Cycling
The virtual confetti has fallen to the ground and I'm kicking around balloons and wondering what to do next...
It was hectic in the final weeks of the Academy. I was so close to finishing, but running out of time to fit it all in around life and holidays I had planed months ago.
There was a little added stress with work throwing in some unplanned travel that meant I was either getting up early or staying up late for the final workouts.
Just to add to the tension, Zwift sent an update out the day before the final workout was due and it changed the naming structure of the workout files, so my last qualifying workout did not auto register. I was trying to stay calm and did not raise a support ticket until the next day - hoping that it would be identified and resolved before I woke up the next morning.
In the end I did it and I was 1 of only 15 women from Australia that completed the qualifying stage. Considering how crazy busy I have been (didn't even have time to write the update blog posts) I am really happy that I completed it and saw a measurable improvement in my fitness.
Thanks to all the women who joined in, did double day work outs, shared their stories online and bad jokes on the Thursday night AEST workouts.
MASSIVE CONGRATULATIONS to the 10 women who were selected to go to the next round. I wish them the very best and will be following their journey onward in the academy.
A little more on the selection process from the panel of expert judges:
Zwift Academy Graduation
The virtual confetti has fallen to the ground and I'm kicking around balloons and wondering what to do next...
It was hectic in the final weeks of the Academy. I was so close to finishing, but running out of time to fit it all in around life and holidays I had planed months ago.
There was a little added stress with work throwing in some unplanned travel that meant I was either getting up early or staying up late for the final workouts.
Just to add to the tension, Zwift sent an update out the day before the final workout was due and it changed the naming structure of the workout files, so my last qualifying workout did not auto register. I was trying to stay calm and did not raise a support ticket until the next day - hoping that it would be identified and resolved before I woke up the next morning.
In the end I did it and I was 1 of only 15 women from Australia that completed the qualifying stage. Considering how crazy busy I have been (didn't even have time to write the update blog posts) I am really happy that I completed it and saw a measurable improvement in my fitness.
Thanks to all the women who joined in, did double day work outs, shared their stories online and bad jokes on the Thursday night AEST workouts.
MASSIVE CONGRATULATIONS to the 10 women who were selected to go to the next round. I wish them the very best and will be following their journey onward in the academy.
A little more on the selection process from the panel of expert judges:
Identifying the 10 semi-finalists was a long and comprehensive process that was meant to ensure selection of the most fitting and top performing ZA riders. Starting with the results of the FTP tests, we identified a list of top performers. The first filter we then applied was w/kg which, while not perfect, helped us identify riders who were capable of racing at the World Tour level.
If a rider made it through the first two checks, we then verified the Zwift test performances using various inputs:
* performances on ZA group rides and workouts,
* Strava and TrainingPeaks data (outdoor rides),
* power at HR,
* power sources, etc
Once test results were verified, we dug deeper to get a more complete picture of each athlete. This included extensive research on each contender: race results, Google searches, questionnaires and more. If a rider showed up on the roster of a pro team, they were deemed ineligible as per ZA criteria. In short, we used a combination of objective and subjective screening that we believe left us with a well defined and deserving top 10.
