Cycling program v4.0 2011-2012 (Page 6)

I completed 3 rides this week and instead of doing the optional one I'll be racing cyclocross tomorrow so that should do the trick.

How are the rest of you coming along?

I'm really enjoying this program.  Did the 3 scheduled workouts for the week and then did a hilly 40 miler outside today.  It was one of those perfect morning rides.  

Can't wait for the pain to continue Monday.

Cranking out sustained power is much harder than any road ride.  Todays 25/30/25 was intense, but i've found if I can relax and lose the tension, I can sustain  the power just long enough.  It's a struggle  but workouts on the edge are the best workouts.  Mind, body and soul are ready for week 2.

Best regards.

Is the optional one always on Sunday?  I got the Tuesday/Thursday/Sunday workouts in...missed Saturday.  So far so good.  Couldn't get as hard of a workout in for the long ride today as I would have wanted to, but it was nice to be outside!

The other two workouts were not necessarily hard, but I was definitely sweating my butt off.  Good stuff.  Looking forward to this week.

Knowing what cadence produces the best results for you can be beneficial.  I find it better to maintain the same cadence instead of bouncing around all the time.  

How so? My cadence is pretty set around 90 +-10. As far as just spinning or knowing the number, I have had cadence computers before and my cadence is pretty consistent so I didn't really care anymore. And just for tracking trainer time I was just going to use time instead of some calculated mile number.

But this is different, and I will get one if it helps keep me at a place, or can be used for intensity levels. I realize it may not be as good as a power meter, but numbers do help consistency... at least for me.

Week 1 done of the program along with my half mary program.  SRD today and looking forward to week 2!

I actually think your cadence swing of +-10 is pretty high.  "My" sweet spot is somewhere around 87 rpms, and if I'm above 92-93 then I'm spinning more, and if I'm on the lower end of the 80's then I'm typically pushing a lot more.  I know that when I do some tougher 100%+ CP efforts during the program, or doing the 20min test, I'll simply have to push a lower cadence with bigger watts because it lets me push with a lower HR than if I tried to do the same at close to 90 rpms.

It's all personal, but knowing your cadence is a good thing because over time you can see what differences lower/higher cadences can have on your power and HR.  And for me, I'm actually quite specific about where I'll keep my cadence depending on the workout.

Thanks... when I say +-10, I mean during regular riding. Don't care much for over 100 and it has to be pretty steep to be under 80.I meant over the years it has not changed much

But I didn't think about cadence on a trainer and staying in a certain spot. I could see the value in that. I do pay attention to what I'm doing when I'm on a spin bike.

because of the format to make the program up-loadable to your BT log, I end up setting the workouts on Mon-Wed-Fri and Sat but you can pretty much start the plan on a Tuesday and make it Tue-Thur-Sat-Sun kinda thing.

In the end you want to tweak this to match your schedule. As long as you have around 24hrs in between hard workouts you should be ok. When in doubt, try different days and if you are having trouble completing some workouts you can figure it if having 24hrs between certain workouts is goo and for others you might need more.

i.e. I can recover faster from hard/short sessions but it takes me a few days to recover from long/steady workouts.

So I am trying to decide on which way to go. Garmin speed/usb and use trainer road, or KK power computer. Each has something different... now I'm trying to decide which will be better for program.

Jorge, I know you said you may be working with Trainerroad, and so might BT. What other options are available to download the program too and use it to do the workouts and track history? Intergating with tracking and programs might be better to go with a the garmin speed sensor.

Without question, you should get the Garmin speed sensor and USB ANT+ stick. This combination allows you to do everything the KK power computer does and more.

And yes, TrainerRoad is excellent software for tracking your power on the KK trainer.  It is free during the beta - I'm not sure how much it will cost upon release.

Hey All,

There has been a lot of discussion about using speed to train by power on a trainer.  I had previously developed a spreadsheet for the V2 and V3 plans to use with the Kurt Kinetics Road trainer.  To provide another option for those who wish to use this method I modified my spreadsheet to the V4 plan and have attached it for reference. Note from online research I found two instances where the CycleOps Fluid 2 had the same power curve as the KKR based on the power/speed data from Powertap PM's. So I feel comfortable saying that the COF2 trainer can also be used with this spreadsheet.

There is some information provided in the Info tab that the spreadsheet opens with.  If you use it and have any questions feel free to send me a PM or email about it. 

Hey Jorge and everyone else! I am jumping into this plan a week later then everyone else so I will play behind by a week for the duration of the program. I will be training using HR as I do not have a PM to play with.

Jorge I wanted to ask your opinion on this as I am combining this program with the BarryP run program and working in some swim sessions as well. I am doing a run focus this winter, but still plan on working on my bike as well. So what I have planned is to do the cycling days on my easy/short run days, then take the higher more intense run days off from cycling so this week would like a little something like this:

M -Run 3 easy/cycle

T- Run 6 tempo/swim

W-Run 3 easy/cycle

R-Run 6 /swim

F-Run 3 easy/cycle

Sa-cycle

S-Run/swim

I don't think I will have time to fit in a 4th ride each week, or really need to. How will subtracting one workout each week effect my bike, are there certain workouts you would advise to skipping if one had to by skipped each week?

I guess I meant, which ride is the optional ride of the week? I looked at the program notes and it mentioned skipping the optional ride, but it does not list the optional ride for the week?

Right so, I think your question sort of already got answered.  It really is okay to have a large range in cadence if that's what works for you.  You may find it beneficial to find that "sweet spot" for longer distance races and use your gearing to change the power output.  For example, when you approach a hill, you know you will require more power to go up, but you also know that your ideal cadence is 90, so you shift down to keep that optimal cadence and therefore power output consistent.

Hope that's not too confusing.