Trainer Road Spring Challenge (Page 9)

Is the spring challenge over? I thought it went through June? Are folks still competing in the spring challenge?? If so its testing time this week, right?

Decided to try the 8 minute test tonight instead of the 20  min test I did the last two times.  Felt pretty good overall, I think I gave it everything I had this time.  I received a new FTP of 287  (previous was 265).  I'm down a few lbs to 169, so my new W/kg is 3.74 (previous was 3.40).

So if my public math is correct, that's a 10% increase.

I don't feel like adding up all the TSS's right now though.

Anyone else test yet??

Wow, DJ... pretty impressive. I was hoping with such good numbers to start you would not improve that much.

I had a brain fart and this weeks planning sucked. I was going to test last night, but forgot I had a monthly committment right after work. Today I have to leave right after work to go to the mountains for the wife's Tough Mudder. Can't get on the bike till Sunday. Maybe I'll test, maybe I will just wait till July for a final tally. 3 more weeks to get some hard work in. Next week sucks too... going to have to do some commuting. 7x12s on nights... ouch.

I did pick up my packet though for Tripple Bypass. 123 miles, 11K feet. I'm stoked!

Dood Great work!!!  that is awesome!!! You are making huge improvements this spring/summer

I have not been on the trainer in a while, had a couple races with some decent results and another race next weekend.

Keep up the good work guys!!!

Thanks guys!  Powerman, was your race this weekend? How did you do?

Rudy -- your Rev3 race sounded CRAZY!  Awesome job too in those conditions!  You should frame that helmet!

I had a mini-sprint this weekend that went pretty well.  Didn't win, but met all my time/pace goals AND more importantly, I didn't get chicked for the first time ever! LOL

Anyway this TR challenge has really helped and I want to thank you for starting it!  Its been fun and my cycling is much better than it was a few months ago.  I just gotta keep it up and also get a real power meter soon.

That's great guys. The Spring challenge is about over. Not sure how much time I will get in. Some here and there. Needed to go long yesterday but it was windy. So I stayed in the city and made a nice 45 mile loop in the foot hills. Got in about 4500ft. I can feel I'm getting stronger. I need to go do some hill repeats in a canyon we have here. Getting ready for my next event. That one isn't until July 15th then 3 weeks till my first race.

So I will get some workouts in here and there being back on shift. Probably won't rack up much points because I will be getting out more. But the challenge has really helped and I will do a final to see how we all made out. We will definitely get a Fall and Winter one going and I am really looking forward to doing some specific work after race season. Not sure how it is going to go next year, but it will probably be a bike focus.

Did HHNF last night on the new FTP.  One word: OUCH!

I have not had a lot of time. I started looking at it and I wanted to do it.

Looks great. I want to watch the rest when I have time. Realy good info.

Too cool. I've been trying to schedule.... we have the Grand son this week, but I am off for a week. I will test at the end of the week. Have not been hitting it as strong as I wanted, but sometimes life wins.

We have a huge forest fire that has blown up in our back yard. Air quality is pretty bad. On my commute home yesterday the winds shifted and I was gettin ash in my eyes. Thankfully that did not last long. Everything is hosed around here and hotter than ever. I might have to stay indoors this week.

any of you guys on Strava???

I am on it under my name

I'm sure that was it! haha no worries.  Let's all pick a day next week and do the final test.  Is it just the 3 of us left?  How about Nate and Rachel -- you guys still in the challenge?  Anyone else?

You found me!  I'm on there under my name as well... which would be Dave Pratt if you don't want to look in my signature line

I think KOM sniping is going to become my new hobby on Saturday/Sunday mornings...

i find it a great way to do out door intervals since i am not on the trainer right now.  We did make strava rules though for the group rides.

When in group rides we discuss which segments we will interval, we make it understood that if you do not want to participate, we will wait at the end of the segment, no worries.  Attacks and town line sprints in between intervals are fine. If you get dropped at a non segment, sorry for your luck, lol.

When i ride solo, i will map my ride around segments that i wanna hit and allow for recovery between. it actually works pretty well.

OK dudes (and dudette) -- the spring challenge is OVER!  Time to post results!

I took the final 8 minute test today.  Man it was a challenge just to hang on!

But I was still able to make a slight improvement with a NEW FTP of 294.

So here are my final results over the course of the 3 months.

Starting FTP (April 3): 234 = 2.92 W/kg

May 3: 265 = 3.40 W/kg

June 6: 287 = 3.73 W/kg

July 2: 294 = 3.84 W/kg

%FTP increase = 25.6%

W/kg% increase: 31.5%

Total TSS: 2125

Whatcha got?

Don't worry, I saw. I will have to do mine Thursday morning... it's cooler then.

No time to rest up, I needs to pile it on these couple of weeks. I went out on my last test to do 20 watts more... that did not work out so well. I'm going to go for just a repeat and see where I can go from there. Nerver a fan of admitting defeat, but I am pretty comfortable saying I do not see a 25% jump.

You rock Dave! You put up huge munbers! You must have been sandbagging coming off the couch.

Well regardless of what my numbers are.. TR sure works for me. Keeps me going, keeps me focused, I do not dread the trainer. I like it a lot... and yes I want improvement. I always rode bikes, but like you, just rode. And I have racked up a ton of miles in the last 20 years. But I wanted something to get me off the couch and I picked tris because I have never done any organized training either. I wanted to get into a program... so here I am. Not sure of my plans next year, but I think I am going to focus on the bike. Train on TR over the Winter and do some epic stuff. Maybe some multi day rides.

On another note, I noticed I have 1400 miles this year. Nothing crazy. But these next two months are going to be big and should put me over TDF miles... 2200. I also looked and so far have racked up 50,000 feet of climbing. So with half the year gone, I think I am going to shoot for 3000 miles and 100K feet. That should be a good year.

npearson99 - 2012-07-04 9:27 PM You guys are awesome. Way to improve. I'm just starting to get back training consistently. I got food poisoning on father's then sick the next week. There's a cool Duathlon series here in Reno so that's keeping me from just coding all day. I've had a 30 watt improvement this month, so that's great!

Dude, that blows... uh, literally. Glad you are better. Can't say enough about Tr. You guys are great. I hope this goes where you want for you. I know I'm in. I can tell you I'm done for the Summer, but come Fall and Winter I want to do another on and try out your team stuff.