Is anyone using a wahoo kickr or other powered trainer with a singlespeed bike?

Since I got my hands on the kickr I’ve not changed gear for the last 4 sessions as the the trainer adjusts the power to suit the target based on cadence which seems to make the gears a bit redundant. I was thinking that i could get a cheapo single speed and have a dedicated turbo bike permanently setup in the shed.

I’d need the gears for doing the fitness test but that’s probably only half a dozen or so times a year, on those occasions I could swap back to my regular bike. The idea of a cheaper steel framed bike for the vast majority of sessions is appealing.

Is there something I’ve overlooked that means this is a stupid idea?

how you going to tension the chain?

how you going to tension the chain?

Would be manageable with an eccentric bottom bracket although that would kind of defeat the cheap option so I guess a chain tensioner/knackered old derailleur would suffice.

So after I finish XCM with the Bonty at the end of July, which plan for a 10 mile hilly TT at the end of September? Do I do the TR 40k TT to increase my power but learn a strategy for a 10m or something else?

Not seen it but the 40k TT plan sounds like a good bet. TBH I don’t think a plan would vary much between a 10 and a 25, requirements are fairly similar. As for strategy, you really just need to get out there and start doing them. When you racing?

Had to turbo tonight so it was 2hrs of a custom z2/z3 session, had 4 water bottles lined up before starting and got through the lot!

26th September. It’s an inter club friendly hosted by us, so my aim will to not be at the bottom of the time sheet. Ok I’ll stick with the 40 plan.

That’s a lot of tedious turbo time!

26th September. It’s an inter club friendly hosted by us, so my aim will to not be at the bottom of the time sheet. Ok I’ll stick with the 40 plan.

What’s the format? Non aero or TT bikes? If you want to be quick get to work on your position now! Definitely recommend racing a few 10’s ahead of it too. I’m still fairly new to it all but it took me a good half a dozen races before I felt like I knew what I was doing and put in an effort I was reasonably pleased with.

That’s a lot of tedious turbo time!

Wasn’t too bad. Got a custom session where the power level changes every few minutes around z2 and z3 (this was last night) which seems to help the time pass. Dark Knight Rises on Amazon Prime helped too. Had meant to do another half hour but by 10pm I’d had enough 🙁

If you want to be quick get to work on your position now!

Its just “road bike”.

I’ve been practising with clip on aero bars for six weeks now, on and off the turbo. On the Turbo I’m working up my time on the bars during intervals so I can spin up some FTP level efforts for 3-5 mins at a time (its an open road rolling course so plenty of corners & climbs).

Well, I ate a slice of pizza today, and decided to punish myself with an extra 1/2 hour off plan when I got home.

“Slide”… 😯

Slide… blimey, looks properly hard that. Did you hit the power targets?

a slice of pizza 😆

2 laps on swift today, 45min, gingerly using the potted leg at points, not the easiest thing to do on a XTR spd, would be interesting to have some vectors for l+r leg analysis in the coming weeks

7 weeks in plaster today, 8 weeks post accident, i feel the same, no less trained, i guess its in the head though and id be dying on a longer ride cardio wise

Mrblobby no, about 5% under. I did have tired legs after yesterday’s 83 miler at 29.5 kph, the return half into a 13mph headwind. But I kept having to stop, more so as it went on to he third interval, the pain was agony. From that perspective, it’s a good session to learn how to fight though the pain, I will do it again, good TT experience.

Dirty rider, well maybe 3, 450 myfitnesspal cals worth hence I had to earn it back. Now I’m “only” 20 cals over target lol… Nice going, keep at it.

As we’re familiar with wattage and FTP, a sneaky photo snapped at the Tour from Contadors bike with FTP being the red number…

saw that earlier and meant to post it not only for the crazy FTP number but for the actual warm up sequence

whats blanked i wonder and whats

‘3 activate – 5″ on/55″ off

minute 3 – 5 seconds at? and 55 seconds off?

this all above FTP?

Zone 2 at 320w 😯

Activations would be hard sprint for 5 seconds then easy for 55 seconds.

