Any recommendations for decent low cadence strength stuff? Even better with instructions to take my mind off the tedium!
Did my first proper session last night with Sufferfest Angels.
Trainerroad has definitely made it a more natural feeling ride, previously I obviously put the power down a bit harder at times than I needed to, which would leave me blowing and knackered, where this left me less ready to die at the end, but my legs still feeling it.
Might turn my FTP up a notch though as I did feel like I could have suffered a little bit more 😈
Will try Revolver next and see what thats like.
Signed up and downloaded it. Its quite a nice interface and handy to have access to all the workouts. Pretty sure you can do a lot of this in Golden cheetah, having done so in the past. But the interface is so much better, and being able to drop sufferfests straight in is ace.
Can't find my ANT+ stick so just ran the app on screen to keep me alerted to the interval time left. Wanted to do a sweet spot session but Lanarck got my interest with 4x10. Not sure why it was easier to do a 4x10 watching it pass by on the screen but I liked it. Just turned the intensity down to 90% for SST instead of full on FTP
http://app.strava.com/activities/105342662
Two sets of 3 * 4 minutes off 2, with 10 minutes rolling between sets.
http://www.trainerroad.com/cycling/rides/633777-Aktivitus-KIKV
Feeling good after delaying the session from yesterday due to dead batteries in the PowerTap, now just have Saturday and Sunday's session to handle then I'm due an easier week.
Found out the gym at my client's site has a LeMond trainer with power measuring, result! No integration with my Garmin or TrainerRoad but perfect for lunchtime sessions!
Nice workout chef
First proper go using software with the ANT+ stick
Makes all the difference. A hard workout just turned into a proper BallBuster
http://www.trainerroad.com/cycling/rides/637481-Goethe
Need to find my missing laptop speaker though - Even the quiet Kurt Kinetic is a bit loud for the laptops internal speaker. Suppose the crap fan doesn't help.
Hmmm to increase FTP again or not....had a really slack group ride today (just a 3 hour bimble really) but put a fairly hard 20 minute effort in at the end and put out my highest 20 min effort, doing the 0.95 game it bumps my FTP up a few Watts. It'll not matter really but I'm anal/OCD ish and can't help myself!
Any tips for sessions between races?
Next 3 Saturdays are booked up so don't want to kill myself in the week...overs and unders early part with a sweet spot session later in the week?
Thinking maintenance rather than building...
I've not done any racing this year but I've been riding with people who are a lot stronger, I've found 2 sweet spot sessions (after a hard Sunday ride) on Tue/Thurs leave my legs feeling really good for Sundays ride. Best/only advice I've got....
Yeah that sounds something like what I'm thinking, I put the overs/unders in early just to add a bit of of hard work but with plenty of time for recovery...probably a bit over concerned about dropping off?
Raced yesterday and got a decent ride in today...so rest tomorrow, trainer Tuesday (Scylla) and Thursday (Carson), rest Friday, race Saturday...
I personally wouldn't be at all worried about dropping off if I'd ridden hard Saturday then only done 2 sweet spot sessions through the week with another hard Saturday ride again. I prefer 2 days rest before a hard ride but half the reason for that is just to make sure I've eaten well as I'm slack as **** and don't eat enough after training late.
Racing once at the weekend should be no problem. I'd rest the Sunday or ride an hour or so super easy.
Sweetspot Tuesday, hard intervals Wednesday, reduced time sweatspot Thursday, rest Friday.
That's what I was doing when racing CX twice a weekend in the Autumn and I found it worked really well.
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Did Angles on Sufferfest on Sunday, man was that last 8 minute interval hard!
Had 3 hours yesterday, didn't go out hard but not exactly super easy either.
I may stick to my plan then but introduce a Sufferfest on Wednesday, A Very Dark Place perhaps...
I always find that last Angels interval pretty tough, never really get on top of it!
bumps my FTP up a few Watts. It'll not matter really but I'm anal/OCD ish and can't help myself!
Haha, know what you mean. It is just a field test though and only an approximation of a max 60 min effort so can easily be a few watts out one way or another.
