Zwift Baseline Camp (and report) vs Full-Frontal/Half Monty

Training Fitness Tests
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So for Suffs and Evil Laughs, I decided to do Zwift’s Baseline Camp. 3 workouts and 3 tests to give you a report on your strengths and weaknesses (and get some in game rewards that are pretty meaningless to me).

It comprises 3 areas, Sprinting (10-20 secs), Attacking (up to a minute) and Endurance (10 mins +) . Sorta like a 3DP version of 4DP but instead of 1 test, it’s 3. Somewhere between Half Monty and Full-Frontal.

After each test, provided you’ve subscribed to the emails, you’ll get your test results and, once you’ve done all 3, you’ll get a report outlining your Strength and your Limiter.

Not surprised by the results at all. Sprinting is my strength, Endurance is my limiter. I don’t really see that changing and I was happy to challenge myself in a much less daunting way than Full Frontal, and to an extent, HM too.

No rider type result (just like HM) but it was a fun little exercise and Zwift has made some significant improvements in making their workouts a bit more engaging than the last time I’d done them. Eg. Useful, well timed text prompts, a little bit of humour (some almost SUF like) and helpful information about what and why you’re doing what you’re doing.

Imho though, NOBODY comes close to The Sufferfest for really engaging and motivating me to push myself during indoor cycling workouts. On Zwift when doing structured workouts, you’re still riding in a world where your efforts can be a complete mismatch with your environment. Eg. while the gradient might be pointing straight up 10, 11 12% or more, you could be spinning at 85-90 rpm for 10 mins at a recovery pace that you’d never be able to manage on a climb irl. I think that Zwift could change that if they dedicated resources to designing more workouts that match routes or designing routes that matched workouts.

Now, to be fair to Zwift, their new hill, The Grade, does also function as an FTP test so doing that in non-ERG mode does actually have your efforts matching your environment (it’s the segment they used for the Endurance Test portion of their Baseline Camp). Beat your time up there and you’ll get a new FTP result. That is actually pretty cool! The only thing is, (edit 2: unless you change your trainer intensity settings) you will be limited by your gearing. If you’ve only got a 39/25 ring/cog combo, you’re gonna be grinding your way up The Grade since it’s a 3.5 km segment averaging 8.6% with much of it at 9-10%. If you’ve got the gears, or better yet, virtual gears, you’ll be able to manage a higher cadence (I averaged 87 rpm).

Edit: linking the other thread on the same topic:

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Can you adjust the trainer scaling in the Zwift settings for the The Grade, or have they locked it ?

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I always forget about the trainer intensity settings. I never do that but it makes perfect sense and I’d be surprised if they’d block the grade from that.

Edited: edited original post to mention settings, :pray: @fukawitribe

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Thanks for the post. We’re the numbers for FTP, sprint power, etc similar to FF or HM?

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I’ve got a FF coming up in a week(ish) and will compare but yeh, 99/100 FF has me as a sprinter. My AC has been pretty good lately so most recently an attacker but my sustained (and my MAP) has always been Yak $hit in comparison.

Also, Zwift is measuring 10 sec sprint on a 15 sec test where SYSTM measures 5 sec sprint on a 10 sec test.
But results are inline with where I’d expect and have tested previously.

And, while Zwift measures your best 1 minute out of 3 attempts, it’s done in isolation (unlike in FF where the 1 minute test is done only after depleting yourself in 2 sprints, a 5 min and a 20 min max). So my AC was understandably higher on Zwift but not hugely so.

My FTP from Zwift was within 7 watts of my last HM, taken not too too long ago.

I still have ZERO intention to do workouts on Zwift though I often dual record just to get XP and level up (don’t know what I’m levelling up to mind you :man_shrugging:t3: )

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Thanks. It will be interesting to see how close the FTPs are. I’m interested both in the precision and accuracy of these tests. I’m an attacker with sustained weakness and will do a FF this weekend. The HM gives me a 10-15 watt higher FTP than FF and MAP is likewise much higher. I may just do the HM shortly after the FF and then subtract the difference from future HMs, as FF does require a bit more recovery than HM.

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I’m not really an attacker so I haven’t suffered the big spreads in FTP between FF and HM. Sprinter is much more accurate for me and, as a consequence, my FF and HM are always within a small handful of watts.

FF is daunting and it takes me a LOT to do it when HM is so much less horrible and provides me everything I need. To go all out on FF is an exercise in mental toughness. Super satisfying to complete but :face_vomiting: :face_vomiting: :face_vomiting:.

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@Glen.Coutts I know you are not a fan of the NoVids but the FTP progressions are great for working on this mental/physical game.

5 x 6
5 x 7
5 x 8
4 x 10
5 x 9

The Rookie is also good too - and so is Defender.

Was there another post where you noted your numbers? I feel like you stated something like 1,200w for 5 seconds which would probably put you at 97th percentile or higher.

Edit: I stand corrected - numbers are in watts per kilogram and the 90th percentile is around 12 w/kg for a 55 to 59 male on intervals.icu.

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Haven’t done FF since June 2023. My 5 secs then was 1109.

On the Zwift Sprint test on Nov 26, my 5 sec best was 1097 but I was holding back a little for fear of putting my back out or breaking my chain.

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@Glen.Coutts Made an edit to my post above. However, listening to the Knowledge Podcast on NM they noted that range is really good for athletes in our age bracket.

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I’m 61 now so I’ll take the Sprint win for what it is. At my current weight 12.29 w/kg

As for what could be done to improve my endurance, I am well aware. I don’t fully hate the No-Vids and, in some ways, I prefer them to some of SYSTM’s other offerings. At least with No-Vids I can play my own tunes or watch something and get my head in the game. Maybe this will be the winter I make a concerted effort to work on it. Probably not though :joy:

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