Think I’ll be doing Petit this evening as a nice spin back in to turbo-land and then Bear tomorrow. Unless the weather improves that is!

So, based on Nicks link above I planned out my next six months until my first race in March. I’ve designated two A races only – the first Round of Mud Sweat and Gears (March), and the last round of London Beastway (July). It basically – for the purpose of affirmation / nit picking goes like this (all low volume):

This is my non-coached backup plan I might add.

From Wednesday:
Sweet Spot Base LV2
Short Power Build
<week off the bike/messing about at Christmas>
XCO Speciality
XCO Speciality last 4 weeks repeat
<first A race>
XCO Speciality last 4 weeks repeat
<Beastway weekly series starts>
XCO Speciality week 8 repeats
XCO last 4 weeks
<Second A race>
<Rest week>
XCO Speciality weeks 4-8
<family holiday / rest>
XCO Speciality repeat week 8 during two races in September.

Thoughts?

You are doing XCO speciailty from christmas to end september? Can you really sustain that?

I’d think you’d want to extend build through Jan/Feb at least?

Did bear on Saturday. Enjoyed it but need to re-do FTP test as it felt way way off, even adding 70 watts onto the peaks I wasn’t too bad at the end.

Well, remember that week 8 is essentially a taper week with 90 minutes only of albeit intense riding with a race every wednesday, yes I think so.

Its what Nicks thread link advises – between weekly series repeat the taper week only.

I thought I’d give some of the TR ‘prerace’ stuff a go this weekend. I started with Truuli on Saturday afternoon (as close to 24hrs before yesterdays race as I could) and then I did Pahrah yesterday as a warm up.

I think it would work brilliantly if I had the option of pre riding the course on Saturday and not first thing yesterday morning as I thought my thighs were going to explode on the last 2 laps yesterday…too much pre race perhaps?

Still, it felt better than the British Cycling recommended warm up which is based on rpm so is obviously targetted at track cyclists rather than XC racers

I quite often use Truili the day before a race. works well. Don’t take turbo/rollers to race so never warmed up using one of there but no i have adedicated turbo whel for cx bike may give it a crack.

Kryton – I found I over-tapered by just using the final week between races this season and ast cx season.

I started with Truuli on Saturday afternoon (as close to 24hrs before yesterdays race as I could)

Previously I did that, but defaulted to Nicks advice above this time around by completing Dorr on Friday then resting.

Not sure if it was better or worse TBH as my legs are heavy anyway, but Dorr is pretty close to that first effort on yesterday race – 30 secs all out followed by 1 min at FTP.

Kryton – I found I over-tapered by just using the final week between races this season and ast cx season.

interesting, I did feel a bit undercooked this week – but then my new plan only has me doing that when I have weekly races. The monthly ones – MSG Eastern – have XCO Speciality in the middle. Based on you and Gaz I might continue with Truuli as a warm up.

Something I didn’t do last year which I regret, so whats the collective/TR official thoughts on

a) Deferring the Sunday/weekend session to a Club (road) ride? Forgive me I know this means I’m “off plan” and club rides are traditionally regarded as no mans land in development terms, but they do get the miles in and there’s stuff to be learned / the social aspect

b) Deferring the Sunday/weekend session to a MTB ride? Again, it has no plan structure but does have technical benefits, I am an MTB Racer after all.

Kryton…

a) You’ve got to enjoy what you do, and the social aspect does definitely help with motivation to go riding. As long as it’s the right sort of intensity and duration for what you need to be doing I think it’s a good thing. If you want to do it then go do it.

(Though if you are the sort of person who feels they need to be smashing it at the front of the chain gang all the time, then it may be a good idea to miss it or adjust your attitude a bit if that doesn’t fit in with your plans.)

b) Got to hone those skills.

There’s no reason why you can’t take a rough stab at the intention of various interval sessions on or off road. The demands of riding outdoors is very different to the turbo so neglecting outdoor work over winter is usually a big mistake.

Does anyone use a floor stand for their laptop/ipad?

