Cycling Workouts: Discussion/Encouragement/Sharing/Banter

[Ming the Merciless]

The holy cow workout

 

[HLaB]

I had an hour long SS work out tonight but I decided I wanted to do it on the rural bit of my commute. So I selected a 30mins alternate within TrainerRoad (30mins being what I could easily fit in to the rural part of my commute) but that workout was the same as I did last week. So I selected a 45mins alternate workout instead, Carson -4 (2x6 @ SS + 2x7 @SS), hoping the warm up would get me off the cycle paths onto rural roads, it did. Ideally I also wanted to finish the workout before I went down the hill that leads you to town, but I didn’t, and the road to town was total chaos (probably because a lot of folk were avoiding the rail strike chaos). So instead of turning right into town and the chaos I turned left out of town to finish the workout before doubling back to the chaos. Lol, With a heavy bike and laptop over a moderately hilly route I was 16.3mph but by the time I had navigated the 2.5miles of chaos it was down to 14.7mph.

 

[IrishAl]

I had an hour long SS work out tonight but I decided I wanted to do it on the rural bit of my commute. So I selected a 30mins alternate within TrainerRoad (30mins being what I could easily fit in to the rural part of my commute) but that workout was the same as I did last week. So I selected a 45mins alternate workout instead, Carson -4 (2x6 @ SS + 2x7 @SS), hoping the warm up would get me off the cycle paths onto rural roads, it did. Ideally I also wanted to finish the workout before I went down the hill that leads you to town, but I didn’t, and the road to town was total chaos (probably because a lot of folk were avoiding the rail strike chaos). So instead of turning right into town and the chaos I turned left out of town to finish the workout before doubling back to the chaos. Lol, With a heavy bike and laptop over a moderately hilly route I was 16.3mph but by the time I had navigated the 2.5miles of chaos it was down to 14.7mph.



View attachment 708744

Downhill Zone 4 / 5 efforts never end well 😂

I’ve never used trainerroad but just wondered how they come up with the name of the workouts. Is it completely random to help disguise the nature of the workout from anyone that sees it on Strava?

 

[HLaB]

Downhill Zone 4 / 5 efforts never end well 😂

I’ve never used trainerroad but just wondered how they come up with the name of the workouts. Is it completely random to help disguise the nature of the workout from anyone that sees it on Strava?

They're usually named after some American like a mountain or a president, and they usually label them +ve numbers if they are longer than an hour or more intense than the base name work out (usually 1h) or -ve numbers if they are sho rter or less intense.

 

[HLaB]

Trainer Road's Geiger -1 was in my calendar tonight (basically a 3x12 @ slightly varying SS) and I tried not to touch the resistance arrow key too much and upped my spin to meet targets. Other than one moment when I got distracted reading an email I think it went OK

Looks like the Garmin lost the power meter a few times where TrainerRoad didn't.

 

[Legs]

I quit the Zwift race that I was doing this morning and did a 46-minute workout instead. Not too taxing from a CV point of view but it helped loosen my legs up, with 30s ramps at 90rpm (180W), 100rpm (210W) and 110rpm (240W), and 5-minute low-power 'rests' which I did at 95rpm. Ignored the cadence target on the last ramp and hit 185rpm, held over 160rpm for 30s!

 

[Ming the Merciless]

More hill repeats yesterday. I’ve now set my best 6 times in the last couple of weeks. Low cadence big gear work this morning. Tomorrow a rest day then a Z2 endurance outing on Sat. Another 4-5 weeks then I’ll move back from maintenance to training.

 

[HLaB]

I had TrainerRoads 90min Moose’s Tooth -1 in my calendar originally but I wanted to give my self more time before bed to let my brain settle down and used their ‘Alternates’ to select a 60min workout with a similar training effect, Avalanche Spire -1 (basically 5x6 at vary Threshold). I had started spinning up and down to the targets but by the fourth interval I resorted to my usual

upping the resistance and as a result my cadence was stupidly low.






Lol, I think Garmin makes this number up. With no outside group rides with a power meter in the last two weeks its went from the low 60s to this:

 

[Ming the Merciless]

I had TrainerRoads 90min Moose’s Tooth -1 in my calendar originally but I wanted to give my self more time before bed to let my brain settle down and used their ‘Alternates’ to select a 60min workout with a similar training effect, Avalanche Spire -1 (basically 5x6 at vary Threshold). I had started spinning up and down to the targets but by the fourth interval I resorted to my usual

View attachment 708882 upping the resistance and as a result my cadence was stupidly low.



View attachment 708883
View attachment 708884

Lol, I think Garmin makes this number up. With no outside group rides with a power meter in the last two weeks its went from the low 60s to this:

View attachment 708892

How Garmin calculates VO2 max

https://sites.udel.edu/coe-engex/2019/03/16/how-accurate-is-your-garmins-vo2max-estimate/

 

[Legs]

I think that Garmin calculates VO2max in a very similar way to Strava calculating power for non-power-measured activities.

View: https://media.giphy.com/media/26uflDxU6cEhrhmUg/giphy.gif

 

[HLaB]

How Garmin calculates VO2 max

https://sites.udel.edu/coe-engex/2019/03/16/how-accurate-is-your-garmins-vo2max-estimate/

Has it a summary "Not at all accurate " 😂

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Has it a summary "Not at all accurate " 😂

What is your tested VO2 max?

 

[Dogtrousers]

I'm going to hazard a guess that like all of these algorithmically derived things it is precise but not accurate.

That is, it will give you a repeatable figure that is good for tracking progress but it may not align well with an accurate figure obtained from professional equipment. As most people will never get a professional test to compare it to this doesn't really matter.

 

[HLaB]

What is your tested VO2 max?

No idea but I severely doubt its anywhere near Garmin's random number generator

 

[HLaB]

Ive not been able to find a cycling specific accuracy of Garmin VO2 max calculation other than on forums Dr Coggan answers one and my interpretation is Garmin, Firstbeat and few other sources claim within 5% for watches (going off HR and pace) but with standard deviation that'll actually be 5-10% accuracy in real life. However, Edge computers also throw in power so they are slightly more accurate, say error5%. Garmin themselves also do a good piece on how its higher inside as its a more controlled environment.

https://forum.slowtwitch.com/forum/Slowtwitch_Forums_C1/Triathlon_Forum_F1/Garmin_VO2_max_P6609704/

https://www.garmin.com/en-US/blog/fitness/v02-max-and-aerobic-performance/