Train with Richard Stannard on Zwift

TRI247 Workout Series #19 – Train with Richard Stannard

Wednesday, 18th April 7.00pm UK time (GMT) on Zwift

(ZWIFT LINK >>> http://zwift.com/events/view/54916)

Wednesday’s TRI247 Workout Series group session on Zwift will prove that a ‘Fish’ can indeed ride a bicycle. This week we welcome one of the stalwarts of the British triathlon scence for the past two decades, Richard Stannard, as guest coach and ride leader.

One of the best open water swimmers in the history of the sport, Richard has won the Elite ITU Aquathlon World Championship three times (2003 / 06 / 11), the UIPM Biathle World Championships four times (2005 / 07 / 10 / 12) and was the British Elite Triathlon Champion in 2001.

Despite focussing on his coaching career these days (www.triathlontrainingcentre.co.uk), Richard is still very active in the sport as an athlete too. In 2017 won the 40-44 category at the ITU Sprint Triathlon World Championships in Rotterdam. He may be known as “The Fish”, but he knows how to ride a  bike as well!!!

The Session:

Richard has got a 75-minute session planned for you this week, called the FTP Advancer. The session is designed to pull your sustainable power output to new higher wattages.

After a warm up and four short, but increasingly intense 10 second sprints to get your ready for the main set, the session comprises of three sets of five intervals, all at above FTP power. The intervals start at one minute in length and increase by 30 seconds each time, ending with a three minute effort. You than get to recover and do it again. And again!

The main session structure is therefore three sets of:

• 1min Z5 [116%]
• 1min Z1 [52%] recovery
• 1:30min Z5 [116%]
• 1min Z1 [52%] recovery
• 2:00min Z5 [116%]
• 1min Z1 [52%] recovery
• 2:30min Z5 [116%]
• 1min Z1 [52%] recovery
• 3min Z5 [116%]

4min Z1 [50%} recovery between each set

[You can set yourself a reminder on Zwift here: http://zwift.com/events/view/54916]

(As with our other events to date (Lucy Charles | Lucy Gossage | Lionel Sanders | Joe Skipper | John Levison | Ruth Purbrook | Tim Don | Reece Barclay| Harry Wiltshire | Paul Shanley | Karl Alexander | Jenny Gowans | Matt Bottrill | John Levison #2 | Sam Begg | Paul Shanley #2 | Karl Alexander #2), we will publish the Zwift Custom Workout file from the session after the event, so that you can also do the session in your own time).

Joining Instructions:

The workout will begin promptly at 7.00pm UK time, Wednesday 18th April 2018. It is worth logging in 10 or 15 minutes before the session to make sure you are set up and ready to go, where you will be able to warm up in the virtual ‘holding pen’.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNTXAkky4qE

Look for the TRI247 Workout Series event in the list on the right of the screen once you have paired your sensors. Click to JOIN and you will be taken to the start line ready to begin the workout.

Make sure you have set your FTP level correctly before you join the workout as all the intervals are based on a percentage of FTP so it is important to get that right. If in doubt, dial the FTP number down 10 or 20 watts as it is better to finish the session than to feel like it is too challenging.

If you have never used Zwift before but don’t want to miss out, head to the Zwift support page for tips on how to get the most out of your setup.

After the session head over to the TRI247 Facebook page for some post ride chat.

Zwift Group Rides: TRI247 Workout Series

The cool thing about a group workout on Zwift is that varying levels of ability can ride together in a group and all finish the session together having done the same relative effort, even if the actual watts are significantly different. It is not a race, but a shared goal to get a good session in the training log.