zwift.
So really handy.
If that's of interest to you,
just go over to the Zwift webpage on your web browser.
Go to the connection section
and then link your Training Peaks account.
But Fraser, I guess we should probably crack on
and select a workout for you.
I'm thinking GCN's Si Richardson Sweet Spot with Bursts.
(upbeat techno music)
While I'm not actually finished there
because we can still change things up within the workout.
How're you feeling, Fraser?
- Getting a bit sweaty.
- Okay, good, sounds like you're alright
because we can actually hit anywhere
on the screen with the cursor
or the up arrow on our keyboard
and that's going to display a number of options
along the bottom including an up and down icon.
Sure you're still feeling okay, Fraser?
- Yeah, I'm there, I'm okay.
- Okay, because if you are feeling
particularly good that day and perhaps want to work
a little bit harder,
we can select that up arrow
and bump the intensity up.
- [Fraser] Easy there, Mark.
- Want to go down? - Yeah.
- Okay, just as easy.
We'll do that again but we hit that down arrow.
Now you may have noticed that each time
I put the power up or the power down,
it was instantly changing how hard Fraser was having to work
and that is because he is using a smart trainer
in erg mode which tends to be how a lot of the workouts
are used in Zwift.
Now what happens here is whatever cadence you're riding at,
you have to ride at the power stated to turn the pedals
but we can, of course, turn that erg mode off
by using that option before, got erg just down here.
- Yeah, I'll be honest, Mark,
it's not really what I thought I signed myself up for today.
- Well, I'll help you out here
because if I just hit tab on the keyboard,
that scoots you onto the next rep,
which is super handy. - It does.
- I use this a lot actually.
Either if I'm really tired, I'm struggling,
or perhaps I'm just trying to cram a workout in
just before work.
(upbeat techno music)
- But what about the bikes and equipment in game, Mark?
Is any of it any quicker than the others?
- Ah, good question actually.
And the simple answer is yes,
although, not an easy one to answer
because all the equipment comes with
its own unique characteristics in terms of
aerodynamics and weight.
I guess a little bit like out in the real world.
So to answer your question,
yes, the quickest bike on flat and rolling terrain
for a road bike is the Specialized Venge S-Works.
It's slightly faster in terms of its aerodynamics
over other frames but it does come with a slight caveat,
it will require 798,800 drops for you to purchase
and you must be level 33 and above.
- I'm only at level 22, Mark,
and what about this fancy Tron bike
that I've heard lots about?
- Ah, very good question
'cause this Tron bike you're talking about
actually isn't the fastest bike in game.
In fact, it's back down in fifth.
Providing the bikes above that have the fastest wheelsets
in game which is the Zipp 858 Front
and the Zipp Super-9 Disc Rear Wheel.
However, this does come with a slight caveat.
Those wheels are actually locked at level 45.
- Of course they are.
- Which kind of makes the Tron bike the fastest
even with its standard wheels.
- So how do I get it?
- Well, also not the easy, I'm afraid,
because to do it, you need to sign yourself up to
climb Mount Everest Challenge within Zwift.
So you climb the 8850 meters of Everest
and then you keep going and climb
an additional 41,150 meters to finally unlock
that coveted concept Z1, aka, the Tron bike.
But if you're after TT bikes,
as I'm sure many of you are,
well the Cervelo P5X and the Felt IA
come out as the fastest of the bunch
with almost identical speeds
requiring level 45 and 37, respectively.
- But remember, Mark, how far down the levels I am.
That's like double what I'm already,
that's going to take me ages.
- Well, we can be a little cunning here
because if you're not that fussed about climbs,
then target the flatter and faster routes
to really rack that mileage up
because that is the best way to level up
and I do have a little hack for that,
which we'll go into a little bit later on.
Or you can, of course, go after elevation
and target that concept bike.
- Right, talking about hard work,
I reckon it's time we get you doing some stuff now, Mark.
(upbeat techno music)
Right, so now it's my turn to crank up the pace on Mark.
Well, anyway, what I am going to discuss here
is some of the connection options
for getting going with Zwift on your treadmill
because we have been made aware of some
fairly fancy and new methods for doing so.
Now the first method and probably the simplest one
is this option which is the Zwift footpod
and it is a good and cheap way being able
to track your speed and you can take it
wherever you're going.
So that's a good start.
Now by far the way the best option
is what Mark is doing right now
and that is a Bluetooth treadmill.
Now then, if you are using a footpod,
what we've learned from experience,
is that you want to pay more attention
to the fast pace when it comes to calibrating
in the calibration dialog.
So what I mean by that is in your workout,
think of the top end speed you plan on hitting
and basically calibrate to that
and what you should see then when you're doing a workout
is that Zwift and the treadmill
are bang for pace and speed on the flat.
- Yeah, now what we didn't touch on
when we were talking about the cycling before
but is just the same for running is the fact
you can sign yourself up for not just group workouts,
but some races as well.
- [Mark] I see what's coming here.
- Yeah, now don't worry, Mark.
I'm going to go easy on you today
'cause we're going to skip the races altogether
but what I am going to do is make you an Olympian.
- No way, how?
- Well, what we can do is unlock the Olympian achievement
and all you need to be able to do to do that
is run a five minute mile or less.
- Okay, that's quite hard, mate.
- Yeah, it is, but anyway,
once we're done with that,
we're going to get the Centurion,
which a 100 miles of running,
we're then going to get the Street Cred,
which is 500 miles,
and after all that,
the Pursuit of Happiness, which is 1000 miles.
- Yeah mate, I'm out of here.
I'm out of it.
- Yeah, now if you do want to geek out
and get fancy with stuff,
then what you actually can do is load up
a really long running hack
which is to do with the Worlds.
When you load up Zwift,
it will give you Watopia as a default setting everyday
plus one other World which will change day to day
depending on the Zwift calendar.
However, if you do want to change
this default setting of Watopia,
then you can do that to whatever you like
or perhaps just the one that you like the most
and even better, the one where you can
rack up the most miles.
So to do this, go to Documents on your computer,
then the Zwift directory,
then open the prefs.xml document
and add a little bit of code
similar to that on screen right now.
Just below the opening Zwift tag,
near the top of the file.
- And of course, we can't forget the fact
that we have a treadmill and a bike side by side here,
which is pretty luxurious.
But it's shouting brick session to me.
Going from bike to run, or vice versa, run to bike.
- Yeah, so simply ride your bike
as you usually would on Zwift,
but then hit end and save that at the end of your ride.
- [Mark] Very important.
- [Fraser] And then go to the pairing screen
and select running so that you can then
start fresh and get going with the run.
- Yeah, and we can make it even more easy for yourself
by having your run shoes out ready,
but a change of clothes,
so you have a really slick change over.
- Yeah, so hopefully you've enjoyed our video today
about Zwift's hacks.
So please get that thumb up like button and hit that.
Find the globe on screen to make sure
you don't miss any other videos
that we do here on the GTN.
And to see another Zwift video
about how to train on Zwift,
well you can find that here.
- Yeah, if you'd like to see our
GTN versus Team Charles Barkley Challenge,
you can see that by clicking just down here.
And I think I got off pretty lightly today.
- Yeah, me too.