What’s the lowest temperatures you’ll ride in?

I was told on Saturday by SWMBO to bring the turbo in from the shed due to the cold, and the likely cost of running the electric heater out in the shed!

Drew the line at -6 this morning. Although roads looked fine and there were some hardy souls biking to work. Train strike might have been a motivator.

daniel_b said:

I even drew the line this morning at getting on the turbo in the garage, as it was minus 5.6 in there. Did the school run instead to earn some brownie points, and will carry it out at the end of the day instead.

I've always looked on in jealousy of people with permanent set-ups.
Quite happy to continue setting up in the living room now. 😉

daniel_b said:

I even drew the line this morning at getting on the turbo in the garage, as it was minus 5.6 in there. Did the school run instead to earn some brownie points, and will carry it out at the end of the day instead.

I started off in the garage this morning with a down jacket on top of thermal jersey and short sleeved jersey. Also gloves.

Doesn't take long to warm up mind and start peeling off the layers.

Remote control socket for the fan an absolute must.

-10 on the 30 min ride to work this morning. Nearly all off-road and was actually great fun. First time I've worn double winter tights. Everything but the toes and eyelashes was pretty warm.

I had thick undergloves and some mountaineering gloves. I also made sure my hands starter warm by putting my gloves on before leaving the house.

Does anyone on here who turbo trains, struggle in freezing conditions?

Both sessions this week, VO2 and Threshold, I have properly struggled to complete properly, which is not what I am used to.

As of last weekend, after a recovery week, TrainerRoad gave me a new higher FTP (My highest to date in fact) but it was only a bump of 4 watts, a 1.6% increase.

I'm normally on the bike every other day, be it turbo or commute, but this week, due to life getting in the way, I had the threshold on Monday early, and then Thursday after work for the VO2 - don't like carrying them out at this time, but -6 in the morning, and meetings around lunchtime meant I had no choice.

A few options I can see.

The new FTP is too high - though I don't think it's likely, as if I had dropped the workout intensity by 2% I do not honestly think that would have made the difference.

I'm fatigued - again, seems unlikely, as I've come off a proper rest week - normally I try and do endurance rides towards the top end of the range, or choose ones with sprints in them, do them without any fans, or spend the entire duration in the drops.
That week, the first one of 5 rides I chose a harder recovery workout, then I had 40 miles of commute 2 days later, but definitely took it easy, then the following two turbo sessions were properly gentle workouts, nothing tough.

Another possibility is that I am coming down with something, or simply not 100%.
I'm sleeping mostly ok, when my cat allows, not feeling hugely tired or anything, though the night before last I did feel pretty cold overnight, but that might simply be because it was bl00dy cold.

No 4 is that maybe the bitterly cold conditions are not gelling too well with me, and I'm not operating at my best in it - although I have trained for many years, and must have trained in -5 temperatures before, it won't have been for several years, and I can't honestly recall how I did.

Another possibility, that I dearly hope is not the case, is that I've hit a plateau if you like, as I guess it's the highest value I have had, not somewhere my body has been before as it were.
I've almost been training week in week out for some 16 or so months, and didn't have any plans to stop, and lose momentum for all of the gains so far.
I have heard of training fatigue, but am not really sure what it feels like - could potentially be that I suppose.
About 6 weeks ago I had a dip in form and motivation, but then without changing anything I suddenly felt really energised, and aced the next few weeks worth of workouts.

Open to suggestions if anyone has any - have a 90 minute sweetspot effort tomorrow, but it will still be minus conditions I believe at 6am

Will go in with a positive outlook though, and simply see how it goes.

I couldn't picture myself doing z4+ turbo sessions in anything close to subzero conditions with my fussy lungs, in previous winters I've set up the turbo each time in the kitchen, but last winter I moved the bedroom furniture around and it sits there at least semi-ready to go on the floor to my side of the bed (furthest away from door, near the window).

The heating doesn't usually go on as high or as often in the bedroom as the other rooms, so it's not usually a sauna in there, but there's been the odd exception this past week... And then it makes "racey" efforts a struggle.

And for something different, Zwift Insider Tiny Races on Saturdays, quartet of back to back races that start every 15mins. 0900/1500/2100 GMT. Great for z4/5 for approx 7-13mins and recovering to go again.
https://zwiftinsider.com/tiny-race-week-21/

-8 Garmin as I rode in today, think that's more likely -4. Cold, but not unbearable. The ride home was worse with freezing fog in the park meaning I had to ride slower as I couldn't see very much and had to have my lights pointing almost straight down to avoid glare from my own lights. Couldn't see what the temperature was but the moisture certainly made it feel worse. Is it 14'C forecast for Monday, that's going to be a welcome change, shame about the rain.

Not even an hour a day average on the bike over a week isn't going to result in over training. Yoy'd need to be well over double that unless every effort was flat out.

As far as efficiency, I suspect you have confused cool with brassic!

Enjoy you bike shops today!

I disagree with some of the above, you can easily overtrain on very little time on the bike but it depends on the rest of your life. It's about total stress, your hormones don't know the difference between a hard VO2 max session, a tough work deadline and caring and worrying for a family member, etc...

Overtraining is simply consistent training above what you can recover from and your recovery depends on sleep, diet, lifestyle, stress, work, etc...

daniel_b said:

...
No agreed, but the Saturday was the final workout of that 3 week block that was meant to be hard, but then I maybe should not have gone straight into a not that easy 2 hour endurance session afterwards.

Yeah, I'd have had a z2 ride on the Sunday, if anything in that case.

I managed my commute at - 6° last week. I've invested in a pair of studded tyres since the December freeze, which I have fitted to my cyclocross bike, and a new pair of gloves. My hands were cold for about 10 minutes then warmed up again. My feet were surprisingly warm considering I was wearing a normal pair of cotton mix socks under a cheap pair of MTB shoes. The benefit of the shoes is that they're made of plastic with little ventilation. My commute is 11 miles on a mix of urban roads and country lanes. Although the roads were mostly dry there was, and still is, ice where water is running off the fields, this got worse over the week as vehicles spread the ice along the road as slush where it has re-frozen to create patches of lumpy ice. The tyres have been great at keeping me the right way up, but they are hard work, the ride is taking about 20% longer than usual, and my commuter is not exactly a speed machine.

I should have bought some studded tyres

We had (positive) double figures today in Edinburgh...