The current likely location for the winter turbo trainer sessions doesn’t really have a convenient shelf to place the laptop on. I’ve been looking at a few stands but the wide range of prices for things that ‘look’ functionally very similar is muddying the waters a bit. Any recommendations?

There’s no reason why you can’t take a rough stab at the intention of various interval sessions on or off road. The demands of riding outdoors is very different to the turbo so neglecting outdoor work over winter is usually a big mistake.

This is what I do, I ‘follow’ the plan, but only actually use TR when I don’t think I can usefully replciate it outside. Which through winter is all weekday sessions and when the weather is so bad I can’t face getting outside on the w/e.

I notice my heart rate is substantially lower on the turbo. The sort of efforts which would have me at 180bpm outside are around 165 on turbo. I assume its because sitting on the turbo your arms arent working and you arn’t activating core as much.

I see (rightly or wrongly I’m not sure) the sunday rides in all the TR sessions as an endurance/recov hour/miles boosting ride, the specifics of which don’t really matter. So on Sundays I just ride however I like so long as I don’t get tempted to over thrash it and I ride for at least 2hrs

I notice my heart rate is substantially lower on the turbo. The sort of efforts which would have me at 180bpm outside are around 165 on turbo. I assume its because sitting on the turbo your arms arent working and you arn’t activating core as much.

Much the same here. I think it’s more that you can sit at optimum cadence and steady power on the turbo. If you look at the variability of power and cadence required to ride at a wattage target outdoors over rolling terrain, it’s a rapidly varying over/under session, so no surprise it’s more demanding.

Given that you only have 6hrs a week training time, devoting half of them to a Sunday club run doesn’t seem a particularly good use of time. As you mentioned – no-mans land. If you can find a group slow/disciplined enough to make it a purely endurance ride then that’d work – otherwise your just gathering fatigue which will have a negative impact on your other sessions.

The MTB ride seems a better idea, but again, need to choose terrain/effort wisely.

Overall, your plan seems like a LOT of intensity. Granted its low volume so you should be able to cope, but think i’d probably be mentally burnt out after that lot.

Overall, your plan seems like a LOT of intensity. Granted its low volume so you should be able to cope, but think i’d probably be mentally burnt out after that lot.

Thats what I was hinting at. Spending the next six months on the Turbo alone brings a bit of a sinking feeling TBH – my first year was very much as Ferral describes.

I do have Z2 routes I can do outside alone which would be good pre Christmas, and the level of our club ride I’d attend is reasonable averahe 28/29kmph with little efforts & challenges such as climbs, chasing on, leading out etc so I would be able to factor “some” interval like efforts in and of course I get groups skills and am pushed by others.

With the MTB I can think of 3 reasonable 2-5 minute climbs in my local woods thats I can interval on, but the rest would be variable singletrack.

In other news I’ve just downloaded the new app, looks good (PC) 😀

Within which I will be doing an FTP wednesday night 🙁

Any recommendations?

I have a step ladder which convienently is the same height as my face when on the bike – my laptop balances on there…

I would really like to find some structured programme so that i can train for some TT next year. Many years ago when i had a go it was just riding as hard as i could…sometimes with a hr monitor.

As im now 50 and want to get the best out of my limited genetic material, can anyone recommend me a programme that i can use on the leisure centre wattbikes? I work shifts so some days would struggle to get more than an hr to train. Other days i will be free lots of days. I have a v basic turbo trainer and a garmin tri watch which measures speed and cadence on my bike as well as gps and hr etc.

Basically where do i start?

Laptop stand: I use an old ironing board.

I use iPad for tr, which is precariously balanced on top of laptop which is used for streaming ucichannel and which I balance on a box on a chair… With my fan stopping it slide sideways, not very elegant but it works for me!

breninbeener…

Basically where do i start?

You could go back to Page 1 of this thread 😉

For Trainer Road at home have a read of the following…

http://support.trainerroad.com/hc/en-us/articles/201826364-How-it-Works
http://support.trainerroad.com/hc/en-us/articles/201828950-Compatible-Trainers

And a browse around….

http://support.trainerroad.com/hc/en-us/categories/200097620-Training-Questions

Training generally consists of following some sort of plan based around intervals of varying durations and intensity. There’s a bunch of plans published on the TrainerRoad web site (though you might need to sign up to view them) and it’s a pretty good place to start. You’ll need to do an FTP test first to estimate your 60MP (Minute Power) as the intensity of the workout is based around this value.

