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- There were so many amazing features on Zwift,
are you sure you know the best ones?
- Yeah, whether you're new to Zwift or a seasoned veteran,
here are 11 things you'd wished you'd known about Zwift.
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- Zwift can seem like a pretty big place,
so how do you make sure that you meet up with your friends
and ride the same route as them?
With the companion app, available free on IOS
and Android stores.
And it's actually very simple to find them,
you simply go on to Zwifters
and then you either select Zwifters that you follow,
click on them and then you will end up next to them
and riding the same route as them.
- Yeah, and you can also get a notification
every time your friend gets on Zwift.
And then you can ride with them.
- That's right and of course the companion app
does an awful lot more besides.
You can effectively control the game
from your phone, like as a remote control.
You can find events that are coming up
and then enter them before the start
and indeed, perhaps most importantly of all,
you can give Ride Ons, that's right, Ride On.
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Zwift isn't just a virtual reality cycling playground
for you to enjoy,
you can also do structured training sessions
in there as well
because built in to Zwift itself are loads and loads
of different structured workouts.
You can find them here by clicking on that workout button.
As you can see there's a whole load of them there
on the left and, if you still don't find
what you're absolutely looking for,
you can just create it yourself.
Now, when you click on one and you end up in the game,
the game experience does change ever so slightly.
So for example you have a little holographic display unit
in front of your avatar so that you are reminded
that you're in a training session
and everyone else knows that's what you're doing as well.
You can't draft other people although they can draft you.
You can't use power ups, meaning no short cuts
in your training session,
and it's also a very good way of boosting your rider score.
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- So what is that exactly?
Well, XP points are accumulated when you ride on Zwift.
And the more miles you click over the more points you get
with a maximum level of 25.
For one kilometer you get 20 XP points,
and for one mile you get 30 XP points.
And once the mile has ticked over you get your points.
But you don't get them for a workout session
until after the ride
and you'll see it in the top right hand corner
of that center console.
Let me try and get some points now. (pants)
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- What a magnificent specimen, (bike squeaks)
now, are you tryin' the tens?
- [James] Yeah, I'm just goin' down hill now.
- Okay, XP points aside, pretty much every thing
that you do on Zwift is governed by how many watts
that you produce when pedaling.
So whats is a watt then?
Well, it's a measure of your power so the amount of energy
that you are putting in to the pedals each second.
Now once you know what a watt is,
you also need to know your FTP,
which is your functional threshold power.
Now that is gonna theoretical estimation of how many watts
that you could average for a one hour duration.
Now, fortunately you don't need to ride for an hour
as hard as you can to find out
because Zwift will do a calculation for you
and give you an accurate estimation of your FTP
and it's really important that it does that.
- Yes, so once you've got your FTP,
that will adjust the workout intensity which best suits you.
And once you've got that,
you can then divide the FTP by your weight
and that will give you your power to weight ratio.
Once you've got that number,
that will put you in a group or race in a group
that really best suits your ability.
Oh, Simon.
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- If you're using a smart trainer as James is here,
then Zwift can automatically control your workout
so that you have to ride
at the correct intensity as dictated by your FTP
and it's a setting called ERG mode
and what it means is
that as you start an interval your trainer
will automatically generate the right amount
of resistance so that you put out the necessary power
irrespective of what gear you're in
or how fast you're pedaling.
- Yeah, slight warning though Si,
this can be really hard so make sure you prepare yourself,
maybe up the cadence or power
just before the effort kicks in
'cause the last thing you wanna do, is get bogged down
which I think I'm gonna be doing in not long.
- Yeah, 720 watts James, that's quite a,
- Yeah.
- That's quite an effort.
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If it's not on Strava it didn't happen, right?
Well, thank goodness it's incredibly easy
to connect your Zwift account to your Strava account.
Just go into the settings menu
and click on connections either on Zwift.com
or using our friendly companion app
and after you've finished your ride,
will then automatically upload.
- Yes, and you can also click on that camera icon
that will take a picture while you're riding on Zwift
and then you can upload it straight to Strava.
Well it's a win win, isn't it?
A selfie while you're riding Zwift.
- Right mate, you ready? - Yeah.
- Say cheese. - Cheese!
(camera clicks) Oh!
- That's gonna be a good one there.
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- You've probably seen fellow Zwifters riding around
on these super cool futuristic looking bikes
and wondered what they are.
Well, they're the Zwift Concept Z1 bike
and to get it you need to get signed up
to the Everesting Challenge.
- That's right, simply climb the equivalent height
of Mount Everest, so 8,850 meters,
and then a little bit more,
41,150 meters more to be precise.
So yes, 50,000 vertical meters of ascent.
So, I mean it might not be easy but it is at least simple.
Now to find the challenge you simply go
to your main menu screen and then select
which challenge you would like to undertake.
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- You don't have to have a smart trainer to enjoy Zwift.
You will miss out on some of the experience,
for example going up different gradients
or even riding behind riders.
But you do have to have a speed sensor
that tells Zwift how fast you're riding.
So that means you can enjoy Zwift no matter
what trainer you've got.
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- I think that doing a Zwift race is pretty much
the most fun that you can have on a turbo trainer.
They're also completely free
and there are races for all abilities
so if you wanna get started here is how.
First you need to find a race to ride.
So you can do that via the events calendar
on your companion app
or indeed using the Zwift calendar online.
Then you need to select the right race
for your ability level.
They are split into A, B, C and D level races
and they are worked out depending
on your power to weight ratio
which you'll remember is your FTP divided by your weight.
Then you simply click on the one that you want to ride
and you'll get a notification sent to you
when you need to line up.
There you go, it is as simple as that, enjoy!
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- [Game Character] Hammer time.
- Now if you've been riding Zwift you'll be aware
that there's a few different locations or courses
that you can ride on including that new one in New York.
But what you might not be aware of,
there's five different worlds
that rotate on a course calendar
and to check out what's coming up next
go onto the home page of your app to find out.
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- Lastly here I think is one
that a lot of people don't know about,
trainer settings, okay?
So Zwift sets what it calls the trainer difficulty to 50%,
so that means that the climbs that it's simulating
in the game are ever so slightly easier
than they would be outside but on the flip side,
the descents are ever so slightly harder
and so what you experience
on the bike is an overall slightly
more consistent feeling workout.
But, now you know about training difficulty,
why not play around with it?
Why not take it up to 75%, why not take it up to 100%
for ultimate accuracy and simulation?
And then quickly change it back again.
- Ouch, sounds painful. - Yeah.
- So there you have it.
Now if there's anything that you'd like to know
that we've missed then make sure you put it
in the comments section below
and for a more basic guide
why don't you check out our how-to basic guide video?
- You're lookin' at, like you've got a bit
of a sweat on there James.
Shall we have, like, number 12, have a massive fan
in front of your trainer so that you don't
- Yeah. - Get quite so hot.
- Yeah.