For years I’ve chased my FTP like it was the single scoreboard that defined my fitness. But after another season of Zwift racing — full of violent surges, micro-attacks, and barely-manageable recoveries — it became impossible to ignore a simple truth: FTP alone doesn’t explain why some races feel brutally explosive while others feel almost manageable. This fall, I started digging into the other parts of my power profile: how hard I can surge, how long I can burn above threshold, and how fast I can recover. What I found, through tools that analyze real race data instead of lab-style tests, reshaped the way I understand my abilities — and how I plan to train this winter.
Most cyclists know their FTP. It’s the number we compare, chase relentlessly, and judge ourselves against. However, as anyone who has lined up for a Zwift race quickly learns, FTP alone doesn’t win races. Zwift events are full of surges, accelerations, recoveries, and mini-attacks – often stacked back-to-back with barely a minute of time to breathe.
That reality pushed me this fall to take a deeper look at my numbers – not just raising my FTP as high as possible, but how well I can accelerate to top speed, how deep I can go above threshold, and how quickly I can recover for the next effort. It’s the kind of detail that traditional FTP-based training doesn’t always capture.
Beyond FTP: Power Profiling in the Real World
Many cyclists broaden their fitness assessment with shorter efforts – typically 15-second, 1-minute, 5-minute, and 20-minute maximal tests. Platforms like ZwiftPower use these values (also often normalized by weight) to build a simple “power profile” of who you are as a rider.
The challenge is that these tests are exhausting, and stringing together multiple all-out efforts can take away from actual training. Zwift races can produce some of these efforts naturally, but not always in clean, test-like chunks.
That’s where tools that analyze your real racing data – rather than structured tests – can offer a different kind of insight.
Xert’s Three-Part Fitness Signature – A Different Way of Looking at Your Data
One tool you might find helpful is Xert, which models your fitness using three components instead of one. I think you’ll find that these concepts are useful for any rider trying to understand their abilities in race environments:
- Peak Power (PP): your maximum power on short bursts – sprints, launches, jumps
- High Intensity Energy (HIE): your capacity to go deep & sustain efforts above threshold
- Threshold Power (TP): your aerobic “engine,” similar to FTP
Together, these determine your Maximal Power Available (MPA) – essentially a real-time view of how close you are to cracking:
Figure 1. Xert’s MPA analysis from one of my ZRL races. The multi-coloured line shows my actual power output, while the magenta line above represents my Maximal Power Available (MPA). As efforts increase, MPA drops; as I ease off, it recovers. Moments when the two lines meet indicate pushing to absolute limits. The hatched background line shows the Difficulty Score – higher values reflect spending more time close to exhaustion.
What I’ve always liked about this model is that it’s based on real-world data, rather than tests: hard surges, failed breakaways, sprint finishes – the kinds of efforts Zwift produces naturally. Instead of doing formal power tests, this “signature” is automatically calculated & updated from the messy, real-world data of actual competition.
For someone like me, juggling time constraints as a father and racing primarily indoors for the winter months, this has become a reliable way to quickly help me understand what actually happened during a race.
What My Zwift Racing League Files Revealed
While most of my B-category races last between 45 and 75 minutes, each course stresses my systems in different ways. What stood out, looking back, was how clearly the race demands showed up once I overlaid the data.
Xert summarizes this with something called Focus Duration – essentially a way of describing what kind of effort the race resembled. Races filled with short, punchy sprints tend to have a very short focus (think 2-4 minutes), while races with repeated VO2 max type climbs push that focus a bit longer (around 5–7 minutes). When the effort leans more on threshold, the focus stretches even further.
Another way to think of it is this: the shorter the focus, the more important it is to develop power well above FTP!
That explains why some Zwift races feel brutally hard despite not being long – you’re dipping into your high-intensity systems repeatedly, and doing threshold or sweet spot training alone won’t prepare you for that!
Looking back at my first round of ZRL races, what stood out was how different courses emphasized certain systems more than others. Two of the races pushed me toward a shorter, punchier 5-minute Focus duration – the kind of demand you’d expect from repeated surges, climbs, and short recoveries. Another race stretched out to an 8-minute Focus, leaning more heavily on sustained threshold power:
Example 1 – ZRL Coast Clash on Fine & Sandy – Short, Punchy Climbs
Eight separate ~1-minute climbs mixed with eight high-power sprints drained my HIE repeatedly – clearly visible in the orange and red segments of the MPA chart. The constant on-off surging produced a ~5-minute Focus Duration, very much a “Breakaway Specialist” type of demand where repeated high-power digs matter far more than a steady threshold effort.
Example 2: ZRL Coast Clash on Country to Coastal – Bunch Sprint Finish
This course had only a few short “selection” climbs, followed by long stretches of steadier, sub-threshold pacing. Outside of the final uphill kick, there weren’t many top-end sprints. As a result, the Focus Duration stretched to around ~8 minutes, leaning more heavily on Threshold Power rather than repeated high-intensity efforts. For longer, relatively flatter courses, FTP training is helpful!
Example 3: ZRL Coast Clash on Jarvis Seaside Sprint
Three laps of ~2-minute climbs, followed by strong pressure on the descents and rollers — and capped with a sprint finish – created another mix of High and Peak strain. Like Fine & Sandy, this race pulled my Focus Duration again towards the ~5-minute range, reflecting the repeated above-threshold efforts needed to stay with the pack.
Seeing this spread – two races pushing me toward a 5-minute focus and one toward an 8-minute focus – helped explain why some efforts felt so brutal. The races with repeated short climbs pushed my limits far more than I expected, and highlighted exactly why I need to train my High Intensity Energy system this winter.
Training to Match the Demands of the Racing
Now that I’ve reviewed how these races stressed different systems, my winter training has become much more targeted. With most of my Zwift events clustering around a ~5-minute Focus Duration, it’s clear that repeatable surges, short climbs, and high-intensity punches matter more for me right now than pure threshold work. A higher FTP will always help, of course – but it won’t replace the need to develop those above-threshold bursts and quick recoveries.
That’s what I find most useful about looking back at my race data: it isn’t about the software itself, but the process of honestly evaluating my own performances. Zwift provides the raw efforts; analysis tools simply help me understand why the race felt the way it did.
And at the end of the day, racing is training. I’ll keep lining up on Zwift this winter, making breaks, making mistakes & getting caught, and maybe even grabbing a podium spot if everything lines up. Each race becomes both a workout and a lesson, and I’ve come to look forward to a new race each week.
Takeaway
My first experience with ZRL proves that Zwift races are dynamic, punchy, and unforgiving – exactly the kind of environment where FTP training alone falls short. Understanding how the different parts of your fitness contribute to each race provides a richer picture of who you are as a rider and where you can improve.
Whether you rely on power profiles, your own testing, or a platform that analyzes racing data, the principle is the same: know your numbers and train with intention.
In the coming weeks, I’m excited to try another type of virtual racing – Zwift Ladder Races – and see how they fit into my winter training. I look forward to sharing those experiences and reflecting on how virtual racing continues to shape my fitness this season.
Ride fast, stay safe, and I’ll see you next time!
The post Zwift Racing: Training to Race Demands appeared first on PezCycling News.
