After a rest week and a week where I managed to do all 12 hours of training out on the trails last night was supposed to be back on the turbo.

Got home all ready and primed for the session but I had to fit a turbo tyre first. Tyre and tube fitted but when I went to inflate, I realised i’d pinched and punctured the tube. No spare tube, no repair kit so what did I do????

Thats right, I threw the whole contents of the pram out, sulked for 2 hours and ate a full bag of cheeseballs…. 😯

Ok…fair points

My front block is adjustable though and goes much higher than putting the bike level.

Is weight saving REALLY all that???

Its probably the kind of weight that can be saved elsewhere on the bike/person…something as simple as tyres, grips, saddle etc and even kit/shoes.

The other thing to contemplate is how long will the older XT stuff be around for? Probably a while yet I guess but it’s going to slowly disappear at some point.

Yes, the new 11 speed XT is more expensive but I assure you, you wouldn’t be disappointed.

I should point out that I do use a 1×11 XT set up on my trail bike which comes in at around 25lb. Yes its hard work climbing fireroads alongside 29ers but it works perfectly and I’d be happy to run it on a XC bike

Inclining a set of rollers wont add resistance, it’s more like wheelieing on flat ground

If thats the case then why do all the turbo manufacturers make front wheel blocks that elevate the front wheel and therefore allow a turbo session to replicate a climb?

Not saying I agree with either side, I genuinely don’t know….

I found I needed the 36t up front so I didn’t spin out keeping up with the 10t cassette guys on the “controlled start” sections that are normally a couple of KM’s on tarmac and ridden at well over 40km/h.

Exactly my problem….I have to dig in massively on the starts/flats to stay with the 29ers.

I enjoy it though as it makes me think tactically about where I and the bike work better etc

Kryton57 – I’ve tried both a 2 x 11 and a 1 x 11 set up on numerous occasions and tested all the different combinations of 32, 34, 36 and even 38t chainrings.

My set up isn’t really comparible as I ride a 27.5 XC race bike but I have settled on a 2 x 11 with 36/26 up front and a 40-11 cassette. the only other set up I’d use on the race bike now would be a 38/28 but that all depends on the course.

For example, if the course was a power course (think Thetford), I’d run a 38 so that I have the top end to stay with the 29ers but if it was a climbers course, then 36 is good.

I ran 36/26 on Sunday and didnt once go into the 26 ring but also didnt once use the 11t cassette ring….

After all that, my advice would be to try a few different combinations and see how you feel…get a 2×11 set up and you can always run it 1x anyway….

Bashful. 125% Quite hard towards the end I expect.

2hrs with 2 x 30 mins blocks of tempo for me. Jennifer Jones on netflix providing the entertainment that the workout lacked!

Ah….i can’t get use the TR website properly here so couldn’t look at the profile….fair session though

I have a custom made session tonight…

10min Z1 WU, 10min Z2, 20min Z3 with a 5sec acceleration at the start of every 2mins, 10min Z2, 20min Z3 with the accelerations again and then 10min Z1 warm down.

Bashfull – 15 x 1min at 300w. The last few were tough – hard to keep a breathing rhythm at the end of the interval and some mental pushing required, which is an indicator I’m at the right level I believe!

300w fifteen times for 1min sounds like quite a workout. Especially if, as you say, you’re not feeling too fit at the moment.

Whats that in relation to FTP? You’re not a short chap so my estimate is around the 95% mark?

Mountain King Protection 2.2 here

I find the 2.4 is a massive tyre and an X-king probably a little too lacking at this time of year on the front. Happy to run a X-king on the rear though

Ugh and i thought front mechs were dead.

Ah…in my defense, I use di2 hence the reason I run a double

Certainly a bike with the same fit. Though do you really sit on it the same way on the turbo that you do on the road?

I guess that depends on how you set your turbo up…with or without a block etc??? Other than that, the only difference I find is the lack of moving around out of the saddle

Im a big believer of using the same bike for as much of the riding as I can so I use my race bike on the turbo (with a specific turbo wheel)

I use a 2×11 system with 36/26 and a 11-40 cassette. My turbo is set to the highest resistance setting.

I find im in 9th gear (36 – 13) and at around 270w (NP) with a cadence in the 95 to 105 rpm range

I have 2 more higher gears should I need them for harder intervals.