Suspect I'll be bumping my FTP mostly downwards this year (even less time to train) and that's going to hard to take 🙁
Unders and overs, love 'em!
Any others similar to Scylla...but maybe a bit longer/hurtier?
So can some trainerroadists recommend some decent climbing workouts. This is not entirely unrelated to my surprise Fred Whitton place...
Sufferfest Angels is supposed to target climbing, certainly didn't do me any harm in getting ready for the Alps last year.
I did a sweet spot session earlier (Carson) where it recommends raising the front wheel to simulate a slight gradient.
Add in a hill rep session away from the trainer once a week too?
Yeah I've done ISLAGIATT (it did and it wasn't), The Hunted and The Long Scream so far this week, I've got Angels but couldn't face it tonight. Only get to do an outdoors ride once a week so gradually recceing the route - Wrynose this weekend...
The trainerroad "own brand" workouts seem to just be a list in no particular order with no clue as to what they're for.
Other than that niggle I've been really impressed with the Trainerroad package and the Sufferfest compatibility.
Any others similar to Scylla...but maybe a bit longer/hurtier?
The only other one I've tried is Emerson. Slightly shorter intervals but more of them. I liked it.
[i]Quick edit: Done Palisade too, which is like Emerson but with short under and long over instead of long under and short over.[/i]
Did Kaweah today, a pretty straightforward 5x10 at around FTP. Wanted something with a decent amount of time at FTP, with intervals of around that duration, and quite a bit of recovery. This fitted the bill nicely.
Anyone doing the Tour of Sufferlandria starting tomorrow? Not even going to attempt it here, not in the right place physically and don't have enough time!
Anyone doing the Tour of Sufferlandria starting tomorrow? Not even going to attempt it here, not in the right place physically and don't have enough time!
Would it be wrong to use the Tour of Sufferlandia as my introduction back onto the turbo after a month off? I guess it probably is but it still sounds like it might be a worthy challenge.
Only you can answer that question 😉 Probably not too bad but to finish the week I'd probably knock the intensity down a bit to start with and see how I got on. I'm not that use to doing sufferfests though and find the quick changes of pace hard to deal with at this time of year.
Edit: it's probably more of a challenge than it initially appears. There was a thread on it here last year. Compared to the number of people who start doing it, the number that actually finish the week having done all the sufferfests is actually quite low.
Still feeling shakey after a session of 10 reps 60 seconds with 3 min reco. Working to 30-40 seconds and hanging on for the last 20 at as close to the same effort as possible.
Feels much tougher than typical longer 3-5 min reps, AND 30 sec reps. I guess it's making the body do somehting it's not supposed to do; work anaerobically for longer than 30 seconds. I always did find 400m athletics one of the hardest events!
Tips for post-session recovery? I've just been sitting sipping a glass of milk, should I try protein?
Cheers mrblobby will give those a try.
I'm committed to 3 more Saturday races starting tomorrow, I'd have liked to have done Sufferlandria but maybe next time...
First go on Carson for a while, quite a nice short set of sweetspotish intervals. Getting the TT bike on the turbo was long overdue and thought this would be a good place to start. Blimey it was hard making power in the TT position, only got about half way though, going to have to knock it back a bit and build up slowly to re-adapt. Still good have a starting point!
Haze, how did the races go?
I've been using it now for a couple of weeks, almost exclusively using Sufferfest videos. The Blender and ISLAGIATT are where my strengths lie and subsequently they weren't so bad. I found Angels quite difficult and The Hunted agonisingly hard. The ramp ups above threshold while you are already at 100% are tough but I can cope ok, its the drop back down that nails me every time and trying to regain 100% effort.
Wanted to Introduce some anaerobic work once every 7-10 days now that CX season is over, to avoid "training myself slow". What better way than revolver. Recovery from anaerobic work is my weakest part of my game so its ideal. Brutal though.
http://www.trainerroad.com/cycling/rides/705864-Sufferfest-Revolver
Well, I've managed to complete both Sweet Spot base programmes and will do another 8 minute test later this week.
I've started to really enjoy going on the turbo because of Trainerroad - it appeals to my geeky side that loves graphs and data. I even enjoy the pain it inflicts... I think I might be a bit mad!
