I’m in the second week of Sweet Spot Base 1. This morning I skipped a workout and rode to work outside instead. In my defence, I did go the long way. I’ll try to catch up on the plan over the break though.

mrblobby – I thought you ordered the Neo from that Amazon cheapish link?

I did, but got chatting in my LBS and they did me a deal so cancelled my Amazon order. I’m happier buying from them for a bit of peace of mind as they’ll be good with any warranty issues. I promised them I’d go to them first for a CX bike too if I ever get around to buying one 🙂

Looks like the new Tacx Flux are selling well at my LBS though, whenever I pop in they have loads of them coming in to meet orders.

Winter “plan” (making it up as I go along with just some rough TSS and time targets) going quite well so far here. Been a lot of steady base stuff gradually building up the CTL for the past couple of months, now starting to mix in some harder 20 and 8 minute efforts. Bigger power numbers always seem a bit daunting after a lot of z2/z3 work!

MSP how do?

Stupid iPad, I meant “how so?”

Winter “plan” going quite well so far here.

Good news!

Same here – I’m due a rest conveniently timed with the Christmas week, but tonight I do the last of my “plan” ( repeated week 6&7 of Short Build to fit a gap) by completing Bird. Next week is Christmas debauchery, and out door riding – Christmas Eve MTB pootle, 27th Dec 40 min CX on a fat tired under geared MTB just for the craic, my “job interview” (chat with potential new Race team for 2017) as a spin around Hadleigh on the 27th and hopefully by the news years weekend I’ll have spruced up the winter / turbo bike so I can get back on the road.

But, power and pain/endurance threshold appear to be on the up. With my first season race (MSG Rd1) on 25th Feb, I start XCO speciality on 2nd Jan timed to finish just before then. I’m away in the US for a week mid Jan but they have a big gym, so I plan to thrash my legs on weights and trim down with some running during that week.

Anyway, Happy Christmas!

Stupid iPad, I meant “how so?”

I assumed you were more northern than you come across. 🙂

That’s cool on the LBS front. I’d certainly factor in warranty handling in any powermeter / smart trainer purchase. I ought to have sent my Vortex back while it was still in warranty, but just didn’t fancy the hassle of sending it to Germany…

with potential new Race team for 2017

That sounds interesting Kryton. How did that come about? Ride for the local club at the moment but fancy something different and subs are due. Would quite like a move to a club/team that was more organised around racing.

I’m away in the US for a week ….. so I plan to ….. trim down

Good luck with that after the 4 stacks of pancakes for breakfast every day.

MrBlobby – drop me an email (in my profile).

how so?

Hard to put my finger on exactly why, but I just think the experience works better with the resistance being controlled, all I have to do is worry about matching cadence roughly to their sugestions (and sometimes not doing so, going at my own cadence and just matching the power of the workout).

It has only been a few weeks, but I am using it more and getting more out of the sessions than I ever have before. If this lasts all winter I will be pretty fit and happy in spring.

Kryton, have emailed.

MSP, interesting that. I’ll certainly give the erg mode thing a go when I get mine. Current thinking is that it just makes it less like proper riding. But I can see that it might be useful in intervals where you want to see if you can maintain a level despite changes in cadence.

I agree with MSP, but you already know that. 🙂

There’s no way I’d buy a dumb trainer now.

MSP – not to play devils advocate but based on what MrBlobby said, for real life riding and exercises thereof – hill climbing, cadence changes etc – isn’t it less realistic? I quite the like the idea of understanding my power output and its relation to cadence and specifically the effect of different gears on climbs & long intervals.

Not sure if I’ve missed a point but its sounds like a machine weights vs free weights argument at the gym…?

Current thinking is that it just makes it less like proper riding

I can see a danger of not getting enough proper riding in through winter as well, it works well for those evening 45-60 min sufferfest videos in the evening, which I think throw in enough variance within an interval anyway. But I have also just ordered myself some new warm gloves, overshoes and a giro merino underhelmet cap so that I still get out and ride at weekends over the next couple of months.

I am not a racer, so my goal is just to be fitter and leaner for summer to enjoy my riding more, those with more specific racing goals might want to use it differently than I do.

hill climbing, cadence changes etc – isn’t it less realistic?

I don’t think so, your effort goes up and down, just like real life, I usually try and keep a fairly constant cadence in real life also, until it becomes impossible. It would be nice to get my hands on a power meter some point soon to see just what happens when I go out on a real ride.