6.7W/kg at FTP, arhhh, what I’m doing is so far removed from Pro cycling it’s another sport. 😥

Thats not just pro cycling that’s a guy at the very top of his sport. However it is humbling..

Well, thats me completed XCM right down to the Taper, ready for the Bontrager 24 this weekend.

Looking forward to that, a few days OTB and then an 8 minute test next Friday as a prelude to the TT plan ready for My First TT at the end of September.

It was really good to crack some power records in the last two workouts >800w for 15 seconds and >500w for 30. You always feel afterward that you could have gonr THAT bit harder eh?

Best of luck this weekend Kryton. You doing that solo?

Be cool to see how you get on with time trialling. It is addictive, and ….

You always feel afterward that you could have gonr THAT bit harder eh?

There’s a lot of that!

Cheers. Yes solo 24. It’s the most serious planning I’ve done, strategy, food clothing etc.

Impressive stuff Kryton.

Not that I’ve done it, but don’t underestimate how much it’ll take out of you. I’d probably think about maybe a week off the bike and then a week or two of just riding for fun before embarking on another training plan. Others here with actual proper experience would be better placed to advise though 😉

It’s not my first solo. Just my first at this weight, experience and fitness.

Fair enough, crack on, go smash it 🙂

Thanks for the encouragement MrBlobby. I have a plan, and I think it’s going to be emotional. 🙂

well 66 days since my accident and I’m out of plaster, now into this moon boot for the next 4 weeks, allowed to weight bare, physio starts Tuesday morning, asked the consultant about swimming, they didn’t think it would be a good idea, asked about cycling, said indoors on a static bike, light resistance only, obviously wouldn’t be great if i fell off outdoors i guess, will speak to physio about it all again on Tuesday,

After a bit of advice: I am looking for a way to either export trainerroad workout to use on a garmin (outside), or a program to create workouts that I can export to my garmin which uses %FTP, rather than Zones like on the garmin workout creator – any ideas?

Advice needed on following a program.

I’ve been working through the base building programme and have noticed that I may be working much harder than the descriptions seem to suggest I should be. I’ve still been completing things but my power zones and my heart zones are nowhere near comparable.

I did eclipse over the weekend which is supposed to be 3×20 minute sweet spot blocks and got the following results:

Power zone
sweet spot: 70% (62 minutes)
Threshold: 0.1% (5 seconds)
VO2 Max: 0%

But by heart rate
sweet spot: 1.3% (1 minute)
Threshold: 32.3% (29 minutes)
VO2 Max: 41.1% (36 minutes)

So although my power output was on the money, according to the HR zones I was physically working way harder than I should of been to maintain that power. My perceived effort felt somewhere between the two, I felt like it was tougher than it should of been but I’m pretty sure I didn’t spend over 30 minutes at VO2Max.

The questions:
Should I just forget about the heart rate stuff and plough on assuming that all work is good work and as i get fitter the two measurements will gradually get closer?

Or am I defeating the point of these sessions by working at an intensity thats above what it’s supposed to be?

Or are TrainerRoad’s heart rate bands way out of whack or not to be read in conjunction with power zones? I don’t ever recall putting in my max heart rate (somewhere in the low-mid 180’s) so I assume that the zones are worked out from the LTHR setting.

Sounds to me like your FTP is way out. That determines the power zones so do a 8 or 20min test and let TR set it.

Sounds to me like your FTP is way out. That determines the power zones so do a 8 or 20min test and let TR set it.

I did do the 8 minute test at the start of the base building programme, that was 4 weeks ago. I had a long lay off from any type of riding for about a year and a half and the FTP dropped from 290 something to 247 over this period which felt like it was realistic. My times around my local loop were also down about 20% over the same period which sort of correlates in a fairly un scientific way.

Are you balls out during the test?

Are you balls out during the test?

Oh yes.

Now it could be that having been inactive for so long my ‘balls out’ wasn’t quite as thorough as it used to be but I certainly couldn’t have done any more on the day.

