TrainerRoad – STW approved sessions

Thought I’d start a thread to collect people opinions on the various sessions available on TrainerRoad.

There seems to be a fair few users on the forum and I’m curious as to what people are doing and why.

So apart from Sufferfest films, as a starter I’ve used both Iron and Wallace recently.

Iron is a tabata style session which is perfect for honing those sudden power surges needed in CX racing and the like.

Wallace is a take on the classic 2 * 20 by breaking it up into smaller chunks, which may be easier mentally on the rollers/turbo.

So what you doing and why?

I was just following the Inter Base/Build plans and doing whatever came up, much easier than choosing them.

Couple with some loud music or some TV and it works fine for me

My favourite non intervals session is colosseum. It’s 90 minutes long and feels a little like a simulated road ride as it continually varies a little which I find is just enough to keep me interested. It is supposed to be fairly easy but I prefer to adjust the difficulty up to 110-115% to make it a bit more intense than intended. Perkins is similar except it’s 120minutes.

Thanks, may check those out as I need to add a bit of variety. Iron looks interesting 🙂

My staples tend to be Gray and Starr King for long threshold sessions, then Kaiser and The Thumb of sorter harder intervals. I use Birch or Black for an easy day. Tried Megantic the other day as a billats taster and that was pretty good. Username is hefin if you want to have a look but it’s a bit dull as I just tend to run through the same rides.

Mostly been trying to get some fitness back this year after injury so started the year doing one of their base programs which worked well. Raced TTs in the summer so quite a bit of focus on longer threshold sessions. Season’s over so drifting a bit now as I’ve not had time to sort out a proper winter plan yet. Anyone got any good resources to read about base training on the turbo?

Just Sufferfest ’til now.

I’m thinking of following a program for the run up to Christmas, no idea what I should be aiming for though.

Feeling reasonably strong at the moment but aware that riding opportunities are on the wane.

Something to keep me ticking over nicely?

I’ve been doing this one and recommend it:

http://www.trainerroad.com/cycling/plans/97-20-minute-power-accelerator-e3-training-solutions-

All good sessions.

Something without the 20 minute test would be nice, did one just under a fortnight ago and have no desire to repeat it so soon!

Haze, did you need the sick bucket? 🙂

SkillWill, have you completed that? Did you get much of a power gain from it?

SkillWill, have you completed that? Did you get much of a power gain from it?

Annoyingly I’ve had the last week off as got a dreadful chesty cough and couldn’t face cold sessions in my garage.

I completed week 5 so was a reasonable way through it and was a noticeable difference in how ‘easy’ the sessions were, didn’t get a chance to re-test FTP which was a shame but I can genuinely say I noticed a difference, I was clinging on to start with!

Hanging on for dear life for the last 5 minutes, felt a little strange when I stepped off the bike!

Anyone got any good resources to read about base training on the turbo?

Try not to use the turbo for base would be my opinion!! I’m being coached and therefore don’t use sufferfest or the likes, but my base training is all done outside for sanity – turbo kept for mid week intensity/recovery rides. I have some done some z2 stuff for fat burning on the turbo – even with a dvd on, its boring as hell and actually way harder than outside.

Thanks dirtygirlonabike. Not got much choice unfortunately as I’m tied to indoors much of the time.

I think much of the cycling approach to base training is modelled on what a lot of the pros’ do, who have the time to do it, have pretty packed racing calendars, and race for up to three weeks at a time. Most of my racing will be TT’s of less than an hour, and XC/CX races of about an hour and a half, and with a week or two between races. Come from a running background and the LSD thing has fallen out of favour a bit, at least for amatuer club level runners. I’d race half marathons but rarely run for much more than an hour when training, even in winter. So I’m doubtful that the long slow distance approach is a good use of limited time. This is probably one for another thread though!

I will use turbo for base building this winter, knocked my FTP right down, and will stick to sessions of over an hour (sufferfest so it is still variable training) and make sure I am getting 5 sessions a week whether that is outdoors or on the turbo.

Some great input here.

At the moment I’m using TrainerRoad for focused sessions during the cross season, however it will be interesting to see how my coaches training plan can also utilise the software from Dec onwards.

i’m a big fan of the 20 minute power accelerator plan. I also like some of the (similar but longer) sessions from the 40 TT plan.

