TrainerRoad – STW approved sessions

Yes, me too. The LTHR estimate from my 8 minute test was daft, something like 160 when I have done 3 hour rides at an average of 180. I’ve a suspicion that my HR on the trainer actually tends to be a bit different from outside, although at the moment that’s just based on perception of effort (I only have power readings from the trainer, not outside). I guess I should do some 8 or 20 minute tests outside, but until I have power data to go with it I can’t be arsed.

Strava suggested that my threshold was 166 and anerobic was over 18something which I think is more realistic.

I’m going to jump into one of the cx training plans – will probably mix up mid and high level. not racing again till the 29th so I’ll do my standard (minimal) taper for the last week gives me 2 weeks of a training plan. Best of starting at the begining of the plan or jumping in the middle? I’m guess they slowly ramp up and as I’ve raced the last 5 weeks my cx fitness can take jumping into the middle?

Just got up for an FTP test. Every bone in my body wants to go back to bed

Glad I did. Just a smudge over a 5% increase since 5 weeks ago!

Hi all,

Based on some of the help on here I think I’m going to start a sustained power build plan. Is there a way of incorporating videos into the plan/s?

Thanks…

@edenvalleyboy, not sure what you mean?

TR allows you to use YouTube or media players at the same time, so you get all the session details at the bottom the screen and the film in the rest of the space.

The actual plans are not based on any particular films, unless you opt for the Sufferfest plan.

@TSC I think you’ve answered my question thanks. I’ve only ever followed Sufferfest videos on the turbo.

Ok, so, I can watch a cycling video on YouTube at the same time but it won’t be related to power efforts like Sufferfest has been.

Any recommendations then of good videos to watch? Or do people watch cycling unrelated videos?

Cheers…

Try taking a look at the UCI YouTube channel.
You can watch reruns of most rounds of the XC World Cup along with World Cup CX races and some road racing as well if that’s your thing.

@bumpy – Cheers. Sounds great.

Not a roadie, but I had noticed with Sufferfest that I didn’t mind what discipline I watched as long as it took my mind of the pain! 😀

That’s exactly what I find as well.
Usually by about 1/2 or 3/4 though a session I end up ignoring the videos anyway!

For those posters who’ve been on this thread a while – do you get annoyed at newbies asking the same questions without looking for the answers first?

I’ve just started scrolling through the start of this thread for more info and seen the answers to my questions on the first page! Doh….

I dont think you can watch youtube at the same time if you use an ipad – so I end up precariously balancing the ipad on top of the laptop where I watch UCI re-runs.

Have bailed on real riding today as I’m too busy trying to catch up on work to ride and clean my bike 🙁 will either be doing Elephants+1 or Richardson+1 before lunch. Probably the former I reckon. So much for this being my rest week!

It goes in cycles, this thread is now in its third winter so it’s natural that each time the dark nights approach the same questions get asked by “newbies”.

There are, hidden in the pages, some excellent thoughts on training that are well worth searching out.

I keep meaning to read through this thread from the start one day when it’s quiet at work but I’m not sure that I can bring myself to manage all 1400+ posts!

From what I’ve read of it so far though there’s some pretty good pointers and advice in here.

@edenvalleyboy I was in the same situation as yourself last winter, with (now) 41 pages of posting there’s a lot to wade through. The thread is a mixture of “Did X today” and questions/answers about particular plans or kit required. Sometimes you don’t know how to phrase the question so might find the answer without realising it.

Nature of the beast though: we have short memories, the internet doesn’t!

One thing to note (and I can’t remember if it’s been mentioned in the thread) is that your other riding can have an effect on the training sessions – I’ve commuted by bike every day this week and had to cut short my session on Thursday as I was just drained and didn’t feel I could give justice to the final quarter of the routine. Rest is just as important as the training.

@whitestone – I can see how rest is important – started the first proper ‘sustained power build’ session yesterday and can see/feel that if I give it my full effort each time I’ll need to allow proper recovery days too.

I think it was you who recommended that training program – it definitely felt like it was the kind of session I’m looking for…in a perverse kind of way 😀

@edenvalleyboy Could well have been – age induced forgetfulness! Training is (or should be) hard but to allow for that you need to rest. Many don’t put enough effort in on the training days but don’t rest enough on the rest days. I.e. on a scale of 1 – 10, training days should be 8 or 9 and rest days 2 or 3, if your training days are 6 and your rest days 4 or 5 then you aren’t going to get the desired effect.

My approach is that, where possible, I use rest days to do a different type of excersize at a gentle level, e.g rather than a recovery ride, go for a recovery jog. Stops muscles getting too 1-dimensional and hence injury prone. Of course a lot of the time rest days mean I don’t do anything excersize wise as I have to catch up on other stuff.

@ferrals – something that I’ve found that constantly keeps injuries away too is stretching – I’m a bit evangelical about it. Proper stretching routines on my non biking days seems to work wonders….highly recommend this book.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Stretching-Bob-Anderson/dp/0936070226

Hi all, aforementioned Nooooob here. Just completed my first 8 minute test. Not sure how i feel really. Sweated buckets, and followed the prompts of ‘go hard but not so much so you blow up’. felt tired at the end, but not dead…

i got a very low FTP, but i hope this is a related to set up? ie not much point comparing myself to others…? please..? 🙂 or do i have to do it all again?

I have joined the Singletrack group too. Martininsweden is my name.

ta!

EDIT: Just realised that i had it set as my trainer was Tacx Satori 1. That relates to the resistance number i use…. i actually used number 2 for the workout.. oh… should i do it again?

