The official TrainerRoad thread

CRAIGO5000

I've just done my first workout now I know my FTP and it was great. Perfectly tuned enough to work me hard but just enough so I didn't feel it was impossible. Gayley: http://www.trainerroad.com/cycling/rides/95192

It's great seeing your heartrate trace on workouts like Gayley as you can keep an eye on HR recovery, intensity etc. It's also good for me as I now know that at threshold, my MaxHR levels off at ~85%. This makes road training interesting in order to pace my outdoor sessions.

I've decided to work through the Intermediate Base I plan but on different days as I need to fit in a club ride on Wednesdays too.

Regarding the curves, I've gotten mine to be less erratic by moving the cadence/speed sensor a little back from the magnet and also turning on the smoothing to 3 secs. It looks and feels much more normal when doing a workout now.

Sad to say, but I actually really look forward to my time on the turbo now!

dw300

Re: The smoothness of the power graph .. I find that at medium to low power it's very easy to maintain within a Watt or two of the desired power, and at higher power the graph will fluctuate more, by maybe 10-15W (with the smoothing turned off). So it's a good way to know what power level you can easily operate at without too much mashing, or if your cadence might be a little lower than it could be if you're into the whole smooth pedalling thing. I guess its another little progress measuring feature.

It seems that a lot of people have signed up now that the weather has turned cold. I'd be interested to know how many people are using TR from the forum. It should give us an idea of how indoor training during the winter compares to outdoor .. and I could also get an idea of how much commission TMHNET and I are due! Just kidding Nate! :P

jezzpalmer

dw300 wrote:

JGSI wrote:

ExigeR wrote:

Signed up to TR yesterday and did the 20min test tonight.

I can see im going to be in a lot of pain over the coming weeks lol.

FTP 332, thought i was going to pass out :-/

http://www.trainerroad.com/cycling/rides/95051

Good grief man, if those figures are genuine what are you wasting time on a forum for?

At 140lbs! Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu ..

Quite, 5.2W/Kg! Get out there and win some stuff!
I'm a 39 Y/O lightweight but only a measly ~3.4 W/Kg in comparison, I was reasonably happy with 3.4 until I read that post.

I've ordered my ANT+ Stick, will hopefully be here in a day or so and will get signed up for TR.
I have a Powertap but I don't like using it on the turbo (waste of a good tyre), but I'll attempt to calibrate my old Tacx Flow to it and use Virtual Power.

bigdaveskinnytyre

And I thought I was the forum powerhouse at 4.4

As has been said by others Exige, get out there and win stuff!

ExigeR

Thanks guys, i didn't post the test to make myself look good as i didn't know if the results were good or bad, i guess i'm not as bad as i thought i was lol.

As for racing it's something i have never thought about, wouldn't even know where to start.

jamienorton

So i just redid the 8 min test after doing it wrong on Saturday, and have been given an FTP of 295, started a bit too hard on the first interval, and had to reel myself back in, got cramp during the rest period than felt good on the second interval. Wasn't expecting to get that high, should make the following workouts 'interesting'. http://www.trainerroad.com/cycling/rides/95513

manxshred

Well, I have entered the Marmotte. So now I need to drop weight and get a lot fitter!!

TrainerRoad is going to be used a lot!

badly_dubbed

well id have hope my usb stick got delivered today but it hasnt hopefully tomorrow....

bit crap outside so im just gonna do TINT without TR....

itll still hurt....

dw300

ExigeR .. you're going to need an agent .. 8)

I too was happy to be in the mid 3s, so that's a good reality check .. never be satisfied with your progress if you want to get better!

ExigeR

If you want to sponsor a Pinarello Dogma i will give it a go

Anyway i have a question i plan to do the 7 week TR plan and see how things go.

So tomorrow night will be the "Palmer"

http://www.trainerroad.com/cycling/rides/95157

After the warm up set is it best to hit the 10 interval zones or go all out on each one.

I did say i was new to this :-/

jezzpalmer

Looking at the profile I'd say the idea is to hit the zones (which are set above your FTP), if you go all out for 2 mins I can't see that 1 min is going to be long enough recovery. Certainly not for 10 reps.
HIIT would usually be the inverse 30 sec or 1 min all out effort, with 3 mins recovery.

dw300

FWIW .. Revolver is meant to be (15) flat out 1 minute intervals with a 1 minute rest in between (its got instructions which say 'all out' AFAICR.) The target line is set to about 140%, which it isn't on the one you showed, so I'd guess that you're meant to match the target line.

ExigeR

Ok that makes sense, thanks for the help.

jgsi

jezzpalmer wrote:

Looking at the profile I'd say the idea is to hit the zones (which are set above your FTP), if you go all out for 2 mins I can't see that 1 min is going to be long enough recovery. Certainly not for 10 reps.
HIIT would usually be the inverse 30 sec or 1 min all out effort, with 3 mins recovery.

Palmer is a just over threshold workout... not 'all out'

The RBIs are methinks deliberately short to test you...
if after 7 your power drops off by 10%, then you know you have completed the optimum number of reps.. there is a table in Allen and Coggan to give you an idea of that optimum number of reps.

markp80

ExigeR wrote:

FTP 332, thought i was going to pass out :-/

http://www.trainerroad.com/cycling/rides/95051

- I managed 330 once, it remains my 5 sec record :oops:
Welcome to the club, and everyone else who joined recently!

