Jshort’s bike thread

jShort

2018 Fantasy Football Toilet Bowl Lead Technician
Team MTBNJ Halter's
I wanted to get out for a ride today, but woke up to the sound of rain and motivation was washed away. It’s a scheduled off day and this would have been a bonus outside ride. I would love to sneak out right now, but I’m stuck on a 12-5 conference call. I’d normally blow it off but its been planned for months, was supposed to be a face to face and take place in Cupertino, but due to the current situation, we’re on a Webex.

@Santapez is right, I am using trainerroad. I like the structure and ability to plan ahead. It will map out your upcoming weeks and show the TSS load. You can pick what days are hard, moderate, or off.
When I first started using it, they had a bunch of different plans to pick from. All the plans have 3 phases - a Base, Build, and then a speciality phase. And for each phase you can pick low, mid, or high volume.
This is what sold me over Zwift because I felt like they, for lack of a better phrase, had their shit together way more than Zwift’s training programs.
And to Steve’s point now they have an option called “plan builder” where you plug in your race dates, assign them an A, B, or C status and it will map out a specific plan which will work towards getting you ready for each event.
I was using that but have since just moved to the normal base sweet spot base program. The reason I scrapped that for now is due to all of the uncertainty with race dates. Even with removing Mayhem and Rattling Creek, it still had me at a build phase which is mixes in a lot of VO2 max intervals and TBH, I’m just not that interested in doing that right now. Doing hard interval without knowing when i may get out and race makes the chances of me burning out very high.
So that’s my “secret” training plan.
I’ll also add that trainerroad has an awesome podcast that is put out weekly. I really recommend anyone who is a interested in getting faster to give it a listen. They talk about nutrition, prep, training, bikes, race strategy, etc, etc. Listening to them definitely influenced me to race Branchbrook.

@pooriggy ... hells yeahs. I am ready for some Thursday night rides. The social distancing really makes you want to do what you cant, and this is high on the list. I actually got a text from JJ and when for a road ride with him and @mbruno on Saturday. It was great to get out on the road for a group ride. And good to ride with these guys. And almost what @Pearl is saying, I’m trying to ride like nothing is really going on. I know its impossible, but I don’t want just lose all the base and fitness I’ve been working on, so really its just about maintenance at this point.
The structure gives me some comfort too. It’s something to focus on other than the obvious.

I was hoping to have a GoPro video from the ride that didn’t happen this morning, but I’ll take one on the next ride.
 

seanrunnette

Brain Damaged Ray Romano
Team MTBNJ Halter's
had their shit together way more than Zwift’s training programs.
1000% this. Zwift's training blocks are good, but TRs are great. And easier to implement.
Can you used the TR plan outside as well?
BTW, getting dropped is social distancing.
 

Norm

Mayor McCheese
Team MTBNJ Halter's
I may be an old salty dog but when it comes down to it, all these training plans come down to the same basic principles. Add all the salt & pepper you want there are pretty much only a few different kinds of workouts. Everything else is just window dressing on the same old meat loaf.

In the end, whatever keeps you going is the best one. Zwift plus Rosie O'Donnell reruns? Great. TrainerRoad and A Tribe Called Quest? Also great.
 

Pearl

THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING
the problem I have is, what imma do with this fitness? granted anything before august is just prep for the main goal, but if nothing is on the calendar until may, do I "restart" a complete block or just finish out the one I'm on, it being over in april/may.... I guess I should write something on my end.
 

pooriggy

Well-Known Member
Team MTBNJ Halter's
This.
Go with flow. Why build a race engine if you ain't racing? When all this gets sorted out and races get added to the calendar then work toward a goal. For now, reset goals and deal the hand your dealt. Ok, I'm out of catchphrases
 

Santapez

Well-Known Member
Team MTBNJ Halter's
1000% this. Zwift's training blocks are good, but TRs are great. And easier to implement.
Can you used the TR plan outside as well?
BTW, getting dropped is social distancing.

TR has an option for each ride. Inside or Outside. If you choose outside it changes to a simpler/modified workout and automatically sends to your Wahoo/Garmin. It's really that easy. My problem is where do I do that outside and not deal with lights, etc. Warm weather issues..

I may be an old salty dog but when it comes down to it, all these training plans come down to the same basic principles. Add all the salt & pepper you want there are pretty much only a few different kinds of workouts. Everything else is just window dressing on the same old meat loaf.

