Cycling Fitness / Training Advice

I did say is good prep for someone who needs experience.

I think for someone with a full time job, who doesn't have a massive training load, keeping as much fitness as possible is the most important thing, but just make damn sure you're rested and fresh at the start. So not backing off until the week before. I won't touch my bike really for the 5 days before.

We're both right. As you say, everyone is different. Like I said, I could never and would never train like you do. It'd kill me. And you'd hate how I train. But I like it, so it works. Everyones body is different.

Thanks both, plenty to chew on. Good point especially about winning it/will power - at some point it will come down to will power rather than pre-existing fitness levels so I'll try to make sure my kit and bike is optimal and hopefully the rest will follow.

Gym bike - no

Spin bike - yes.

I killed myself on a spin bike for an hourv every morning on holiday and felt like I hadn't skipped a beat when I got home.

My hips are not happy and i need some advice / ideas...

Have found in the last week that anything over 2 hours outdoors and my hips are becoming ridiculously tight, to the point that standing in the pedals is super-painful and i just can't put proper power through the pedals whether sitting or standing.

Have checked and double checked saddle height and fore/aft and nothing's changed.

Have always done a lot of stretching and foam roller and have started doing even more stuff focussed around hips, quads and gluten since this started happening. It doesn't seem to be helping.

Only thing that's changed in my riding recently is a bit more high intensity on the turbo, and i did my longest ride in a very long time (185 very hilly kms) on sunday.
I feel well recovered from the big ride in myself and my energy levels etc. So not sure if the hip thing is a symptom of that, but have done plenty of long-ish rides in recent months.

Any ideas at all? It's ruining my outdoor riding

Which part of the hips? Front, side, back?

My left hip has caused me tonnes of issues and cost me thousands of pounds in medical bills and bikes adjustments. Nothing I've done has stopped my leg going numb in shorter (100mi down) TTs.

If yours is a muscle issue - what stretching are you doing?

FTP questions for those more well versed. Finally decided to start looking at power as I moved to doing more sessions on the WattBike at the gym (lack of time for longer rides during the week/not wanting to fork out for powermeter). I''ve been doing 4 week training plans from British cycling, doing threshold heart rate tests previously so today I did my second FTP test. Increase of 4% over 4 weeks (one week a bit thrown off due to Thundercrit). Interested to see peoples thoughts around whether this would be above or below "normal". I would assume the first block accurately training at power zones would increase this at a high rate that normal so I think 4% may be a bit low? The training plan is this one. Thanks!

Gains at FTP will depend largely on how well trained you are already. They're much easier to come by for those that are relatively untrained.

What's your history up to now?

Commuting for about 18 months 21mi round trip. Started doing regents laps and rollers about January and starting doing some of the British cycling plans in Feb. Before that was playing rugby to a fairly high level.

Then I'd expect more gains than you've found, based on a relative lack of intensive on bike training before this level.

It could be that the high level rugby means you're very well trained already though.

I've just had a look at that BC training plan.

For a start, four weeks isn't much training to expect much return. Also, the plan involves a lot of vo2 and anaerobic work. While it's important to train all the physiological systems, gains in FTP are about muscular endurance and spending ever increasing times at threshold. So, lots of over/unders and increasing intervals at sweet spot/threshold.

If it's only your second ever FTP test, you're likely to have got better at doing the test.

^this. I can test, go horribly because my heads not into it, test 2 days later and absolutely smash it.

For next season I'd like to find an alternative that works out my threshold via different training sessions rather than relying on a single test - isn't there something out there, Xert or something?

Yep, both Xert and WKO4 attempt to provide a mathematically modelled FTP based on your ride history/PD curve.

As ever, this will work ok for some and be miles off for others. They also require feeding with 'good' data. So, maximal numbers at various points along the PD curve and without good data can spit out numbers that aren't true.

@TTM @upstart @onyerbike thanks for getting back to me. I agree part of it will certainly be knowing what to aim for during the test as opposed to the first which was guess work. Hopefully the next one will mitigate that.

I might try a different 4 week block based around sprinting this time. The only racing I'm doing is a few of the fixed crits in London so the sprint plan may make sense, or would the hive mind suggest sticking with the current circuit focused plan?

Stick with it. Looks good, lots of variety and suits your crit ambitions.

Consistency + recovery > actual session content

Crit specific training maybe better than sprint training; got to be there at the end to be in the sprint. This puts sprinting in as the last and shortest part of the plan.

https://www.trainingpeaks.com/blog/4-key-workouts-for-criterium-training/

^ those 'plus interval' workouts will be the key.

Ah, sorry. Missed the crit ambition bit.

Yes then, as above.

4.5% increase in FTP over six weeks, two turbos a week + weekend club run, from decent base (another six weeks of that but lower intensity).

Expected? OK? Same again?

I reckon summer kit is worth 5% at least.
Also I'm very happy I didn't come on a Kent mission with you last week. Genuinely terrified about your p:w ratio.

Hello all, I need some advice.

Over the last week or two I've suddenly struggled to hold power on the turbo.

I've seen speed and sustainable power gains on outdoor rides which is good, but at the same time I've found I'm suddenly incapable of holding power indoors. I've always been someone who relies on indoor training and was able to hold equal and often higher power indoors over road. That is no more and the last few sessions I've completely died.

Normally I wouldn't care, but my target event is in four weeks and after this weekend I'm working 3 weeks straight without a day off. So I need to make the most of the turbo.

Do people set themselves reduced zones indoors? Knock off 5-10% and see how it compares in terms of RPE? Does this impact physiological adaptation?

The other option I have is lots of early morning regents, but they turn an already long day into silly long and impact my work a bit, so not ideal.

Cheers.

I'm working 3 weeks straight without a day off. So I need to make the most of the turbo

Or perhaps you need a rest if your power is 'suddenly' dropping. Better to go into an event undertrained and pumped than overtrained and tired.

Power only dropping indoors though. Did 150 miles on Sunday and even at the end I was able to hold threshold and above without too much issue. Road power is getting there, just at the cost of indoor power. Obviously this is a good thing, except for the fact that for the three weeks coming it's pretty much all I have available.

Power only dropping indoors though.

Which means your RPE is higher indoors, so either your house is suddenly hotter, you're hydrating/fueling differently or your motivation is slipping. Perhaps also you've pushed into new territory and expecting too much? If you've constantly been upping your power on the turbo you could be hitting physiological limits and need more rest, better mental state before trying again. You get faster during the recovery, not on the turbo.

My year's training has been pretty meh, because of the mental overhead of a shit workplace followed by lots of context switching, long tasks, long days. Mentally I can't cope this year with training as well as I have done in previous years. It sucks but that's life.

What's your event?