Cycling Fitness / Training Advice

That's pretty high. I tend to end up around 86 average. Are you on fixed?

When I'm in real form, for a 10 I might do 105rpm. Short efforts even high.

86 sounds grim.

Average though, isn't it. 60rpm up hills cancels out 100 rpm on the flat. And I do longer ones than 10s. Tops rides at about 70.

1st time. Also the Sufferfest vid encourages you to ramp it up.

Wow. That's in Hinault territory.

@sacredhart it's a fine art..you didn't exactly spike at the end but there should be literally nothing left in the tank.

I did my TR ftp (2x8) test last night and totally messed it up as I went too hard in the first interval had nothing left for the second one. I got what I feel is quite an optimistic ftp and was wondering if many people have done much using virtual power and a real power meter? Is it normal for virtual power to over estimate?

I know as long as it's consistent then it's fine to train with, but obviously I'm curious. If anyone is willing to lend me a power meter for an evening (wheel or pedal I guess) I will re do the test to see what the difference is!

Yeah I think I still had some in reserve tbh

Who's tops?

And Yes you're fixed, so that's a fair point.
I get to ride 100 on flat and 100 up hills!

Adam Topham, 3 4 time BBAR winner.

/Sarcasm.

Only won 2 really.

ha, yeah...

Any real racer knows it's the guy who won. Not the guy who got awarded it after some fuck up.

Bideau is king. Long live the real king.

In fairness if the route was the full distance then tops would have won...

Anyway have clearly moved on quite a lot from my last cp20 tests as I'm hitting the same numbers in training as I was just before my biggest peak last season, going to retest next week but it got me thinking about training to aspirational numbers instead of real numbers (I.e. Intervals at 120% of what I'd like my FTP to be) - what's the thinking on this as I'd like my FTP to be about 25 watts higher...

No that's on a standard 10 speed (53/39 - 12/23).

I'm not the quickest but it feels natural. Bigger gears hurt my knees a little. Going below 90rpm on the turbo I class as hill climb training ;-).

Most of the courses I ride are relatively flat K courses (the quick lads in our club don't like hills!)

It's a pretty personal thing I guess. I'm trying to learn to spin quicker for the track.

It's a pretty personal thing I guess

Yeah pretty much this.

TR has a session that goes something like this,
Warm up
3 mins at 110%
3 mins recovery
3 mins at 120%
3 mins recovery
3 mins at 130%
8 mins recovery
3 mins at 130%
3 mins recovery
3 mins at 120%
3 mins recovery
3 mins at 110%
Recovery.

I find it utterly brutal. If my FTP is accurate and I'm feeling good I can just about handle it. The 2nd 120% is the killer as I'm usually spent after the 2nd 130.

I don't try it too often ;-)

86 sounds grim.

this

This looks grim.

Yeh it hurts a lot. You know it the next day, well, I do.

Calling @xavierdisley

Right, knocked up a 1 hour session last night on TR.
20 min stepped warm up followed by 4x70 second flat out efforts with 10 min recovery between each.
The sprints are hard. I managed about 150% FTP but the first effort was a disaster. Too big a gear and I died, fast!!!
Got it sorted by the third and fourth efforts. (120rpm).
Ive got a couple of questions:
Firstly, is 4 efforts enough in an hour?
Secondly, the recovery between, is 50% FTP reasonable? I felt I was getting cold at anything less than that between efforts. (In the garage!).
Thirdly, what kind of improvements might this session give and is once a week enough (along with other sessions of course).

Sorry for all the questions.

Cheers Jon.

Can you post up a power graph of the session?

I don't ride with power as such just their virtual version.
I can get a grab of the workout, will that be good enough?

Yeah - just to see the power profile over the course of the session

Here you go.

1 Attachment

No one sprints for 70 seconds.

That's practically a grand fondo.

Minimal recovery let's your heart recover but keeps a lovely bit of lactic in the legs. So you train lactic clearing.

..... Or dissolve your thighs. Which is how my body reacts.