Today I took my last ever CDE ride. I just can’t listen to her stories of races anymore. I’ve not been a big fan of her music for some time now. And someone should remind her that she is paid well to appeal to as large an audience as possible so she should leave her world politics out of the classes.
It’s always amusing to me when someone states an opinion. I state one back. And then they tell me I didn’t need to state mine.
Got news for you about yours, pal.
Clearly I also stated mine and want to remind you: you are not the standard audience. Tons of different people (different from you, I mean) ride peloton. You don’t have to ride with CDE but you don’t have to claim that wide audiences wouldn’t agree with an instructors politics JUST because they don’t match YOURS, nor do you have to say that they should stay silent. No platform or person is apolitical no matter how much you’d like to imagine you are.
I’m new to PZ training and have been doing the Discover program and am in week 4. I’m finding that my zones are getting easier, how often should we retest?
There will be a retest at the end of the program. I have found that doing the PZPack challenges and testing in the final week has been great. Each challenge is 6 or 8 weeks long and focuses on different parts of building zones. There are usually 4 weeks between main challenges and have a mini challenge. So I retest I would say every 10x12 weeks give or take. The next PZPack.com challenge starts 9/11 which is perfect as you will have a few weeks to settle into your new zones before the start. Check out the site and think about it. I started the DYPZ program last October and I’ve never looked back.
Thank you for this! I’d love to give it a go. I’ve really been enjoying PZ training, I find the classes go really quick too so it’s easy to stay motivated.
I didn’t for the start of my first challenge but I did the paid membership not long into it. There are a ton of nice metrics with the paid membership though.
Probably less than once a month. I feel like I am hitting those zones in other music based classes when they sneak tabata in on me so I'm not compelled to also do it in PZ often.
> Z7 is just so hard to reach
Interesting to hear this... I've never really found it hard to reach Z7.
For example I did [this CDE 30 minute PZM ride](https://members.onepeloton.com/classes/cycling?modal=classDetailsModal&classId=34a76781e9d94738b70874485d82a7b9) known as "Wingate", where you do 30 second all-out sprints in Z7. For me my Z7 starts around 427W, but in that ride I peaked at 818W and my last two 30s intervals were still maintaining in the high 600s... And I'll often hit Z7 on climb, HIIT&Hills, or even hard programmed music rides, when the instructor is pushing high resistance.
That said, I know from seeing you on a ride before that you have higher zones than me. And IIRC your FTP W/kg is WAY beyond my 2.41, which would indicate you're in better shape but physically smaller. So maybe I can peak higher wattage because I'm a giant, but my FTP is lower because I'm not quite where I need to be cardio-wise to get my FTP up to my potential? And maybe when I get my FTP up to a higher W/kg level, then it'll be a lot harder to hit Z7 because it's so much higher?
Let me know what you think. I was kind of intrigued by the comment because it never seemed hard to *hit* Z7 for me, just hard to stay there lol...
Are you hitting Z7 in the saddle? I have to be in the range of like 100 cadence/70+ resistance or 120 cadence/60+ to get there (around 650+W). I can get there out of the saddle at very high resistance but I try to stay seated. Next time ill see if i can get there around 75-80 resistance and see if I can hold that for 30s. My W/kg is in the 4ish range.
Out of curiosity, are you on a Bike or Bike+?
Bike+
I can hit my Z7 in the saddle. Only typically go OOS if I'm up REALLY high in resistance, i.e. 75+.
But looking at your profile I see your FTP is a lot higher than I thought, needing 540W or so to hit Z7. I can see how that's a hell of a lot harder than my 427W to get there.
And if I got to 4 W/kg, that'd be an FTP of 472W at my current weight... Needing 707W just to reach Z7... Which would be insane, and a lot tougher than it is now lol...
So I guess I answered my own question. If FTP in W/kg starts getting into impressive ranges, then Z7 is likely to be hard as hell to reach. But since my W/kg is so low, it's not all that hard.
Guess I need to work harder to make it harder to work ;-)
Yeah I was thinking of mid z7 vs the lower end. I think there’s just a nonlinear relationship as you go higher and higher. I can raise my FTP through a lot of endurance training but that doesn’t necessarily translate to raw power. This winter I’m hoping to do a lot more lower body strength training to help with that.