I've definitely either maintained my fitness from the summer or improved it and hopefully that will be continued into the spring and next summer.
And the best bit about it is that my bike-hating boyfriend has seen the improvements and has started going on the turbo with trainerroad too, in an attempt to get fit enough to join me on outdoor rides. I've used the workout creator to design some short workouts to get him into it and used to being on the bike.
Great that is thread is still alive.
My PowerTap has broken so I'll be using virtual power tonight so I'll be interested to see how it compares.
Be interesting to see what you think. I think I need to be going a bit faster to do the same power over the course of the workout, possibly the turbo warming up, so that wouldn't be reflected in the virtual power (interestingly when trainer road ask for speed to power curves for a trainer they do ask for the trainer to be properly warmed up so guess it does make a difference.) Also find the virtual power isn't as quick to track effort, probably a turbo flywheel thing.
Going to be doing a lot more virtual power work now as I've for the TT bike setup on a second turbo alongside my turbo bike (and a set of rollers!) Planned to use virtual power with the trainer relay to view it on my garmin. Just want to do some long steady stuff to re-adapt to the TT bike. Though with blobby jr no 2 due any day now my turbo time is likely to be seriously curtailed!
Well that was interesting.
Tonight, due to my PowerTap failing, I set up my Garmin cadence/speed sensor and used the virtual power functionality in TrainerRoad.
As an experiment to get a good baseline I repeated a session that I've done a couple of times before to see how virtual power matched up against "real" power measurement.
I'm using the Elite Arion rollers with resistance.
I've been using the middle resistance level, (1) for all my sessions, so kept that consistent. Having done a little Google research it seemed that for my rollers and weight, (73kg), I needed to increase the wheel measurement on my Garmin from 1025mm to 1416mm , although why this needs to be done on the head unit when TrainerRoad reads directly from the sensor I'm not sure.
Anyway having done my session I can conclude that its pretty close, I guess its over estimating by 5%, which is pretty damn good.
Today's session with virtual power:
http://www.trainerroad.com/cycling/rides/734226-Progressively-Gray
Same session with PowerTap:
http://www.trainerroad.com/cycling/rides/561172-Progressively-Gray
One thing I will say is that the new feature to transmit the data back to the head unit, (Garmin 500 in my case), is excellent, this way I get all my power data recorded and can then analysis it as before.
Thumbs up 😆
Speaking about the turbo warming up, I thought this was an interesting overlay from Strava showing how long my turbo (cycleops fluid 2) takes to stabilise.
[url= http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2880/12464930614_4b639b68e8.jp g" target="_blank">
[url= http://www.flickr.com/photos/36927256@N00/12464930614/ ]Untitled[/url] by [url= http://www.flickr.com/people/36927256@N00/ ]monkey****er[/url], on Flickr
You can see it's pretty much getting to the end of a 10 minute interval before it's warmed up.
The trainerroad "own brand" workouts seem to just be a list in no particular order with no clue as to what they're for.Other than that niggle I've been really impressed with the Trainerroad package and the Sufferfest compatibility.
I don't think anyone has addressed this in the thread yet... If you go to "workouts" on the Trainerroad site then you can pick a session by zone/ duration/ intensity/ interval length/ etc. [url= http://www.trainerroad.com/cycling/workouts ]http://www.trainerroad.com/cycling/workouts[/url]
One thing I will say is that the new feature to transmit the data back to the head unit, (Garmin 500 in my case), is excellent, this way I get all my power data recorded and can then analysis it as before.
Do you need to tick any boxes or activate anything new since the installation of the update to get power recorded by a Garmin head unit? This is indeed be a nice feature to keep everything recorded in one place
Do you need to tick any boxes or activate anything new since the installation of the update to get power recorded by a Garmin head unit?
TrainerRoad Software: Devices -> Enable TrainerRelay
Garmin: Settings -> Bike -> then add an ANT+ power meter
You do know you can also export TCX files with all the power info contained directly from the trainerroad app or from the web site when you view a workout...? You can then load this into whatever analysis tool you use.
Don't quite understand why you would need to use the relay for this purpose. More useful for me when it's easier to look at the head unit than the screen.
