Trainerroad expectations

[E65Ross]

Plan was to do an indoor then an outdoor ride earlier....indoors cut short....when I was putting in a few more watts (400W or more) it felt like the bike wanted to change gear....annoyingly, I got off, checked the skewer was tight enough and hopped back on. Still did it.

Then....the kickr drivebelt snapped I had one spare as I replaced the original about 18 months ago and bought 2 at the time, so I managed to spend some time fixing it and all seems OK and have ordered another 2 just in case (only £8 if you don't get them through Wahoo!).

really irritating but there we go!

[E65Ross]

Will be trying the ramp test tomorrow. Have been in contact with trainerroad and they've been tweaking it a bit and apparently they're basically there now with the formula. I'm generally someone who needs a pretty decent warm up so I'm actually going to do a pretty thorough warm up before giving the rest a crack. Be interesting to see what it gives me as my FTP.

[lufbramatt]

Think they have automated the ftp calcs now too, and once it realises you’ve had enough it will generate the numbers and drop into a warm down. I was going to do it last Monday but a pulled a hamstring at a parkrun on sat so had to take a week off :-(

[E65Ross]

lufbramatt said:

Think they have automated the ftp calcs now too, and once it realises you’ve had enough it will generate the numbers and drop into a warm down. I was going to do it last Monday but a pulled a hamstring at a parkrun on sat so had to take a week off :-(

Yeah they said it calculates it automatically now. I'll be doing it around midday, just before lunch and then going to head out and enjoy the gorgeous weather!!!

[Crazycraig]

How did you get on, and what did you think?

I've got an FTP in just over a week and was thinking of substituting it for the Ramp test.

Being a bit OCD about keeping up the TSS though, what are people doing after the Ramp test a second ride of half an hour or so?

[E65Ross]

Crazycraig said:

How did you get on, and what did you think?

I've got an FTP in just over a week and was thinking of substituting it for the Ramp test.

Being a bit OCD about keeping up the TSS though, what are people doing after the Ramp test a second ride of half an hour or so?

To be honest, my legs didn't feel that great. It gave me an FTP of 4W lower than my current setting, but I know my current setting probably isn't high enough (I've done several rides where the IF has been very high for a long period of time and not felt absolutely done for). I'll give it another crack in another 1-2 months.

I wasn't fussed about TSS as I'm on a supposed recovery week this week. You'll struggle with a decent ride afterwards. The pain in the legs is great with this one, since it's literally until the point of muscular failure. It does hurt, it's only painful for the last 3mins or so, but the last 20-30secs are horrible

[Crazycraig]

E65Ross said:

To be honest, my legs didn't feel that great. It gave me an FTP of 4W lower than my current setting, but I know my current setting probably isn't high enough (I've done several rides where the IF has been very high for a long period of time and not felt absolutely done for). I'll give it another crack in another 1-2 months.

I wasn't fussed about TSS as I'm on a supposed recovery week this week. You'll struggle with a decent ride afterwards. The pain in the legs is great with this one, since it's literally until the point of muscular failure. It does hurt, it's only painful for the last 3mins or so, but the last 20-30secs are horrible

Cheers mate. Your right about the last 3 minutes.

I maybe could have hung on for 5 - 10 more seconds more, but as I was getting messages popping up saying how well I was hanging in, I had an inkling I may have surpassed my current FTP and knew any extra second would come at a cost in the future, especially the +115% repeat workouts which I'm only good for a single interval then spent.

Anyways, here's a screenshot of my effort where I've raised my FTP from 279 to 291.

Lets just see how I get on with intervals of 115% for 4 minute on 4 minute off tomorrow.

[E65Ross]

I tried a basic flat-out 20min test earlier. Perhaps cheated a little as I knew what sort of power to head off at so I used ERG mode, and as time went by I just pressed the up arrow on my laptop next to me to increase the power a bit.

I swear my new bike's power meter reads a little easier than my other bike (both power2max units though) as despite the same FTP I was never feeling the hard workouts THAT hard.....either that or I've got a fair bit fitter.

Previous 20min peak power was 255W and I headed out at 258W, after 5mins I upped it to just over 260W, 5mins to go made it a bit more and then again with 2-3mins left and got a 262W average. Only 2% increase on my old FTP but I think that's going to be sufficient to be noticeable on the really hard stuff.

