Winter Cycling Plan Official Thread (Page 11)

You should have something under your front tire to lift up the front of the bike and basically level it.  I use a phone book.  They sell blocks specifically for that but they cost $$$ and they keep dropping phone books off at my door regardless of my want of them so I put them to good use.

Is anyone else using erg files on their Computrainers?  I've got two questions:

1) When the workout calls for 80%-85%, have you been programing, 80, 82.5, or 85?

2) Does riding based on erg files make us mentally lazy?  I realize we're doing the work, but I wonder if it would be harder if we were pedaling against a constant resistance so we had to concentrate on maintaining the power.

I use the midpoint 82.5 and round up, usually to the nearest multiple of 5.

Yes, it makes me mentally lazy but allows to watch 2 & 1/2 men and not focus on the pain in my legs.

I do something similar. I use a spreadsheet where I enter the critical power (~ FTP) and compute the resulting power of each percentage from 50 to 120, five to a line. Looking at the spreadsheet, or a printout of it, I can see the power at both 80% and 85%. I just pick a power level divisible by 5 from within that range. I decide on which value to use from the range depending on how I'm feeling, lower if I'm tired and higher when feeling good. This lets me easily recompute the levels for a different critical power.

I use a old weight lifting book, its the right height.

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Week3 Q3 done this morning. Boy it was tough, but I stuck to it.

Really enjoying the training so far - usually afterwards though! Thanks Jorge

Ok week 2 testing done
20 min 220wt
5 min   255wt

Is that spreadsheet still on the blog?
Joe

day off today, we have a babysitter and are going out tonight.  It's a fundraiser, live band, catered dinner, dancing and a open bar.

All I can think about is what not to drink to ruin Sundays long ride.  Two years ago it woudl have been how much can I drink

Hello gang,

Week # 4 is up! http://jorgepbmcoaching.blogspot.com/

I'll catch up with questions soon; train hard!

Yes, we'll text again on week 6, 10 and 14

Yes, I don't think I test very good.  My numbers came out about the same as last years.  However I rode longer and harder routes all summer.  I find myslef haveing to pull back alot to stay in the zones from last year.  On the optional ride I was crusing along and felt fine.

I did change up to the big ring and tried to push harder during the 20 minute test and that sucked.  On the 5 minute one I stayed in my middle ring and kept my cadeance up in the mid to higher 80 range.  I think with 85 seconds left I had to shift up and harder. 


I am going down in about 30 minutes to do the 2 hour ride I was suppose to do on Sunday.  I am thinking higer cadenace for the first hour and then going to the big ring and dropping the cadeance to simulate hills fo the last hour.

I have to drag the tv with the DVD player downstairs and pop in The Distance to watch today.

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Doing field time trial style testing is tough for sure and more so when done indoors. It is not only physically and mentally challenging but also it takes practice and experience to go all out for a given time without blowing up.

In general a good way to go about testing is to go a bit easier for the 1st 25ish% of the test, then settle onto the pace for 50ish% and finish strong going harder the last 25ish% of the test.

For instance, for a 20 min all out test based on what you have done on training you should have an estimate of what you should expect to do; knowing that start the 1st 5 min a bit below that then the next 10 min settle into pace you estimated (compared to RPE to dial in) and the last 5 min go harder. Ideally you would start as hard as you could sustaing for 20 min and stay there for the entire time however that's rarely the case.

What you don't want is to start too hard and then fade towards the end of the test or completely fail to complete the time; that's indicative that you went too hard.

Finally keep this in mind - fitness isn't static but rather active and it increases/decreases based on how well you maintain it. Just because I could do 280 watts for 20 min during the summer when I was the fittest, it doesn't mean I'll be able to do the same this time of the year. If I remained training consistently I might be able to generate the same or even more power but sice I've been inconsistent with training due to the off-season I most likely will be below the 280w mark when I test this wednesday. How much, well I'll find out! 

it is ok and desirable to finish with something in the tank as opposed to completely spent because that means you are pushing hard enough to get fitter but not all out that you have trouble recovering for next training sessions. Hence if you finish and feel you could have done maybe an extra interval that sounds about right, OTOH if you complete training and you feel like you could do the entire workout all over again then yes, you are tarining too easy. The opposite would be to finish each session completely shelled, that would mean you are training too hard and/or not recoverying on time.

Hi Jorge,

If I find the workouts with short intervals much easier than long ones. Is that a sign of anything ? for example I found last week's Q2 (20' at 85%) harder than Q1 or Q3 which were shorter but more intense (110%).

Is it wrong to use the computrainer to set a pre-programmed load and trying to hold that for the 20 min test. For example, if last time I did 230w, and I think I could do more, is it wrong to set the computrainer to say 240 and try to hold on for 20 min  ?

Thanks again


I wish my swim practices were this well structured :-)


Edited by marcag 2009-11-23 3:03 PM

It's been a bit of a rocky start for me so far. I'm a full week behind now but I hope believe I can stick to the schedule from here on. Week 3, Q1 done.

It could mean you struggle mentally with longer sets, the load (intensity) is a bit high or you lack specific fitness at that intensity. Try again and if you struggle again set the power a bit lower though if it is only lack of specific fitness each week should be a bit better.



If you are doing a 20 min max test then yes it is wrong to use a pre-set load for the session as you'll be limiting your ability to produce the best possible effort. If you are doing a regular 20 min sessions (i.e. 20 min @ 85% of FTP) then it will work as long as you choose an intensity representative of how you feel on that day; IOW if that day you feel a bit tired go for the lower end or if feeling good and rested go for the higher end, that way you'll always train at the right intensity.

Thanks for the quick responses.

With this program you have managed to consolidate fun and pain.

Not an easy combo.

Do you have similar miracles for swimming and running ? Do you do a similar measure,train based on measure, re-measure approach to those sports ?

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That's good to know! As long as the athlete trust the program and they do the work they will see results. Of course tracking those results over time is what will keep'em motivated to begin with.

To answer your questions yes we pretty much do the same for all 3 sports though in this case the only one I am offering for free on BT is thos program