17th in the 2hr here and considering the superstars that turned up for the race (Phil Pearce had 9 minutes on me by the end of the first lap!!!), a skinful of vodka the night before with a 3am bed time and a slowly leaking rear tyre….I’m fairly happy

Nice consistant lap times…just not fast enough 😯

Yeah I could have done and thought about it (or using road disc wheels) but the issue then was the 11speed cassette etc and the hassle with swapping things around all the time

I now have said turbo tyres on a spare 27.5 wheel with 11sp cassette so all I have to do is swap wheels.

Much easier

I used my rollers for warming up before races last season and can confirm that with MTB tyres, they are pretty loud.

using them indoors was a problem as I wanted to use them but couldn’t cope with the noise. Turbo tyres would have solved the issue but I ride a 27.5 and turbo tyres were hard to come by

I’ve now found that Tacx produce a 27.5 turbo tyre…problem solved…except for the fact that my rollers got nicked 👿

Any reason why I shouldn’t mix up the FTP tests?

You’ll be measuring something different, so lacking consistency. Interesting exercise to do both though and see if you get different numbers. I suspect I’d get a higher number from the 20 test than the 8 right now, probably the other way around in summer.

Yeah exactly this…

I did a 20min FTP test on a Wattbike about 5 weeks ago and my result had dropped 15w since my previous test. I then did a 20min test on my Turbo on tuesday this week using my race bike and stages power meter.

My power had dropped another 3w however, the conditions and settings etc were completely different so the result isn’t really comparable

This is my thinking. Although if I got a 2nd ANT+ stick I could run the TR workout on Zwift, best of both worlds? I have seen a few others do this so know it works

I have a spare laptop and had a spare stick (i gave it to our team mechanic). If I still had the spare stick I think I’d have run both together…TR for the actual workout and Zwift for entertainment value.

Maybe when TR release their Android version…

Ummm….I assumed both are using ANT+ but I cant be totally sure!

I’m pretty confident they’re both ANT+ as the little dongle logo does its thing when I’m connecting/pairing the PM and HR

Yeah they do – which is what I followed last night when I did their version of the FTP test…as I say though, for some reason, the power seemed to fluctuate quite a lot and seemed way off compared to my Garmin (using a Stages PM rather than virtual power so I’d assume they should be almost identical).

I personally think Zwift would be amazing used with a smart trainer, but I dont have one at the moment so it seems a bit wasted on me

Quick question, I have completed the FTP on Zwift and a couple of workouts on there and TrainerRoad but as of yet I am undecided on which one to stick with and undertake properly. I like the social/fun side of Zwift but think I prefer the training aspect of TR.

Do I drop one, if so should I stick with TR, or just keep both and use TR for workout and Zwift for a ‘fun’ turbo ride?

Personally, I think I’ll be using TR for anything structured and Zwift for the fun element. I’m not sure that Zwift offers enough to me personally to pay the fees…that may change one day, especially if and when I replace my turbo with a smart trainer (I think Zwift is essentially meant for these).

I found the power fluctuations on Zwift to be too much for me. Not having a 3sec smoothing function meant that I was constantly chasing the numbers which meant I speant more time looking at my Garmin than at the monitor…that seems pretty pointless to me!!!!

I raced an evening Summer series again this year. The races started at 1930 and usually lasted about 80mins. I certainly didnt sleep very well those nights but I put it down to caffeine usage as I don’t tend to consume caffeine after 9am normally unless im racing!!

Anyway – I went for the Zwift FTP test last night but probably wont do that one again. The average power for the 20mins on Zwift read about 20 watts lower than the average power that my Garmin recorded for the same 20mins.

My FTP came out at 3w lower than my previous test and i’m in 2 minds about how to take this! My last test was on a Wattbike, at a different time of the day (11am as opposed to 7pm). My last test also had 4 other team mates testing at the same time and we could all see each others stats on a big screen, therefore it had an element of competiton so I think the results were a little inaccurate.

On top of that, the info I got after the test didnt seem to reduce to 20min average by 5%. If it did then I’ve had a 5% increase in FTP over the last 4.5 weeks so am pretty happy I guess.

3.78w/kg isn’t too bad to be starting the Base phase is it?

Speak for yourself, I’ve been reduced to a diet of poached eggs and fizzy water to get through Brass Monkeys with any credibility.