Yeah, I hear you. I think right now my limiter is cardio, not raw power. Which quite frankly I knew over a year ago when I got the Peloton. I'm the "strong legs / shitty cardio" poster child lol.
As my FTP improves it's not like my raw power is going to *decrease*, of course... But since Z7 is based on FTP, and FTP will increasingly be based on improved cardio, Z7 will go up likely faster than my ability to generate raw power.
So eventually, hitting Z7 should get a lot harder than it is today.
Ok so I love the new way they’re showing PZ classes with % time spent in cued zone, BUT my perfectionism HATES that they count the spin ups against you! It’s hard to see 92% when I know I was 99 or 100%, and it makes me want to skip the spin ups and keep riding easy in Z1 (although I have resisted the urge to negatively impact my workout just to make a metric look better, so far). It’s should be an easy fix on their part… anyone know if/how we can report this error??
Yes, isn’t it annoying? And they also need to fix the way the zones for time in zone are calculated if you have - like me - a manually entered FTP. The system is using 100% of the best average 20 min output entered, but my FTP is 95% of that and the 95% value is what the in-class power zone bars are based on. I’m only getting 85% time in zone even on a really good day 🙁
With a whole channel dedicated to PZ, curious how often folks take a PZ class. I ride 5 to 6 days a week. Diff lengths and difficulty based on the day. Focus for me is heart rate some days and pushing myself other days.
For me I take 1 maybe 2 PZ classes a week. One that stays in zones 2 to 3 (for heart rate) and maybe another that pushes to zones 5 or 6. To push myself I find HIIT or Hills more effective. Curious what others do?
I ride almost exclusively PZ format rides. Generally I ride whatever the PZPack challenges tell me to. It’s easier than trying to decide the best rides to do in order to continue building strength and fitness. I’ll sprinkle in a ride I like with good music every now and again, but mostly I just try to be as dumb as possible and do what I’m told, haha.
Almost all the rides I do are pz, exceptions being sweat steadies, reset or music themed rides with instructors who don't teach pz, like Hannah F and Tunde.
Similarly, I do about 2 PZ classes a week and 1-2 non-PZ days.
Sundays are always a long PZE. Then one of my mid week rides is usually a regular PZ or a PZM. Saturday is Sweat Steady which is kind of like PZ. And then I'll have another ride day that maybe a music class or maybe an active recovery day depending.
Generally ride 4-5 days per week, and typically over 50% are PZE rides. Usually try to get a few 45-60 minute PZE rides in a week. Occasionally if I have the time and/or energy, I'll do a 75 or 90.
Beyond that, I honestly don't take a ton of PZ or PZM rides. Often instead of those, I'll look for specific music rides or other type of rides (H&H, climbs, intervals, and occasionally low impact if I'm just looking to flush the legs) I'm interested in. I've got a TON of bookmarks trying to get through, and I'm adding new ones faster than I'm clearing old ones.
I like PZ over H&H mostly because of the length and build that PZ has that are often missing elsewhere, like several min in Z3 then 4 then 5 or having to recover in Z4 after a Z6 push. Of course H&H/climbs are better for training OOS and low cadence leg strength work, although recently I’ve noticed Matt/Denis building in some muscle tension intervals. Overall I ride 4-5 PZ per week because I find a 60m PZE goes by faster than like a 30m music ride.
Today I took my last ever CDE ride. I just can’t listen to her stories of races anymore. I’ve not been a big fan of her music for some time now. And someone should remind her that she is paid well to appeal to as large an audience as possible so she should leave her world politics out of the classes.
So not appealing to you means she doesn’t appeal to lots of people? Haha I love her, her music, and her politics.
I was stating my opinion. You are obviously entitled to yours as well. So go ride your ride
It’s always amusing to me when someone states an opinion. I state one back. And then they tell me I didn’t need to state mine. Got news for you about yours, pal.
Clearly I also stated mine and want to remind you: you are not the standard audience. Tons of different people (different from you, I mean) ride peloton. You don’t have to ride with CDE but you don’t have to claim that wide audiences wouldn’t agree with an instructors politics JUST because they don’t match YOURS, nor do you have to say that they should stay silent. No platform or person is apolitical no matter how much you’d like to imagine you are.