I think much of the cycling approach to base training is modelled on what a lot of the pros’ do

& quite misunderstood. there is a great article explaining that base training should target FTP, rather than LSD & why. unfortunately i have no idea where to find it (the internet somewhere…)

found it

thomthumb, was it this on BTR?

Edit: Beaten to it! Yes, pretty interesting reading and quite aligned with my thoughts on it. Just not seen many plans that are based on this sort of thinking, may have to try and come up with something.

Double edit: Sorry OP if I am hijacking the thread a little! Have you looked at the CX plans? Not really had a proper look myself.

By chance this appeared on my twitter feed this afternoon.
http://support.trainerroad.com/entries/22366164-Traditional-Base-All-the-Gory-Details

Not that relevant to the OPs q but base training related 🙂 My plan seems to be a mix of base (z2 long rides), strength, recovery rides plus seriously nasty sounding high intensity sessions…but then i have the time and my goals are road racing and longer stage races (ie 5 days)

mrbloody – sounds like you might be after the sweet spot base mentioned briefly here? http://support.trainerroad.com/entries/22378304-Base-Training-Q-A

Yes, thanks, suspect I’ll put together something based on longer sweet spot and some threshold intervals (2×20, 3×15 – Gray, Starr King, Galena, Eichorn) with recovery (birch and black). Then maybe mix in some more intense shorter intervals on a less frequent basis. Then put some hard/easy structure the weeks. Or something like that… need to sit down with the bible!

Does anyone see any value to the progression style sessions like Piute or Ragged?

They seem to fill a similar function to some of the sweet spot stuff in that they are a building block towards the properly hard stuff in the earlier stages of starting/ getting back to using the turbo.

I used to do something similar before thinking too much about each session and found them quite engaging in a way that some of the long constant effort sweetspot session don’t quite keep me engaged… the continuous progression is mentally easier for some reason.

Are these types of progression sessions a bit of a waste though? As above, more reasoning for them is in building up to FTP stuff having been away from the turbo and harder riding for a while

Galena last night, a 3×20 sweet spot. Harder work mentally than physically I reckon!

DanW, not tried any of the ramped ones. I guess it puts the most intense stuff at the back end of the workout when you’ve already done quite a bit of work, which may be a good thing depending on what you want to achieve. Might want to check out some of the over/under sessions, they make longer intervals quite interesting and help you cope with changes of pace when you’re pushing hard. Have a look at something like Scylla (you could tweak the intensity to go between sweet spot and threshold maybe.)

Did Starr King last night which is 3*15 sweet spot, felt quite good so think that 3*20 as mentioned above is doable.

Watched the world cup cross races during the session, such a cool feature!

Good work, I like Starr King. It is threshold though and not sweetspot, so Galena is slightly less power.

What was the cross race on? I’m tempted to start a “things to watch while on the turbo” thread 🙂

Can I ask a really stupid question?

I’m just about to start using Trainerroad on my newly set up turbo. I’ve never used a turbo before, and wondered if you use the gears on the bike or not? How does the virtual power thingy take gears into account?

Use the gears to get the candence and power combination where you want it. If you have a resistance knob on your turbo you can use that as well, but I generally just set that to something sensible for the workout and then use the gears.

The virtual power just works on wheel speed so doesn’t need to know what gear you’re in. It just knows that for a given wheel speed the trainer will be providing a resistance that needs a certain wattage to spin it at that speed.

Awesome, thanks.

Any other tips for a newbie? I’m going to follow one of the plans on Trainerroad, but I’m not sure which to start with. My aims are to do a couple of XC endurance events in spring and autumn next year (Whinlatter Challenge and Kielder 50 if it’s on) with an XC short course league in the spring and summer.

I was going to start with the traditional base programme then use the cyclocross one, but I’m open to suggestions.

If you have a resistance knob on your turbo you can use that as well,

if you adjust resistance won’t virtual power be off?

i thought you need to set it and choose the resistance setting in the turbo selection process.

I was going to start with the traditional base programme then use the cyclocross one, but I’m open to suggestions.

i would skip the traditional base; for 2 reasons – zone 2 on the turbo will be dull – i think that steady rides are best left outside and secondly in my experience i’ve seen much more useable gains by working on sweet spot base or the 20 minute accelerator.

if you adjust resistance won’t virtual power be off?

