Looks good Chef. When I’ve got some energy again I’ll give it a go.

I felt that replicating that workout inside Trainerroad was an excellent use of my time at work today…. We’ll see how it goes tonight.

Just managed to batter myself through an hour of Sufferfest after Tuesday night’s DNF.

Really feeling it after a couple of weeks off, thought a rest was supposed to be a good thing?!

Farkety! Someone looked at my data from my last couple of rides (outside) and advised I up my FTP, not a lot but it certainly felt like it tonight! Got myself a turbo now so sprints are easier now (for better or worse….) and I’m not as worried about falling off it!

Before I launch the Mrs’ laptop, is anyone else having bother with the program stalling? Seems to happen mostly on the rest sections and then catch itself up just before an interval starts but sometimes doesn’t and a rewind is reqd, seemed bad tonight had to knock it back twice.

That RTRC workout looks an interesting one. Not overly keen on short sprints on the turbo though, either too low a gear and spinning out or too high a gear and by the time I get going the interval is over. Only have down tube shifters on the turbo bike, maybe STI’s would help.

Still trying to get some steady turbo time in here, went for Holt Hill. 90 mins of tempo intervals, not too bad on the boredom scale.

Yeah that’s one I transferred over, same guy who advised upping my FTP gave it to me, waaaay to complicated for an idiot like myself to follow off a piece of paper and a stopwatch! Felt physically sick after that one, short full on sprints def aren’t my thing. I tend to just leave it in the gear I’m going to sprint in.

Ramp test next week 🙁

I find anything over an hour is too much for my pain/boredom threshold so well done on that one.

I’ve managed to complete the Sweet Spot Base I programme (6 weeks) and did an unofficial 8 minute test at the end of this evening’s session (90 minute 6×8 min sweet spot intervals). I almost killed myself, but I reckon I’ve improved my FTP by some margin. I’ll do an official 8 min test on Monday (bleurgh!). Hope this is worth it!

Carson the other night, which was ok for an hour. Actually got out on the bike for a real proper ride on the real proper roads yesterday, thankfully I could still remember how to steer!

Going for a 90 minuter tonight and used the stw team for inspiration. It’s going to be beacon or tioga. Probably beacon then tioga next week.

Just attempted Palisade at the new FTP – couldn’t complete it even after knocking it down to 95%. I blame a 100km ride yesterday and not enough food today! I’m hoping it gets easier!

First few rides after knocking up your FTP setting are always bloody hard work! It does get easier.

Abandoned session here tonight. Blobby jr just wouldn’t settle and after numerous stop/starts it was just too late in the evening to carry on 🙁

To carry on the frustrations….My* computer is really starting to irritate me know, it keeps stalling which is incredibly frustrating if it misses the start of an interval, tonight I rewound it once back into the rest section as it had stalled only for it to stall again 5 seconds later in the same section! Aargh!! Weidly it was stalling last night as I tried to delete the cache/browser history (cough….nuffin naughty, honest!) but works fine on data heavy stuff like Netflix?

Bloody thing.

*It’s the Mrs’ and this is actually the only reason I haven’t thrown it against a wall.

Wouldn’t worry about the Legolam, looks like you’ve had a hard enough week on the turbo already never mind the 100k, the 8 minute test really does take a lot out of you.

Halfway through a 4 week block consisting of Gray and Progressively Gray two times a week, with a steady 2 hour ride and an running interval session also thrown in.

So far so good. Things get interesting in the new year with a block of sessions like 6 * 4 mins and 20 * 45 seconds off 15!

[Idiot]Is there a way of syncing the Strava Sufferfest videos with TrainerRoad?

Just drop the sufferfest video into the trainer road window (or click on the browse button and select the video) and it plays it for you synced with the workout. How are you doing it currently?

Just had a go at Monitor (6×6 sweet spot) and for the first time in ages it actually felt pretty good. Hopefully means I’m finally getting over a couple of months of colds and bugs and starting to find some form again. Which would be nice.

I’ve not had a proper go at it, just noticed before my workout the other day that the Sufferfest videos were now available to Strava premium members on the PC. I couldn’t work out in my half arsed 5 min attempt how to get ’em to sync properly as it seems to just in a YouTube vid stylee?

Right, not sure how that would work if it’s streaming it. TrainerRoad expects you to have the file locally, which you do get when you purchase it from Sufferfest. I suspect you’ll just have to try and start pedalling and press play at the same time!

May be worth posting something on the TrainerRoad forum, the guys who develop it are good at getting back to you.

Edit: … Re the sweet spot question. Can be. For me though, generally a sweetspot one will be about 5 to 10 bpm lower but with a similar gradient across the duration of the interval than a similar threshold one. Though I don’t really pay it much attention other than as a rough indicator of tiredness and form ( I only really have a rough idea what my HR threshold is, it’s not something I bother noting or measuring.)

Aye thought as much, would have been pretty cool if they’d lined up….too tight to buy ’em haha! Cheers, I’ll fire ’em an email.

Also, kinda questioning my FTP setting. When you guys are doing sweet spot stuff do you find you’re just about touching your heart rate threshold as the workout is coming to a close? Wondering if this is an indication it’s just about bang on?

