Swift Virtual Training

Even though it's only two days after Christmas and we still have the New Year celebration ahead of us it really feels as though the holidays have come and gone entirely. This is not a bad thing or a good thing for that matter. I think for me I am more focused on the days off that I have remaining, probably not the best way to look at things.

No matter as of today I still have many more days ahead of me and I need to continue to use them wisely. Next thing I know it will be the start of 2015 and we will be at the top of the calendar looking down at all the things we need to accomplish over the next 365 days.

Crap speaking of which, that reminds me that I need to get a calendar for the new year and soon. I have four more days to get one so I should be okay. I have to put an Amazon order in anyhow today so I am glad I remembered. I really don't feel like going to the mall kiosk they have every year and dig through trying to find something we will like for the year.

Zwift Training

So a few days back, in the 24th to be exact, I was sent an early Christmas present from a company that goes by the name of Zwift. They are a new company to the market of indoor cycling trainers and accompanied software.

Zwift has a beta program going on at the moment so that is the only way that you can get the software and try it out. I was lucky enough that they decided to expand the beta program to 3,000 user up from the initial 1,000 that they then upped to 2,000 relatively fast because of the demand I suppose.

An invite appeared in my inbox the day before Christmas and I was blown away excited to say the least. I had a feeling the beta would be locked down for at least another couple months and I would not get in until the actual release.

Thoughts

I think it's obvious that the software is kick ass in my book. I am no expert on the various training applications as I have been using them for only a month or two so far. That said, I have still managed to try several out. Some are so bad that I don't see why anyone would ever use them unless out of pity or a family member or friend that was trying to help the developer out.

I completely understand the amount of effort and dedication it requires to make an app and I am not saying that I could do better. What I am saying is that as the end user and person laying down the money I do have the right to say if it's crap or not.

Although I am doing a bit of a disservice because I won't mention those I felt were that bad. I have found that what one person thinks is shxt for training is exactly what another person wants. So how can I sit here and tell anyone exactly what is the best or worse? I can't.

That said, I can and will say without hesitation that the Zwift software is top notch and I would suggest that if you have any interest in training indoors during the winter or crappy weather days that it would be an excellent choice for you. I would swing over to the website and sign up for the beta.

If you get in, sweet! If you don't although it sucks to be you I would still keep an eye out for its official release and dive in at that time. I obviously have no idea what the price tag is going to be for it but I imagine that it will be competitive to the other trainer software available.

Now compared to other software they are 100% unique. You are essentially dropped into a virtual world, currently the Zwift Island course. It has a few nice climbs as well as segments that you can compete against other cyclist best times as well as try to beat your own.

As you ride the environment changes ever so slightly and even the time of day, based on the time on the island, not your local time. Again another really cool little feature added in. The user can select if they want to ride with others, if they want to do a group ride and so on. In the future I read that Zwift has plans to make it so you can set up private group rides or huge races where you have people all over the world racing together.

The worlds have a great amount of detail put into them and look really good. There seemed to be a couple little glitches like a cyclist going between me and another when we were almost pedal to pedal so they were clipped a little as we intersected, really though - big deal. I did see another cyclist that was stopped but looked as though they were rolling a little left and right, going forward and backward slightly at the same time. A little difficult to describe and possibly it was on purpose because that person was at a stop testing or done with their ride and it's what the software does.

Another thing that I really like is that you can stop pedaling for a bit and continue moving girl tears, only slowing as the trainer does. Although a little inaccurate in general it's nice to have those seconds to catch my breath or stretch my legs for a second or two.

Know that when I say it's a little inaccurate I am not referring to the Zwift software. Most stop you almost dead in your tracks which obviously does not happen in the real world. Because of this you pedal nonstop on a trainer no matter the descent or momentum you have built up.

I could go on and on about this software but my intent was not to do a full on review otherwise I would have written it much better and detailed.

There are things that need some work or need to be added. Off the top I would like the ability to upload to Strava immediately after finishing the ride. At the moment you can only 'save to cloud' or 'discard ride' at the end. If you chose to 'save to the cloud' the file will be in a Zwift folder on your PC. You then upload that .fit file to Strava or what ever you use to track training sessions.

There is also no way to enter your own weight, age and related. At the moment for the weight anyway, it puts everyone at 75kg which works out to around 165 pounds. So unless you weigh that much then your training will be off once the official release comes out and you then have actual weights entered.

Although I would like this feature it's not a big deal for me, I think they are on the right track and these sorts of things can be rolled out after the beta. I would much rather have stable software to begin with. There is nothing like getting 10+ miles into a ride and have the application crash and lose everything. Not the case with this software at this time. Should the stability change I am gone, it's not worth my time at that point.

It also has this really cool feature where you unlock new levels based on the distance you have cycled. This is shown on-screen by an orange bar that progresses across the screen left to right as you pedal your way onward. I only cycled for just over one hour, five minutes which ended up being a little bit further than 22 miles and I was able to unlock the second level so I am stoked to check it out the next time I get on the trainer.

Anyway, I know I listed a few negative things but this is a beta version after all and again I am not trying to do a solid review of the software. Plus based on the FAQ pages and forum I doubt that any of this will be an issue with these guys to make improvements and bug fixes, they are all over the software and extremely responsive to user feedback.

Overall

All said and done I would recommend the training software to anyone looking to get into something that is a lot of fun, has a competition side as well as a way to advance through the game / training as you put more miles into the game.

Photo: Here is a screen shot from the game / training software. This is not from my session, I did not think to grab a screen shot, I was too into the ride but this will give those interested a good visual.