5 Tips for Riding on Zwift.

By: Coach Paul Ozier

Just as you would when you head out the door for a ride, you need to make sure you are prepared when you ride inside. But once you have your setup dialed in, it’s literally a breeze cranking out an indoor training ride. Check out my 5 Tips for Riding on Zwift, to make your next training ride a little more enjoyable.

5 Tips for Riding on Zwift

#1 Load up Zwift early! – 30 minutes before the ride starts. 

Zwift does a lot of updates to keep everything going smoothly, and some of these can take several minutes. This also should give you some time to do a warmup workout that is appropriate for your event (10-15 minutes), followed by that last minute bathroom break.

#2 Read the actual ride description. 

Ride leaders put specifics that will override a possible default Zwift power range, or ride length/duration. An example is the ‘event’ is a 1-hour workout…but after the workout we continue as a free ride group for another hour. Or maybe the event has a secret code or question in the description for a prize or two. Read those details.

#3 Grab extra towels, water, ride food, etc. Be prepared. 

Make a checklist and keep it near your Zwift setup. No sense spending tons of money on that ultimate setup, only to forget that $5 water bottle full of your event calories. Have extra on hand close by. Your indoor setup should include a table or desk close enough that you can grab some extra fuel if needed. Hunter really enjoys using the Saris TD1 Trainer Desk. This desk is adjustable and sits right in front of you keeping everything right where you need it when you need it. No more struggling trying to reach for an extra energy bar, or to adjust a setting in Zwift.

#4 Prepare for your indoor workouts just like you do for outdoor workouts. Fuel, hydration, etc.

Just like you would for any other ride, make sure you prepare for your workout. Eat what you would normally eat before a ride. Stretch! It is so important to stretch out before your ride. This should also include preparing your environment. Make sure everything is ready to go before you get on your bike. Do you have your fans on? One of the most important parts and most overlooked aspect of any indoor training setup is airflow. Do you have fans close by that you can adjust to keep you cool? One thing Hunter always talks about for indoor training is to make sure you are not thermally stressing your body and overheating. Check out this video where Hunter goes over his indoor training setup.

#5 Most importantly, why did you choose today’s workout or event? 

What is your goal/purpose for this decision? How does it affect the rest of the week, or your long-term goals? Stick to the plan. Stay disciplined and committed. I see way too often an athlete jumps on Zwift, sees tons of hammerfest going on, and they simply throw everything out the window and do random stuff, trashing their body again in the gray zone of plateaued training. Focus on the focus! Commit to a determined practice!

Meet Coach Paul Ozier

How did you get into cycling?

Cycling started when I was 15 or 16 years old. Just my brother and a few friends were always riding. I remember riding our bikes to school when I was in 5th or 6th grade…a whopping 4 miles each way! Somewhere along the way I got a copy of cycling magazine. I was captivated by all the cool bikes, races, etc. Somehow a seed was planted. I never looked back.

What is your role at PCG?

At PCG I am an Elite/Master Coach. I coach remote athletes online as well as in person. I come to the various PCG Camps and play mechanic and coach. Camps are great! I do mechanic work both before and after the training rides, as well as ride with the athletes. Long days, but very satisfying and fun! I also am one of the main coaches that lead the PCG Zwift Training Rides.

Other than cycling, what are some of your hobbies?

Hobbies include ham radio, flightsim, and a slew of other outdoor activities like hiking, camping, anything outside is good 🙂

Favorite coaching experience with an athlete?

It is hard to pick a favorite coaching experience. There have been so many great moments. Seeing athletes win an event or get on the podium is always a super moment. Coaching athletes in person is a blast. I was in Sint Maarten a few years ago with an athlete. She won her National Championship in the TT event. That was very happy day 🙂

WARNING: ZWIFTING CAN BE HAZARDOUS TO YOUR HEALTH


Last year I raced on Zwift all winter. By the time March came & the weather broke… I was OVERTRAINED! My whole year was screwed up & a roller coaster as I never recovered!?

I cannot repeat that mistake.

Can you help me in designing a sensible training plan that I can use Zwift, but do workouts and make sure I am strong in March/April/May?

We all love to train and improve, that’s one of the reasons you are on this mailing list!  Our goal as cycling coaches is to share our knowledge, so that you can shortcut through years of trial and error and achieve your goals using your available time.  We are all time constrained and that’s one of the reasons that indoor riding has become so popular.  It allows you to train whenever you can, regardless of weather, time of day or where you live.  Zwift and other indoor apps have been incredible in providing “Trainertainment” and gone are the days when I used to ride in the basement on the rollers, starting a concrete wall beside the cat litter box!  

With our new indoor training tools, the temptation to just race inside Zwift or ride hard everyday is strong, but this is a mistake. Riding hard or racing 5-6x a week inside a virtual world is a recipe for disaster as not only will you not be training the energy systems correctly, you risk riding poorly when the spring comes and you can ride outdoors.   You see, our bodies don’t like continual stress.  We need rest, we need a progressive ramp up of intensity and we need the correct combination of volume with intensity.   Just riding as hard as you can indoors everyday is not a plan for success. It’s no plan.   If you do not have a plan for success, then you are planning for failure.   

If you do not have a plan for success, then you are planning for failure. 

We can help you plan for success using your indoor training apps!   All of our coaches use them as well, and designing a plan using these new popular indoor training tools, coaching you along the way, riding with you in a virtual world, all of that is part of becoming a coached athlete here at PCG.   Let us help you MAKE 2022 great!

–Hunter Allen

Bike Maintenance in the Age of Extended Indoor Training…That Sweat tho!

By PCG Associate Coach, Rachel Zambrano

With the new normal of Covid-19, many of us are driven indoors, and the major online companies such as Zwift are reporting huge surges in membership subscriptions.

