Cycling Fitness / Training Advice

Not to say that's the only way to skin the cat.
But it's the simplest and most used. Beyond that you'll need a coach and prescriptive stuff.

Does Trainer Road have any special graphics requirements? Presume it's not as heavy duty as Zwift so I might be able to trial it on my old PC with the shitty GPU?

Plus that approach meets with your goal. Of riding in the mountains.
Maybe work on bike handling too. Shit loads of time can be made up descending like lead.

Not especially although it struggled on a very old laptop of mine.

What was particularly harsh was that it only showed up as an issue because the 20min FTP test took 35mins as the clock was running slow.

That was a couple of years ago now though.

Ha! 20min test in 35min, that's a pisser :)

I'll give it a look. Anything to get some mojo back.

It barely takes anything and there's now an android (and possibly iOS) app too which has full functionality. Needs a bluetooth PM or ant+ compatible phone though, obviously.

Cheers, i'll poke my nose in at it.

Just recovered from the flu about a week ago, took last week once recovered very easy, 30 min ride, 30min ride, rest day, 1.25 hour, rest, 30 mins on turbo.

Day after the turbo though and my right quad is in pain, not sure if related to coming back from illness but It almost feels bruised and is painful if you press it.

Is also very mildly painful at full stretch, on bike feels okay.

Anyone experienced similar? Not sure wether to just take it easy or lay off the bike entirely. Have already lost so much fitness over the last 2 weeks...

Small muscle tear - all good.

sooo I'm hearing, recovery ride tomorrow?

If it is a tear, it took a couple of weeks for mine to be settle and then had to take it a bit easy for a couple more.

but did you ride with it? nothing high intensity, just easy spins?

I did ride. And duly tore the same muscle again. I am an idiot.

sigh, this year is not going to plan thus far

If you can, worth getting checked properly. @bluerip00 is a fantastic physio and got me diagnosed and back quick sharp after I'd made a hash of my calf tear.

If that's not possible, just don't do what I did and rush it. A tear needs to heal properly and will be a weakness that's prone to re injury if care isn't taken.

It's only January

Does Trainer Road have any special graphics requirements? Presume it's not as heavy duty as Zwift so I might be able to trial it on my old PC with the shitty GPU?

TrainerRoad isn't very graphically intense, although can be RAM hungry. If I want to run TrainerRoad with something like Netflix playing, I have to make sure I've quitted out of all the other applications and made sure the other half is logged out. Otherwise TrainerRoad and Netflix start freezing.
I have got a MacBook Air with only 4GB of RAM though mind.

No you've spare capacity. Why work on it? Spend time where it's needed.

You need to work on longer duration aerobic power to improve that.
Vo2 will improve as you push up ftp. It's not mutually exclusive. You need to get used to doing longer effort. You can do them, just not used to it.

I never do vo2 work any more. Still cracked out 430w for 5 before xmas. The other work I do works on vo2 indirectly.

Do intervals from 10 minutes to 60 minutes at 91 to 105% of your FTP
Also, do plenty of Sweetspot(88-93% of FTP) from 20- 120 minutes.

@skinny Interesting. Training for 10 mile TTs at the moment, and would of thought I would need healthy dose of V02 Max work. Threshold and Sweet Spot more useful than doing V02 Max ?

Trying to decide on a training plan on TrainerRoad - 40KM TT which is mostly Threshold/Sweet Spot with a little V02, or something else which incorporates a larger amount of V02 work

Yeah you should. If 10s are you goal.

Riding tempo for long rides is TTMs goal. And he's spare capacity so doesn't need to do vo2 right now.

If you're 10mi power is near your 5 min power you need to raise your vo2. If your 10 power is low compared to 5 min power you need to work on sustainable power by pushing it up. If you've capacity push, if you need to make capacity then raise vo2 with direct work. Riding at ftp will push up vo2 though.

If you're 10mi power is near your 5 min power you need to raise your vo2. If your 10 power is low compared to 5 min power you need to work on sustainable power by pushing it up. If you've capacity push, if you need to make capacity then raise vo2 with direct work. Riding at ftp will push up vo2 though.

Thanks @skinny makes sense !

Want to do well in my clubs evening 10 Handicap league, so will continue doing mostly Threshold/Sweet Spot with a little V02 until April when the league starts. Will assess my power profile then and likely start adding in more V02 work as the season progresses.
Sound like a plan ?

Yeah it's a plan. Maybe to the optimum, but it's better than a lot of them.

Shorter 8-12 min efforts can be really good for bumping 20min power. You can do them at desired 20min max or near it and do a couple. Gets you used to riding at higher power.

Srsbusiness.

Currently at -37 TSB and can barely move. So tired

I've got +3 HSBC. I think that means it's time for lunch.

Report back when you get to > -80.

Ps. Welcome to my life.