In the end, whatever keeps you going is the best one. Zwift plus Rosie O'Donnell reruns? Great. TrainerRoad and A Tribe Called Quest? Also great.

I think that's what I like about TR. When it comes down to it, they really just have a simple plan and you follow it. They don't make it out to be some crazy customized plan. Compared to Zwift however it's much more apparent scheduling wise what workouts you have, and when you should do them.

Their calendar is now very similar to TrainingPeaks so you can see what you have upcoming for a 6-8 week block and re-arrange according to your schedule.

Personally I just left my custom training plan (ending at Mayhem as an A race) and jumped into a build plan. Now Jeremy has me thinking I should have base right now, because CX is my main goal. I think there's a TON of people now in this same boat.
 

Pearl

THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING
This.
Go with flow. Why build a race engine if you ain't racing? When all this gets sorted out and races get added to the calendar then work toward a goal. For now, reset goals and deal the hand your dealt. Ok, I'm out of catchphrases
I guess were so used to having these dates and work backwards from them, how do you “prepare” for something that isn’t even ready? It’s really strange. I’m happy to pull the plug and turn the intensity down, but how long? There’s some events in April/May, but it sounds like they may be even out of the question with the way “the curve” is going.

IM LOST
 

Patrick

Overthinking the draft from the basement already
Staff member
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Feel empowered even in uncertain times.
 

jShort

2018 Fantasy Football Toilet Bowl Lead Technician
Team MTBNJ Halter's
This weekend i got out on Friday and did a quick MTB to my local spot and back. It’s about as good as its going to get for the foreseeable future, so I enjoyed it.

Pic of Bike post ride cleaning:
C7B45928-5310-47B9-B527-7929CCA28BF8.jpeg


On Sunday I was back on the trainer and decided to use resistance mode as opposed to using ERG mode. I paired my power meter pedals and used the power from them instead of the the Kickr. I figure that if I’m going to do some outside workouts, then I should get used to holding a certain watt. ERG mode makes it super simple and neat, but really when you’re using ERG mode, your power is still all over the map. If you don’t believe me set up you Garmin and look at the power on there while simultaneously using ERG mode. 250 watts on the Kickr app will be steady but the numbers on the Garmin will be all over the place.

And since I have the time and freedom to play around with things like this I decided to give it a go. Here is a screen shot of my workout:

A40CD3A8-6A1E-4641-9FDE-A4B71A1B6726.jpeg


You can see the warm up and cool down were done in ERG so they are perfect (Power is Yellow Line, Red is HR), but the intervals themselves were done in resistance with the pedals paired. Right now I kind of suck, but I don’t feel like I got a better or worse workout then if i was using ERG.



What I did notice was that I stopped watching TV while pedaling. I’ll take this as a plus. Having the trainer take all my attention without making me want to pedal into a wall is a positive.

Another thing I noticed was that stareing at the power output was much less effective then just trying to go by feel. Trying to hold a steady x number of watts without looking at the screen yielded similar if not better results that looking at the screen and constantly adjusting the force on the pedals.

This will be something I continue to practice because I think being able to hold a consistent power, regardless of terrain is a valuable skill. Mountain biking can be tough because there are so many steep pitches that you need to use some explosive power, but there are plenty of other times, usually later in races, when you are just trying to stay consistent and maintain. This is the scenario I think this skill will shine.



@Pearl, I don’t want to keep pushing the TrainerRoad thing, but i mentioned they have a great podcast. They actually covered your exact question on the last episode. Quick note about the last podcast, normally they are in a relatively professional studio, but due to covid, they are all remote and in a family feud looking window (If viewing on YouTube. Here is the link, https://youtu.be/mkSYblq2ZIw and if you want to go right to the pertinent part go to 9 minutes in.

I don’t know if I fully agree with what they say but I do get the logic they are using. On the same topic, i have listened to a few professional coaches thoughts and they generally say to slow it down. There is no way to train for an event when you don’t know if it will happen, or when it will, if it does. The common theme seems be - stay away from the real intense stuff. The VO2 max workouts and other hard intervals that go on for over 90 minutes can have a negative impact on your immune system which is not what you want right now.

So for me like i said before I am still doing workouts. I adjusted my schedule and am falling back to a base phase ish type of training where sweet spot is about as intense as it gets.

I feel like these types of workouts maintain my fitness and at the same time, I would be able to start building if/when this time wraps up.

Again, this is just me and I like the structured workouts to give me something to focus on.



