Cycling Workouts: Discussion/Encouragement/Sharing/Banter

[Ming the Merciless]

Did my VO2 session this morning. This is one workout I’m not going to do heat acclimatisation during. It was a 5 x 7 x 30 / 30 session with 2.5 min recoveries between sets. First one after FTP bump and felt okay.

 

[Legs]

I’ve got myself involved in the Zwift Hill Climb series - the first two rounds have been very short efforts at <3 minutes. Round 3 next week will be 6-7 minutes in the Volcano course, so I thought that The Gorby would be ideal preparation. I was regretting my choice of workout by the the of the first block, so dialled down the power by 5W on each of the following blocks, before summoning up my strength to grind out the final 5 minutes at 355W, at around 70rpm.

 

[UphillSlowly]

Does anyone use the Strava fitness score?

I kind of do. I use the fitness charts on intervals.icu to plan and review training. Seems a bit better as it gives you graphical representation of "Form" which helps to prevent over training.

Will likely be told by others here it is not useful but I like it, and there are lots of other useful bits of data that you can look at in "Totals" tab, and the "Compare" tabs.

Happy to share my training plan for the Maratona which is based on a Haute Alpe plan

 

[Ming the Merciless]

I kind of do. I use the fitness charts on intervals.icu to plan and review training. Seems a bit better as it gives you graphical representation of "Form" which helps to prevent over training.

View attachment 694660

Will likely be told by others here it is not useful but I like it, and there are lots of other useful bits of data that you can look at in "Totals" tab, and the "Compare" tabs.

Happy to share my training plan for the Maratona which is based on a Haute Alpe plan

Blimey you spent a lot of time in the high risk area

 

[UphillSlowly]

Blimey you spent a lot of time in the high risk area

Consequence of doing long endurance rides, mostly zone 1 and 2 but over 5 hours long. I also have a 4 day weekend every week which is when I do most of my cycling, rather than spread out through the week

 

[UphillSlowly]

Blimey you spent a lot of time in the high risk area

But it is nowt compared to what I was doing during lockdown when I had only been cycling a few months and discovered the turbo! 😄 (NB didn't have intervals.icu back then)

 

[Ming the Merciless]

But it is nowt compared to what I was doing during lockdown when I had only been cycling a few months and discovered the turbo! 😄 (NB didn't have intervals.icu back then)

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Tsk tsk. You’d likely be fitter if you spent more time in the green zone. Staying mostly out of the red zone, isn’t just about avoiding injury, but also allows your body to recover and absorb the training. Remember, it’s during recovery that you get fitter, not during the session itself.

Don’t go too mad increasing the load like you have so far 😀

 

[<Tommy>]

I kind of do. I use the fitness charts on intervals.icu to plan and review training. Seems a bit better as it gives you graphical representation of "Form" which helps to prevent over training.


View attachment 694660

Will likely be told by others here it is not useful but I like it, and there are lots of other useful bits of data that you can look at in "Totals" tab, and the "Compare" tabs.

Happy to share my training plan for the Maratona which is based on a Haute Alpe plan

Thanks

I’d be interested to see your training plan. My trips in two weeks so my plan at this point is mainly based around denial and my pre disposition for stubbornness! But I’d look at your plan all the same.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Consequence of doing long endurance rides, mostly zone 1 and 2 but over 5 hours long. I also have a 4 day weekend every week which is when I do most of my cycling, rather than spread out through the week

Not really, being in the red is down to a steep increase in load compared to your typical training load. I typically will have 3-5 hour Z2 rides as well as a 2-3 hour one during the week and only hit the red zone when I’ve had one of my ultra endurance events.

Being in the red frequently means your fatigue is out pacing your fitness most of the time.

 

[UphillSlowly]

Thanks

I’d be interested to see your training plan. My trips in two weeks so my plan at this point is mainly based around denial and my pre disposition for stubbornness! But I’d look at your plan all the same.

Will have a go at pulling something together, as not worked out how to download from intervals.icu yet

 

[UphillSlowly]

Not really, being in the red is down to a steep increase in load compared to your typical training load. I typically will have 3-5 hour Z2 rides as well as a 2-3 hour one during the week and only hit the red zone when I’ve had one of my ultra endurance events.

Being in the red frequently means your fatigue is out pacing your fitness most of the time.

Has been a tricky balance. The event I am training for has 4200m+ elevation in 138 km, so have wanted to train endurance, nutrition, fueling and climbing all at the same time. Have been training for 9 months and pattern I have developed seems OK for me and my diary. We'll see! It's very hilly where I live - many of my recovery rides can have >500 m elevation and my longer rides have hills thrown in as well.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

We'll see! It's very hilly where I live - many of my recovery rides can have >500 m elevation

As long as you’re keeping them Z1 and under an hour that’s all good. Otherwise it’s not really a recovery ride.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Has been a tricky balance. The event I am training for has 4200m+ elevation in 138 km, so have wanted to train endurance, nutrition, fueling and climbing all at the same time. Have been training for 9 months and pattern I have developed seems OK for me and my diary. We'll see! It's very hilly where I live - many of my recovery rides can have >500 m elevation and my longer rides have hills thrown in as well.

Here’s my chart for comparison, note my current fitness score is 100 against your 57. I’m in transition at the moment as April and May were big months for my ultra distance events (300,400,600km events) and clearly the load will drop as the events fall out the window. The red periods you can see were down to my events.

I’d just advise caution about steep ramp rates, as it’s not considered optimal for increasing your fitness, for your upcoming event.

 

[UphillSlowly]

Here’s my chart for comparison, note my current fitness score is 100 against your 57. I’m in transition at the moment as April and May were big months for my ultra distance events (300,400,600km events) and clearly the load will drop as the events fall out the window. The red periods you can see were down to my events.

I’d just advise caution about steep ramp rates, as it’s not considered optimal for increasing your fitness, for your upcoming event.

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Thanks for your advice. Much appreciated

 

[Norry1]

I also like intervals.icu and the way it represents things.