ROUVY is the virtual reality indoor cycling app, here to make indoor training fun and engaging. Using immersive videos, when you ride on ROUVY you can explore real life routes around the world without leaving home. From the rugged scenery of New Zealand to the iconic climbs of Mallorca. It’s the ultimate cycling escapism, especially when it’s cold and dark outdoors.
And while it’s perfectly fine to enjoy the platform to just enjoy the novelty of riding all over the world, without the expensive air fares. There’s so much more the platform can offer when it comes to really dialling in your cycling training so you can get fitter, faster and stronger. From understanding the different modes, to setting your FTP accurately for workouts and training plans. This is your go-to guide to getting the most out of training on ROUVY.
Understanding the different modes in ROUVY: Just Ride vs Time Trial
Once you start riding in ROUVY, you’ll notice there are different mode options to pick from when you pick a route: Just Ride and Time Trial. Which mode you pick will depend on a few factors including the aim of your ride, the intended training intensity… and how competitive you’re feeling. We’ll talk you through the differences to help you know which mode to pick in ROUVY, and when.
Just Ride mode
Think of Just Ride mode as the indoor equivalent of your easy, endurance weekend ride. You can explore routes at your own pace, hit pause whenever you like and even teleport to different parts of the route by moving your pin on the map if there are specific sections you want to check out but you haven’t got time to ride the entire thing. For the longer routes on ROUVY, you can also ride them in sections and save your progress when you ride in Just Ride mode.
If you’re looking for a chilled out ride, at your own pace with the ability to pause the route or even hop back on and finish it another day. Just Ride is the mode for you. It’s worth noting though, that completing routes in Just Ride mode can mean they don’t count towards your ROUVY career – the gamified ‘levelling up’ element of the platform.
Adjusting the reality level – what does that mean?
Another benefit of Just Ride mode is that you have the ability to adjust the realism of the route. This means you can essentially make a tough climb out in the real world, a bit easier on the legs when you ride it on ROUVY. Lowering the reality level makes any given route easier. Likewise, increasing the reality level will make it more difficult. It’s a useful tool to be able to have greater control over the intensity of your ride.
As a default, the reality level is set to 100% when you select a route – meaning the trainer resistance matches the resistance you’d feel going up the gradients in real life as closely as possible. Just note that if you adjust the reality level, your ride may be excluded from certain challenges and your efforts won’t count towards segment leaderboards. After all, it wouldn’t be fair to be awarded the KOM/QOM on Sa Calobra if you’d made it as easy as possible for yourself!
Time Trial mode
Time Trial mode is your competitive mode. When you ride in Time Trial mode, you’re essentially having a race – be it against the clock, against yourself, or against others during an event. The aim is to complete the full route you’ve selected, as quickly as possible.
In Time Trial mode, you can’t hit pause on the route and you can’t move your pin to teleport your avatar around to different sections of the route. Once you hit go, you’ve got to ride the full route to the end if you want it to count towards your personal records and leaderboards. Of course you can just hit stop and save before you finish – you just won’t be able to return to the point where you exited to continue on at a later date.
Drafting on ROUVY – not available in Time Trial mode
You can benefit from the watt-savings of drafting behind another rider in ROUVY, just like you can out in the real world (unless you’re doing a draft-illegal triathlon of course!)
The drafting feature is activated by default in Just Ride and Race modes, but it’s turned off in time trial mode – where the effort is all on you. While riding in Just Ride/Race mode, once you’re close behind another riders wheel you’ll see a display of the % of watts your saving through drafting on the screen.
You can switch drafting off if you’d prefer, by hitting the yellow settings button when you’re picking a route. From here you can also increase or reduce the number of ghost riders (augmented reality 3D generated avatars who’ll stick with you for the entire ride).
ROUVY workouts and training plans
A key benefit of indoor cycling is the ability to get really specific with your training, targeting specific energy systems and working on targeted weak points in your riding to become a better cyclist. ROUVY has a range of workouts, which you can find underneath ‘routes’ and ‘events’ in your home screen.
Workouts can be filtered by the amount of time it will take to complete it, or by the intended training effect. For example, improving your VO2 max or working on your climbing skills. The ‘Getting Started’ workout collection is a great place to start if you’re new to completing workouts on the turbo trainer. These will be challenging, but not so difficult it puts you off.
During the workout, you’ll get your data in real time – your average power output, cadence and heart rate and your effort level.
