 You don't need to be an 'investor' to invest in Singletrack: 6 days left: 95% of target - Find out more
My wife wanted a turbo trainer for a bit of winter cross training, so I thought I'd try this Zwift thing out. Bought a Tacx Flow T2240 from Halfords and managed to hook it up to all my Apple devices (iPad, iPhone and watch). I noticed that there was a 7 day free trial for Zwift so that looked good.
I thought I'd better start with an FTP test to get a baseline. So, off I went and all looked good when I noticed the message saying I only had xx Km left. It soon became clear that this was going to expire before I'd completed the test. Now, luckily, I only produced a pathetic 170W FTP (2.04 W/Kg). Partly physical and partly mental (I just can't push myself that hard). So, I'd just finished the 20 minutes and was on the cool down period when the "free 25K" expired. I tried clicking on the links to subscribe, which kind of worked but dropped the connection to the trainer, which meant I lost a few minutes at the end. No big deal in my case, but I can imagine this would be a pain if you were pushing yourself really hard just as it expired !!
Anyway, I just thought I'd pass this on in case anybody else is going down the same route. If you don't subscribe it looks as though the 7 day trial isn't a 7 day trial at all, it's a 25 Km trial.
By the way, I think the solution is to subscribe before you start. You still get 7 days free trial that way i.e. as long as you cancel 24 hours before the 7 days is up you don't get charged. But don't just jump on and go for it or you only get 25 Km.
While I think of it, there was another strange result. At the end of the FTP test it said my FTP was 169W, but when I went into my profile and opened up the relevant page it had inserted a value of 180W.
If you want to get an FTP estimate on the free trial, simply ride the Watopia route to the radio tower hard once you pass the KOM/ Reverse KOM start line. You will get 20mins of hard effort in long before the summit, unless you are an alien and/or using fake weight/height setup figures. 😉
It's not perfect, because the route does have a couple of short dips, where it will be tricky to maintain a 200W+ effort... But it will do for the sake of an estimate.
Did it myself on New Years Eve late afternoon on Windows free trial for a new best 20mins of power https://www.strava.com/activities/2047010516/power-curve/1200 which I managed to slightly improve further up RoadGrandTours' Stelvio Pass just over a week later.
if you were pushing yourself really hard just as it expired !!
I think if you are doing it right you expire first `:-)
Thanks. I did notice that it would calculate an FTP from your best 20 minute effort automatically. I'm not sure how valid this is though. Don't you need the warmup period with a few hard efforts first in order to make the 0.95x20 minute effort work as an approximation of your FTP ? Still, I guess it's all pretty appromimate anyway.
Just one other thing on the FTP test in case anybody else is thinking of this. The test is a bit circular as it needs an estimate of your FTP in order to calculate how hard the warmup efforts should be. In my case i had no baseline data at all and the "guess" it took was pretty optimistic i.e. the warmup nearly killed me ! You can adjust the estimated FTP wnen you select the workout (with a slider) but I didn't notice this until after I'd done the test.
With hindsight it probably isn't best to jump straight in with an FTP test. Although it's tempting to set a baseline I think the test works better if you've just ridden about a bit first.
Ive just started using Roadgrandtours its a bit basic, similar to zwift with the graphics but its free to use