I did get the KK smart control unit which has a big flywheel, I suspect it acts a lot more realistic than most.

I am not a racer, so my goal is just to be fitter and leaner for summer to enjoy my riding more

That’s an awesome reason – wish more people i know would grasp that idea.
I have a friend that loves riding his MTB, but hardly ever rides as every ride turns into a torture session as he’s barely fit enough to climb a speed bump.

If a bit of erg mode now can give you +grins in summer then totally worth it.

😀 riding a bike, whether just going for a ride or racing, is so much more enjoyable if you’re fit!

I have a friend that loves riding his MTB, but hardly ever rides as every ride turns into a torture session as he’s barely fit enough to climb a speed bump.

Sounds familiar. Some of mine are now considering e-bikes.

I did sufferfest angels today, and after bumping up my ftp from 200 to 250 over the past month, I found the first 10 min (over under)interval really hard, then it got much easier and I think I could probably have handled and extra 40 ftp on the later intervals.

Now that does relate to how long I find it takes me to warm up on a real ride, but I also wonder how it relates to the trainer warming up, if I should calibrate it at the end of a session, so far I have only done so from cold.

I’m using erg mode on my tacx flux with TR and really liking it. It doesn’t mimic real riding at all but it does eliminate the faff of finding the right gear/cadence combo for your power target. It also gives you nowhere to hide on intervals. I think as long as you also work a bit on your core and do some actual bike riding then these workouts can be a massive benefit to fitness.

As an aside, has anyone else noticed that the TR app on their laptop makes their wifi go slow? Really gets in the way of watching netflix.

So, I’m about to start speciality tomorrow. Some questions:

a) Theres now “Short Track XC” as well as “Cross Country Olympic” – which one for BC Regional A 1:30h races – XCO?

b) I also notice that neither start with an FTP test – why is that? I’d full intended to be testing tomorrow after completing build and resting over Christmas. Why wouldn’t I now?

c) As per an extension of the blog for Athlete No 1 on the subject, with me racing B races once a month, is it right to essentially break my month down into the last few weeks of speciality repeated each time vis a vis

1st week = 5th week of plan
2nd week = 6th week of plan
3rd week = 7th week of plan
4th week = 8th week of plan + race…. and repeat?

Bear in mind that for c) the weekends are swapped for either club rides or 25m TT’s, and some week day sessions for 10m TT’s.

From May to July I’ll be riding 1 x weekly evening race so I’d suggest this period only has taper weeks/workouts in it.

Does this sound right? I am wondering whether weeks 3&4 above should both be the taper / rest weeks.

Thinking of doing this monthly. What works out cheaper, credit card or paypal

Thanks in advance

a) Theres now “Short Track XC” as well as “Cross Country Olympic” – which one for BC Regional A 1:30h races – XCO?

I thought short track XC is XCE? as your racing XCo, stick to that.

Currently planning to do a full base, build and speciality leading up to cx season even though will still be racing xc this year. Should start in Feb, but will probably start next week so I’ve finished base by the first national in Pembrey. I’m sure I’ll start trying to fit in vo2 max stuff in between the base for xc races 🙄

Grrr – 3rd time in a row I’ve achieved roughly the same FTP, despite showing stronger “outside” specifically on climbs and sustained intervals such as lead outs or long flat MTB sections.

They’ve all been the 8 min test – I know Vo2max is a weakness for me but also that I’ve improved completion of intervals and workouts that I haven’t before.

Last time I increased was with a 20min test – maybe I’ll try that next time.

Grrr – 3rd time in a row I’ve achieved roughly the same FTP, despite showing stronger “outside” specifically on climbs and sustained intervals such as lead outs or long flat MTB sections.

Which goes to show that the result of an artificial FTP test is just one part of the puzzle. Might be that you’ve gotten stronger at recovering and repeated efforts, or maybe one of the many other aspect of outdoor riding that isn’t reflected in FTP test.

WTF have they done to the iPhone app? After today’s update I can’t scroll across and see the stats for the in progress interval now. What a PITA. Am I missing something?

Argghhh they’ve intentionally removed it from this version. Coming back in a new version soon apparently. What a massive PITA 🙁

Out of curiosity, why do you want / need to see the stats for the current interval? If you’ve slipped below or above the target then aren’t you better off just getting back onto target for the remainder rather than attempting to overcompensate and bring the average back on track?