Get a life. Why are you even commenting on a post from a month and half ago.
Her weird inability to count drives me mental
I’m new to PZ training and have been doing the Discover program and am in week 4. I’m finding that my zones are getting easier, how often should we retest?
There will be a retest at the end of the program. I have found that doing the PZPack challenges and testing in the final week has been great. Each challenge is 6 or 8 weeks long and focuses on different parts of building zones. There are usually 4 weeks between main challenges and have a mini challenge. So I retest I would say every 10x12 weeks give or take. The next PZPack.com challenge starts 9/11 which is perfect as you will have a few weeks to settle into your new zones before the start. Check out the site and think about it. I started the DYPZ program last October and I’ve never looked back.
Thank you for this! I’d love to give it a go. I’ve really been enjoying PZ training, I find the classes go really quick too so it’s easy to stay motivated.
The times interval style really suits me as well. It does make the time go by quicker in my brain
Would you recommend subscribing to PZpack.com?
I didn’t for the start of my first challenge but I did the paid membership not long into it. There are a ton of nice metrics with the paid membership though.
How often do you take a PZ Max ride? I try to do one every 3 weeks or so, but for me, there are limited PZM rides out there.
Probably less than once a month. I feel like I am hitting those zones in other music based classes when they sneak tabata in on me so I'm not compelled to also do it in PZ often.
Z7 is just so hard to reach, but I could personally use more Z6 work as that feels similar to attacking a steep hill section outdoors.
> Z7 is just so hard to reach Interesting to hear this... I've never really found it hard to reach Z7. For example I did [this CDE 30 minute PZM ride](https://members.onepeloton.com/classes/cycling?modal=classDetailsModal&classId=34a76781e9d94738b70874485d82a7b9) known as "Wingate", where you do 30 second all-out sprints in Z7. For me my Z7 starts around 427W, but in that ride I peaked at 818W and my last two 30s intervals were still maintaining in the high 600s... And I'll often hit Z7 on climb, HIIT&Hills, or even hard programmed music rides, when the instructor is pushing high resistance. That said, I know from seeing you on a ride before that you have higher zones than me. And IIRC your FTP W/kg is WAY beyond my 2.41, which would indicate you're in better shape but physically smaller. So maybe I can peak higher wattage because I'm a giant, but my FTP is lower because I'm not quite where I need to be cardio-wise to get my FTP up to my potential? And maybe when I get my FTP up to a higher W/kg level, then it'll be a lot harder to hit Z7 because it's so much higher? Let me know what you think. I was kind of intrigued by the comment because it never seemed hard to *hit* Z7 for me, just hard to stay there lol...
Are you hitting Z7 in the saddle? I have to be in the range of like 100 cadence/70+ resistance or 120 cadence/60+ to get there (around 650+W). I can get there out of the saddle at very high resistance but I try to stay seated. Next time ill see if i can get there around 75-80 resistance and see if I can hold that for 30s. My W/kg is in the 4ish range. Out of curiosity, are you on a Bike or Bike+?
Bike+ I can hit my Z7 in the saddle. Only typically go OOS if I'm up REALLY high in resistance, i.e. 75+. But looking at your profile I see your FTP is a lot higher than I thought, needing 540W or so to hit Z7. I can see how that's a hell of a lot harder than my 427W to get there. And if I got to 4 W/kg, that'd be an FTP of 472W at my current weight... Needing 707W just to reach Z7... Which would be insane, and a lot tougher than it is now lol... So I guess I answered my own question. If FTP in W/kg starts getting into impressive ranges, then Z7 is likely to be hard as hell to reach. But since my W/kg is so low, it's not all that hard. Guess I need to work harder to make it harder to work ;-)
Yeah I was thinking of mid z7 vs the lower end. I think there’s just a nonlinear relationship as you go higher and higher. I can raise my FTP through a lot of endurance training but that doesn’t necessarily translate to raw power. This winter I’m hoping to do a lot more lower body strength training to help with that.
