It's killing me but..........

If you have an A road nearby with not much traffic/lights maybe try that? that's what i do when there's ice, not the most scenic route around but beats the trainer/sliding on black ice on country roads.

 

thats not a bad idea but around here we still have issues. I looked out this morning and the thermometer said 0.5 degs and the car was partially iced. I played it safe and found out later a friend rode on the main road close to me at that time and came off on a big patch of ice on a big roundabout. If it looks icy I hope to try and get out a little later in the day when hopefully its been above zero long enough to reduce the ice risk. Worst case I'll get some more good rollers work done but I'd like the hours and calorie burning that goes with it really.

 

BP, I will give my blog write up. It had links to download the app and some instructional videos but I removed them. There is a Slowtwitch link to the discussion that also leads to the original source at the Transitions forum. I got a not from someone at Wahoo saying they are removing the beta app since the word got out. They don't want to get into trouble with Apple.

http://www.thecyclingaddiction.blogspot.com/2015/01/kickr-control-by-power-meter-beta.html

Hopefully they will get the public release out soon.

 

thanks - I googled and found the thread and links and couldnt download it so gave up. Seems like them removing the beta might be the issue. Appreciate the heads-up though as it should be great for getting consistent numbers. Have to be honest though and I dont see much drift on mine - there certainly is a difference in numbers but it doesnt seem to change much. I also spin down regularly all the way through sessions just in case, as its not an issue when you're in a rest period between hard intervals.

I'll keep an eye and might wait a little until its all sorted officially in the latest release. I'm not planning on doing much turbo work for a little while yet as I really need to build my base again gradually and will use rollers for some SST intervals when I need to be indoors.

 

Things for me are slowly starting to ramp upward. CTL was at 75 yesterday to give an idea of where I am at the moment.

I am still on the same program for weekday training using higher intensities Tuesday to Thursday and get about 90 TSS/d out of those by targeting 100%+ of FTP. But it has been the wet weekends that have kept me from hitting the longer saddle time than I wanted at this point. I am getting in some 2 to 3 hour rides, but I would like a bit more volume on the weekends.

My numbers on the critical power curve or MMP are starting to come back up, but I still have a few weeks of ramping up before I start hitting my best numbers. Big thing is my body weight is too much and I can feel that negative impact out on the road. I need to drop 5 pounds to get back my weight before the holidays hit and then need to drop another 5+ pounds.

It sucks to be down on the drops and feel like the top of your legs are hitting your stomach.......ugh.....feeling like a sluggish pig.

 

I hear you about weight - I need to drop 12lbs to be back at Alp weight! Good you are back in the routine again.

CTL hit the heady heights of 53.8 after todays long cold ride. 2hrs 20m at 0 degs C all the way around. Good to be on the road again and likely I can get out tomorrow for the same again, but Wed has snow forecast all day so looks like a rollers day again.

 

Snake Pass from Glossop would be a similar but shorter climb. I used to live on the otherside of Manchester so getting to the fun climbs like Snake Pass, Saddleworth moor and Holme Moss used to make for an all day ride. My favorite hill was Winter Hill upto the TV mast north west of Bolton. There's a gate midway up that you're not supposed to drive past but drive doesn't equal ride, right? You don't need massive climbs to train for the big hills. Low weight and big FTP gets most of the job done. If you can start to feel comfortable and get a good rhythm riding just above threshold on Snake Pass then you'll do good on the big climbs in Nevada like Mt Charleston.

 

You should try riding on the brake hoods and having your legs hit your gut... Perspective.

 

ooops.....

60km freezing my ar5e off today looking at all the ditches filled with frozen puddles. Had my warmest gear on and was still really cold the last hour. Good news is that tomorrows snow seems to have gone from the forecast so hopefully I'll get out for more of the same.

 

60km? I thought you lived in England... p

 

...I do but I train for events mainly in continental Europe

 

Heading off to Amsterdam later this afternoon so decided it was best to hit the rollers today. My idea of easing back into intensity was still stuck in my head so I decided to do a pyramid session again. Feeling some residual fatigue from the last 6 days training so just did 3 reps but on the last one I pushed an extra gear and really hammered it. Could only manage 30 secs as it was 350w and was absolutely blowing but got it done and am now very ready for a day off!

CTL has climbed steadily to 58 now from my low of 40 at Xmas and I can feel the difference. One more big week and then an easy week as I'll be away for several days with work again. Hoping I should get my CTL to about 65 and then it will be tie to start a more structured 'build' period trying one of the TrainerRoad Build plans for 8 weeks or so. Bring it on.....