Anyway, back from a week's holiday, and back in the house of fun. Returned to start week 5 of the Early Base. Started with Carillon the other night, then Tallac last night -
http://www.trainerroad.com/cycling/rides/95793

Tallac was tough I thought, 3 x 15 min intervals with a 1 min recovery between. I was gritting my teeth by the end. That''s another one in the bank though! TBH, I was quite pleased I managed these ok after about a 10 day lay-off.

My laptop reset itself about 5 mins after I completed the workout for no reason that I can see (OT, it wasn't the software, I think there's a hardware fault developing). I'm pleased it didn't do that 5 mins before I had finished, that would have upset me.

Anyway, nice to be back!
MarkP

markp80

bigdaveskinnytyre wrote:

And I thought I was the forum powerhouse at 4.4

jamienorton wrote:

So i just redid the 8 min test after doing it wrong on Saturday, and have been given an FTP of 295

- with all these scores there's a few of us on here need to up our game I think! That FTP of 200 and 2.0 W/kg will be mine! :twisted:

MarkP

CRAIGO5000

So as a complete demoraliser, what kind of W/KG values do the pro's range from?

jgsi

CRAIGO5000 wrote:

So as a complete demoraliser, what kind of W/KG values do the pro's range from?

Referring to my 'power bible' from Allen and Coggan

Domestic pro FTP range from 5.15 to 5.87
the international pro from 5.69 up
male

nick89e

CRAIGO5000 wrote:

So as a complete demoraliser, what kind of W/KG values do the pro's range from?

I just signed up for TrainerRoad on Friday and have begun the Base training plan, I absolutely love it but find it painful.

I also found a good graph that shows what sort of W/KG different riders put out, I am pretty happy with 3.69 at the moment but look forward to seeing what I can improve this to in a month or twos time.

http://www.cyclingtips.com.au/2009/07/just-how-good-are-these-guys/

daverollo

CRAIGO5000 wrote:

So as a complete demoraliser, what kind of W/KG values do the pro's range from?

Some more information re power to weight ratio and W/Kg here

http://www.flammerouge.je/content/3_fac ... /climb.htm

CRAIGO5000

The magic number I look for when conducting tests with my athletes is 4.0w/kg. We are all dedicated amateurs, training to the best of our ability, fitting the sport we love around the rest of our family and life in general. If you can hit four watts per kilo at your threshold you're doing good

Right. That's my target. If I can train all Winter and up my game from 3.2W/KG, then I'll be happy and will probably try some racing.

markp80

CRAIGO5000 wrote:

The magic number I look for when conducting tests with my athletes is 4.0w/kg. We are all dedicated amateurs, training to the best of our ability, fitting the sport we love around the rest of our family and life in general. If you can hit four watts per kilo at your threshold you're doing good

Right. That's my target. If I can train all Winter and up my game from 3.2W/KG, then I'll be happy and will probably try some racing.

- I've got a bit to go then. As I said in another thread, I'm trying to achieve 2.0 by the end of the year....

MarkP

Roubaixsl3

When it comes to repeating the 20 minute FTP test, is it necessary to dial in what FTP you think you can achieve, or should you just leave it at your current FTP and put in the max effort irrespective of the target Watts being displayed during the test ?. Does the software calculate your new FTP irrespective of what you enter before the test ?.

t.m.h.n.e.t

Roubaixsl3 wrote:

When it comes to repeating the 20 minute FTP test, is it necessary to dial in what FTP you think you can achieve, or should you just leave it at your current FTP and put in the max effort irrespective of the target Watts being displayed during the test ?. Does the software calculate your new FTP irrespective of what you enter before the test ?.

Work at your current but obviously go as hard as you can maintain. TR will calculate any change.

badly_dubbed

If you don't know current, do you just go all out?

kleinstroker

My first foray into TrainerRoad today and I really enjoyed it, I wasn't sure which one to pick so went the 1hr split test at link. I've no idea what the numbers mean but I assume they are supposed to be used as a basis for improvement.

http://www.trainerroad.com/cycling/rides/96147

Impressed that my top speed was 40 something mph even if it was only for a few seconds!! Any tips on what workouts would push me a little more?

Cheers

t.m.h.n.e.t

badly_dubbed wrote:

If you don't know current, do you just go all out?

Just use the default 200 to scale the warmup/warmdown and work hard for 20mins.

CRAIGO5000

kleinstroker wrote:

Any tips on what workouts would push me a little more?

Cheers

I was in this predicament last week. I thought about devising my own plan using the TR workouts but thought it best to do the 20min FTP test, follow the intermediate Base 1 for 6 weeks and then do the 20min FTP test again to look for improvements. If you read over all the info regarding that plan, you'll find it gives you a great spread of training which targets all the usual specifics over 6 weeks.

I'm skipping tonights club run and going to do a TR session. I've then got a 90 min turbo session over the weekend.

kleinstroker

CRAIGO5000 wrote:

I was in this predicament last week. I thought about devising my own plan using the TR workouts but thought it best to do the 20min FTP test, follow the intermediate Base 1 for 6 weeks and then do the 20min FTP test again to look for improvements. If you read over all the info regarding that plan, you'll find it gives you a great spread of training which targets all the usual specifics over 6 weeks.

I'm skipping tonights club run and going to do a TR session. I've then got a 90 min turbo session over the weekend.

Thanks Craig..

that's exactly what I was looking for, didn't realise there was so much info on the site.

jamienorton

Quick question, atm Im planning on doing the base plan I, thats 3 TR sessions a week, plus id like to get a long Sunday ride in when possible, and also do two 30 min strength training sessions a week, does this sound at all sustainable? or am i going to burn out. Maybe with a week off, or an easy week every 6 weeks.