Alongside the ability to pick and choose from a variety of workouts to suit your schedule. You also have the option to follow a dedicated training plan – a great option if you want to add structure to your bike training and it’s not possible for you to work with your own coach. Like the workouts, the training plans cater for a range of abilities and goals. You’ll be able to check out how many hours a week you’d need to dedicate to completing the plan, and how long the plan will last.
To get the most out of workouts and training plans on ROUVY, it’s essential that your FTP is accurate to ensure you are working at the correct intensity.
FTP: What is it, and why is it important to set yours accurately to benefit from ROUVY workouts?
FTP stands for Functional Threshold Power. In cycling, power is a data metric used to measure the amount of ‘power’ (force) that you are pushing your through pedals – expressed in watts. Your FTP is the maximum amount of power you would be able to sustain for one hour on the bike. It’s a way to measure your cycling fitness. As your fitness improves, your FTP will get higher – meaning you can push harder and ride faster. If you have to take some time off the bike, your FTP will usually drop down.
Knowing your FTP is useful because it enables you to ensure you’re riding at the correct intensity for different types of rides. For example, if you were heading out for a 2 hour ride – you’d need to be riding at power output lower than your FTP, otherwise you’d blow up after an hour. Whereas if you were completing short 30 second high intensity intervals, you’d want to be aiming to go above your FTP in order to get the benefit of the workout.
This is why it’s important to set your FTP accurately in ROUVY to get the most benefit out of the various workouts and training programs. If your FTP is set too high, the workouts will be far too demanding for your current fitness level and you’ll be setting yourself up to fail – and risk getting injured. On the flip side, if your FTP is set too low then the workouts won’t be challenging enough and you won’t see any significant improvements in your cycling fitness.
How to do an FTP test on ROUVY
The good news is, you haven’t got to jump on your bike and ride as hard as you possibly can for 60 minutes to find out what your FTP is. ROUVY has 2 types of FTP test workouts you can complete to find out your functional threshold power. These are located in the workouts library in the FTP tests folder.
We’d recommend doing one of these soon after joining the platform, so you can be confident you’re training at the right intensity. Plus, after a few weeks you can do the test again to get a measure of how much you’ve improved.
Ramp test on ROUVY
The first type of FTP test is a ramp test. A little bit like the beep test in running, the ramp test is a workout that gradually increases in difficulty. The target power output increases every minute, and the aim of the game is to keep making your way up the ramp (holding the target power) until you reach the point of failure. Once you can’t push the watts anymore, the test is complete.
The highest 1 minute average power you were able to hold during the test is then multiplied by 0.75 to calculate your estimated one hour FTP.
There are two ramp test workouts on ROUVY, the regular ramp test and then the Ramp Test Lite which is designed for riders under 70kg.
20 minute FTP test
The other option to find out your FTP on ROUVY is the classic 20 minute FTP test. There are two options on the platform – one with a 5 minute warm up and one with a 10 minute warm up. If time allows, we’d recommend opting for the longer warm up.
In the 20 minute test, you ride as hard as you can at a sustained power output for 20 minutes. Pacing is key – if you go too hard in the first 5 minutes and then have to drop off significantly, the test result won’t be accurate. Once the 20 minutes it over, the average power you held is then multiplied by 0.95 to give you a one hour FTP value.
Should I do a ramp test or a 20 minute FTP test?
A ramp test is generally seen as the lesser of two evils when it comes to testing your FTP, because as soon as it gets really tough – you stop. However, because you only have to hold the top end power for 1 minute there are some schools of thought that suggest the FTP reading you get from a ramp test might be a little higher than you’d actually be able to sustain in practice. The 20 minute test may produce a more accurate result, but it’s a pretty tough workout.
TOP TIP
Creating and importing custom workouts into ROUVY
If you’re working with a coach or following a triathlon training plan, completing your prescribed workouts on the turbo trainer is often the easiest way to get the job done. You can make things even easier by adding your own custom workouts into ROUVY so you haven’t got to remember what intervals you’re supposed to be doing – you just focus on riding while ROUVY tells you what to do.
If you have a workout file pre-created, you can import this into ROUVY by heading to the workouts tab and then scrolling down to ‘add your own workout’ and tapping ‘import from file’. You can only upload .mrc, .erg and .zwo files. If your workout isn’t in a compatible format, you can also use the ‘create workout’ tool located next to the important button to build the workout yourself.
