Dear ALL!
I’m new of the team
I’ve recently created a new personal plan with Coach Jack.How can I understand if the workout (outdoor) must be done on flat road or on the climb road??
Thank you
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Hi Antonio. Almost anything other than zone 1/2 is best on climbs… All intervals… but yes it would be nice if we indicated this more clearly. Unless you live in Girona (well Italy has good climbs too 
Then finding the perfect place to execute workouts can be challenging.
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Hi Antonio,
I live in the Nehterlands. Finding anything that goes uphill is a real challenge. I do a lot of my intervals outside on flat roads. The only work-out that is almost impossible to do on a flat road is SFR or DF.
When I want to climbs I ride indoors. You should also look from the perspective of your goal. What do you need to aomplish your goal?
If you want to do the Maratona Dolomiti, you want to go climbing, indoors or outdoors. If you want to do Gent- Wevelgem in Belgium it is less important. You can find some short hills anywere.
Have fun, Coach Robert
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Dear Alex and Dear Robert,
sorry for my late reply but right now I relized your comments …
Alex is so nice that you do not skip any our question …we feel like “pampered”
Thank you again and I hope to ride a lot with all of you
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I say both and, of course, on the trainer too.
There is a benefit from experiencing the difference in performing intervals on the flat and on climbs.
It is about the effect on the pedal stroke of inertia / kinetic energy, position on the bike and more.
Unless the intensity is so high that, on the flat, you would spin out during the interval, or going into the rest period, most intervals can be done well on the flat and on climbs of varying steepness.
I won’t to link to it (because I think that would be rude on this forum), but in the TrainerRoad youtube video 3 July 2025 with Hannah Otto, this is discussed.
From about 1h04m20s to 1h15m15s the discussion is on this topic and it is interesting to hear their perspectives.
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Hi Antonio,
Wasn’t sure if you were still looking for any help with this. You may not be asking about this, but if you are, TD has the ability to import a GPX or TCX file in the workout creator. This sort of touches on Robert’s post of finding hills to do workouts on.
You could create a real-world route from a map like in Komoot, or RidewithGPS and then send that to TD to create a workout and simulate a particular route, say a famous climb so you can do a workout on the trainer based on the real-world slope/grade data of a hill. You would want a cassette on the trainer instead of a Zwift cog as you are likely going to have to shift gears.
I have not yet done this as my particular situation hasn’t progressed to the level yet, but I am interested in doing this, especially for MAF tests in the future. Maybe someone who has done this can chime in if there are any questions or details on how to exactly execute it.
If you want to ride real world routes biketerra is really good, it takes the rgt magic roads up a few levels.
Dave