A way to train whatever the weather
Are you sporty but indoorsy? Do you love cycling when the weather is good but the moment there’s a spot of rain you’re back under a blanket? Do you want to race year-round but can’t in the winter months? We’ve got just the answer. It’s called Zwift, an indoor cycling video game where you can explore a virtual world from the comfort of your own home. As you cycle on your static bike, your avatar will be cycling along a virtual course along a multitude of terrain and locations.
We Have Zwift Off
Indoor cycling has been on the rise since 2014 but it really picked up speed in 2020 during lockdown. Though Zwift itself is an app, the term Zwifting has become a short-hand descriptor (much like ‘Googling’) for virtual cycling. There are numerous different apps on the market, but Zwift is the most popular, and it’s easy to see why.
For a start, it offers both cycling and running accounts, so that you can mix things up occasionally, or workout cross-discipline. It offers a wide variety of cycling routes and terrains so that you can explore courses based on real places such as France or New York, or ones which merely took inspiration from real places; like Watopia. The best thing about the maps is that you can pedal freely around the world if you choose to, or simply stick to the preset routes.
The graphics of the virtual world are almost photo realistic, which is to be expected these days if you know anything about video gaming. But what it does best is offer something for everyone; if you fancy riding something familiar then you can set your route in London, but if you are looking for something completely different then you could try the Makuri Islands.
Oh, I Wanna Zwift with Somebody
Our favourite thing about Zwift is the community aspect of it, which is particularly important in today’s burgeoning digital existence in a post-lockdown world. Having an online platform which focuses on community is all the more necessary. Zwift technology means you can cycle with your friends in their virtual world, and experience different countries without spending any money on flights or couriering your equipment. Also, your avatar can’t be knocked off their bike by someone else, so you can cycle uninterrupted without having to swerve out of the way.
Perhaps the most interesting thing about Zwifting is the competitiveness. If you choose to do so you can participate in races, much like our very own Fred [link] does. There are different leagues to race in and you can join teams. Fred made some Zwifty friends and, following a weigh in via Zoom to ensure his weight and power were accurately measured (preventing cheating; not that our Fred would), he was allocated to a category and team, and never looked back. You can even go pro! There are professional race events where the participants will often cycle in the same room in front of an audience in a strange but spectacular mashup between ordinary sports events and computer gaming championship tournaments (complete with fluorescent purple lighting).
In addition to the social rides and competitions, you can curate your own training plan that lasts 6-12 weeks. Zwift helps you do this by providing you with presets of basic fitness builders for beginners, to highly structured race preparation plans. The beginners plans are also a great tool for getting you used to using the app, as it can be quite weird at first if you’re not used to anything like Zwift before, or if you’re new to structured training. The training plans vary so as you develop your skills you can focus on different disciplines, from endurance, time trials, sprints, and racing.