Right time for an update. I’ve just finished a four week block of training based on doing Gray and Progressively Gray twice a week, along with some running intervals and steady state distance work on the MTB. (Can’t believe I’m able to still cycle outside in December over here).

The stats from my first Gray session were 291 then 284 watts with an average H/R of 158 then 165, tonight’s session resulted in 293 watts for each 20 minute interval with average H/R of 149 then 153.

Pleased with that as it means I’m starting my January training with my fitness equalling the highest levels I recorded in the racing season.

Now for a block of short sharp intervals and one additional session a week 😮

How does the sufferfest integration work on trainerroad? I’ve got a few sufferfest videos, what does the trainerroad add to them?

As far as I can see from the website it seems to just have the facility to use the virtual power setting to fine tune the perceived efforts but I expect I’m wrong…

That’s pretty much it IvanDobski.

If you set up your bike to integrate with TrainerRoad via Ant+ you can then use your FTP to give you an exact power target for each Sufferfest level. Works really well.

Cool, thanks for that. I might have a play with setting that up instead of finishing this essay then…

It adds a power profile for you to follow based on the structure of the Sufferfest video and your FTP. Do an FTP test in TrainerRoad then just open the appropriate TrainerRoad Sufferfest workout and drag and drop the Sufferfest video into it. If you’ve done your FTP accurately then the combination of TrainerRoad and Sufferfest will take you to your limit. Apart from that it just provides the usual TrainerRoad radouts of power and cadence and records your TSS.

If you set up your bike to integrate with TrainerRoad via Ant+ you can then use your FTP to give you an exact power target for each Sufferfest level. Works really well.

… and makes it bloody hard 😉 (No slacking off towards the end of a workout when you’ve got power targets to hit!)

Starr King for me today. First long FTP (3×15) effort in a while and much better than expected given how poor I thought my form was (suspected I’d lost about 10 to 20 watts). PE felt about right for an FTP effort and legs felt good for more at the end too. After a miserable end to the year I’m happy with that 🙂

Does anyone have issues with TR not recording the same speed as the Garmin head unit?

It doesn’t always happen but perhaps once a week there is 0.5-1 mph difference between the TR value on screen and that of the Garmin head unit. It is a constant difference for the session and not the case of TR smoothing over x number of seconds I don’t think. The trainer resistance setting is also correct.

It seems that TR doesn’t get speed directly from the Garmin but uses the raw data in some way. Any ideas? 0.5-1 mph makes a reasonable difference to the power calculated which is why I ask if it is common or an issue which should be fixed.

Ta!

Mr Blobby, just noticed your edit from after I edited into another post that I also edited….or something 😀 Cheers!

It seems that TR doesn’t get speed directly from the Garmin but uses the raw data in some way.

I’m not sure what the sample rate is of the ANT+ stick I’ve got but I know that the Garmin head units use a much lower rate compared to what some of the devices put out. See DC Rainmakers world class site for some really geeky stuff on this.

I always take TR as the master, although haven’t noticed any diff between them.

So, having just bought a turbo trainer. And did my first suffer feat vid last night, what do I need for all this trainer road malarkey? I was measuring my effort off my heart rate, but I’d like to have something to compare against in a few weeks time.

It’s mostly on the trainer road site, but all you really need is an ant+ USB stick to go into your computer, and a speed/cadence sensor. A power meter is a bonus but if you don’t have one then you can use the virtual power feature provided your turbo is supported.

Has anybody managed to get this up and running with an Edge 510? I was just about to order the ANT+ USB but t’interwebz suggests that even the official Garmin stick doesn’t work with the Edge 510.

Its not the head unit it needs to be compatible with, but the actual devices, H/R belt, speed/cadance monitor. The head units only receive via ANT+ they do not send data.

So basically the HR monitor and Cadence sensor which came with the 510 will be picked up by the ANT+ USB stick and their data used by trainerroad meaning I can leave the actual head unit turned off?

Yup that’s correct, TrainerRoad becomes the head unit. Although I use both so I can log my rides in Strava as well.

Brilliant, ANT+ USB ordered so should be up and running with this next week. Cheers.

Where’s the cheapest place for Ant + usb’s ? They are not cheap are they !

Also with TrainerRoad, can you start and cancel when you like? Ie use it just for the winter months?

Bought mine on ebay for £20 but that was a while back. Looks like they are almost double that now.

You can *suspend* you membership on TR at anytime.
Your data is still available. But no access to the sessions.

If you *cancel* – your data gets wiped.

Carson this afternoon, usually only bother with the Sufferfest vids but started to think I’m missing out on something.

It was quite ‘nice’, picked it purely because I thought it would be an easier experiment and it was certainly less hectic.

Just a reminder… Tour of Sufferlandria coming up. May give it a go this year.

Just ordered this Ant + Stick from Wiggle £27. Hopefully will work with my Garmin.

http://www.wiggle.co.uk/suunto-movestick-mini/

VO2 max intervals for me. 6 * 4 minutes off 3. Hard hard work, first week of a 4 week block , oh goodie.