The ramp test isn't for me I don't think. It tends to suit more anaerobically gifted individuals, whereas I'm....well....not! I only weigh 53-54kgs and so I'm at 4.5W/kg now....I know anaerobic is my weakness (all time peak power is only 870W, 1min peak is 410W I think) but considering most of the riding I do is on my own then it doesn't make sense to do a huge amount of anaerobic work anyway, just threshold and VO2 stuff.

[ALawson]

I haven't used any indoor training and its showing now, closest to a FTP recently was 56mins at 255w up Tiede in Tenerife (Villaflor to the crater), HR was only 155 so plenty in the tank in theory. Main issue is how much candle you burn on the two hours up to Vilaflor, amazing how much effect temperature and cool wind can have.

I think I need to sack bkool off as TR was more structured.

[lufbramatt]

Just seen that TR are beta testing a full training diary/calendar feature, so you can enter races, events, holidays etc. and work the training blocks around them, add notes etc. Also looks like they will eventually be able to pull in runs and swims for triathletes and work out the TSS. Looks useful.

[wobert]

Back on the Hamster Wheel last night as the evenings have gone dark on me...

This year I’ve done less miles but more quality riding, so I was a little surprised that MountField was a relatively easy break in...somehow I have managed to maintain my FTP over the summer, although I’ve yet to do a test.

Getting back into General Build to build /maintain some fitness over the winter....

[Kawasicki]

I'm starting tomorrow, in earnest. I've been off the bike for 3 weeks now...doing regular running, until a week ago, when I twisted my ankle, running down a (very) steep hill in the dark. I was unbelievably close to a full face brake. So, my ankle still hurts when running...time to get on the trainer.

[lufbramatt]

Just about to start SSB vol 2. I've been on TR for just over a year now so can start to see comparisons of where is was at the same way through the year. Doing the same workouts but with a 60w higher FTP than a year ago is really satisfying. Managed to lose just over a stone of weight in that time too.

[anonymous-user]

I switched to TR from Zwift for various reasons

Not following a plan yet, just doing ss until I can manage Cumberland+1 a few times a week. That will be the base I develop from

[bigdom]

I went back on TR last night, wasted most of the hour re-configuring everything. Haven't used it since the snow earlier this year.

Just as an FYI, after multiple conflict errors, I realised if I had more than 1 Bluetooth source on, I was unable to calibrate the trainer to either the propriety software or TR.

[wobert]

bigdom said:

I went back on TR last night, wasted most of the hour re-configuring everything. Haven't used it since the snow earlier this year.

Just as an FYI, after multiple conflict errors, I realised if I had more than 1 Bluetooth source on, I was unable to calibrate the trainer to either the propriety software or TR.

If it’s any consolation I had similar issues, but with the bike.

I’d harvested the seat, post and stem for my new winter bike, so had some small tweaks to make to the seat height, to get comfy and in the right position. It’s sorted now.

Then I discovered the gear indexing was less than great....I’ll pull the bike off the trainer at the weekend and give it some attention / love.

Other than that they only other issue I had was with my iPhone 4S I use to run Spotify, it was properly dead, so needed 10 mins charging to be usable. I’ve left it on charge in anticipation of further use!

[wobert]

Monitor done last night, again managed to hang on pretty well.

5th interval saw me have a good “talk to myself” to keep going.

I’d been on the go since 6am and had driven 260 miles in the day as well as a full day’s work!

Did a short max power run at the end, managed 387w for 30 secs....

Edited by wobert on Friday 2nd November 20:09

[Labradorofperception]

Spent the last two autumn and winters trundling into my garage 3 times a week to batter myself senseless myself on the Wattbike.

After taking a couple of months off due to losing the mojo and general lassitude I'm back on the Base Plan. Doing the Level 1 as I also get out twice a week on club runs as well.

I've a ramp test planned for tonight, then off we go. Hiding away in the garage, like Gollum until the spring comes and the mudguard fairy heads south for the summer.

One thing i have noticed with a Wattbike is that the FTP reading is consistently below an on road FTP test, by about 20w. The usual FTP hill used by riders around here tends to put me ahead of my WB based FTP. I suspect it's due to flywheel resistance, cooling and the soporific effect of staring at cows for 20 minutes will I drip sweat on the garage floor.

[anonymous-user]

Just done Cumberland +1 for first time

Feel ok just now

Let’s see what tomorrow brings in terms of legs...

[lufbramatt]

Tomorrow brings the joys of Kaweah:



5x 10 mins at a smidge under ftp, going to be grim