The Bob Andersson book linked to above is excellent, as much as a book about stretching can be.

Email trainer-road. They can adjust it. It does look very low, that sort of power is just ticking over and spinning along on my kinetic with an Inride power sensor.

Mines the workout just before yours…

+1 for the Bob Anderson book, I bought mine in 1984!

cheers Jam bo will do.

Any suggestions as to which turbo trainer I should go for that doesn’t require electricity? I notice they recommend the Kurt Kinetic Road and the Cycleops Jet Fluid pro but they both seem pretty pricey.

The Bob Andersson book linked to above is excellent, as much as a book about stretching can be.

bought one…

Got a reply from trainer road withinhalf an hour of sending it, very impressed.

“You are correct, the number next to the name of the trainer relates to the resistance of the trainer. You always want to make sure that it corresponds with the resistance level you’ve set your trainer to. We also recommend not using those lower power levels, since you can top out pretty easily. In this 8 minute test, your cadence was really high and you were at the maximum power that the trainer could give you. If you use a setting like 5, you’ll be able to push a little harder, and maybe get a better, more accurate FTP test.
I’d recommend re-trying the FTP test once you’re well rested, and doing it in resistance level 5 or similar.”

8 minute test on thursday for me then!

I woke up this morning feeling really exctied about something I was going to do this eve – realised the only thing i could be excited about was an evening in on trainerroad. 😳

Only decision is whether to do elephants (+1 or 2) or one of the ‘the priest’/ ‘the owl’ type sessions.

Any thoughts on which is better for cx training – got two weeks training then a week mini-taper before my next race. the owl type work-outs are on the cx plan, but i cant help thinking solid block of higher exertion in elephant mimics the all out burn of the early laps.

Jepson is good session for CX style intervals, but the Owl also looks “fun”.

Personally I found the Sufferfest session Revolver the best way to prep for CX

got two weeks training then a week mini-taper before my next race

Why not just do the last 3 weeks of the CX plan?

I sort of am. but I did Richardson plus 1 on Sat so thought I’d swich things round and do my next r.a.b. (Xalibu plus2) on Thurs and something else this eve. I’m going to switch out the aerobic stuf on weds for a jog though, the high intensity stuff on Sat will come from real world cx training and the longer sunday endurnce from a mtb ride.

Is there a science reason for the order of their high intensity workouts? I assumed it was just high intensity overy oter day and aerobic the days in between.

That Jepson workout looks good, mimicking a race quite nicely.

Apologies if this has been asked, but this thread is massive!

Tried TR last night and really enjoyed it so I’m looking at the sweet spot base plans. I’d really like to do a mid volume one, but as I’m racing cross through the winter I don’t want to hamper my performance too much.

I’m only really racing cx for fun, my main objective is to get my 3rd cat road licence this season and do well in some races. However, I’d still like to go well in the cx races. Question is, can you mix and match low/mid/high plans depending on what I’m doing that specific week – e.g. week 1 low wk 2 high wk 3 low etc.?

Thank you

The plans are a guide really, a bit like buying a ready to bake cake mix rather than sourcing and mixing the ingredients yourself. I did the SP low volume last winter and it felt quite cohesive in that each workout felt like it was a logical step from the last. I’m doing the mid volume this time but taking the weekends as they come – this last weekend I did one of the workouts whereas the weekend before I was out on the bike as it was nice weather.

They do take a bit more out of you than you might think – I commuted 21Km each way every day last week at a steady pace and the extra effort of the TR sessions was really hard work. The weather this week is putting that idea out of the window though.

If you know what you want out of a training session then there’s no reason why you have to follow a plan exactly, you can search the workouts for duration, intensity, etc. If you ask here there’s a few like The Swedish chef who’ve done a lot who’ll be able to point you in the right direction.

Just finished Ericsson – wasn’t too bad, even managed ILTs for most of the intended intervals.

Did Xalibu + 2 after work. Brutal, I couldn’t keep up the initial high power wind ups each interval after the first few.

Joined the stw team, but it says I’m a private member? Some people seem to be up as there forum names and public members – can’t work out how to change it?

Just finished Ericsson as well, I actually found it quite hard! I was a far way off the power for the ILTs (don’t mind that so much) but I managed to hold the power whilst doing the cadence drills.

I suppose it doesn’t help that I’m not 100% well at the minute…

8 minute test tonight, first one with the Stages which has averaged 10% lower than my VP (comparing both over 5 workouts).

Managed to make up the ‘shortfall’ and a little extra on top to make up for maybe being a bit under last time. Hopefully a bit more to come once I learn to smooth out those graphs and develop a smoother style/balance.

Saw my ticker hit the dizzy heights of 194, it hasn’t been there for some time!

@everyone – my problem with ILTs (apart from being c**p) is changing between legs – Look style pedals don’t help. They (ILTs) do highlight a weakness in my right leg though so need to work on that.

I’ve found that you need to tighten your shoes to a very snug level otherwise you get a clunking from your foot moving back and forth in the shoe which can mask any problems in the transitions through the pedalling stroke.

I’ve signed up with the hope to get a decent winter base ready for the spriing. So decided tonight I will be doing my FTP test, any pointers?

Once this is done I guess the next step will be a base program. Any difference between the sweet spot and the traditional base plan?

If you’ve not done an FTP test before just give it your best shot – the first couple of tests are as much about learning how to do the test as getting a good score.

Sweet spot or traditional? The blurb on the TR site basically boils down to: if you’ve got time and want to be thorough use a traditional plan otherwise do the Sweet Spot.