You can do the same workouts on the wattbike as that also displays power, though the readings may vary quite a bit from the power shown in TrainerRoad and it may vary quite a bit from machine to machine in the gym too.

iPad stand

I’d get something like one of these two…

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01HTJQRSI?psc=1
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01IN1U0WA

I guess I know the answer, but have the fear of delaying my Plan start date so for critiuque…

Work has me mentally exhausted, like badly after 2 hours sleep last night and a week of stress. Physically though I’m rested after Sundays race.

To start SS base I’m supposed to be doing an FTP tests tonight – better to delay is and start SS Base LV 2 with the next one as per plan – Ebbets and test in 4 weeks time?

If you are feeling physically fresh i’d go ahead and do the test anyway.
Worst case scenario is that you under-perform slightly and have value set a few (single figures most likely) watts too low for first training block, which will A) be no disaster, and B) give you a mental boost when it shows an improvement next time.

Conversely I’d skip it and just go ahead with the plan. You can always tweak the FTP on feel as you go on.

Reasoning being, if your mentally knackered you’ll be far less inclined to push hard. Chances of failure or not doing your best is high and if that happens it’ll be a mental knock just at the start of a big plan. You’re better off leaving it till you’re in the right frame of mind to smash it.

Depends when you last tested it?
According to plan should have done the test yesterday? I would do a (very) easy recovery workout this eve and do the FTP test when you are supposed to be doing a harder workout on THurs (or Fri if you are starting a day behind) and then crack on with the plan.

it’ll be a mental knock just at the start of a big plan

That’s a tricky one, i can see exactly where you’re coming from. Easy to see a number lower than expected and have your head go down.

However, for me its illogical to have a mental knock before the plan starts.
The FTP will purely be a starting baseline, neither something to be excited or disturbed about – its what happens over the following months that can lead to disappointment.
The risk is that if an old FTP value is used which is too high then it leads to a month of continual perceived under-performance as target figures will in fact be too hard.

for me its illogical to have a mental knock before the plan starts.

Are you not familiar with any of Kryton’s other threads? 😉

Lol

Yeah sorry so work is knocking my schedule out, and if I revert to the proper Wednesday workout I’ll be too late home tomorrow to do Thursays. So today is Tuesday’s workout, Friday is Thursday…

Last tested in March thereabouts, mid race intervals have felt quite hard. I’ll give it a go, and if it’s only a few watts under I’ll leave it as it, if over I’ll adjust up.

uuurgh, aweful yet with only a 3% drop. It had everything, a wheezing jump off for the asthma pump on interval one, and 2 x retching in interval 2. Despite a pre workout double espresso my head wasnt there either – although I kept telling myself to work through it, I knew it was half hearted encouragement.

Its also so warm/humid on the patio sweat was running down my arms in rivers. Also Mrs K and Little Miss KJ02 both have chest infections & colds and me the beginnings sore throat so that one have helped.

With all those excuses issues, six months of racing and a fat boozy August”, a 3% loss isn’t bad, I’ll stick with that.

Kryton, get yourself on Zwift! It’s great for social rides. You can find a z2 group ride and be chatting away and concentrating on staying in the bunch and boom, 2hrs have flown by.
You can also run TR simultaneously with another sensor so can have TR for detail and Zwift for entertainment. Or you can load TR workouts into Zwifts workout module (infinitely customisable too).

Oh, and follow CoachK on Twitter- every time his tweets appear on my feed I think of you 😀

Success occurs when your dreams get bigger than your excuses.

Lol, my dreams are fine its my mental strength being sapped by work at the moment.

He says with an excuse 😀

I’m being a hypocrite here by the way 😉

Try another one:

A positive mind finds a way it can be done; a negative mind Iooks for aII the ways it can’t be done.

