The official TrainerRoad thread

john1967 · March 2016

While other riders have been playing a video game ive been using Trainer Road.Just completed 6 weeks of the 40k TT specialty plan and have gained 10% on my FTP :-)

nigeldoyle · March 2016

john1967 wrote:

While other riders have been playing a video game ive been using Trainer Road.Just completed 6 weeks of the 40k TT specialty plan and have gained 10% on my FTP :-)

Well done. Mine's gone from 266 to 306 in the 4 months I've been following their training plans. The biggest and quickest increase I've ever had.

Ditto about the podcasts. Very informative.

robu · March 2016

I'm just finishing Sweet Spot Base II and wondering what to do next.

I'm not a racer, but I like to enjoy my rides and part of that comes with being able to ride faster for longer. The only target (and it's not really a target) is that I'm going riding in Mallorca for four days at the end of October and I'd like not to be the last one up the hills and to minimise the suffering (ha!) and have the stamina to keep at it for four consecutive days of 70+ mile mountainous rides.

After a couple of years of riding intermittently (once a week or fortnight in the winter; two or three times a week in the summer), this year since January I've knuckled down to Sweet Spot Base I and II, which has been 4 turbo sessions a week, supplemented by a 40-50 mile ride at a good pace at the weekend to take my indoors and outdoors total to around 110-120 miles a week. It's been great. I've loved it. I've lost weight, felt fitter and faster, and my FTP has risen by 15%.

But what now? Another six (or 12) week period of base training to further increase my aerobic conditioning? Or do I start one of the build programmes? If yes, which one? Or is late October too far away to start a build programme now?

Any suggestions very welcome. Thanks.

JackPozzi · March 2016

New trainerroad vs old build?

OK guessing this is an oddly specific question but has anyone found something similar? I have a powerbeam turbo but use vector pedals with it as the turbo overreads hugely and I prefer all my data from turbo and road to be consistent. So I set TR up to control the resistence on the turbo using the pedal data when in ERG mode. I downloaded the newest TR build which is very different and in some ways much better, but it doesn't seem to handle the combination of power pedals and power turbo so well, when in ERG mode it was generally sitting at a power about 30 watts below target.

Luckily I still have the old version of TR on my laptop so I abandoned the workout and switched back to that, has anyone found something similar? And ideally found a cure for it please??

JackPozzi · March 2016

robu wrote:

I'm just finishing Sweet Spot Base II and wondering what to do next.

I'm not a racer, but I like to enjoy my rides and part of that comes with being able to ride faster for longer. The only target (and it's not really a target) is that I'm going riding in Mallorca for four days at the end of October and I'd like not to be the last one up the hills and to minimise the suffering (ha!) and have the stamina to keep at it for four consecutive days of 70+ mile mountainous rides.

After a couple of years of riding intermittently (once a week or fortnight in the winter; two or three times a week in the summer), this year since January I've knuckled down to Sweet Spot Base I and II, which has been 4 turbo sessions a week, supplemented by a 40-50 mile ride at a good pace at the weekend to take my indoors and outdoors total to around 110-120 miles a week. It's been great. I've loved it. I've lost weight, felt fitter and faster, and my FTP has risen by 15%.

But what now? Another six (or 12) week period of base training to further increase my aerobic conditioning? Or do I start one of the build programmes? If yes, which one? Or is late October too far away to start a build programme now?

Any suggestions very welcome. Thanks.

I'd be tempted to work back from October, so you'd be finishing one of the speciality (maybe century or half century?) plans just before you go away, then a build phase plan (general?), before that and a base plan before that. So once you know when that needs to start, fill in the space up til then working through the phases

btwright1987 · April 2016

Hi all,
Signed up today and got an FTP of 305, if the numbers are over by around 30 watts as is suggested then that sounds about right, I'm 29, 162 pounds and quite fit.

I plan to use trainer road for time trials.

