Beginner cyclist & Zwift newbie vs. the 12 week “Build Me Up” training plan

Last summer I got into mountain biking, and so did the spouse. Technically it’s been a few years since venturing offroad for the very first time (at least for me), but this past year was the first consistent season of riding, and first year of feeling somewhat confident out on the trails. I also became more aware of the tech and culture of both mtb and road cycling, and was naturally drawn in by the Zwift ads that eventually bordered and preceded anything I viewed online. In December, we acquired a Wahoo kickr snap smart trainer so we could keep our fitness up. I personally had ambitious goals, and after a couple months of feeling out Zwift and partaking in some open races, I looked into what training plans the program had to offer.

I was looking for something that was at least 6 weeks long. This journey began in the second half of February, so I was fine with spreading it out even longer to reach what should be riding season in Ontario, Canada. The “Build Me Up” plan peaked my interest immediately, and looked quite variable workout to workout, so I knew I’d definitely improve physically and hopefully learn a few new concepts and tactics to work on my skills.

This plan would demand dedicating an average of about 5 hours per week over 12 weeks to the bike, and it seemed gradual enough for this beginner to test their ability without over-training (at least based on my perceived fitness level). However, road riding as a discipline was totally new to me, and a specific world of fitness I haven’t dabbled in before. Even your everyday basic interval training was new to me on a bike (though not in a gym setting). I didn’t understand what cadence or watts were. Power to weight meant nothing and I had no heart rate monitor or clipless pedals to help me out in ERG mode, whatever that even was. So who am I anyway, and how did I come to this conclusion of wanting to invest so much of my time and effort (and money) into suffering for fun?

My name is Brittany. I like bikes but I’m 30 and fairly new to it. I’m also okay at it, which I think is a bit weird because I never grew up active or fit, just a tiny, scrawny, sedentary being not interested in pushing myself at all physically for most of my existence. I entered a gym 6 years ago for the very first time. To me, it was just a branch off my interest in less socially accepted forms of body modification (that I have also written about), and it helped me cope with a bit of a sad life in its own way. My brother is into fitness and body building, and taught myself and my partner a lot. We both enjoyed gyming it 6 days a week for quite some time, and our hard work definitely showed as the weeks and months went by. Without any goals in mind, and a general feeling of disconnect with the lifestyle and social atmosphere that help describe gym rats, I fell out of love with consistency in that routine. The last couple years have been sporadic, hitting the gym for a few months here and there and a lot less intensely (naturally I chose to do a demanding body building workload initially), but I still loved my bike throughout, which I picked up on my own in my earlier 20s, doing solo rides 20 to 40km long here and there on a paved path alongside the local canal. I taught myself how to ride when I was around 8 years old, but only rode on rare occasion with my brother and/or cousin as a teen and older. My current trail bike is my first real bike, which I took on many journeys as the stock, second hand, entry-level hardtail it met me as. A 2014 kona lana’i (pictured below) that a 12 year old owned. Barely a year old then, still had little hairs on the stock tires. I also didn’t drive back then, so I rode the bike around town and to the gym when I was still going solo consistently. I loved it regardless of what I was doing. Being out, self propelled, just enjoying the fresh air and seasonally changing scenery and wildlife. The canal isn’t super exciting in terms of gradient changes, and there are some pretty rough areas, dodgy for hard efforts on a typical road bike despite how straight a lot of it is, but for a beginner who has serious confidence issues, this helped me a lot to learn how to control a bike properly and safely.

I talked the spouse into getting a bike so he could show me how to ride trails (he who is a generally confident person with more experience growing up), and he got hooked, so it was easy to get out and want to ride even more, which led to getting better. Bike upgrades which began last summer also helped. I managed to get a decent looking and functioning trail bike out of some second hand parts and affordable new components, and it was hard to believe it was the same bike. My goal this past winter was to get fit for cycling outdoors during the warmer months, and hopefully have that lead to overall gains in my performance on the trails with more strength and practice.

Week 1 of the Build Me Up plan began with a benchmark test. I had done my first FTP (functional threshold power) test not long before this program began to know what Zwift said my hour power ability was (so the workouts would be more tailored to my current fitness level). 146 watts was my starting FTP, down slightly from it’s previous guess gathered from other riding efforts in game, but I struggled during the warmup and definitely throughout the 20 minute full gas effort which likely did not help.