You do know you can also export TCX files with all the power info contained directly from the trainerroad app or from the web site when you view a workout...?
No I didn't although I never needed to before my PowerTap broke.
Yes I find staring at the head unit easier than the screen, despite streaming various CX/XC races, odd, but there you go.
No, didn't ever consider the various export options in TR so thanks for pointing that out. Currently I export everything from the Garmin head unit on to Garmin Connect and then keep track of the power data in TR separately. No real reason to take this approach other than habit and not thinking about it before
I've just changed from virtual power to powertap. Is there a way to collect the power data from both methods on a single run?
Hi, just a quick question about the HR and virtual power malarky (which I admit I don't fully understand yet). My red HR line always seems to be above the yellow power line and blue graph (example [url= http://www.trainerroad.com/cycling/rides/731372-Thunder ]here[/url] ) This didn't bother me until I noticed that other people's workouts all seem to have the HR line well below. Does this mean I have the FTP (don't really understand that either 🙂 ) set too low/high, or something else, or am I just really unfit?
I think ftp too low would explain it but if that's the figure you get after the threshold tests then that's right as far as I know.
As your ftp rises then the yellow line will overtake the red.
Its more to do with the graph scale, the target power output is 133 on the intervals and 107 on the rests, as TrainerRoad uses one scale and places your heart rate on it, then naturally your HR graph will be above the power as you're working at around 145 BPM.
Watts/kg seems low, but only you can know if you're working hard enough.
Cheers, I'll have another go at the tests at the weekend and see what it tells me. I'm not convinced I did the initial setup very well tbh.
Bleurgh. 8 minute tests are [b][i]hard[/i][/b]!
FTP up from 183 to 195 though, which is 3.26W/kg. I've no idea if this is in any way accurate, but it certainly feels like I'm improving (if nothing else, it's training me to be good at 8 minute tests!).
Has anyone got any suggestions for what to do now I've done the sweetspot base programmes? There are no XC MTB specific training programmes, so I was thinking of doing the low volume cyclocross one, starting from the second base week (week 4). The ultimate aim is to try and beat a few of the boys at the regional short course XC series, starting in April.
whats the go to low intensity/recovery session?
just got over strep throat, been off 2 weeks, did high mileage in January, nothing in Feb apart from a 20 min FTP test (310) and 25 miles on the tallboy yesterday, looking for something to ease me back in
Dirty Rider, anything like Birch, Black, Colosseum, Baxter is a nicely varied, easy "Endurance" ride which should get the legs spinning again but not be too taxing on the brain or body. Maybe then some Sweetspot later in the week such as Peavine or Slide Mountain to get the legs working slightly harder but again without being too taxing? Not sure what others would recommend???
The Swedish Chef, out of curiosity, what was the rationale for "Progressively Grey"? Was it as a bridge towards Grey or other LT work/ bridge to VO2 Max stuff?
thanks DanW
The Swedish Chef, out of curiosity, what was the rationale for "Progressively Grey"? Was it as a bridge towards Grey or other LT work/ bridge to VO2 Max stuff?
It was a bridge to the more VO2 Max stuff I'm moving towards now. Things like 5*4 off 2 working on low cadance strength.
Thanks Swedish Chef, I thought that might be the case. Always interesting to see how people progress between blocks of slightly different sessions and I think I'm starting to get a grasp of the fundamentals of putting together a decent program which is a step in the right direction 😀
Working my way back through the thread the "[url= http://biketechreview.com/index.php/performance/supply/53-stripped-down ]Stripped Down[/url]" article on page 1 linked by Tom Thumb and Mr Blobby makes for good reading after tinkering on my own and experimenting for a few months. The idea of "raise the left and fill the right" is not exactly a mind blowing concept but some of the ideas on how you get there and make the most of your time was quite interesting in that article. One of the main things I have gained since signing up to Trainerroad is starting to think a lot more about what I am doing and why and where it then leads in the coming weeks. Again not mind blowing and completely common sense, but TR is a great tool to help actually achieve decent structure and make the most of the limited time I have free mid week. Thumbs up for TR 😀
