Cycling Workouts: Discussion/Encouragement/Sharing/Banter

[CXRAndy]

Then again garmin said my Vo2max at the time was 70-74 and now its 62. I think Garmin just makes these numbers up

I think that would make you elite level re V02

I'm classed as good for my age. If I managed to drop weight and improve a little I might get into excellent

 

[HLaB]

I think that would make you elite level re V02

I'm classed as good for my age. If I managed to drop weight and improve a little I might get into excellent

View attachment 755854

Top 1% for a 49 year old, the equivalent of a 20year old heart apparently, but I think Garmin just makes the numbers up 😂

 

[CXRAndy]

Top 1% for a 49 year old, the equivalent of a 20year old heart apparently, but I think Garmin just makes the numbers up 😂

What figures does Garmin receive. I have Garmin receive my Zwift rides, which has power, HR, etc. I also have Garmin watch

I'd be getting a laboratory V02 test if I was suspected of being top 1%

You could picked for veteran racing

 

[HLaB]

What figures does Garmin receive. I have Garmin receive my Zwift rides, which has power, HR, etc. I also have Garmin watch

I'd be getting a laboratory V02 test if I was suspected of being top 1%

You could picked for veteran racing

My watch is just a cheap Vivioactive 2 watch. VO2max for me is calculated through the Edge 1030, power and HR.

I can beat a lot of folk in parts, especially on uphill sprints, I outsprinted Dean Downing a few years back. I had sat on his wheel for 3 or 4 miles though and when he sprinted I slung shot by. But I haven't got enough skill or guts to actually race.

 

[CXRAndy]

. Wow, certainly got some punch

 

[Norry1]

Just looked on my Garmin (Edge 830) cos VO2 Max is not something I look at. It gives me an estimate of 61. Like you @HLaB I have no idea how accurate it is.

 

[Norry1]

I've had a few days off due to having a nasty bout of the lurgy that half the world seems to have.

I did Turbo Threshold Builder on TPVirtual - I didn't notice until afterwards that my Coach had increased the efforts from 5 x 3 mins to 5 x 4 mins at the same intensity.

I recorded the last 2 efforts as it helps to give me a bit more motivation
View: https://youtu.be/7i8_qvrIzQU

 

[HLaB]

On the winter bike again I had sourced a fan but decided as it was an endurance session I’d be OK without it wrong! The session called for quite a bit of time in the aero position, and given I was on the winter road bike the drop was a bit more than the drops to the elbow pads on the TT bike and I quickly felt it and when TR told me to drop the cadence I never recovered it. Perhaps I was making it was mentally harder tan it was, as the actual HR zones to Power zones was not far off despite a bit of a cold.






With me marking it as hard TR has downgraded tomorrows 1h Threshold workout to a 1/2h Endurance one.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Did FTP test today as hadn’t done one for a few months. I do the test outside on the road. My two favourite roads for doing it have roadworks next couple of days to remove some storm damaged trees. Thus it was my third choice road that saw my wheels. The road wasn’t long enough for a single 20 min FTP session without interruption or compromising safety. Thus I did the 2 x 8 min test, going one way, some recovery, then back the other way. Max heart rate of 91% on both runs. It’s lifted my FTP estimate by 17W and MAP by 20W. Pleased with the execution and now have some new power ranges for my winter training sessions.

 

[Norry1]

Did FTP test today as hadn’t done one for a few months. I do the test outside on the road. My two favourite roads for doing it have roadworks next couple of days to remove some storm damaged trees. Thus it was my third choice road that saw my wheels. The road wasn’t long enough for a single 20 min FTP session without interruption or compromising safety. Thus I did the 2 x 8 min test, going one way, some recovery, then back the other way. Max heart rate of 91% on both runs. It’s lifted my FTP estimate by 17W and MAP by 20W. Pleased with the execution and now have some new power ranges for my winter training sessions.

Nice work

My coach tends to get me to do a 30 min max power effort to assess my FTP - typically rounding down slightly from the av power achieved. Not always easy to get the right road conditions - and unexpected traffic lights/busy junctions etc can mess it up.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Not always easy to get the right road conditions - and unexpected traffic lights/busy junctions etc can mess it up.

I choose carefully, barely any traffic, and no road junctions. For a 30 min session I’d have to travel much further away for a suitable road.

 

[HLaB]

Finally some decent weather today only for me to find out my heated gloves hadn’t finished charging. But given it was so nice (well for this time of year) I went out for a bit anyway. I had been intending a short recovery ride before doing my TR workout in the evening. However, when I came back the gloves were nearly charged and the weather was still good so I had some lunch and went out to do it on the old railway path. I had ‘Manly’ in the calendar which had an average IF of 0.7 with 0.77IF 3 min intervals. The gravel bike doesn’t have a power meter so I just used RPE/ HR as a proxy the only problem with the quite nice Lull between the storm I kept it up for 2hours it was supposed to be 30mins

 

[HLaB]

I went out this morning for the club run but not surprisingly I was the only one out. Going up through The Glen (Pittencrieff Park) was pretty dodgy (ice) so I decided against doing the club run route and took a more gradual descent to home.





I came back and listened to sport for a bit had lunch, let it settle and fired up TrainNow. Surprisingly TN on my phone gave me an Endurance workout recommendation (I hadn’t done anything since Thursday). However, when I rerun TN on the internet 5minutes later, it was recommending Threshold and SS workout (as it had been last night). I opted for a SS workout with the aim of keeping fresher for the holiday week.



OT after the workout and I had put things away and showered, I thought I’d note that post solstice the days are fair drawing out again

 

[HLaB]

Post rest day DOMS (I hardly ever get DOMs since I started taking Iron supplements, guess what I forgot last night), so not the best start

No good for the globe, yet another 10deg C switch in the temperature, but I took advantage of it and went out for a gravel bike ride in the morning and to avoid the pre Christmas madness on the roads. I got nearly to the turn, climbed a gate and there was a mean looking Ram guarding his sheep. So I decided to find another way. Unfortunately, when I climbed back over the gate I must have caught the sidewall of the rear tyre. A DynaPlug, pump, Co2, pump, pump, pump didn’t sort it. I could have messed about with a spare tube but as home was most along an old railway path (shallow up gradient) and then down through town I decided to run (it turns out it was 17miles

)


So not the best prep for tonight’s workout (Bashful - 1, 5x1-minute intervals at 125% FTP) and it showed. It wasn’t too bad a start, then I unclipped a few times during the third interval. It then fell apart. On hindsight I should have either not ran it on ERG or dropped the ERG intensity.

 

[BSRU]

Suddenly had a problem with the seat post slipping down during virtual rides, especially on climbs.
Tried lots of things to stop it but nothing was 100% successful, so ended up buying Park Tools assembly paste we did the trick.

Then I realise the PC I use for the smart trainer is no longer updating, the update states it's upto date but is missing security updates.
Turns out although it runs Windows 11 fine, the CPU is not officially supported(TPM and SecureBoot are ok) so when a big update comes along, which was released in October, it will not update it.
So I had to spend an hour or so installing the new version of Windows 11 before I could use it.

So now I am back to trying to recover my lost fitness.