Cycling Workouts: Discussion/Encouragement/Sharing/Banter

[Norry1]

Yesterday was another go at Threshold over/unders which I failes recently.

Roy had tweaked it a bit though. It was 2 x 25 minute blocks with a 10 min recovery. Each block was 5 x 2mins@102%FTP / 3 mins 90%FTP

This got hard midway through the second block but I managed to complete it.

 

[Legs]

90 minutes erg Z2 (215W) after I’d put the boys to bed last night. Finished off Die Hard 2 and watched Friday’s HIGNFY.

 

[HLaB]

Not much in the tank tonight after a long day yesterday, several stomach upsets and a houseful of bugs. I was also temporally using my commuter and virtual power. After the warm up that felt to hard and repeated power drop outs and wheel lock ups I jumped off to find the mud guard was fouling the wheel. Fixed that although the virtual power kept on dropping out, hopefully that was just at low cadence. I couldn’t get my cadence up anyway, and on the Omnium rollers I would have needed to, and the results showed and TR recognised it with an immediate struggle survey.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

VO2 max work today, four ascents of my local go to hill. Went well having made yesterday a rest day as it was chucking it down and brakes needed some maintenance. Peaked around 94/95% max heart rate for all intervals. Resting heart rate was 27% of max this morning.

 

[HLaB]

I’m on holiday so there was no commute to replace my endurance workout on Friday so I extended it to an hour and did it tonight. I temporarily using the commuter bike, the Feedback Sports Omnium and virtual power. Whether it is that or that I’m still recovering from yesterdays upset stomachs and another one at lunchtime, it felt a tiny bit harder than it should have, 74%max HR kinda confirms that for a workout of only 0.58IF. Its probably both tbh :-/


I might do tomorrows Threshold WO on %Max HR

 

[HLaB]

I had the first meal that didn’t go through me since Monday night so I did my scheduled Threshold Workout but I dropped the Intensity circa 15% doing it on RPE and ignoring the 80w + drop outs with Virtual Power.



Although I never paid attention to it I think it put my HR in the correct Zone

 

[IrishAl]

Im still at this training carry on. Tonight’s w/o was 5x5min at top end of Z4. Nailed it which i was pleased about as I had cracked on the final effort of a similar work out 2 weeks ago. Had a bout of COVID last week but was able to train through it. Commute to work tomorrow - the last of 2023. The weather is looking great but I’ve the cycling kit ready now so theres no turning back (I keep telling myself that anyway)

 

[Dogtrousers]

I thought I'd share some thoughts on training so that you can all tell me how wrong and stupid I am and how I'm doing it all wrong.

First of all, the limiting factor is whether I actually enjoy doing something. If I don't, I won't stick at it. So this limits me to my weekend rides plus a couple of in-week one hour turbo sessions, which is what I've been doing.

Second - a target. Most training needs a target. I actually do have one: I'm planning a ride in France in June including a couple of HC climbs (each just over 1000m in just under 20km, with steep bits) . Target is just to be able to do it, time/speed isn't important. Misery reduction is really the aim.

So this leaves me with a Saturday ride and two turbo sessions. The Saturday ride is whatever I want to do at the time, typically 80-160km generally as hilly as I can make it. I could always tweak these a bit to suit training requirements. On Saturdays when I'm busy I get up early and do a 2hr+ turbo session. Again, I could change this if I can come up with something better. Often this is a simulation of a big climb like Ventoux, which I do in a big gear to keep my cadence down (70-ish) as that seems more realistic (my turbo claims to be able to simulate 16% gradients, but I don't believe it).

What I've been doing on the turbo is just an hour of something hard. Over/under FTP intervals or 3x10min sweet spot. I figure I get enough Z2 endurance tootling when I'm outside. Also, getting on the turbo for an hour and not flogging myself feels like it's defeating the object.