But as we move indoors for extended periods of time, our bikes are developing new patterns of use and abuse, and we need to recognize that.  Personally, I’ve baffled my local bike shop twice with a front brake that has seized up!

Pssssssttt….  Here’s the gross part:   I did it with sweat.

Indoor Sweat destroying brake

Yeah, I know – nothing new.  We’ve all seen the pictures of rusted out base bars and head tubes due to athlete sweat.  It’s toxic.  That acid they used in the Alien movies to eat through just about everything?  They got it from us.  What is new and needs to be addressed is where our bikes are getting destroyed.

Let’s start with the front brake…  My entire front brake was seized up – mainly from the collection of sweat that was allowed to dry, over, and over again.  Pretty soon the spring and the moving parts could no longer spring or move anymore.  Since it wasn’t something the shop was used to seeing, the next logical step was to replace the brake.  

I’m stubborn, AND cheap: I took the brake off, took it apart, and since nothing was rusted beyond repair, I was able to clean everything up, re-lubricate moving parts, and rebuild it.  I put the brake back on and *voila* just like new.  Kind of.

I put out a post on social media when I realized that what I was seeing was a new pattern of destruction, and quite a few pictures and stories started coming back.

Rear Brakes

Second verse, same as the first.  This is worse if you have rear v-brakes, mounted just behind the bottom bracket.  Again, cotton swabs and chain oil help, but if the brake is bad, you’ll need to remove it to clean hard to reach areas.

Pedals and Shoes

With the exception of riding in a rainstorm, rarely do you see shoes full of water when riding outside.  Inside, it’s an entirely different story. 

I recently stripped part of the sole of a pair of cycling shoes while attempting to the replace the cleats.  Sweat had rusted the cleat bolts into the nut that was molded to the sole of the shoe.  Quite an expensive mistake.  When looking at the pedals, they can get quite sticky, and the cleat release becomes stubborn.  In this case, I was able to work the screws and use some light chain lube to get everything moving the way it should, but in the future, I’ll be paying closer attention to those details.

Headsets and Stem

These are the normal casualties of war.  However, a problem elsewhere indicates you need to check these as well.  Make sure you take the bar tape off every year and replace it; every six months if you’re a high volume cyclist.  Check the headset every few months, and make sure you don’t see any evidence of rust.  You’ll know if sweat is collecting inside that area if you see it – replace and grease before you put everything back together.
Front Hubs

While everything should be sealed, sweat eats everything and gets into everything.  When it gets into moving parts repeatedly and dries, and the front wheel doesn’t go anywhere but the pain cave, you can expect that front hub to feel pretty awful during actual movement.  Cotton swabs moistened with chain oil can help to remove grime that collects here, but make sure no cotton gets left behind.

Cables and Cable Housing

Think of this as the gutter lines for your bike – cables can wick sweat in and start corroding those all-important brake or derailleur cables.  The worst part is, you can’t see it or feel it until you take the bike outside and need those cables.  I’ve gotten into the habit of adding a bit of grease at either end of the cable housing when I’m running new cables, and occasionally using a light chain lube on the cables then working them through to prevent this, but if you’re a heavy sweater, this is something you’ll need to address.  You may need to run new cables every few months – but safety is something that should always come first.

Bottom Bracket

This is also supposed to be sealed, but repeated applications of sweat, allowed to dry, will cause problems to develop here too.

Moral of the story?

Indoor training means more sweat on the bike, more sweat on the bike means more destruction.  Clean the bike.  Clean it.  And did I mention CLEAN THE BIKE?  Five extra minutes after every training session can prevent expensive repairs.

My favorite tools for cleaning the bike happened by accident: baby wipes and tooth picks.    After getting two minions out of diapers (three years ago), my house had an overabundance of baby wipes.  So what do we do with all those baby wipes?  I put them in my ever-growing tool kit for bicycle maintenance.  If you decide to go the baby wipe route, you’ll want to make sure they’re the lint free version so they don’t leave cotton in moving parts (bad ju-ju).  The toothpicks work very well for hard to reach areas when grit and grime gets in and you can’t reach it, but they’re soft enough that you don’t scratch the paint or risk doing damage.

So here’s my personal plug for taking care of your bike: Start getting personal with your bike.  Get intimate.  Learn how your bike fits together and where the sweat hides.  You’ll be surprised to find out just how many places the bike can be damaged by sweat.  Watch a lot of YouTube videos and read the manual on your bike.  Start taking the components off and cleaning them, then put them back on. 

Pro tip: take pictures every step of the way – even if you think you can remember how that part goes or if you’ve done it before – if a screw falls out you’ll want to know exactly where it went.

PCG Coach Rachel

If the parts need cleaning bad enough that they might need to be replaced, you can’t usually mess things up badly enough that the bike shop can’t fix them.  In the process, you learn.  I’ve lost count of the times I’ve shown up (with breakfast tacos or coffee) when the shop opens with a bike that needs a derailleur adjusted, a chain fitted, or a bottom bracket pressed in, when I haven’t had the tools or the know-how.  Learn the names of the people behind the service and repair counter, and get to know them.  

They’ll be your biggest advocates and teach you the tricks to bicycle maintenance you won’t find on the internet or in a book or manual.  I’m happy to pay for service and parts just so that they’ll teach me.  The result is that I can handle most mechanical problems when I’m away from the shop, and don’t have to be without a bike for long very often.

In closing – clean and maintain your bike.  There are safety issues that can arise indoors that can surprise you when you go outside, but a clean and maintained bike is also less expensive in the long run.

Rachel “Ruby Zambrano” is a Peaks Coaching Group Elite Coach. She lives in Cedar Park, TX and Her focus is on Triathletes and Runners. Click Here to learn more about Rachel.