2020 Structured Training

[HLaB]

My coach scheduled another FTP test tomorrow now I know my body post chemo better. But I never looked at TP and rode up a virtual Stelvio yesterday to get my weekend cycling fix, not the best prep, so I'll probably stick with what I've got, 4.5w/kg.

 

[Jerry Atrik]

This is strange
I have my tt bike on the turbo and am now holding power easier in tt position than sitting up.
My heart rate does go up 4 or5 beats and my saddle a spec sitero isn’t comfortable at all while sitting up, but seem to have gone full circle.

 

[HLaB]

This is strange
I have my tt bike on the turbo and am now holding power easier in tt position than sitting up.
My heart rate does go up 4 or5 beats and my saddle a spec sitero isn’t comfortable at all while sitting up, but seem to have gone full circle.

I hit higher power numbers on a road bike but I can hold/pace power better on a TT bike. So IMC the TT bike wins overall.

 

[HLaB]

My coach scheduled another FTP test tomorrow now I know my body post chemo better. But I never looked at TP and rode up a virtual Stelvio yesterday to get my weekend cycling fix, not the best prep, so I'll probably stick with what I've got, 4.5w/kg.

Decided to do that test anyway and eeked out another 4w but lol I mistimed the last minute (I thought it was over and maxed out the sprint which saw me roll off the riser block . It was just 3w less than my post op/ pre chemo number (which I am sure was the mistime and riser block fail I am still 4.5w/kg but instead of rounding up to 0.5, I am rounding down

 

[Dogtrousers]

I got up early today to do a turbo session. Then immediately went back to bed.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

First VO2 max workout at new intensities. hard but everything felt good. Always the case after a rest and test week when you are fresh. Sure the fatigue will build up in this next block of training.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

https://www.outsideonline.com/2408756/cycling-sprints-workout-study

 

[HLaB]

A bit of focused training for today (Sunday), normally the weekend is for leisure. My coach swapped in a long low cadence turbo session to avoid Dennis (as usual it was a needless avoidance here, the rest of the country hasn't been so lucky). After 3.4w/kg for an hour and a half mylegs are feeling it

 

[Dogtrousers]

Out of interest why would a low cadence workout be recommended? What are the specific advantages of that?

I tend ride at or around 100rpm on the turbo cos it sort of feels right. Cadence hasn't really been something I've given any thought to.

I was Dennis avoiding on the turbo this weekend too.

 

[HLaB]

Out of interest why would a low cadence workout be recommended? What are the specific advantages of that?

I tend ride at or around 100rpm on the turbo cos it sort of feels right. Cadence hasn't really been something I've given any thought to.

I was Dennis avoiding on the turbo this weekend too.

I guess they build strength and endurance but they need to be mixed with high cadence sessions to see an all round benefit. 100rpm seems a tad too high but some of my stronger intervals are 100rpm + and my FTP tests are in the 95-105rpm zone. Higher cadences seem more sustainable for me but I've the strength to pedal out of things outdoors when the conditions change (gradient, wind etc).

 

[Dogtrousers]

I guess they build strength and endurance but they need to be mixed with high cadence sessions to see an all round benefit. 100rpm seems a tad too high but some of my stronger intervals are 100rpm + and my FTP tests are in the 95-105rpm zone. Higher cadences seem more sustainable for me but I've the strength to pedal out of things outdoors when the conditions change (gradient, wind etc).

I'm never sure about cadence. As long as you are providing the required power and aren't doing extremes of fast or slow I'm yet to be convinced that it makes much difference.

I fitted a cadence meter a couple of years ago, and discovered that I spend much of my time in the 80-90 range, unless it's very hilly in which case my uphill grinding mode of around 60 starts to dominate. Getting on the turbo, where my intensity is way higher than on the road, 90-100 feels natural with hard intervals at 110ish.

I may try doing some workouts in a higher gear at a lower cadence, just to see how it feels.

I must say I'm enjoying the turbo just as a kind of journey of discovery. It's nowhere near as boring as I thought it would be. And it has very little in common with riding a bike outside (apart from the obvious presence of a bike, of course).

 

[HLaB]

On longer zone 5 intervals with flurries into zone 6/7 I'm falling into the Spiral of Death with ERG mode but I can manage other intervals, FTP tests etc fine and get more power out.

By coincidence this came up in my news feed tonight. Going by that I am using ERG too much. I just have to figure out how to disable ERG to a decent resistance level and still use the virtual training App (RGT Cycling). I would do that in the Elite training app but I am not sure if it and RGT can operate simultaneously.

View: https://youtu.be/ImCmZm-iNco

 

[Ming the Merciless]

With today's ride I've reached 2020 km for the year which I thought was kind of neat. This is my outdoor mileage rather than turbo being mixed in.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

I've switched to a polarised training regime this year. So 80% low intensity, 20% high intensity and nothing in between. The difficulty of using ERG mode is finding the right intensity to push you into the right territory. Low intensity I do outdoors as I couldn't face hours on the turbo.

I've been using 30 / 15 intervals. So 30 seconds high intensity and 15 seconds recovery. I'm currently up to three sets of 10 X 30/15 per session. I started at 90% of my maximal aerobic power (highest 1 min power during a ramp test) a few weeks back. Today I set the intensity at 105% of MAP. It meant I hit 94-98% of my max HR during each set with 15 seconds recovery not enough for HR to drop much due to lag. So it was close to 30 mins accumulated at 94-98% max HR. Interestingly my HR was still climbing slightly during last set so wonder if I might be able to eek out a few more beats to a new max HR in a few weeks.

How hard was today's session? Well I had to close my eyes during the intervals as even looking at a 30 second countdown would have been too much. Even looking with 10 seconds left I was desperate for it to end. Then the 15 second recoveries flew by.

Hard is what I wanted, hard is what I got.

Like @HLaB I wonder about not doing this in erg mode and just going as hard as I can to find the right intensity level during any one workout.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Might be of interest. I certainly pay attention to what the research is saying about aging, and what you can do to slow it down.


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzphy5EN8lg