I work in the office a couple of days a week, and I could always commute (relatively flat 10km each way) to get some miles in but as I actually dislike doing that, I know I'd be unlikely to stick at it. But I could give it a go.

With the new year coming up, maybe I should switch things around a bit. So, given that I don't have huge latitude to change things - how wrong am I?

 

[IrishAl]

Misery reduction is really the aim.

😀😀👌

If you are time crunched then your mix of turbo workouts seems sensible (I’m no expert) as you’re hitting the different zones and your weekend ride sounds like you’re getting decent base in the legs.

I’d encourage you to use the commute to work to get another couple of workouts in during the week. You could add some distance to get you a 1 hour workout and then use the spin home for easy recovery.

 

[Norry1]

I thought I'd share some thoughts on training so that you can all tell me how wrong and stupid I am and how I'm doing it all wrong.

First of all, the limiting factor is whether I actually enjoy doing something. If I don't, I won't stick at it. So this limits me to my weekend rides plus a couple of in-week one hour turbo sessions, which is what I've been doing.

Second - a target. Most training needs a target. I actually do have one: I'm planning a ride in France in June including a couple of HC climbs (each just over 1000m in just under 20km, with steep bits) . Target is just to be able to do it, time/speed isn't important. Misery reduction is really the aim.

So this leaves me with a Saturday ride and two turbo sessions. The Saturday ride is whatever I want to do at the time, typically 80-160km generally as hilly as I can make it. I could always tweak these a bit to suit training requirements. On Saturdays when I'm busy I get up early and do a 2hr+ turbo session. Again, I could change this if I can come up with something better. Often this is a simulation of a big climb like Ventoux, which I do in a big gear to keep my cadence down (70-ish) as that seems more realistic (my turbo claims to be able to simulate 16% gradients, but I don't believe it).

What I've been doing on the turbo is just an hour of something hard. Over/under FTP intervals or 3x10min sweet spot. I figure I get enough Z2 endurance tootling when I'm outside. Also, getting on the turbo for an hour and not flogging myself feels like it's defeating the object.

I work in the office a couple of days a week, and I could always commute (relatively flat 10km each way) to get some miles in but as I actually dislike doing that, I know I'd be unlikely to stick at it. But I could give it a go.

With the new year coming up, maybe I should switch things around a bit. So, given that I don't have huge latitude to change things - how wrong am I?

I agree with @IrishAl in the main. A couple of additional thoughts.

On your Saturday ride, I'd suggest not worrying about hills - but focus on accumulating time in saddle. Ride most of them at conversational pace (Zone 2).

TRy to make your 2 x Turbo sessions progressive. So for example if you do some 3 minute VO2 intervals one week, try creeping the power up over time, or reducing the rest periods or increasing the 3 mins.

Like Al, I'd suggest adding more rides in if you can, potentially as commute, or even better extended commute.

You could always find a coach - most will do a one-off review and recommend a plan for you.

What is the event?

 

[Dogtrousers]

Thanks @IrishAl @Norry1

Food for thought.

What is the event?

Not an event really. Just me and a couple of friends.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

@Dogtrousers Given your preferences I’d suggest something like

Mon - day off
Tue - VO2 max intervals on turbo. Progress intervals of 3-5 mins in duration, recovery 2-3 mins. Don’t work at fixed percentage of FTP or anything. Do it in resistance mode and go as hard as you can maintain for the duration. It may take one or two goes to find what that is. Fish breathing out of water by end of each interval is good target.
Wed - day off
Thu - Threshold intervals. Progress intervals of around 10 mins in duration, 5 mins recovery. Either do a FTP test to work out intensity to aim at or like VO2 work out what you can maximally sustain for 10 mins. Deep breathing, legs burning by end, glad the 10 mins are up.
Fri - day off
Sat - Long duration low intensity outdoor ride
Sun - Strength Endurance. Low cadence big gear at about 80-90% of your threshold efforts. You want to be targeting 40-60 rpm, as 70 rpm is too high to make much difference. Legs should feel heavy. Like Threshold aim for 10 mins with 5 mins recovery and progress number of intervals. I prefer doing these outside on a shallow (3%) hill as my turbo is rubbish at these low cadences. But yours may be better.

