Zwift Academy Success Stories: Christina Hanson

Zwift Academy changed the way Christina Hanson thought about cycling.

Before she completed it, Hanson wasn’t sure what her strengths as a cyclist were – or if she really had any. She loved riding but had no interest in racing. She’d never really tried structured training before, mainly sticking to endurance events.

Now she trains with focus, joins races both indoors and out, and knows a lot more about herself.

“Zwift Academy definitely has pushed me in ways I wouldn’t have pushed myself if I had just done it on my own,” Hanson says. “I think you really learn who you are as a cyclist.”

Zwift Academy is a community training program and talent search. To graduate Zwift Academy Road 2021, participating cyclists will complete 6 structured workouts and 2 group rides within an 8-week timeframe. They’ll also do a baseline ride to see where they are at the start and a finish line ride to show how far they’ve come by the end. One man and one woman each year will earn a pro contract! Most riders, though, aren’t going for the contract and join for the training and the community.

To learn more about Zwift Academy Road and to enroll, click here.

Hanson, who lives in New Mexico, began cycling regularly in 2011 as a form of stress relief from graduate school.

She started riding on Zwift in December 2015, later joining the first Zwift Academy in 2016 but never finishing. Back then, the workouts were longer and there were more of them. Life got in the way, and she figured it wasn’t really for her, anyway.

“I thought this is for people going for the contract, and I’m not,” says Hanson. She adds with a laugh, “I’m just little Podunk me!”

When the Academy came around the next year, she decided to take a chance and try it. Hanson was curious to see if she could even make it through all the workouts. She made it to graduation! And she says she learned a ton.

“When you don’t have a lot of structured training, or you don’t have a reason to push yourself in each of the specific ways that the Academy tests you,” Hanson says, “you don’t really know things like, ‘This is what my sprint looks like.’ ‘This is what I can learn from these longer intervals.’ ‘This is really targeting my VO2 Max, and this is what that feels like.’”

Hanson, an indoor cycling instructor, even changed how she taught her spin class to become more focused on specific fitness benefits.

“It made me realize that with targeted and focused training, and learning where you excel and where you need to work, you become a better cyclist overall,” Hanson says.

New Frontiers

Hanson hadn’t really raced before, so she used Zwift Academy to ease herself into it.

“I thought, ‘Oh, I’m just going to try a time trial – it’s just me against myself,’” she recalls. “I remember really learning how far I could push myself, and how motivational it was to have people in front of me that I was trying to push to pass.”

Soon, Hanson was entering mass start races, using what she learned about group dynamics from the Zwift Academy group rides. She liked it so much that she eventually decided to take her racing outdoors.

“I’ve done endurance cycling events, but last year I entered a 50-mile race, which is crazy! I never would have done that before,” Hanson says.

That race went “awesome,” and she got an all-time best pace for a ride of that length and terrain!

With the help of free access to Today’s Plan during Zwift Academy, Hanson looked at graphs and tables that helped her understand her strengths and weaknesses. She could see that sprinting was not her strong suit, but she was good at longer time-trial style efforts. She decided to work more on her time trialing, and in just a year, she could see the difference that her training had made.

Hanson also began honing her real-life time trial skills, riding the same outdoor routes to lower her times. Her planned events this year were canceled, but next year she hopes to hit the road for some time trial races.

“Zwift Academy really forces you to rethink this idea of, ‘I’m not good enough to be a cyclist or do anything but ride slowly in my house,’” Hanson says. “It’s really forcing me to challenge myself, both indoors and outdoors.”

Graduating For Two

Hanson came back to the Academy every year – even while she was pregnant in 2019. This was a different sort of effort. Instead of pushing her limits, she was just trying to participate and maintain some fitness. Hanson lowered her FTP until she knew she could complete the workouts.

“It was super motivational to have something I could just complete,” she says. “I knew at that point I wasn’t going to be trying to improve my numbers. It was more like, ‘What can I do today?’ If I have to stop and get off, I stop and get off. If I can complete it, that’s a win for me right there.”

This also led to some ironic moments. Early in the Academy, she began posting “beer pairings” for each of the workouts in the Facebook group for fun (there’s a group for women and one for men). She wrote about each beer in detail and why it goes well with the workout – best consumed when you’re done, of course.

Then she found out she was pregnant, and she couldn’t drink any of the beers she poetically described!

“Having the Academy community and structure was really motivational, especially at the start, because it helped me continue what I could do,” Hanson says. “I felt like continuing that workout background and continuing aerobic exercise was keeping myself healthy, mentally and physically.”

Now, as a working mother (she’s a postdoctoral researcher in chemistry and material science), she says the workouts are great for fitting training into a tight schedule.

Community Spirit

For those who are new to Zwift Academy, Hanson wants them to know, “You’re stronger than you think you are.”

“At the end of the day, it’s you against you,” she says. “Do it for yourself, and just see where you are. You’re going to be good at something.”

That doesn’t mean you have to do it in isolation, though! The Zwift Academy community is an important part of the experience, and they’ll cheer you on no matter where you are.

Hanson says she notices lots of new people every year, and they don’t quite know what to expect from the Academy. But riders help each other learn, and everyone goes through it together, whatever their fitness level or experience.

What about the ones going for the contract? They’re a part of the same community she loves.

She remembers a rider named Ella Harris cruising around with her in a social group ride. Harris went on to win the pro contract with Canyon//SRAM Racing! Hanson thought it was “super cool” that someone who had made it to the World Tour had been riding alongside her, along with people of all ages and fitness levels.

“Do it to challenge yourself,” she says. “And do it to be part of the community, because it’s a community unlike anything else I’ve ever experienced.”

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