Not tiredness really, I had the 3 days rest and it was just another day. It’s true that the sweet spot 1 is not that hard, maybe that’s the thing – there are no workouts in it similar to 8 minutes at 110%.

http://www.trainerroad.com/cycling/rides/1157342-8-Minute-Test

I nailed the warmup and felt fine going into it. My sprint finish to the 2nd 8 minutes set a 2 min PR which sort of suggests more screw up than fitness failure.

I will press on with sweet spot 2 and might gift myself a few more points if it seems easier than the description. After that the mtb training plan (probably low volume to allow more real riding) which will carry me through to February.

Ended up with a gain of 2.4%.

aka, TBH after a month of work that’s a pretty good gain. Notice you put a bit of a surge in at the end of the first 8 mins. May find that can blow the legs for the second 8 mins. Reckon it’s best to keep it steady in the first 8 mins and save it for the second 8 mins. Also I’d have an easy day or two before testing, keep the legs spinning, and not have a couple of days off.

Also the test is just to give you an approximation of hour power. If you think the result is too low then tweak it up, too high then tweak it down. You should have an idea if riding for an hour at that power is achievable or not.

Does anyone know if a tomtom bluetooth speed/cadence sensor will work with trainer road?

I have it on my hard tail which i use with my TomTom Multisports watch and Polar H7 and this looks quality.

TrainerRoad supports Bluetooth Smart, which a quick Google for TomTom Multisports seems to indicate that it uses that protocol, so all being well it should work.

Worth downloading and trying out, but you’ll need a way for the your sensors to talk to your laptop, like a Bluetooth Smart dongle or USB stick.

Did anyone here get on the iOS trial?

Thanks for your comments MB, no doubt you are right that it is best to work out your own best process for testing rather than blindly follow the instructions as I have tended to.

I’ve never had an iPhone and I was quite surprised to see TRs comments on a DC rainmaker article that 90% of mobile traffic to their site is iOS, hence the low priority for android. How would you make use of it anyway – take it out on a ride with you?

Maybe Ebbets isn’t quite the 8hr solo warm up I thought it was. 16 x 500w (approx) sprints FFS!

Kryton57, what did you think of Tioga?

15 * 500w, sounds like Sufferfest’s Revolver.

I quite enjoyed Tioga. Hard but enjoyable. But then again lengthy consistent intervals around FTP & over unders are my strength.

Akak, have you started Sweetspot Base 2 yet?

Torn between this and Intermediate Build 1…

Some hideous looking sprinty intervals in intermediate build 1. Junction looks horrendous!

Just signed up, ANT dongle installed and TT bike mounted on the TT. FTP test later this evening. Came fifth in our Club Championships on Sunday in a breakaway with the the 2nd cats, so still recovering! Contemplating Advanced Competitor Low Volume to complement the 100 miles/week commuting and prepare for the E12/3 Winter Series. Anybody doing high volume and commuting?

Some hideous looking sprinty intervals in intermediate build 1. Junction looks horrendous!

Yeah not quite sure if I need to do a bit more on the trainer before jumping into it, sweet spot stuff could be a good lead in?

Need to shift this cold first so hoping to knuckle down next week…

Revolver tonight, just adding some finishing touches to the form before my first national CX race of the year on Sat and Sun.

Bit of a contrast, I did a nice and steady hour on Carson. Good luck for the weekend:-)

Yes I started the sweet spot 2 last week as planned, bit of an odd first week with the ftp test, the next workout I had abdominal cramps before and during and then I broke a spoke on the Saturday.

I don’t claim any expertise – the TR flowchart indicates I should do both plans so I am!

I also experimented with making a playlist out of midweek mini movies: here is last weeks (26 minutes):

I think it draws a bit too much attention, also I got a bit of sensory confusion from the POV shots. I guess more scenic and slow paced stuff would work better.

Hmm, noticed you mentioned 1 was a bit easy, I’m in fairly good condition at the moment (for me) so think I’ll jump straight into 2 to bridge to one of build plans.

anyone use rollers & TR?
I have just got some and was trying switch from turbo to rollers, but am really struggling?
I know rollers are trickier but can ride them ok now with 2 hands and looking forward fine, but cannot hit keys on laptop, watch sopranos & drink whilst on rollers (which was easy on turbo) so..
should i just stick to TR on turbo and forget rollers
cheers jon

It takes practice, but you’ll learn. I do all my sessions on rollers.

Although I’ve never needed to touch the laptop during a session.

Haze, I’d recommend using the amount of time you have until your first 2015 event rather than current fitness level to decide between 1 and 2. Many times, if you have a long gap until you start racing again next year, dialing things down for a few weeks and starting with 1 and then moving to 2 is a great way to just maximize your base and really set you up for some good fitness as you move forward.

Regarding rollers, what model are you using Jonno101? Some can be more difficult than others. Especially as you get into more high-intensity work, some models are just plain sketchy to put down big watts on, but some are great, like Inside Ride for example.

-Trevor from TrainerRoad

Cheers Trevor, there’s a winter series that I dipped my toe in last year at the end of Jan. Would like to do those again to see how/if I’ve improved since.

Sweet spot bases 1 & 2 would take me up to that point, no plans beyond that yet but guessing I’d have until April to build.

Incidentally today they have split the sweet spot plans down into low, medium and high volumes.

Yes that little change caught me off guard just before going to do my workout! It isn’t just additional plans but a whole mixup. I’ll stick with low but I won’t feel as good about it as when it was called intermediate 🙂

I’m not sure about the 30 minute active recovery workout on wednesdays, it seems a bit of a faff but I will give it a go.

I’m starting with Low 1 I think, then move up to 2.

