Winter Cycling Plan Official Thread (Page 4)

Did my 1st session today, I tweaked the session a bit as I am still racing cyclocross and the needs are a tad different. A few things to remember and some random thoughts:

1) get a fan and a towel
2) get something to hydrate while riding, plain water is ok as long as you fuel properly before riding.
3) this thing hurt, but it is what I call a fun pain
4) you ipod is your best friend; you might be able to watch some show/movies but if you can focus on it beyond the warm up/cool down or some of the steady intervals you are sandbagging
5) for extra motivation hit universalsports.com or triathlon.org for cool triathlon, cycling and running videos.
6) when done make sure to re-fuel properly; this is a must if you want to recover properly and be ready for your next session within 48hrs. You will struggle as the sessions get tougher and fatigue accumulates if you don't take care of this.
7) if you are training by HRM remember the shortest/hardest the interval the tougher it will be for your HR to catch up, hence gauge effort by RPE primarily.
8) for those trainig with power try to hit your power goal but let your body (RPE) dictate the session; if feeling good go after the top end if feeling tired go for the lower end.

Have fun!

1. Doing the short intervals poses a problem in that the constant switching of  gears takes a few seconds to get the right amount of resistance for my HR to spike up close to the max level being asked for in the workout.
2. I had to Shift by 3 or 4 gears in order to increase the resistance enough to avoid bouncing at the faster cadence/HR spike.  Shifting back down to easy gear was as big of a problem.
3. I felt like my cadence was too slow at the harder gear during the rest portion of the intervals.
4. Resistance unit for the rollers seem to be required in order to avoid having to shift so much. 

1. Doing the short intervals poses a problem in that the constant switching of  gears takes a few seconds to get the right amount of resistance for my HR to spike up close to the max level being asked for in the workout. >>> when doing hard sets it is normal for your HR to lag behind hence gauge your intensity by RPE as well 
2. I had to Shift by 3 or 4 gears in order to increase the resistance enough to avoid bouncing at the faster cadence/HR spike.  Shifting back down to easy gear was as big of a problem. >>> in order to achieve the desired intensity basically do what you need to do, if you have to increase your resistance by increasing your gearing do so, of course this is why it is challeging to do so on rollers vs trainer/outdoors
3. I felt like my cadence was too slow at the harder gear during the rest portion of the intervals. >>> cadence + torque = power. That is if your cadence goes down your torque goes up and viceversa. Gearing and topography for instance have more to do with what cadence you can sustain for a given power output rather than trying to force a given cadence. I know, I know, we all have heard popular myths about we should all strive to ride a 'x' cadence but the reality is that ignoring torque in the equation make it a flawed statement. You should just strive achieve the intensity goal in whatever gearing feels comfortable, cadence will work itself out. if you are used to spin it will be normal to feel your cadence is too slow, though what matters is to do the work.
4. Resistance unit for the rollers seem to be required in order to avoid having to shift so much. >>> are there rollers that offer this? It would help for sure...

Hitting Q1 tonight!

Q2 today...Wowsa!  Now I understand or at least starting to understand why watching TV is not a good idea.

Well I survived Q1.  Not sure I follow the whole thing right but I did it. 

You guys with power meter graphs and such are confusing me