Strava training q.

[Slower than you]

hi all, apologies if Wrong place...

I’m trying a training on Strava and it keeps telling me to get my watts up and cadence. However, when I reach the right wattage, my cadence is still too low. When I then bring up my Cadence, the wattage goes way too high… I just can’t find the balance.?

Also, on the main screen, it says ERG on. If you click it, it then says ERG off. Can I assume that when it says on, on the screen, it means that it is on?

And lastly, when it ERG is on , am I supposed to not change gear?

I’m sure these are elementary questions and probably asked regularly so sorry for repeating…

Thanks

J

 

[Milkfloat]

hi all, apologies if Wrong place...

I’m trying a training on Strava and it keeps telling me to get my watts up and cadence. However, when I reach the right wattage, my cadence is still too low. When I then bring up my Cadence, the wattage goes way too high… I just can’t find the balance.?

Also, on the main screen, it says ERG on. If you click it, it then says ERG off. Can I assume that when it says on, on the screen, it means that it is on?

And lastly, when it ERG is on , am I supposed to not change gear?

I’m sure these are elementary questions and probably asked regularly so sorry for repeating…

Thanks

J

Assuming you are on a turbo trainer and in ERG mode, I have found that if you are in a too high a gear the resistance can still be too high - therefore try a lower gear.

You say Strava - but I am not aware that Strava can control trainers, perhaps you mean Zwift?

 

[Deleted member 26715]

Also, on the main screen, it says ERG on. If you click it, it then says ERG off. Can I assume that when it says on, on the screen, it means that it is on

We had a developer like this, his logic was when something was on he would display a button which would say xxxxxx OFF & when it was off he would display xxxxxx ON, his claim was that when something was on the obvious thing was to display how to turn if off. Which was fine but all the other developers did it the other way around!

 

[si_c]

hi all, apologies if Wrong place...

I’m trying a training on Strava and it keeps telling me to get my watts up and cadence. However, when I reach the right wattage, my cadence is still too low. When I then bring up my Cadence, the wattage goes way too high… I just can’t find the balance.?

Also, on the main screen, it says ERG on. If you click it, it then says ERG off. Can I assume that when it says on, on the screen, it means that it is on?

And lastly, when it ERG is on , am I supposed to not change gear?
J

If it says ERG mode is ON, then it is probably on. When you have it on, the trainer will set the required power to be a function of your current cadence, if you increase this, then the trainer will have to correct the resistance given to account for you pedalling faster - this takes a bit of time, and the trainer will adjust the resistance downwards slowly. The better your trainer, the better it does this.

If you bring your cadence up to the desired level, the trainer will eventually adjust it so you are pedalling at the correct power output. You don't need to mess around with gears in ERG mode.

 

[Asa Post]

Lots of the time, I can't keep to the recommended cadence either. There seems to be a maximum wattage that I can maintain when pedalling at (say) 90 rpm. If the session requires more power, I have to slow the cadence to achieve it. When this happens I ignore the suggested cadence, because the wattage is more important.

The idea of ERG mode makes changing gear unnecessary, as the trainer keep the power at the correct level. But for a short sprint, my trainer doesn't react quickly enough to increase the power and the interval is over before it settles at the desired level. 10 seconds is too short, but 20 seconds is just about OK. Longer sprints are fine. When I need to do a 10 second sprint, I hammer it and hope for the best. The power goes from too low to too high, but if the average is close to the target, I'm happy.

 

[Milkfloat]

If you bring your cadence up to the desired level, the trainer will eventually adjust it so you are pedalling at the correct power output. You don't need to mess around with gears in ERG mode.

I don't think that is right, on my trainer there seems to be a minimum resistance level that I cannot go below, for example in 34/28 I could put out 100 watts at 90RPM, but if I tried the same at 50/11 it would be at least 150 watts even in ERG mode . The same goes for the maximum, I could not put out 1000 watts in 34/28.

 

[Racing roadkill]

If you can’t hit or maintain the target cadence, your fitness level isn’t where it needs to be. That’s the whole point of what the trainer is doing. It’s trying to ensure you’re working as efficiently as possible. It’s the same on an actual thing commonly referred to as a real life road ride. You should ideally aim to maintain an efficient Cadence ( usually ‘high’ ) a narrow band of about 85 to 95 rpms and use your gears to allow yourself to do so. The fitter you get, the bigger gear / steeper hill / mixture of those you’ll be able to keep your Cadence in the efficient zone, and the more power you’ll be producing at that cadence, and the longer you’ll be able to maintain that. The trainer is trying to get your power up at the efficient Cadence , by varying it’s resistance and by doing so working your CV system to get your fitness parameters up to the level where you can do what it asks when it asks. Your fitness is the limiting factor as to how extreme a programme you can ‘fit the curve’ on.

 

[Milkfloat]

If you can’t hit or maintain the target cadence, your fitness level isn’t where it needs to be.

That is not true - there are plenty of examples of people with low cadence who are tremendously fit but can turn a big gear. It is only relatively recently that a high cadence has been considered good. Plus the OP is not saying he cannot hit the target cadence, he says that he cannot get the target cadence and watts to match.

 

[CXRAndy]

Several possibilities, poor quality trainer- what make, model? Not using the correct training platform. I know when I use TrainerRoad with my Direct drive Kickr, it doesn't matter what gear I'm in, Trainer Road sets the resistance wattage, I then just alter my cadence to suit the workout. That's how Erg works, pedal slow high resistance, pedal faster less resistance, all 200W or whatever the software has chosen for your routine

 

[Slower than you]

Thanks for all the replies. Firstly I meant zwift.... I’ve been trying all the different suggestions over the last week. I also asked zwift the q. They said when erg says on its on. I seem to have found its easiest to match and reach the star achievements by changing gear to get the right cadence and wattage. Especially as erg charnges the resistance .zwift also recommended this. Although I know some people say don’t change gear... v confusing.

This leads me to the next one. My last ride on the training gave me many intervals of high cadence and low wattage with some at high wattage. I covered 9km in an hour. But v high cadence. Whereas the ride before was v high wattage and lower cadence where I road like 40km in 1.5 hours. I know it’s tryif to build me but why the different ride rypes? I’m struggling to know what it’s doing? Again, a Baisic q I’m sure?

 

[Milkfloat]

Distance is pretty immaterial - the 9km in an hour could have been up a mountain, which would be very, very different to down a mountain.

 

[CXRAndy]

Thanks for all the replies. Firstly I meant zwift.... I’ve been trying all the different suggestions over the last week. I also asked zwift the q. They said when erg says on its on. I seem to have found its easiest to match and reach the star achievements by changing gear to get the right cadence and wattage. Especially as erg charnges the resistance .zwift also recommended this. Although I know some people say don’t change gear... v confusing.

This leads me to the next one. My last ride on the training gave me many intervals of high cadence and low wattage with some at high wattage. I covered 9km in an hour. But v high cadence. Whereas the ride before was v high wattage and lower cadence where I road like 40km in 1.5 hours. I know it’s tryif to build me but why the different ride rypes? I’m struggling to know what it’s doing? Again, a Baisic q I’m sure?

High cadence low wattage routines, puts stresses on your aerobic fitness( heart lungs) but also helps train your nervous system to work at a faster pace for firing those leg muscles. The high cadence high power is adding in strength training to the aerobic work out. There will be some workouts where you have lower cadence 60-70-80 rpm for strength training mostly. By mixing the training it will bring you on in fitness, but it takes several months to see the whole benefit,

I use Trainer Road instead of Zwift(personal choice), to train. Its more thorough in training, but not by much. I will spend 8-16weeks using TR to improve my overall fitness.