Will probably put the 30 minute recovery on the Wedsnesday morning to keep the night free. It might even start to encourage me to start going to bed earlier…

Urgh. Just did my first TrainerRoad session since May – dived straight in with an 8 minute test to see how racing XC and commuting over the summer has helped my fitness. Turns out, not a lot – FTP is down >10% from 215 to 192. I thought I was going to die during the second 8 min block. I guess I’ve been doing a bit too much pootling to work and back (plus a week in Italy eating pizza every day probably hasn’t helped).

Oh well, Sweet Spot Base 1 starts tomorrow, then Sweet Spot 2 then the MTB plan. That worked well for me last winter so I may as well repeat it this year. Only this time I’ll be combining turbo work with commuting by bike most days. Hopefully I can stay “on plan”, not eat too much to compensate (need to lose about 4kg) and not annoy my boyfriend too much with how long I’m spending on a bike…!

I broke Trainerroad today. I was doing Bays as a prelude to sweet spot base 2 and therefore Tuesday’s 8 min test, and the instructions said “go for it” during the sprint intervals, so I did. It’s seems – at my settings anyway – that >610watts puts it into “workout paused” which is a bit irritating.

I managed to control myself and keep the rest circa 590w which allowed the interval to continue.

That’s a bit weird – worth contacting the TR team and seeing if it’s sortable?

610watts puts it into “workout paused” which is a bit irritating.

Have you got it set up to start/pause workouts based on cadence? Mine does that if the ANT+ USB stick is too far away from the speed/cadence sensor. To stop the drop-outs I had to get a USB extension cable and site the ANT+ USB under the bike.

I’ve had an interesting few weeks since coming back to TR at the start of Sept. I completed 6-7 workouts over 3 weeks at my old FTP and felt good enough to bump my FTP by another 5 points…then failed to complete the following at FTP:

Old Rag+1
Needham
Old Rag

I’m putting it down to the mild cold that I had. Other than a bit of discomfort from a sore throat and the inconvenience of a snotty nose I felt OK, so It was quite an eye opener to experience such a loss of power…I could tell as soon as I hit a significant interval that I didn’t have it in me.

The cold has now been banished and I’ve completed a few sessions at FTP without issue, so thought I should do an FTP test…

My last FTP test was the 8 minute workout and that was back at the tail end of Jan; result was 263w which I’ve since increased to 305w (over 40-ish workouts) by bumping it 5w at a time, as and when it felt right.

Result of the 20 minute test from the weekend? 337w! I must admit, I’m slightly afeared of my next session 😯

I don’t think a 10% increase is right for me, certainly not based on the feel of the last few sessions (ignoring the illness) but I’ll give it a shot and see how it works out. I’ll have a couple of weeks of Sweet Spot sessions I think, workouts that I’m familiar with and try to build some confidence at the new FTP before getting too adventurous.

that >610watts puts it into “workout paused” which is a bit irritating.

I sometimes had signal dropout cause the workout to pause, dunno if it was low battery, interference or some other connection issue but it has happened very infrequently and at no particular point in a workout so it might be related to hitting any particular point or power output.

Anyone know if they are getting closer with the iphone app release? I’m using motivo at the moment as they have an app but would rather use trainer-road.

I could use a laptop but it’d be pretty awkward where I have my turbo setup.

Anyone know if they are getting closer with the iphone app release? I’m using motivo at the moment as they have an app but would rather use trainer-road.

Their Facebook page has the following:

“iOS update! We’re just squashing bugs at the moment and will submit to the app store in the next few weeks.

At launch it will be iPhone only (iPad is next). It will natively support Bluetooth Smart and it will support ANT+ via a Wahoo Fitness Dongle.

There are two features that we haven’t built yet that we were going to cut for first launch. This is so we can get the app out faster and get feedback.

Those two features are Horizontal Display and Video Support.

We figure that implementing these could add 2-3 weeks of total dev time. We think that would push us too far into the winter training season and you’ve all waited long enough!

I wanted to telegraph this move to everyone so that 1) Expectations are set and 2) You don’t “1 star” us in the app store because of a missing feature.

We’ll probably start working on these features after we submit the app store. App store approval can take 1-2 weeks.

What does everyone think? Right now we want to “get the darn thing out” then start to roll in more features.”

ah cool, I’d signed up to the iOS update email which has been silent but this looks promising.

… so it might be related to hitting any particular point or power output.

That should of read … so it might not be related …

I understood that. I’ve no issues with the dongle, before of after. 2 intervals at >610 watts had the same result? It could have been my cadence at the time was 130 which I’ve exceeded before. It may be that the gauge had gone very red and was off the chart?

I’ve never had that problem with high power sprints. You have a real power meter don’t you? Try it with a garmin and see what happens?

@trevorderuise
Im using Elite Arion Mag, so has 3 resistance levels. Have just completed my 1st full hour TR session which is a big improvement on before, but cant do out of saddle High watt stuff yet, even if this is possible>>?
Cheers

You have a real power meter don’t you?

No, thats virtual power. Seated too that was, i iz that awsumz…

New one for me today, did Table. Quite nice, bit like a 25 mile TT training effort on a rolling course. Had a few crap sessions recently, mostly due to being up a lot in the night with the kids and feeling wrecked, so it was good to complete a session like that feeling comfortable. A pretty good one for getting an idea if your FTP setting is a reasonable estimation of your hour power too.

Dammit. A messy 8 minute test and only a 1 watt increase in FTP. One of those days I guess.

Sigh…

First 45 minutes of The Hunted tonight, super busted legs after the double CX weekend.

Started sweet spot base 1 today (low volume).

Little bit of a disjointed warm up with messing around with various pairs of headphones, but the 8 minute test gave me an extra 6 watts on my FTP so fairly consistent with the 20 minute I did a couple of weeks back.

Next one Thursday….