I’ve got another 3 weeks on this programme and the intention was to move on to another programme straight after so I’ll get to do another 8 minute test at the start of that. But I’m in two minds whether i should dial down the intensity for the last 3 weeks or just carry on and for the time being and do the FTP reset at the beginning of the new programme?

Some advice please?

I’m at a point where I’m having to “pause” during intervals, and I’m wondering should I carry on or lower my FTP,so I can compete all the intervals without a pause? The symptom is serious leg pain, leading to a 10-15 second pause and then I carry on. For example, tonight which was 5 x 5mins at @108%; first interval – no pause. Second interval, pause after 3 mins. Third interval pause after 2 mins, then another 2 mins. Fourth interval pause after 90 secs, then another 90 then another 90, same on the fifth.

My last two 8 min tests have been the same and show minor (1-3%) gains only but with pauses – which I suppose are “rests” so am I cheating?

Rests during the 8 minute tests? That would indeed invalidate the test as the idea is what you can sustain for 8 minutes, not what you can sustain for 2 x 4 min with a short break in the middle.

What sort of pain? Injury pain? May be worth backing off for a few days if so. Or if it’s just legs giving out sort of pain then, yes, I’d lower FTP a little. 8 minute test is just to give you a rough estimate anyway and it may be higher or lower, and it does go up and down with form/fatigue.

First hard effort on the turbo tonight for a while, and first turbo session I’ve enjoyed in ages. A custom 20 min of high tempo followed by 2×8 @ 105%. Nice to be doing intervals while not being blown about by the wind for a change!

Hmm. Looking back, with a few exceptions that’s been happening since my prior FTP test in May. Now, being honest here I added 5w to stretch myself. I think I then I’ve extended myself to far. I’ll knock it back down by 5w and see how the next intervals go. I’m also at 8 months continuos training until I go on hols soon, with August should be my rest month, maybe I should stop.

It’s a bit upsetting because my FTP is a lowly 3.3w/kg and I really hoped to get to 4 this year. I know I’m not a powerful rider though.

Some advice please?

you bailed a 24hr race less than a 3rd of the way in not less than 10 days ago

have 2/3/4 weeks off, by all means still ride, just remove the power figure/average speed (means **** all)/HR from your garmin screen (keep cadence)

ride to the coast, do a hilly route, don’t chase numbers and just enjoy yourself, theres plenty of time for beasting yourself when its cold/wet/icy/snowy outside,

accept that you failed some of this years goals/targets, but achieved others, no shame in that

That’s was through injury though. I stepped off the bike at 95k/7hrs and felt fresh as a daisy, I just couldn’t hold the bars.

I am mentally tired, I’m having real trouble motivating myself to go to work an do anything challenging, and am wishing the holiday was sooner. Perhaps your right, I need a break and usually I’d do as you suggest in August, except I entered my first TT in Sept so wanted to train for that. Ah well.

I’d agree on the rest front. I recently signed up for BCBR 2016 and I’m 100% riding for fun currently.. I’ve already lost probably 30W of my ftp (used to be 300) if not even more. I tried a session recently which was the first in weeks and had to quit after 30 minutes as my legs were jelly.

But I figure as per dirty rider the winter is going to have plenty of unpleasant rides in it and it’s impossible to be 100% fit all of the time.

I’m also surprised at adding 5W “to stretch”. I find the workouts hard enough as it is and they are designed to slowly add training load. I think by adding 5W you might have been over training the whole time

Looking back at my history I see where I went wrong. A good 8 min test in March saw me jump 10% FTP. THEN inalsomaddd the extra 5w. Even the former would have been challenging. What was I thinking….

I’m always suspicious of a good or bad test result. You know how easy/hard a session should be, if it’s too hard or too easy then adding 5W next time is probably an OK idea, likewise deducting 5W if it’s too hard.

Is there any guide on pro-rating workouts for morning/evening? My FTP is around 270W, but first thing in the morning I’ll struggle to get within 10% of that even after a good warmup. Is it a waste of time to try and fail a workout based on that, or a waste of time to try and do the workout at 90%, or should I just get up early and do housework to earn brownie points and go for a ride in the evening when I’m better?