Cycling Fitness / Training Advice

Just checked, I did it in 2015. 14hrs27m. This is me at the top of the last climb. I was fucked. Like, proper fucked. And ended up doing most of the descent and run into Meiringen on the dark with a tiny flashing front light.

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That’s the haunted look of a man who’s seriously questioning his life decisions.

Thanks, I feel much less anxious about my own decision now. Gulp

It didn't help that I got seriously dehydrated racing to Airolo to beat the cut off time for the Platinum route, and couldn't eat solid food for the second half of the ride.

That's a superb photo. Not one to show your mother though.

No risk of that in 2015.

I know not everyone does a long ride in their week. But if you do, that’s the one to try and spin through I think.

I did a long ride today, and pushed my cadence the whole way. It was good - I found it surprisingly easy to adapt my shifting habits by looking at the cadence readout and aiming for 80 and 90. I felt pretty fresh deep into the ride, more so than I would have if I had ground my way up the hills as per usual.

I wondered whether I would actually benefit from an easier gear (than 36/28), because going up two long and steep climbs on my route I found myself in the granny gear and my cadence dropping below where I wanted it.

You can see from the graph that my cadence really slumped during the steep mid-section on Mam Nick

It turns out I can climb out of the saddle at 80rpm, it's not necessarily fatiguing, just different.

Bonus lfgss rep if you do it fixed on a light gear (it does help).

I would love to have a fixed gear bike again, but I don't know whether I could do much with it it in Yorkshire/Peaks. Maybe with a flip-flop hub and two brakes.

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First port of call is one of the bike gear calculator websites.
It’ll tell you speed at given rpm so you can see a real world difference as opposed to comparing fractions.

Sounds ideal.

I've surprised myself in the past on these rides by getting PBs shallow, 5-15min climbs ... all whilst focusing only on a high cadence.

Fair point about fixed. I think there are a couple of ways a fixed bike can be ok for training;

1. Convenient beater you can grab and just get miles done on a light gear. This is commuting for a lot of people. If you're somewhere hilly it accidentally becomes...
   
2. High gear, ad hoc, low-cadence rides - good for strength (which are just as easily done on a geared bike).
   

Fair , i was just looking to differentiate between the 800-1000 m peaks near Tokyo and the 2500m big boys in Nagano and Hokkaido :)

Have trained for the TCR when living in Tokyo. About 50km of riding through the suburbs to Saitama less than ideal. I ran round a running track and did burpees during the week

Its not ideal for sure and any decent terrain is 50-60km away but at least that means I get some decently long rides in :) I presume you dont live in Tokyo anymore based on "when living in tokyo "

Yeah I came back 2 years ago now. Like any failed fashion brand London > Tokyo > Edinburgh

this is indeed a thing, with the fixed (mass) start time and cut-off times at the cols, you can't really help but feel a bit rushed throughout all of the ordeal @TTM

Good to know. I’ll try to find info on those times. I’ve spent some time this morning scouting the climbs and none seem overly concerning in isolation and once over the Nufenen the gradient settles down a bit.

Is there much climbing between the 5 main climbs do you know?

Would either of you mind me having a look at your Strava for the ride?
@Brommers

EDIT - apologies, you already have

yes I put it in the 'Alpenbrevet thread' https://www.lfgss.com/conversations/242028/

Is there much climbing between the 5 main climbs do you know?

Essentially none. You basically go from one climb into the next. PM'd you the link to my Strava file.

I've just done my first FTP test following the one that comes already loaded on my Edge 830. Was a bit weird, thought it was supposed to be 20 minutes but think it was 12? It was a bit of a mess and ended up having a couple of cars pull out on me which fucked up my rhythm. Don't know how accurate it was.

Has anyone used the Garmin one? Did you find it accurate? Need a turbo I think...

I’ve not done a 12 min test, but have done 8 and 20’s before. They all do the same thing - give a rough approximation of FTP, so long as you fit the bell curve average and aren’t an outlier.

Don’t worry too much about the number for now. Just ride with the power meter for a while, gathering a variety of data (max efforts at various durations) and keep testing every few weeks and you’ll start to learn where your FTP is.

I find a turbo much easier for FTP tests. It just takes away the distractions and means every test is consistent.

I find a turbo much easier for FTP tests. It just takes away the distractions and means every test is consistent.

This is true, but I can never match the numbers I can do outside on the road on a turbo. It's definitely not calibration issues - the numbers are within +/- 1% comparing the trainer to the power meter. But outside my FTP is at least 10% higher than it is outdoors. Maybe I need a bigger fan...

Maybe I need a bigger fan...

@hippy dressed as a cheerleader 📣 “give me a ‘B’ give me an ‘R’ give me an ‘O’ ...”

Not that big. My turbo-training room is only small. There ain't room for the both of us... Especially with the pom-poms.

Ok, thanks. Hoping to get a Kickr in the next couple of months.

I can never match the numbers I can do outside on the road on a turbo

This seems to be a common issue (with some people being the opposite too), but really it doesn’t matter. So long as your testing is consistent, that’s the only important thing. You just add that missing 5, 10, 15% when riding to power outside.

You could try using the Xert "What's My FTP" widget for Garmin. I used it for a while to confirm actual FTP tests, and was surprised how close they were

I was in the same boat for years until lockdown during which I best my outdoor numbers. Maybe it's a specificity thing. Previously, as I'm sure you're all aware, I've done loads of outdoor miles and turbo was only a 1-2 sessions a week thing. Lockdown had me on the turbo every day, often multiple sessions a day.