Cycling Workouts: Discussion/Encouragement/Sharing/Banter

[HLaB]

Its been cr@p weather thanks to that guy out of Sesame Street and to dodge 60mph winds I opted for a couple of extra workouts today. I don't know if it was the 14deg temperature increase or that I made the mistake of using ERG on the Suito for the first time in ages. I’d forgotten how slow it was to react, which leads to catch up overtime and me grinding away at a stupidly low cadence. But it was a real struggle, I stayed in the threshold zone but I rarely went super threshold which I was supposed to do!




I went a bit better after lunch and tried out Training Peaks Virtual but it was only a Z2/3 work out. I also decided to do it in 'Terrain Mode' to keep it a bit more interesting. It did lead me to spinning out a few times though. I could have done with changing to the big ring but I think my neighbours might have complained about the noise

 

[Norry1]

Its been cr@p weather thanks to that guy out of Sesame Street and to dodge 60mph winds I opted for a couple of extra workouts today. I don't know if it was the 14deg temperature increase or that I made the mistake of using ERG on the Suito for the first time in ages. I’d forgotten how slow it was to react, which leads to catch up overtime and me grinding away at a stupidly low cadence. But it was a real struggle, I stayed in the threshold zone but I rarely went super threshold which I was supposed to do!



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I went a bit better after lunch and tried out Training Peaks Virtual but it was only a Z2/3 work out. I also decided to do it in 'Terrain Mode' to keep it a bit more interesting. It did lead me to spinning out a few times though. I could have done with changing to the big ring but I think my neighbours might have complained about the noise

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In TPV you can use virtual gears, so you never need to physically change at all.

 

[HLaB]

In TPV you can use virtual gears, so you never need to physically change at all.

I was looking in the helpfile but I couldn't find the hot key. There is a disclaimer along the lines of some Smart trainers are not smart :-/

 

[Norry1]

Look in UI display (I think) and click on always display virtual gear or something like that. Then use += key for harder gear and - key for easier. The gear change isn't sharp but more phased so you may not know it changes without the indicator.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Back from holiday and second VO2 session since restarting training. I know most of you don’t do VO2 work this time of year, but as I approach 60 I find it makes It easier to reach a new peak the following year. Just three repeats of a local hill I use for the purpose. Blue skies and lovely out.

Hit approx 94-96% of my max cycling heart rate. Breathing in the right place , working hard but controlled.

 

[Norry1]

Back from holiday and second VO2 session since restarting training. I know most of you don’t do VO2 work this time of year, but as I approach 60 I find it makes It easier to reach a new peak the following year. Just three repeats of a local hill I use for the purpose. Blue skies and lovely out.

Hit approx 94-96% of my max cycling heart rate. Breathing in the right place , working hard but controlled.

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Totally agree.

 

[HLaB]

Back from holiday and second VO2 session since restarting training. I know most of you don’t do VO2 work this time of year, but as I approach 60 I find it makes It easier to reach a new peak the following year. Just three repeats of a local hill I use for the purpose. Blue skies and lovely out.

Hit approx 94-96% of my max cycling heart rate. Breathing in the right place , working hard but controlled.

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I think my plans (at least my TrainerRoad ones) have had VO2max at this time of year. I have another to look forward to tonight or tomorrow :-/

 

[HLaB]

I definitely prefer VO2Max workouts as opose to under/overs. Last weeks workout adapted down in line with my then VO2 max PL of 1.5 which had fallen after the flu and a recovery week. After that first workout after the break it adapted up to a 'stretch' (Sleeping Beauty +2) beyond the normal progression. I was fairly confident that TR's AI knew my actual level and after doing the workout I’m pretty sure 👍

 

[HLaB]

I'm quite satisfied tonight with this under/ over workout as they are not my thing. I could have done without the upper strap breaking on my right shoe as I went to up the cadence for the last block. But touch wood the Sidi Wire has just jumped out of its bracket and neither are actually broken.

 

[HLaB]

A VO2 max session tonight (Grassy Ridge +1). In an odd sort of way I like these short VO2max intervals, although my cadence during the last set wasn’t the best and I didn’t quite get the HR up, which is probably the sign of a long day 🫤

 

[Ming the Merciless]

I definitely prefer VO2Max workouts as opose to under/overs

I don’t do over / unders. I do a range of intervals from around 40 minutes (tempo) to 5 mins (VO2). Plus my longer Z2 outings and low cadence big gear work. I tend to fit my choice of road / lane to the workout at hand. Thus I’m no focused on time and can just focus on sitting in the right power range as various familiar landmarks are reached and passed.

More VO2 work today, and some strength endurance tomorrow. Then day off, and then I have an 100km audax event on Sat.

 

[HLaB]

My least favourite type of work out tonight, an under/over session (Avalanche Spire -1). For some reason I opted to do it with ERG on which on the Suito stands for a Energy Reducing Grind

I managed it but given the grind I marked it as ‘All Out’ which gave me the PL increases but triggered a TR struggle survey.




3 degrees C hotter in the ‘Pain Room’ tonight and it sure felt it



I had gym fan, a blower and a pedestal fan and could have done with more. The ajar front door only let warm air and rain blow in

 

[Norry1]

My least favourite type of work out tonight, an under/over session (Avalanche Spire -1). For some reason I opted to do it with ERG on which on the Suito stands for a Energy Reducing Grind

View attachment 754739 I managed it but given the grind I marked it as ‘All Out’ which gave me the PL increases but triggered a TR struggle survey.

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3 degrees C hotter in the ‘Pain Room’ tonight and it sure felt it

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I had gym fan, a blower and a pedestal fan and could have done with more. The ajar front door only let warm air and rain blow in

Well done. Over/Unders are pretty nasty. For this type of workout I'd always use Erg. I tend to turn Erg off where there are short high Vo2 or sprint efforts or long Endurance.

 

[Norry1]

My workout yesterday was called Tempo/Sweetspot/Threshold/VO2 which kind of tells you what it was

It entailed 2 blocks of 15/10/3/1 minute efforts.

Quite challenging but managed it okay.

The TSS is understated because my FTP is set as my outdoor FTP - but my indoors FTP is 20W lower.

 

[Legs]

My least favourite type of work out tonight, an under/over session (Avalanche Spire -1). For some reason I opted to do it with ERG on which on the Suito stands for a Energy Reducing Grind

View attachment 754739 I managed it but given the grind I marked it as ‘All Out’ which gave me the PL increases but triggered a TR struggle survey.



View attachment 754740
View attachment 754741
3 degrees C hotter in the ‘Pain Room’ tonight and it sure felt it

View attachment 754742
I had gym fan, a blower and a pedestal fan and could have done with more. The ajar front door only let warm air and rain blow in

Feck me, I know Elite turbos don't have the best reputation, but that's dreadful. If it's still in warranty, I'd be sending that back because it's quite clearly not fit for purpose.

This is the kind of trace I get from using erg on my Tacx Neo 2T. Where there are step changes, the turbo locks into the required power within about 5 seconds and then the 3-second average power displayed only wavers by 2-3W, tops, unless you try rapidly changing your cadence. The little blip at 35 mins in was me standing up momentarily during the rest period. Definitely can't feel any change in power during the constant intervals.