Any suggestions on workouts for sustained suffering?

nigeldoyle · April 2016

btwright1987 wrote:

Hi all,
Signed up today and got an FTP of 305, if the numbers are over by around 30 watts as is suggested then that sounds about right, I'm 29, 162 pounds and quite fit.

I plan to use trainer road for time trials.

Any suggestions on workouts for sustained suffering?

An FTP of 305 is very fit. I'm 306. Are you testing with a power meter?

Check out their training plans. They have a TT specific plan. That however would normally be preceded by a base and build phase.

btwright1987 · April 2016

nigeldoyle wrote:

btwright1987 wrote:

Hi all,
Signed up today and got an FTP of 305, if the numbers are over by around 30 watts as is suggested then that sounds about right, I'm 29, 162 pounds and quite fit.

I plan to use trainer road for time trials.

Any suggestions on workouts for sustained suffering?

An FTP of 305 is very fit. I'm 306. Are you testing with a power meter?

Check out their training plans. They have a TT specific plan. That however would normally be preceded by a base and build phase.

I'm using the virtual power, I think 305'is a fair bit higher than if i were using a power meter because of this, still as long as I have a number to try and improve I'm happy enough.

Yeah I was looking at the plans, the local time trial season has already started but my first race won't be until May, so I wasn't sure about following a set plan.

I'll probably just skip a TR session a week when racing and see how that goes.

johnnybike · April 2016

I am not sure a FTP measures fitness directly - it measures how much power you can lay down for 20 minutes and projects it to what you might produce in an hour. Of course you need to be fit to have a high FTP but not sure the 2 things exactly equate.

My key TTs this year are August/Sept/October and I will be doing 10s from May onwards (evening league)
I am just starting Sustained Power Build Mid-Volume but at week 5 for 4 weeks then doing the 40K TT plan which is 8 weeks but the last 2 are easing off and you wil lbe reday to race well when half way through that plan so 8 weeks from now.

dinyull · April 2016

How much is a different tyre likely to affect virtual power?

I've just bought a new set of wheels, and I'm relegating the old rear to turbo duty with a new and different tyre to what I've been using. Hadn't really given it any though, but it's just struck me that the rolling resistance will be different?!

Am I going to have to retest?

gcwebbyuk · April 2016

Id recommend a trainer tyre as they will last much longer. But probably worth a retest anyway just to be sure

johnnybike · May 2016

Is there a tougher workout than Jacks? 4 * 8 mins at 105% FTP with 1 minute rest
Destroys me every time

norvernrob · May 2016

johnnybike wrote:

Is there a tougher workout than Jacks? 4 * 8 mins at 105% FTP with 1 minute rest
Destroys me every time

Just reading that name again makes me wince! The sustained power build did wonders for me last year, shame I had 3 months off the bike towards the end of the year (new baby and a half gutted house!) and I'm back to square one.

dinyull · May 2016

Don't say that! I have Jacks and Dicks coming up in the next few weeks and I cooked my legs the other night on bird. Don't think I helped myself having a fairly fast ride the day before.

Think I need to cut out/down my midweek rides if I'm going to complete this sustained power build.

johnnybike · May 2016

It would be hard to fit much good outside work into the sustained plan, mid or high volume and still do the quality workouts. It would be better to swap the Saturday or Sunday workouts for hard outdoor rides.

dinyull · May 2016

Yeah, that's what I'm finding. Circumstance gave me the chance to get out a couple of times this week and the weather has been so nice it's been impossible to turn down. Was out on Monday and Tuesday for hard effort rides and then really struggled through Bird on Wednesday.

norvernrob · May 2016

Dinyull wrote:

Don't say that! I have Jacks and Dicks coming up in the next few weeks and I cooked my legs the other night on bird. Don't think I helped myself having a fairly fast ride the day before.

Think I need to cut out/down my midweek rides if I'm going to complete this sustained power build.

