Tonight’s Zwift Group Workout: Micro Burst Intervals

TRI247 Workout Series #132 – Micro Burst Intervals

Wednesday, 5th August 2020 – 7.00pm UK time on Zwift

(ZWIFT LINK >>> https://www.zwift.com/events/view/989516)

Ok, so triathlon racing might be limited currently – but that doesn’t have to stop all of your training, particularly cycling from the comfort of your own home / pain cave! Thanks to Zwift, you can self-isolate, train hard (or, as hard as you want), and get your fix of social interaction all in one, thanks to the TRI247 Workout Series!

If you are new to Zwift and are not sure how it all works, it’s well worth checking out these recent articles we’ve published to find out more:

• Getting started with Zwift Cycling
• Five ways to train on Zwift
• Using Zwift for iron-distance training: what do Pro athletes do?
• Zwift RUN: It’s not just cycling…!

We’ll be riding one of the popular sessions from the TRI247 Workout Series archive tonight. Come and enjoy an hour of structured training and chat with your Editor!

The Micro Burst Intervals session

This week’s workout is a main set of three blocks of ‘micro burst’ intervals – short in length, high (relatively) in power with eight reps in each set. All of the efforts are significantly above FTP level for short periods of time… over and over again!

The interval length will decrease through the set (30 seconds in set one / 20 seconds in set two / 10 seconds in set three), but the power targets will be increasing… can you hit the power, recover quickly and do it again (and again, and again…?). As the three main blocks are quite intense in terms of effort, the warm-up will be relatively long and progressive this week – with a series of ‘spikes’ to make sure the legs are ready and firing before set one begins!

Join us at 7p.m. on Wednesday 5th August 2020 (UK time) on the virtual roads of Watopia. Set your reminder now on the link below or via the Zwift Companion app.

[TIP – It is always worth having the (free) Zwift Companion app to hand on your mobile device. Within the workout screen you can toggle your FTP by +/- 10% ‘on the fly’, which will immediately change your power targets during the session. Legs feeling heavy, can’t quite hold your power targets? It happens! Rather than can the session, how about moving your targets down 5% first, before giving up completely? Alas, the body isn’t a machine and can’t always deliver as you hope/think it should, so a bit of flexibility and not getting too obsessed with the numbers can be a good thing!

On the flipside, perhaps you are having a good day or increasing the overall training stress of the session better meets your own training goals for that day? In that case, you have the option of nudging your baseline up in the same way.]

The session is genuinely open to everyone of ALL abilities. Group workout mode works fantastically in Zwift and ensures that the power targets are tailored to YOUR level. It makes no difference if your FTP is 400 watts or 100 watts, the targets you see will be specific to you – all while being part of the on-screen group.

[To set your reminder, click here: https://www.zwift.com/events/view/989516]

Joining Instructions:

The workout will begin promptly at 7.00pm UK time, Wednesday 5th August 2020. It is worth logging in 5 or 10 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’.

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.

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.