Workouts felt a bit easy to start, but I didn’t change my number manually right away. I struggled with ERG mode first week just to realize that it was actually off and in incline mode instead (ERG mode forces you to put out an exact level of power in watts no matter how fast you spin, which is good for structured workouts like these on an indoor trainer). Once that was figured out, I learned it was hard to do high cadence and drastically transition to slower spinning with flat pedals. Clipless pedals helped a lot later on. As weeks progressed, I noticed the training load on my body, and my fitness and strength improving. But at week 9, it became hard to put out an effort. My heart rate was elevated and I felt weak. I chose to cut out a few workouts for rest or for gentler rides in week 10 and 11 and it benefit me in week 12 for my second FTP test, where I performed quite consistently during my 20 minute full-gas effort and hit the 200 watt target I hoped for.

This next section shows screenshots of my weeks in the order I did each workout and their details. I’ll talk a little about how each of my weeks went; the ups and downs and things I learned as well as improvements I made to feel more comfortable and improve my fitness and abilities on an indoor trainer. Skip through the screenshots if you’re not interested, to the next section where I discuss how it helped me out on the trails, the road, and my recent first trip to Whistler bike park. And of course to see some photos of my Zwift setup, my first road bike that I began this journey on as well as my new one, and some other bike related things.

My height is 5’1″(155cm) and I weigh 105 pounds (48 kg) for the curious.

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Week 1, February 18th

Began with a benchmark test. Ended up doing the entire week without ERG mode on.

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Week 2, February 25th

Learned about the benefit of high cadence but didn’t have clipless pedals yet, cadence sensor was brand new. Did two open races this week as well. FTP increased during second race to 155.

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Week 3, March 4th

One open race on top of prescribed workouts, still felt good enough that I questioned the FTP Zwift was giving me.

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Week 4, March 11th

Raised FTP manually 5 watts to 160, first failure during Purple Unicorn, acquired clipless shoes and pedals, and did a quick trail ride on weekend.

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Week 5, March 18th

Struggled a lot during Escalation, did okay otherwise. Noticed how much better my steady state efforts were over sprints and everything else for that matter.

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Week 6, March 25th

Readjusted positioning of bars/stack height and saddle for more comfort. Had decent week despite disconnection in last 10 minutes of first workout of week.

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Week 7, April 1st

Had to slow cadence to complete Kirizuma, didn’t make it through Cucumber properly either.

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Week 8, April 8th

Easy week even with the first two hour long workout popping up. Did some extra light riding on top of program outdoors.

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Week 9, April 15th

Did microbursts for first time. Struggled during other workouts and failed Mosiac very early.

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Week 10, April 22nd

Struggled right away at beginning of week, ended up skipping Exemplar, Serrated, and Exigent but did two gentler pavement rides in real world.

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Week 11, April 29th

Performed better this week, noticed trainer calibration pickiness a bit more. Skipped Aspire and Tenacity to keep workload down after previous week but went for a trail ride on weekend.

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Week 12, May 6th

Enjoyed a calmer week leading to FTP test. Always get a bit nervous when power is important for some reason but I hit the range I hoped for.

My Zwift setup started in the living room. We moved into a home not long before we bought the trainer, and only had 1 television. Once the bike cave acquired one, it moved into that space. I started on my blue entry level road bike and finished the entire training program on it, even though I purchased a newer (and smaller) model within the final two weeks.

After this 12 week program, I feel noticeably fitter both in every day life and out on my bikes. I wasn’t particularly unfit before this, but I noticed my weaknesses greatly out on the trails the previous summer and hoped this program could help, and it most definitely has. I am able to do climbs without feeling like I’m suffocating, and can keep a more demanding pace longer. I don’t feel worn out nearly as much after rides, meaning I can ride a lot more often and for longer durations. High cadence has become my friend after not even knowing what it was. And some of my segment times on Strava aren’t half bad, either. This level of cardio related fitness was far from needed while riding downhill for the first time at Whistler bike park 6 weeks after I completed this program, but I was glad to see that my hard work paid off on the local trails and roads and that I’d be prepared for all of this season’s riding disciplines. Being more fit allows me to overcome some of my other riding pitfalls, but also gives me a chance to be able to work on them better and with more confidence. Riding season has gotten off to a bit of a slow start here in Southern Ontario due to heavy rain, but thanks to Zwift I didn’t have to wait to become the most fit I’ve ever been on my bike.

If you have Strava, look me up. I post nearly all of my rides and use it as a bit of a journal too, so you can see how this program went in more depth or just to peek at my stats this year or for a recent ride, which I still do frequently. I only signed up about a year ago (already into last years riding season) so my data doesn’t track back as far as when I began riding, but it shows a decent amount from when I became more consistent.