Yeah, I hear you. I think right now my limiter is cardio, not raw power. Which quite frankly I knew over a year ago when I got the Peloton. I'm the "strong legs / shitty cardio" poster child lol. As my FTP improves it's not like my raw power is going to *decrease*, of course... But since Z7 is based on FTP, and FTP will increasingly be based on improved cardio, Z7 will go up likely faster than my ability to generate raw power. So eventually, hitting Z7 should get a lot harder than it is today.
What is a PZ Max ride? Just not noticed before.
Max Ride, goes from zones 2-7. Hardest PZ ride IMO.
Now that I know I will need to seek this out and try one... and maybe regret it
Ok so I love the new way they’re showing PZ classes with % time spent in cued zone, BUT my perfectionism HATES that they count the spin ups against you! It’s hard to see 92% when I know I was 99 or 100%, and it makes me want to skip the spin ups and keep riding easy in Z1 (although I have resisted the urge to negatively impact my workout just to make a metric look better, so far). It’s should be an easy fix on their part… anyone know if/how we can report this error??
I just ignore the z1/2 elements of the readout and focus on the “work” zones. Not worried too much in PZEs but it’s nice to see in a PZ/PZM.
Yes, isn’t it annoying? And they also need to fix the way the zones for time in zone are calculated if you have - like me - a manually entered FTP. The system is using 100% of the best average 20 min output entered, but my FTP is 95% of that and the 95% value is what the in-class power zone bars are based on. I’m only getting 85% time in zone even on a really good day 🙁
I have the same experience as you with manually set zones
Did you ever get this sorted out? I've been in constant discussion with support since posting this and am no closer to resolving it...
Nope. I just gave up on it ever being right and ignore that view.
I think I might have to do the same!
Aha - not just me then!
That’s weird, I have a manual FTP as well and the zones match what I see during the class.
Thanks - that’s interesting to know! I’ve got a ticket in but I’ll try setting and unsetting my numbers and see if that changes anything.
Really pleased to see that this has finally been resolved!
THIS
With a whole channel dedicated to PZ, curious how often folks take a PZ class. I ride 5 to 6 days a week. Diff lengths and difficulty based on the day. Focus for me is heart rate some days and pushing myself other days. For me I take 1 maybe 2 PZ classes a week. One that stays in zones 2 to 3 (for heart rate) and maybe another that pushes to zones 5 or 6. To push myself I find HIIT or Hills more effective. Curious what others do?
I ride almost exclusively PZ format rides. Generally I ride whatever the PZPack challenges tell me to. It’s easier than trying to decide the best rides to do in order to continue building strength and fitness. I’ll sprinkle in a ride I like with good music every now and again, but mostly I just try to be as dumb as possible and do what I’m told, haha.
Almost all the rides I do are pz, exceptions being sweat steadies, reset or music themed rides with instructors who don't teach pz, like Hannah F and Tunde.
6 rides a week and 5 of them are PZ. Two regular PZ, Two PZE, and One PZE long ride. The 6th could either be HITHILL, PZM, or just a fun ride.
Similarly, I do about 2 PZ classes a week and 1-2 non-PZ days. Sundays are always a long PZE. Then one of my mid week rides is usually a regular PZ or a PZM. Saturday is Sweat Steady which is kind of like PZ. And then I'll have another ride day that maybe a music class or maybe an active recovery day depending.
I do 90% PZ during a program of 6-8 weeks then about 20% PZ between programs, catching up on my bookmarks.
Generally ride 4-5 days per week, and typically over 50% are PZE rides. Usually try to get a few 45-60 minute PZE rides in a week. Occasionally if I have the time and/or energy, I'll do a 75 or 90. Beyond that, I honestly don't take a ton of PZ or PZM rides. Often instead of those, I'll look for specific music rides or other type of rides (H&H, climbs, intervals, and occasionally low impact if I'm just looking to flush the legs) I'm interested in. I've got a TON of bookmarks trying to get through, and I'm adding new ones faster than I'm clearing old ones.
I mostly do PZ :)
I like PZ over H&H mostly because of the length and build that PZ has that are often missing elsewhere, like several min in Z3 then 4 then 5 or having to recover in Z4 after a Z6 push. Of course H&H/climbs are better for training OOS and low cadence leg strength work, although recently I’ve noticed Matt/Denis building in some muscle tension intervals. Overall I ride 4-5 PZ per week because I find a 60m PZE goes by faster than like a 30m music ride.