 

Finally the weather was ok today so I ventured off the A roads in to the peak district to do some L4 intervals in the hills. With my obsession with climbing mountains I sometimes forget about how beautiful it is in the peaks. I'll certainly be trying to get out there more in the next week or so as the weather should stay above freezing.

 

^^ lovely - I keep meaning to take a day and drive up there early for a day in the Peaks, but dont have any routes to follow so end up never trying. Must make more of an effort this year.

 

Nice pic Jon! Is that on the north side of the Peak, over by Saddleworth? If you ever get the chance, take the back road throught the Hope valley through Edale. There's a brute of a climb that brings you out just west of Winnats Pass but the view on the way up (if you're not seeing red and about ready to barf) is worth it. It's one of those climbs that I wish that we had less than 39x25 back in the day - even at 143lb and a health chunk of power above 300 watts at threshold it was a beast of a climb. I think Winnats seemed easier for some reason and that's hardly an easily climb.

 

Well I'm definitely feeling and seeing the difference of riding almost every day this month after my inconsistency last year. Last few steady road rides have seen my HR stay fairly low and steady on longer endurance rides and the recent symptom of high HR levels even on easy rides seems to have gone now. CTL has gone from 31 at Xmas to 63 yesterday in a good steady ramp rate and the last indoor session the weather forced on me showed I was pushing some power much more easily.

It looks like today and perhaps tomorrow will be indoor sessions again due to horrendous winds and heavy rain, and perhaps snow tomorrow, so the rollers will take a hammering again with some threshold work and perhaps just an easy recovery session tomorrow before another solid 4 day block. 3 days away with work next week will be timed nicely for a rest week and then its Build time with a bigger focus on quality threshold work again. Then the challenge will be continuing to build my CTL and keep it at a decent level once work ramps up again as always.

Hope everyone else is sticking at it and seeing progress.

 

My progress so far with training has hit some tough moments outside of training. I hope things settle in and smooth out. Now that my Kickr is being controlled by the power meter it certainly became more difficult, but also more realistic. I am still ramping up incrementally each week as noted on the chart by bumping up the intensity by just a little. The Bests category is blank because I am not quite ramped up to my best power curve numbers from last year. It will probably be a few more weeks ramping up before I am up to those numbers. This slower ramp is definitely needed as I feel like my fitness is coming back slower than I hoped. I had to back off the intensity last night as I barely made it through the 3rd interval. As mentioned I am also started to clean up my calories......ugh.

Still January though and I think I ramped up too fast last year.

 

Had an amazing training ride today. Have been struggling since sunday on the turbo even maintaining 270W and have found it really tough but had the day off yesterday. I was going to do a turbo session today but packed it in after 10 minutes and decided to risk the hail outside and do an hour of SST.
After warming up and a brief hail shower I was gliding along at 300W. It was like I had all of the power but the aching and burning in my legs just wasn't there! It was so easy I thought there might be something wrong with my power meter so re-zeroed it halfway around, but my power numbers seemed the same for PE throughout the rest of the ride and when I got back I had a PB for the circuit even though the wind was pretty bad. I'm still buzzing from the ride, and i'm gonna make sure I get out on the road whenever I can as i find even riding in 1C(that's 34F), hail and blustery winds infinitely more enjoyable than the turbo.

Quote:
Originally Posted by swampy1970 .

Nice pic Jon! Is that on the north side of the Peak, over by Saddleworth?

If you ever get the chance, take the back road throught the Hope valley through Edale. There's a brute of a climb that brings you out just west of Winnats Pass but the view on the way up (if you're not seeing red and about ready to barf) is worth it.

It's one of those climbs that I wish that we had less than 39x25 back in the day - even at 143lb and a health chunk of power above 300 watts at threshold it was a beast of a climb. I think Winnats seemed easier for some reason and that's hardly an easily climb.

You obviously know the peaks well, it's the climb from greenfield over to holmfirth. I've heard the loop going through edale around hope valley is quite nice.

 

I've been over those roads many a time and despite not seeing them since 97, I hope I never forget. Maybe, sometime in the future, I'll have a ride over there again with the lads when I'm back in England...

Edale is heavenly, much better than just quite nice . The climb out of Edale should be done as the view back into the valley is worth it despite the burning legs and lungs. Winnatts Pass is over hyped, barren and bleak - do it once just to say you've done it. The valley in Edale matches a few places that I loved riding through such as Slaidburn and the roads east of the Trough of Bowland and the roads around Anglezarke and Heapey to the north west of Bolton.

 

I was wondering how often do you guys bump up your ftp?
The last 2 days i've had rides with an if of 0.97/98 including warmup and warmdown and had an hour at over 1 IF when i was supposed to be doing SST and it definitely wasn't a max effort. Thought i'd knock it up by 10 and see how it feels.