Helps stay on target IMO. If the interval average is slipping a bit then you know you need to be pushing a bit harder. Also big loss is accumulated TSS. I’ll often ride part of a session up to a TSS target, but now I’ve got no idea how much TSS I’ve accumulated.

And I like data 🙂

Anyway hugely annoying that they’ve removed this. There was no mention of it in the release details on the App Store. I shall write them an angry email.

Fair enough. I guess you could use your Garmin to display accumulated TSS in the meantime.

TBH I could probably swap TrainerRoad for a Garmin the way I use it as I don’t really use any of the built in workouts or plans these days.

Did a session last night on the new version and it is a pain. Using a PM the power displayed does jump around a fair bit and I do tend to look at the lap average more than anything else to gauge effort, same as outdoor riding. The blob and a line thing really is a bit vague.

Once you start using your Neo in Erg mode, all of these problems will go away…

Once you start using your Neo in Erg mode, all of these problems will go away…

If I ever get it! My LBS tells me the next batch aren’t due at the distributors on the 9th, and can’t even seem to tell me if mine will be allocated from that batch 😕

Not convinced about erg mode. I can see me moving to Zwift for z1/z2/z3 rides and for intervals just using some other app that syncs with Training Peaks (maybe the Wahoo one with my RFLKT.)

I do like TrainerRoad for the ability to create custom workouts though and to automatically scale them based on FTP. I’d have a look at Golden Cheetah as it does something similar but it sounds like they’re having a spat with Training Peaks and dropping all their metrics.

Back on the programme, sweet spot base starting with hte 8 min test. Reasonable jump so happy with that. Actually enjoyed it, or at least the shakes afterwards!

Nice work ferrals. Are you not still mid cross season?

Contemplating a test myself tonight. Kind of at the end of a block. Not done a proper test in ages. Legs feel pretty good. Think I’ll go 20 min. Not sure where to pitch it really, shall probably try the first 5 mins at a pace just a few watts higher than 105% and see how it goes.

No welsh league finished before Christmas, I skipped the last round though so have had a full month off racing. Noticed today you can ‘sign up’ to a plan and it ticks off as you do them, plus you can assign ‘outdoor ride’ to ones you’ve mimicked outside so it doesn’t look like you skipped it. Quite a nice feature, would be even better if there was a two-way link with strava so you could actually assign the ride you did.

Need to have a think and decide which mtb races I’m going to do and how seriously and then work out if I’m going to strictly follow the whole of base build etc for cx or mix in a few speciality weeks to keep the high end primed during xc season.

I’m coming your way for a round of the Scott MTB Marathon series Ferral is your consiodering that?

I died on the Turbo last night. Aware that I recently downed 400mg ibruprofen for my hurty-face, 48 hours after FTP Test+Zwift 45k Training ride I couldn’t maintain a 120% interval for more than two minutes without severe leg pain! Decided I might do more damage than good, I packed it in pronto.

Don’t think so Kryton, I’d put in an application to hold a standard xc race on that date before the mtb-marathon dates were released and because of felling activities may not be able to change the date. Not 100% sure what we’ll do if can’t change date, possible shelve it or just do something super low key. Either way I’m brewing a sneaky plan to get a pass to come and race the national at Wasing towards the end of the month so doing the marathon wouldn’t be allowed!

Edit. Been thinking about training, how do you think it would affect the base plan if I switched the Sunday long endurance ride for an xco race sim of 1.5-2hrs? Can’t see me having the time for 3-4hr Sunday dries when the baby arrives anyway!

Well I thought the FTP I was training to was a bit low but not 7% low. Going to play havoc with the plan. After a winter of steady volume that was a hideous way to spend 20 mins 😕

Your FTP is up by 7%? Or were you using an estimate? Either way, nice work!

Well I finally had internet installed yesterday and my new turbo cave is setup ready with a. 32inch tv, PlayStation, remote fan and nice iPad stand. And guess what I’m sat on the sofa in my slippers finishing off the last of the Xmas chocolates, drinking ipa amd watching the strictly come dancing final. I am officially middle aged. I’ll start back this weekend….

Nice work MrBlobby.

My inability to raise my FTP on TR remains a mystery, after i “commuted” today on the winter bike and accidentally smashed all strava Pb’s which involve a climb – and i wasnt trying!

Lol at DT78

DT78, nice cave!

Gray, thanks, last was a bit of an estimate to base winter training on. Still a good few watts more than the last test I did in the summer. Going to make a right mess of my PMC chart.

Kryton, nice work, there’s lots more to going fast than FTP 🙂