Good idea, I'm in.
Currently on a three week rest period then 2014's training starts, coached as well...
Having a bit of a break here too, though mostly due to toddler and work induced tiredness. Not a bad time though to have a few days off though.
Chef, how you working the coaching around the trainer road sessions. Are you going to try and find sessions that roughly match what's on the plan?
Are you going to try and find sessions that roughly match what's on the plan?
That's the plan, I haven't gone through TrainerRaod and matched each session exactly, there are a number that do match and the others I'll create the sessions and post them here.
I'm in! First session done, only fell off the rollers once haha! Still getting to grips with the power meter as I've not been able to ride outside with it due to a gubbed Garmin.
It did not help that the Mrs decided to come through (for moar ****ing wine) at the end of the first 8 min effort and start pissing herself at me!!
Struggling a bit at my new FTP, shaking like a shitting dog again tonight!
Is it worth sticking at it as something to aim at, or should I nudge the bar down a touch?
Personally I'd stick at it, couple of weeks and you'll be all over that ftp line. just don't beat yourself up for not nailing it straight away, its all part of the process.
Alternatively if you want to be a bit more structured about it you could lower the intensity using the percentage arrows down the bottom left of the screen, maybe take it down to 90% then up it by one or two percent each ride until you're back up at 100%.
Yeah I tried that on earlier workouts, okay if I'm tired and feel like an easier time of it (as opposed to not bothering at all) but otherwise feels like cheating!
I'll slog it out a bit longer...
Not cheating if it's part of a plan. 🙂 I'd do 5 sessions 90%, 92% etc till you're back up at 100% then a couple of weeks at 100% then start building again at 102%, 104% etc.
That may work out nicely, I was planning on sticking with Sufferfest stuff to keep ticking over until New Year.
Could use them to ramp up then maybe the intermediate build.
First session tonight. Very impressed. Paired really easily with the PowerTap. Can't remember which session I did. Will use it again though.
Back on it tonight after a bit of a couple of weeks off. Had a go at Gayley. TBH I didn't really look properly and thought it was a sweet spot when it was actually threshold.. bit tougher than I'd planned! Still felt good to start training again.
A tip for anyone struggling a bit with winter. I've stuck one of them SAD light boxes near the trainer. Think it helps.
Well that was a complete **** of a workout! Too many things conspiring to irritate me maybe....got my Garmin back so decided to stick it on the bars mainly just as I was curious about L/R balance but also so I could see my power output while hanging my head due to patheticness!
Noticed immediately that it was dropping data packets from the power meter all over the shop, then my memory kicked in and I realised it needed a pretty hefty update, still, what an utterly disappointing product!
Really struggled to hold a power steady power output tonight, not helped by the laptop also deciding to stall a couple of times, had to get off pause the workout and restart, once dragging the workout from 25 mins too an hour!
Seem to be really struggling with serious ball/cock numbness on the rollers too which is strange as the bike is lovely on the road?
(Bloody hell, what a moaner....)
What's going on with the 'private member' setting blades 2000. That's not really in the spirit of competition and ritual humiliation.
Double post
Just about to go and give Slide Mountain a go for some sweet spot goodness. Much above 10 minute intervals and I struggle even more with boredom!
Couldn't make my mind about what to do this evening so decided to do whatever the person before did, which turned out to be Carson, a 60 minute sweet spot session. Quite liked it, it wouldn't have been a session that I would normally have chosen but I'll probably do it again sometime.
Man I hate anything longer than an hour! Emerson tonight, felt alright actually, long/intense enough to get heart going but not so much for proper arse breathing!
First session in a while after a very poor November (I'm putting it down as a winter break 😕 ) Gave Slide Mountain a try after a quick scan of this thread. Did them all low cadence, need to re-adapt to high cadence again! Probably need to knock intensity down a bit while I get back into it too.
My power meter gave up after the first session (flat battery probably) so I switched to virtual power. Not tired it properly before and it was interesting to not see pedeling style causing fluctuations in power, not a surprise I guess as it's on wheel speed and it all gets smoothed out.
edit: Also read about a new [url= http://www.thesufferfest.com/about-sufferfest/tour-of-sufferlandria-2014/ ]tour of sufferlandria[/url] in Jan, may schedule that into the plan. Who's in? 🙂
First session after three weeks off.
Gray at 94% of FTP whilst watching some CX on the laptop, hard but manageable, although in a spooky coincidence with mrblobby my PowerTap also gave up so I had to guess the final 9 minutes, so ended up doing 1 * 20 followed by 1 * 17.
Just did Sufferfest Angels, was pretty straightforward until the last interval, which was utterly brutal! First time I've done Sufferfest vids With the power targets overlaid.
You not joining in the geeky STW club Njee?
Did Tyndall the other night and I was ruined, hardest I've done so far. Need to get a proper turbo as I can't get enough Watts on the rollers without (what feels to me) crazy high cadence.
Just did Sufferfest Angels, was pretty straightforward until the last interval, which was utterly brutal!
😀
At that last interval I normally end up muttering FFS at my legs/PC and making various strained noises combining grunting and swearing.
Standard issue Grey again today, 2 * 20 at 94% of FTP, last 6 minutes were a quite hard work.
Back on it next week...
Epic Red Wing for breakfast, a good solid hours workout, recommended.
You not joining in the geeky STW club Njee?
Yes I will do! Anything to motivate me a bit haha!
At that last interval I normally end up muttering FFS at my legs/PC and making various strained noises combining grunting and swearing.
It's the little accelerations - can hit the power, but find it drops off when I settle back down again!
Thought I'd do some easy spinning to get back into it. Struggling a bit with intensity right now so just did a couple of hours of Free Ride at around 65% FTP and a decent cadence. A bit mind numbing but not as bad as I thought it'd be.
Must sign up to the geeky club.
Edit: I'm in! Username is Hefin.
Created a new session tonight to match what was in my schedule.
Progressively Gray:
http://www.trainerroad.com/cycling/workouts/31197-progressively-gray
Nice take on the standard Gray, recommended.
Sweet Spot warm up
20 minutes at 94% of FTP
3 minutes at 110% of FTP
1 minute at 133% of FTP
8 minutes recovery
16 minutes at 94% of FTP
3 minutes at 110% of FTP
1 minute at 133% of FTP
Interesting, didn't realise you could make your own workouts, just been sent a workout that I'd have had to just follow on a bit of paper/zee Garmin. May aswell recreate it on Trainerroad, is it easy enough to do?
Yeah pretty easy, you can start from scratch or clone and existing workout.
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 6x8 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 (6x6 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.
