TexMac

Been on timeout' taking care of parents and some commutes here and there. Now i'll have to be on a trainer and din't realize how hard a trainer ride can be if you haven't been on one for 5 months! Looking to try the 4 week ftp booster zwift workout and target a road race in September. Current ftp 230

furiousferret

20 hours, 785 TSS last week. Only 4 hours @ z3 + which I'd like to be higher, but if we're including z2 its my biggest week ever (excluding z1). I've always found time in or over tempo to be my best marker of fitness.

This week will be more of the same, but with rain and some other obligations I probably won't get as much commuting in.

jacksonhandy

Last couple of weeks have been focused Trainerroad stuff during the week, then a long-ish (60mi) group ride Saturday, finishing up with solo do whatever 2hr minimum to keep me sane Sundays.

Went with the "A" group, advertised as Cat 3 type pace on Saturday. Strong dudes. Discovered my brake was rubbing when I got home, which added to the suck.

Week was 8.75 hrs. 655 TSS. The weekend smash fests are fun, but they can hurt.

burnthesheep

If rain holds off it's going to be another long ride this Saturday. Didn't expect that. Just how the schedule works out. Well, if it rains, I'll just take the cross bike instead and do some gravel and greenway stuff.

Soon it will be time to start another training plan cycle. I really want to hit 300 at 20min by the end of the year. I think I can find 20w by then.

More overall power is always good, but I've got to work on being able to surge and then back off and hold it at threshold for a few minutes and repeat. Kind of like hit it at 320 for 2min then hold 280 for 6 to 8 min after that. Be able to do that maybe 3x in a ride.

wktmeow

I find that this sort of repeatability comes to me from working on the depth of my fitness a lot more than anything. When I was doing lots of 2x20s and sweet spot I definitely lacked it, but with more steady, focused z2 it's now a strength of mine. For example on an off season team ride this year, one of our newer cat 3s beat me by about 30-60 seconds on a 20 min climb where I was going pretty close to my limit, but on the 2nd long climb I was able to repeat that effort while he was going considerably slower. By the 3rd climb he was cooked, and I was still repeating the same effort. Part of that may have been fueling, too, but I definitely feel like I can reach in the bag and pull out more efforts when I need to this year. My 20 min power hasn't really gone up by much, but this added depth has me doing much better in road races and on long group rides.

furiousferret

Do a search for 'Ronnestad Intervals'. A Norwegian group put out a study where short high intensity intervals were very effective in increasing both VO2 and FTP. I did it for a cycle and had my best gains ever in both FTP and repeat ability. Three sets to 30s on, 15s off for 10 minutes two days a week.

Found a good (recent) article on it;

Do Short Intervals Produce Superior Threshold Power?

burnthesheep

Cool, will check it out.

I was coming off of doing AOMM last week along with about 75 other miles also that week. I checked the TSS that week and it was 650 that week. I've never done that much. Always around 400 or so. And most of it that week was Z2.

mollusk

I've got you beat. Rides that took me 1:40 when I was in training now take me 2:10 on a good day. I have gotten really slow and I don't care.

And I no longer go out for rides when it is raining. I used to do that because sometimes you have to race in the rain and training in the rain made sense.

And this afternoon I was walking my MIL's dog while she is out of town and I saw the Hipp ride go by. Only six riders. WTF?

TexMac

Good to know coz that's what i'm doing on the 4 week ftp booster. Lots of 45,20,10 seconds sprints wit tempo

aplcr0331

https://sparecycles.blog/

He's been talking about Ronnestad Intervals for a while. At the bottom of his latest blog post he has workout files for the prescribed intervals according to the research. I modified it in the TrainerRoad workout builder and have done it a few times. It's an interesting protocol.

aaronmcd

Worked til midnight on Monday and got sick. Slept 12 hours. Took Tuesday off work and off the bike but did housework. Slept 12 hours. Back in the office for a bit today skimming bikeforums. Probably shouldn't and won't ride. I guess I'm taking a recovery week. Wife and I were planning on doing some big hikes over the holiday weekend, now I'll probably have to stuff in some bike riding as well.

furiousferret

I'm doing a lot better at the Tuesday World's ride; 3 years ago at some point I would be dropped. This year I'm solidly in the 2nd pack, and close to the lead on the 1st lap, the descents kill me though but I'm getting better. Back in the day, I'd be excited to finish in the 2nd pack but my expectations are now to at least go into the first descent in the front pack so I'm still not happy.

