Tuesday, February 6, 2024, 3:50:32PM EST
I’ve had the Tron bike for a few weeks now and my focus has turned to in-game training to get faster at racing in and out of Zwift. I started looking for the fastest TT setup so I can start doing Functional Force sets once a week to build strength on things like the Italian Villa loop which has a great sprint in it and get the most XP bang for the buck (buck in this case meaning “watt”). That’s when I realized the level 40 is really where all the Zwift magic is realized.
By level 40 most people will also have shed a lot of weight and increased their FTP making them faster. I am down to 79 kilos from 93.3 in February 2023 (heaviest I’ve ever been in my life). That’s 14 kilos in a year. I also packed a lot of muscle on that I really needed. At level 35 I’ll likely be down to 78 by level 40. Most people my height (174cm) weigh about 75 kilos in Zwift, I’ve noticed. Since I’m a pretty solid mesomorph, sprinting is the goal and my goal weight is 70 kilos (same as Cavendish, who is 1 cm taller than me and same body type). My 241 FTP is up from 180 when I started in March 2023. According to TrainingPeaks, 271 is the average for “experienced cyclists” on the platform, so I have a ways to go, but working to level 40 has really increased my FTP. Again, level 40 is where the magic really starts to appear.