I could happily live on poached eggs…not sure my guts would like it though

FTP test tonight…i’m currently undecided about doing either the 20min or 8min TR test or giving one of the tests on Zwift a go!

On top of that, I’m using my MTB on the turbo at the moment and only have a 36/26 set up. I have the resistance on the turbo wacked up but I’m a bit worried I’ll still end up spinning out!!!!

Oh why is my life so hard 😆

Ah…I think I’m getting confused between the Summer Monkey and AYTE courses?

Complete pair with all fittings . No rotors or adaptors but these are not part of the package anyway. Proper retail packaging , definitely not OEM .

Slightly off topic, but I tried to buy a set of these from a ‘high end’ road/triathlon shop in Surrey using their Price Match policy yesterday.

The policy states it can be done online, on the phone or instore so I called the warehouse/mail order to buy only to be told I had to do it online.

Went through the online process only to get a reply telling me they won’t price match Merlin as they use ‘unpackaged/OEM’ items that they buy in incredibly cheap and so they’d be losing money on it….

I’ve always considered the shop to be a bit ‘poncy’ anyway

I have a Christmas Party on the Saturday night with an overnight stay at a hotel….my attendance is a bit tentative at the moment. If I do attend, my performance will be even more tentative!!!!!!!!!!

Thats the one Nick…although it’ll start and finish at Frith, I imagine it’ll take in quite a bit of Porridge Pot too (as the Summer Monkey did)

Mary Berry
Paul Hollywood
Cristiano Ronaldo

They boil my piss

Yep.

I find my NP is much higher in races – over 20% higher – than on the Turbo no matter how hard the session, but I guess thats only to be expected…

I’m inclined to say thats just the Turbo effect…hot room, lack of adrenalin etc

Thanks for that bit of strategic info

Ha….work in progress 😛

You were putting out 290w on a 70% FTP effort? And I know you aren’t a big chap….

Actually, it might have been closer to the 250w rather than 290

You were putting out 290w on a 70% FTP effort? And I know you aren’t a big chap….

Balls, as I know your coming into Vets next year I have work to do….

Ha….that was only trying to keep a steady cadence while pedalling predominantly with my left leg. When balancing it out it was only at 70% FTP

Plus, as much wattage as I can put out (i’m essentially a sprinter) for 6 secs or so, I certainly can’t hold it for long….I’m a bit of a 1 lap wonder hahaha

Haven’t figured out how to get through the ILT’s yet, probably just get on with it, ignore the zero power reading from the right leg and focus on eliminating the knock.

Thats a good reason for using NP really, it balances it out

Guess it’s emphasising flaws in my natural technique, I’m not bouncing but seems I’m heavy on the down stroke and neglecting the rest.

Also, dont forget the PM will only register on the left so there is bound to be a spike on every reveloution.

This was evidenced when I did Bald Knob on Tuesday with some single leg efforts…I was putting out 290w with my left leg but only about 80w with my right (not fully unclipped on the trailing leg, rather 90%/10%)

Haze – I’ve been using a Stages ofor a while now and used TR quite a bit without too. The Stages will always be a bit more erratic than the Virtual Power and it does jump around a fair bit. Even with 3sec smoothing on I still find it does it.

For that reason, I have Lap Normalised Power on my head unit and press the lap button at the start of each phase. I’ve found it marries up perfectly with the target bar at the top of the screen!

Well you’re capable of posting on here so you’re OK really….more importantly, is the bike OK??? 😆

Seriously though, hope you’re OK!!

Fair one!!!

I wish I had the drive to do my training before leaving for work!

I’d have to be on the bike by 5am latest though realistically!

I do all my morning runs and bike sessions up to 2 hours on coffee alone

But doesn’t that take away the main reason for doing fasted training? Correct me if I’m wrong (it sometimes happens) but I thought fasted training was to be performed on nothing but water? (although I do seem to remember reading that coffee without milk or sugar could be consumed so forgive me if thats your diet :o)

you must be crackers, does no one ride outdoors anymore, just for the sake of riding a bit?

I would love to ride outdoors for 2 or 3 hours. the main reason for me not doing so is mainly due to where I live and the roads around here. I get home from work at around 6 which realistically means 7 before I get the chance to get out. I then have Heathrow and London rush hour traffic to contend with which kind of ruins my motivation