Sorry, yes, Thomthumb is right. I have a PowerTap hub so don’t use the virtual power thing 8)

I’d go sweet spot base too. Did that at the beginning of the year having had a couple of years off injured. Got me back into half decent shape for the summer.

legolam – trainerroad had different calibration settings for the different resistance settings on the trainer. If you muck about with the resistance setting then your power readings will stop making sense. Try and keep as much the same as possible between sessions: resistance, tyre pressure, tyre contact with the roller. Use the gears to adjust the in-ride resistance.

CX race was the UCI channel on YouTube, WC round 2 from Tabor.

Some great air being caught on one of the hills

Thanks Chef, shall check that out. I’m CX curious and aim to give some summer cross a go. Though whenever I see any photos it’s always of people running with their bikes 🙂

Watched the world cup cross races during the session, such a cool feature!

Is there some feature I have missed, or do you just mean you had a video playing and put the trainerroad bar across the bottom of the screen.

MSP, I read they were working on a way to play video inside the player window, but I just do as you’ve described.

I was going to start with the traditional base programme then use the cyclocross one, but I’m open to suggestions.

If you can train for over 10 hours a week then that should be OK.
Othewise, the other school of thought is the time-crunched training plan.

I have the display at the bottom of the screen, OK not really a “feature”, but the auto start/stop is great as I can’t reach my laptop whilst on the rollers.

The Sufferfest video integration is excellent though, (providing you use the matching session profile to video).

I was going to start with the traditional base programme then use the cyclocross one, but I’m open to suggestions.

IMO a lot depends on your current level of fitness and training background. If you’re new to all of this then a base program would most likely be very beneficial in building form and getting time in on the bike, if you’re already in good shape and can take high intensity training then a time crunched plan could be just the thing.

However I’d say that unless you are looking at racing as your main goal then sticking to a plan will in most cases remove the “fun” from cycling.

Othewise, the other school of thought is the time-crunched training plan.

If you’ve got a one off event you want to train and peak for then time crunched is good (I did the one from the Time Crunched Cyclist book.) It’ll get you to the event in good form but then it’ll leave you spent and you’ll need some time off. In fairness the book does warn of this. If you’re looking to do a season of racing I’d go with the sweetspot base instead.

Also if you’re a newbie then regularly spending 2hrs+ on the trainer at fairly constant powers may be mentally tough.

Thanks everyone.

I “raced” for the first time this season (I was the only woman to enter the regional XC series!) and loved it, but would like to be able to be a bit more competitive against the boys (and any women that turn up) next year. I’ve changed jobs and have a lot more free time this winter, so I’m keen to make a proper stab at improving my fitness and competitiveness.

I’ve lost a lot of fitness over the last month or two as my new job is a lot more sedentary (and has an excellent canteen) so I think I would benefit from a decent base programme over the winter. Although I get the point that the traditional base programme does have some epically long workouts in it. I’ll have a look at the sweetspot base stuff too.

Things I’ve learned from my first turbo + Trainerroad session:

1) No matter how cold my garage is, it’s a mistake to do the session in the thermals that I just commuted home in.
2) A towel. Don’t forget the towel.
3) Or the water.
4) I should really have made sure the magnet was aligned with the speed sensor so that I didn’t just waste an hour of my time and a quarter of my body weight in sweat doing the 8 minute test and ending up with no idea what my FTP is…
5) It’s a lot of fun (I’m a sucker for pain!)

I might leave it a couple of days before I do another test…

All things everyone learns the hard way 😉

There’s a devices tab that’ll show you what the speed sensor is reading before you go to the workout. I always give the cranks a spin and make sure it’s all detecting properly before I start.

4) I should really have made sure the magnet was aligned with the speed sensor so that I didn’t just waste an hour of my time and a quarter of my body weight in sweat doing the 8 minute test and ending up with no idea what my FTP is…

How did it work at all if your sensor wasn’t lined up? Dis you not follow the virtual power graph?

TBh, I did something similar the first time I used it, didn’t have it paired up properly, and it was on an 8 minute test. Looking back now I’m not sure how I didn’t realise it wasn’t working properly but it was the first time I’d used it. Luckily I was also running my Garmin at the same time so could use the data from that.