Another thing I watched was an Instagram live video with Kate Courtney and Dr Kelly Starrett. He is a mobility coach and went over a lot of stretching specifically for cyclists and I found it really interesting. This is something that we can do for 10-15 minutes before bed and the benefits are plenty. From improving flexibility, strength through a wide range of motions, and being able to relax (Which is huge right now). I checked out his site thereadystate.com and they have a free 2 week trial. I think I’ll sign up and give it a shot for 2 weeks. It’s a $15 a month service which is annoying, but if I like it, I’ll find something else to cancel.



And I’ll leave with this.

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This is the first step of a mini flow / pump track for my kids in my yard. I spent about 2 hours clearing out leaves, deadfall, sticker bushes, etc. I’m not sure I’m I’ll be able to make it work, but the area was all deadfall and not being used at all. The worst case scenario is maybe I can level it a bit, and put in a mini fire pit and have a cool usable little spot in the yard.







Also - I was able to get a GoPro video of my MTB ride I Friday and its not really worth sharing, but once i edit it a little I post it here because why the hell not.
 
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jShort

2018 Fantasy Football Toilet Bowl Lead Technician
Team MTBNJ Halter's
You convinced me to switch from Build to Base. I think the logic makes sense.

I did a ramp test to level set and just started a mid volume base block. Not the plan builder. I think I said that, right?

Have you seen improvements since using TR?
 

Santapez

Well-Known Member
Team MTBNJ Halter's
I did a ramp test to level set and just started a mid volume base block. Not the plan builder. I think I said that, right?

Have you seen improvements since using TR?

Yes, but I've also been off/on with consistency for awhile. Consistent the past few months which seems to be the biggest improvement I've seen/felt. Drop-off in that since Monster CX race down in VA due to engagement/wedding/honeymoon being 3 weeks of craziness. At a minimum in the past TR was good to just keep from losing fitness in the shitty/cold months. I do the yearly renewal and one of the things I like about TR is their belief that you should be grandfathered in on pricing if you stuck with them.

I did the plan builder up to Monster CX as a B race, Mayhem as an A race. I rather liked how it set it all up leading up to those two. It did a ramp test right after Monster CX and was pleased with the results. I started to use that # this week on a Build but I'm going to just start off with a Base & new ramp test tonight. I'm actually expecting a little bit of a drop as the only riding I've really done was on the honeymoon and don't want to overshoot.

I'm still slow, but less slow...

One thing I found interesting that they were discussing on their podcast is how when they get faster, they don't FEEL faster. Which I can't say I totally disagree with. Going through the plan and sticking with it I noticed I was tired and worn out, but able to do the workouts and make increases in power. They're in a good position to look at their historical data of their users and they have said the #1 thing that leads to improvement is being consistent.
 

MadisonDan

Well-Known Member
Team MTBNJ Halter's
You can see the warm up and cool down were done in ERG so they are perfect (Power is Yellow Line, Red is HR), but the intervals themselves were done in resistance with the pedals paired.
Do you use 3 second Power Smoothing (I think that's what it's called) in resistance mode? I found without any smoothing, the numbers could be all over the place. The only time I found this to be a problem was with short burst intervals, like 5-10 seconds.
 

jShort

2018 Fantasy Football Toilet Bowl Lead Technician
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Do you use 3 second Power Smoothing (I think that's what it's called) in resistance mode? I found without any smoothing, the numbers could be all over the place. The only time I found this to be a problem was with short burst intervals, like 5-10 seconds.

There are 2 settings on the Garmin for this. I do use the 3 sec power average. Otherwise it’s crazy and almost impossible to use. Kind of like looking at your cars real time MPG.
There is also another setting called Torque Effect Power Smooth. Also on the Garmin. And I set that to On as well.

There is no option in TrainerRoad to smooth the power. Even when you pair the PM, there is an options menu but smoothing is not In there.


I’m pretty sure this is just the way it is. Maybe because I’ve always primarily been a MTBr, I never practiced a smooth pedal stroke.
 

MadisonDan

Well-Known Member
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Pretty sure TR has it, but I was using Virtual Power at the time. Maybe with a PM that option isn't there....
 

jShort

2018 Fantasy Football Toilet Bowl Lead Technician
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Pretty sure TR has it, but I was using Virtual Power at the time. Maybe with a PM that option isn't there....

vVirtual power is basically a power cal type of service and not very accurate.
 
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