Don't go into those two fatigued or you'll never finish them. I was only doing the workouts in the week, then a 50+ mile ride on a Sunday substituted whatever that one would have been.

madden2011 · May 2016

Signed up to TR a couple of months ago, just been doing the odd workout here and there when the weather isn't good after work

By far one of the hardest workouts I've done is Sonora barely any time to recover from one interval to the next. 6 intervals at varying lengths all above FTP with 2mins recovery

Will definitely be using TR plans when the winter rolls around again.

markp80 · May 2016

I had a go at the Sufferfest - The Power Station tonight. First time I'd tried it and it was a bit different. Lots of low cadence intervals simulating steep climbs, with some great footage. The profile was spot on against the video.
I hope TR is able to continue to provide workouts for the Sufferfest videos now that they're less like complementary products and more like competitors.

MarkP

markp80 · May 2016

OK, tonight I had a go at Sufferfest Nine Hammers - an interesting workout!
But - has anyone noticed how bad the timing of the TrainerRoad workout is to the video? It starts off ok, but slowly the TR workout loses time, so that after 7 hammers it's about 25 secs behind the video. Then, just at the start of the 8th hammer, it pulls itself back to spot on, only to lose a few secs by the end of the workout.
It's not a computer issue - lack of processor power usually manifests itself as a jerky video, not the workout lagging behind. It just seems to be badly synched to the video. Very weird...

MarkP

shazzz · June 2016

Did Jacks last night. Was dreading it in advance, but have done Mount Alyeska and Stevens in the last two weeks so just kept telling myself I could do it. Tough, and I had a couple of wobbly moments, but got through it OK in the end.

Nick Kanwetz · June 2016

MarkP80 wrote:

OK, tonight I had a go at Sufferfest Nine Hammers - an interesting workout!
But - has anyone noticed how bad the timing of the TrainerRoad workout is to the video? It starts off ok, but slowly the TR workout loses time, so that after 7 hammers it's about 25 secs behind the video. Then, just at the start of the 8th hammer, it pulls itself back to spot on, only to lose a few secs by the end of the workout.
It's not a computer issue - lack of processor power usually manifests itself as a jerky video, not the workout lagging behind. It just seems to be badly synched to the video. Very weird...

MarkP

Definitely sounds like something's up! Have you tried using an alternative video player, or are you still just dropping the videos into TR?

You may have already had the chance to take a look at this, but if you haven't the following link will take you to our Help Center where we make a few suggestions to get the highest video quality and best user experience possible: Getting the best video performance

If you're not running the vids in an alternative player, let's have you give it a shot to see if the timing gets worked out. If you're still having issues (or are already in the alt. video player), skip around to various parts of the video to see if the interval timing is off. If it's still off it may be that the video has different timing — but this is extremely rare. In which case, let's definitely hit up our support crew at support@trainerroad.com and we'll see what's up.

Cheers mate! Talk to you soon. :-)

Community Manager at TrainerRoad — Cycling's Most Effective Training Tool

gcwebbyuk · June 2016

I've started to run the sufferfest videos through handbrake and reduce the overall quality down so that my lower power laptop can handle them without stuttering.

markp80 · June 2016

gcwebbyuk wrote:

I've started to run the sufferfest videos through handbrake and reduce the overall quality down so that my lower power laptop can handle them without stuttering.

- that's the funny thing though. The video wasn't stuttering at all. In fact, it was the video that was getting ahead of the TR workout, rather than lagging behind it, all of which leads me to believe it's not an issue with my hardware/video performance.

Nick Kanwetz wrote:

If you're not running the vids in an alternative player, let's have you give it a shot to see if the timing gets worked out. If you're still having issues (or are already in the alt. video player), skip around to various parts of the video to see if the interval timing is off.

- I'll have a look at that Nick, thanks.

As I say, I don't see this with any other Sufferfest video I drop in, only Nine Hammers. And it was very odd how at one point, two thirds of the way through, it suddenly resynchronsied itself.