In all seriousness, give the Zwift free trial a whirl. I’m currently deciding whether to taper a bit for XC Rampage on Sunday or try and do a virtual race on Zwift on Friday I’ve been looking forward to and hope for the best on Sunday lol 😀

Hmm. So I just completed Ebbetts. Although the 3rd interval felt a bit hard, I did the 4th at 101%. I’ve put my prior lower FTP up by 101% as well, but I’m never sure with sweet spot how much Hurty legs/staring into a bucket there should be – in this case none but a mild ache an hour after.

Total volume of 32 mins of sweetspot, not much leg hurty at all imo. SS for me is more a gradual accumulation of fatigue that starts to feel quite hard after about 50 mins.

Something I didn’t do last year which I regret, so whats the collective/TR official thoughts on

a) Deferring the Sunday/weekend session to a Club (road) ride? Forgive me I know this means I’m “off plan” and club rides are traditionally regarded as no mans land in development terms, but they do get the miles in and there’s stuff to be learned / the social aspect

b) Deferring the Sunday/weekend session to a MTB ride? Again, it has no plan structure but does have technical benefits, I am an MTB Racer after all.

After getting up to speed with the recent chatter on here I just wanted to offer my thoughts.

You’ve already said a couple times that this season’s training seems pretty bleak with all the indoor sessions on the docket. That said, I think either of these options will be just fine for the sake of keeping you sane this season! You can’t get the most out of your interval training if you’re mentally gassed the entire season. You can even switch back and forth between options a & b in case you find one benefits you more than the other. If you’re not seeing your desired results, then you can adjust further and figure out how to best sneak those club/mtb rides in with your intervals. Make sure to take advantage of additional entertainment while doing indoor sessions to keep things interesting as well.

I also wanted to offer some thoughts on your planned season.

Since your season is over such an extended period of time, be aware of how your body is responding to the stress you’re applying to it with your races and training. If you start feeling pooped, it’ll probably be best to schedule your recovery downturn earlier than you previously had planned. Just something to be aware of. 🙂

Always remember that the plans can be adjusted to fit your personal needs. Good luck this season mate! Take advantage of the podcast and send in your coaching questions too: Podcast

Community Manager at TrainerRoad — Cycling’s Most Effective Training System

I would really like to find some structured programme so that i can train for some TT next year. Many years ago when i had a go it was just riding as hard as i could…sometimes with a hr monitor.

As im now 50 and want to get the best out of my limited genetic material, can anyone recommend me a programme that i can use on the leisure centre wattbikes? I work shifts so some days would struggle to get more than an hr to train. Other days i will be free lots of days. I have a v basic turbo trainer and a garmin tri watch which measures speed and cadence on my bike as well as gps and hr etc.

Basically where do i start?

We can most certainly help you in the TT department. 🙂 Shoot an email over to support@trainerroad.com when you get a chance, and they’ll double-check all your equipment/devices to help you get started!

We look forward to getting some training in with you real soon. Cheers!

Community Manager at TrainerRoad — Cycling’s Most Effective Training System

So I’m ill, I’m racing cx Sunday and it’s raining tomorrow. Normally I’d do an hour of openers tomorrow but I think I’ll probably just do 30-45mins, and will do it on trainerroad. any suggestions for a work out? I am thinking pahrah which is meant to be a pre race warm up, but should work as openers too. Any others?

Any of the Truuli variants – is what i use.

Feel too ill to even do that 🙁 will just content myself with fine tuning gears and brakes

Can people give me some advice about using a smart trainer?

Used Trainerroad last winter with a normal Tacx trainer but a few weeks back I bought a Smart trainer (Tacx Flow Smart).

I’ve set it up and done the 20 min test.

Did my first workout tonight but some of the intervals were over the place as I’m confused about using my gears.

On my old dumb trainer I would alter the gearing to enable me to get to the correct power during a workout.

However, with a smart trainer do I just leave the bike in the same gear (if so presumably any gear I choose)?

Tonight I was shifting to a harder gear for the intervals but a few saw the Power reading go really high, almost like the trainer wasn’t recognising I was pushing harder. Seemed better when I shifted 5-10 secs before the interval began.

Any advice appreciated.