This gives you 4 sessions a week hitting different aspects of your fitness, with enough frequency to progress. Apart from Sat most of these sessions should be doable in about an hour maybe a little more depending on how much warm up and cool-down you prefer.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

A couple hours endurance with wife today. Tomorrow bit of a write off. Got a group audax permanent on Thu. That should get in about 8 hours with a mix of endurance and tempo efforts. Friday I’ll see how the legs are. Options are tempo, VO2 max (unlikely) or strength endurance work or a day off.

Should get back to my normal training schedule next week.

 

[UphillSlowly]

I thought I'd share some thoughts on training so that you can all tell me how wrong and stupid I am and how I'm doing it all wrong.

First of all, the limiting factor is whether I actually enjoy doing something. If I don't, I won't stick at it. So this limits me to my weekend rides plus a couple of in-week one hour turbo sessions, which is what I've been doing.

Second - a target. Most training needs a target. I actually do have one: I'm planning a ride in France in June including a couple of HC climbs (each just over 1000m in just under 20km, with steep bits) . Target is just to be able to do it, time/speed isn't important. Misery reduction is really the aim.

So this leaves me with a Saturday ride and two turbo sessions. The Saturday ride is whatever I want to do at the time, typically 80-160km generally as hilly as I can make it. I could always tweak these a bit to suit training requirements. On Saturdays when I'm busy I get up early and do a 2hr+ turbo session. Again, I could change this if I can come up with something better. Often this is a simulation of a big climb like Ventoux, which I do in a big gear to keep my cadence down (70-ish) as that seems more realistic (my turbo claims to be able to simulate 16% gradients, but I don't believe it).

What I've been doing on the turbo is just an hour of something hard. Over/under FTP intervals or 3x10min sweet spot. I figure I get enough Z2 endurance tootling when I'm outside. Also, getting on the turbo for an hour and not flogging myself feels like it's defeating the object.

I work in the office a couple of days a week, and I could always commute (relatively flat 10km each way) to get some miles in but as I actually dislike doing that, I know I'd be unlikely to stick at it. But I could give it a go.

With the new year coming up, maybe I should switch things around a bit. So, given that I don't have huge latitude to change things - how wrong am I?

I did exactly this in 2023, training for the Maratona, based on 2 outdoor rides a week and 2 turbo sessions. All went a bit wrong as I caught COVID in Italy, but these were my principles in case it helps:
1. Worked on principle of of time in saddle and Training Load (or TSS if you prefer)
2. Adapted a 12 week Wattbike training plan (can send to you or post here) to work our rest weeks and tapering
3. Did mainly Threshold intervals (or similar, eg sweet spot, under overs) on the turbo - in retrospect could have, perhaps should have included VO2 max intervals
4. One of my outdoor rides was usually hilly
5. Increased length of long "Zone 2" ride each week
6. Used a power meter and HR monitor and tried to make sure that 80% of my riding was Zone 2 or below each week and in each training block over all
7. Used zwofactory to build interval workouts, and then https://flux-web.vercel.app/ to ride them - both free
8. Pulled all the data from indoor and outdoor rides into intervals.icu to look at progress, monitor time in power zones, track fitness and use the calendar
9. The intervals.icu forum has got some interesting training threads too

But I reckon you could go out there tomorrow and do the rides you are planning with no problem. Will you enjoy it more if you are fitter? Probably

 

[cyberknight]

Doing the rapha 500, i have broken it down into 2 one hour pacer sessions a day on zwift as the weather is atrocious atm and with a push at the end of the week with a club ride one day of 60+ miles i should make it.
Calves tight today and im halfway to the target with another session tonight