Anyway, I'll have another mess around with it.

Cheers,
MarkP

Nick Kanwetz · June 2016

MarkP80 wrote:

gcwebbyuk wrote:

I've started to run the sufferfest videos through handbrake and reduce the overall quality down so that my lower power laptop can handle them without stuttering.

- that's the funny thing though. The video wasn't stuttering at all. In fact, it was the video that was getting ahead of the TR workout, rather than lagging behind it, all of which leads me to believe it's not an issue with my hardware/video performance.

Nick Kanwetz wrote:

If you're not running the vids in an alternative player, let's have you give it a shot to see if the timing gets worked out. If you're still having issues (or are already in the alt. video player), skip around to various parts of the video to see if the interval timing is off.

- I'll have a look at that Nick, thanks.

As I say, I don't see this with any other Sufferfest video I drop in, only Nine Hammers. And it was very odd how at one point, two thirds of the way through, it suddenly resynchronsied itself.

Anyway, I'll have another mess around with it.

Cheers,
MarkP

Course man. If that's the case, I think the actual file might be the problem here. :-(

Community Manager at TrainerRoad — Cycling's Most Effective Training Tool

dinyull · June 2016

I'm coming to the end of Sustained Power Build and looking for some advice.

I'm not racing so not too fussed about a Specialty Phase, was thinking about starting a General Power Build or would I be better starting a base phase before going into another build phase?

Or should I still do the specialty phase?

Nick Kanwetz · June 2016

Dinyull wrote:

I'm coming to the end of Sustained Power Build and looking for some advice.

I'm not racing so not too fussed about a Specialty Phase, was thinking about starting a General Power Build or would I be better starting a base phase before going into another build phase?

Or should I still do the specialty phase?

Hi,

Sounds like your base is certainly nice and built out by now, so I think we're good on the front. And while I'm not a USAC certified coach, I've been able to get a pretty good understanding of the thought behind what the different phases are meant to accomplish. That said, I think it'll still be wise to follow your build with a specialty phase — maybe just a particular area that you want to fine tune, and something that just sparks your interest.

You can think about the three phases as a total plan in this regard; So although it's broken into sections (base,build,specialty), your overall goal is to increase your fitness to a peak. No matter what, you won't be able to sustain that newly achieved peak level of fitness that you'll be getting towards the end of the specialty phase. But the idea is to have built your fitness in a way that'll leave you stronger for your next training season.

If you don't feel like narrowing your specialty brick down to a specific type of event, we have a plan that's specifically designed for individuals either trying to maintain their 'sharpness', or who don't have a goal event in mind but want to stay fit. So if you don't want to narrow things down, the 'Maintenance' blocks within the 'Enthusiast' plans is going to be your ticket my friend. :-)

Hope this helps!

Community Manager at TrainerRoad — Cycling's Most Effective Training Tool

dinyull · June 2016

Spot on, cheers.

iso2000 · June 2016

I have been following the sweet spot training plan for two weeks now. One of the workouts suggested one legged drills where one foot is unclipped and the other does all of the work. Being right handed (and therefore right footed), I was shocked at how hard it was to cycle with my right leg only. I just couldn't achieve a smooth stroke and found this much easier with my left leg. It made me wonder if I need to adjust the cleat on my right shoe.

I use a wahoo kickr so don't have the luxury of independent power meters but will be concentrating on a smooth pedalling style on BOTH legs in the coming weeks.

Any one else tried these drills?

madden2011 · June 2016

Decided to give Solomon's a go today, longest TR workout I've done and its deceptively hard. Short but hard intervals - 6x3min intervals at 115% FTP at around 100rpm

Had to knock the intensity down to 95% for the last 4 2min intervals at 130% FTP, after a fairly hard 60 odd miles on the road yesterday my legs were finding it hard going and the burn had kicked in.

Even though I only do a workout here and there on TR I do feel a bit of benefit from using it so far.

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