To bastardize a Greg Lemond quote, You never become content, you just go faster.

One thing that's really starting to agitate me is when we are going uphill, every week there's a guy or two that comes up and fights for your wheel (or the guy in front of you) and then gets dropped 30 seconds later causing you to pass him and cover 2-5 bike lengths. I'm at a point now where I want to yell at them so bad because its obvious whats going to happen, but I'm not going to be that guy. I've also done that in the past too.

hubcyclist

my menu has been sweet spot and more sweet spot, although it's getting more uncomfortable due to my basement getting warmer, gotta set up the AC, although it's a crime I'm doing anything inside today, it's around 80 and sunny. Hopefully I can break my trainerroad OCD and just go out and do some long ride this weekend

burnthesheep

Didn't have much time at lunch today so did what was said, 1min on and 1min off. I can see how that would be effective.

That trainer won't take a fast power change faster than maybe a minute to adjust itself.

I managed 12min of "work" during the workout. Did most of them at 350w, tossed in a few at 400w at the end to put a skewer in my ass and call the workout done for the day.

mollusk

May I suggest that you mix in one day per week of intervals with all of that sweet spot? You have to both push and pull on your FTP training.

kensuf

Late May Hipp rides always used to have a winnowed field. The college kids have left for the summer and the Cat1's are on summer tour for racing. But there's now an "anti-hipp" ride because a few guys got annoyed with being dropped all the time. It effectively split the group.

wktmeow

Late evening 2x20 @ ~160bpm big gear (50-60 RPM) on the trainer while watching Dragon Ball Z. So much filler in this show, so I don't need to pay full attention, and I never got a chance to watch past the Cell saga and beyond as a kid, so it's sort of perfect for trainer rides.

First one averaged 275w, with my heart rate actually being a bit lower than usual (first effort usually has HR lagging for about 10 minutes, I try to hold power steady such that HR levels out by a little after half way through first effort, a bit sooner for subsequent efforts.) Ended up at ~162 bpm and didn't cross 160 until 15 minutes in, so that tells me I'm getting fitter. Second effort hit 160bpm about 7 mins in. Not sure what the average was because Strava just says 'Avg undefined' for trainer rides when I highlight an effort, and I don't have any other analysis software installed at the moment. Had to use the power curve tab to find out what I did for the first one. Opted to do an optional 10 minute bonus effort, but went a bit harder and HR was too high, especially for the last minute or so.

hubcyclist

I'm doing a trainerroad sweet spot plan at the moment, prior I had done several weeks of build plans with vo2. I'm just doing a "base" block as I gear up for CX season. As far as FTP training, I've had better success with the sweet spot approach over the fall and winter than I have had with the build stuff with vo2 included, for some reason.

Ttoc6

Been absent from here for a while. To sum it all up. A lot of mtb riding, and some getting used to my new road bike. Did one really cool climb up to Brian's Head ski resort. Quite the climb. Cold and wet at time and the climb just kept on going. topped out over 10.5k iirc. Just awesome.

Planning torace a crit tomorrow in a Cat 3 only field, so excited how I can do if I don't die from allergy induced asthma.

TMonk

15' SST before and after the Chili's race ride today, 3.5 total. Slayed it on the ride.
4-5 of z2 tomorrow
~3 or so of MTB on Monday

gettin it!!!

hubcyclist

Ttoc6

Still sick but I'm doped up on allergy medicine and had one more day with my brother before he left for home so I managed to make it up to powder mountain with him to hit some pretty cool trails up there. One called paper airplane that I'll post a pic of when he gets a chance to send me the picture.

Had planned to jjump back in to intervals and such next week but with this illness going on I'm gonna hold off until I feel better.

burnthesheep

TexMac

Good to know.

First week of the 4 week ftp booster workout and i can tell a difference. This is also first week being on a trainer after about 9 months riding outside and that took a week to get used to an indoor trainer. On Saturday with our regular 3 hr fast ride I wasn't struggling holding on wheels and i could manage some pulls here and there though i did get popped just mental not redlined. Legs felt stronger though HR was still the same. Going to add 10 watts to my ftp this week. Started at 230W

furiousferret

Glad you're okay, those kit costs add up though