Cycling Fitness / Training Advice

363W is the technical NP. Not sure what the 335W is. But itll be an adaption of normalized power as the program use using wont be licensing coggans formulae.

I'd say its around 330W or a little over, but a few watts here or there wont matter either way.

Why? He's done an hour's hard race, there is no need to approximate. He has good data.

He hadn’t mentioned it was a cross race before, so more likely to be working at his limits for the hour.

I had assumed crit racing, where unless in a solo breakaway from the start, unlikely to show representative data.

Who’s using HRV? I remember looking into it a few years back after @scherrit recommended it to judge recovery. At the time it wasn’t the cheapest/easiest thing to try. Have things moved on since?

I’m sure a 20 min test is less likely to make you want to puke than a cross race.

I have been for a couple of years. I'm going to stop. It doesn't tell me anything I don't know and does things like says I'm fresh after racing TCR or something. So, it might be useful for some people but not so much for me.

Interesting. Thanks

I have tracked it, found it pretty meaningless for me.
Rating my perception on tiredness and fatigue out of 10 has a better correlation with how I actually am.

Did you get weird values? I'd get low values after a night on the piss which makes sense as my RHR would be like 90 when I woke up! But the day after races it'd say I was fine even when I was fucked and it would only be two days after it would read low. I guess once you know the patterns it makes more sense but I didn't find it added any value to what I already felt. I don't need HR to tell me I can barely walk..

Sounds like it’s not worth the effort. Thanks both

Yeah weird values, sometimes they would make sense in their magnitude, but others it'd be off so pretty redundant measure for me.

After doing my fixed SR this year I want to push myself. I have bought a cheapish smart turbo second hand (kinetic rock and roll), and a power meter.

Reading lots and watching too much YouTube I think this will work out well over two weeks (work rota).

Day off
Commute (2*10) gentle, evening turbo session
Commute (2*10) gentle
Turbo session
Commute (2*10) gentle
Day off
Long ride (100 mile or club ride)
Day off
Commute (2*10) gentle, evening turbo session
Commute (2*10) gentle
Day off
Commute (2*10) hard
Commute (2*10) gentle
Commute (1*10 and 1*40)

Does this look good and what should my turbo sessions be looking like? I'm new to training but cycled for 10 years and audaxed for around 5.

What are your goals and events ( what's fixed SR?).

It's an odd time of year to be starting a plan (depending on goals/events). I'd just sign up for Trainer road, complete a low volume plan and commute easy around that/still do longer Sunday rides if you want. Adjust as you learn and need.

Give the podcast a listen. Don't start on a high volume plan like most people assume they can. You can have a free month if you direct message me your email (I don't get anything for you signing up).

fixed SR?

Fixed gear, SR series = audax 200k, 300k, 400k and 600k rides in a season.

I'm fairly fit. Ride to work everyday and also ride at weekends. I do Audaxs and completed a 200,300,400 and 600k fixed this year in ok/good times.

Next June I have the opportunity to do LEJOGLE supported and want to aim at 7 days. This is around 400k a day. I'm not sure if I can do it, but I want to aim for it.

LEJOGLE, in that case, there are better qualified people in here to comment on what you are trying to do, @skinny + @hippy for starters.

If you are wanting to commit to indoors 2-3 times a week, I would personally consider following TR and doing;

Base: Sweet spot base, 12 weeks
Build: Sustained Power Build, 8 weeks
Both low volume supplemented with longer outdoor rides/audax events +commuting but ensure it's gradual and follow the rest weeks. As June is week 23 I'd skip a specialty phase from TR (and not sure any of them are event specific for you) but optionally do maintenance on the turbo then lots of outdoor volume.

That would be my take... happy for the long distance experts on here to suggest better approaches :)

I don't do more than 2 harder sessions a week. I'm a high volume responder though which is why I can keep doing stupid long races without dying I think. Next year I'll be looking for speed rather than ultra endurance so my training will change a bit.

For 400k / day I'd be keeping up fitness over winter but I'd be looking to higher volumes in the new year - no point smashing out hard intervals now if your event is in June. You wanna just keep stuff ticking over now and then focus more towards the event. Specificity is high on my list of methods so I'd be looking at dropping turbo work next year and riding back to back 400 days to see how you cope, test your kit, kill off any discomfort issues, etc. If that's all sorted then you can move towards doing longer sweetspot and tempo work to bring your endurance/speed up. The faster you can ride your 400/day comfortably, the more recovery you get so the easier subsequent days will be (relatively speaking).

I find TR Specialty phase stuff is too hard for ultra distance racing. It's geared towards road racing a shorter events. I'd keep everything in sweetspot zones and leave the Vo2 shit for the roadies. It's not like you're time crunched - you have MONTHS leading up to your event, @bjf

I know I'm not time crunched but want to get on it. I'm not scared of the rain so what do you recommend, just keep my mileage high over winter off the turbo or mix in a few sessions?

I'm used to riding my bike lots but this training stuff is 100% new to me.

Definitely maintain speedwork during the winter. Don't need to keep high mileage, in fact it's probably healthier not to - it does depend how your body responds to different kinds of training load. If you already have a decent mileage base, just try adding one or two sweetspot sessions per week and take note of any impact it has on your longer distance stuff - are you feeling stronger after a few weeks or is it having a negative impact? If it's the latter, try with one session per week, if it's the former, cool, keep at it.

@hippy Thanks!

Did my first attempt at a ramp test today, gave up at the end of one interval (275W) rather than even attempting (and failing) at the next. The figures sit roughly where I expected anyway (75% gives 206W vs est ~220W FTP). Gives me a nice baseline and I really only can improve (I've done next to no real cycling for years other than some commuting).

I'm back in the routine of doing a weekly spin class which is pretty well structured (and power based) with a mixture of over-unders and other intervals.

I know it's overkill, but is a ramp test every week too much? I've got 30 minutes whilst my daughter is having her swimming lesson and that's easily enough time for me to nip to the gym and do a ramp test.

30 minutes isn't really enough time to do anything else that useful so I thought a ramp test would be a good thing to get into the habit of doing regularly. Or should I do one a month and try and do some other 30 minute set?

From my training this year, first on a smart trainer, I’d say spread them out. You’ll see any gains more clearly.

Trainerroad do say the ramp test is a good workout on it's own