Road Cycling

UTmaniac

UTmaniac

UTmaniac

Soldato
Joined
9 Nov 2005
Posts
8,637
Location
Southampton
Roady said:
Just going to put this out there as I'm not really sure I know the answer... It's more training related so kinda aiming this at @BennyC as he's been quite quiet on here recently - but equally open to all!

With Zwift, I've used the Tour of Zwift and Racing quite a bit this winter/year to 'get myself back on track', without many/any outside rides around commuting. I've followed no plan (as usual!) and being time pressured have just fitted these rides in whenever I can. The way I've ridden these I've got quite used to riding at threshold for an hour (sometimes more). I know this isn't sustainable or repeatable on the road.

Now the weather is getting a bit better (jinxing it now), the chance of me making one of the local group rides is increasing, what else should I be looking at doing to balance out my training a little - rather than just hammering out threshold rides?

Or is hammering out an hour of threshold fairly good for a fitness perspective, so when I do a couple of hours group riding on the road at tempo I'm not going to be dropped hard! :)
Click to expand...

Only a hunch, but I reckon you might be riding at heart rate threshold Z4 on the turbo with less noticeably less power than outdoors, because you aren't doing turbo rides often enough. Compare the power and heart rates over the best 20mins of my first proper session https://www.strava.com/activities/1939939001/analysis/245/1421 against what I did a month ago https://www.strava.com/activities/2064599849/analysis/138/1324 , an average of +69W for just +7bpm. Just like last winter, it took ~3 weeks of 3+ turbo sessions a week to get my body to adapt to turboing in our kitchen.

Not every turbo session needs to 60mins+ to reap benefits, loads of my sessions since November have been under 45mins and a fair few under 30mins... It's all about what you do in them.

Mix up power interval intensities and duration, giving yourself more recovery time between harder intensities, while climbing the Watopia radio tower climbs or Alpe Du Zwift. Not just at your current FTP, throw in some brutal 1-2min efforts that are 125%+ above FTP. Throw in a 20min power effort session, challenging your current best 20min effort once a week or so. Not only does this approach seem to be helping me improve, it also makes the training sessions far less boring than plodding away up RoadGrandTours' Stelvio Pass.
 

PardonTheWait

PardonTheWait

PardonTheWait

Soldato
Joined
26 Aug 2003
Posts
24,262
Roady said:
Short legs crew signing in! :D
Click to expand...

Yep definitely in the little legs crew over here :(

I’ve put in a request for cyclescheme on that orca because I’ve really taken a liking to it and the measurements look like what I want, also a really good deal imo. I think the girl at work that signs them off is back in on Monday so if it’s still in stock then I will go for it. No idea if the vouchers are refundable if they go out of stock though! Might send them an email and see if they can take a deposit or something.
 

Jonny ///M

Jonny ///M

Jonny ///M

Soldato
Joined
23 Nov 2004
Posts
10,646
Roady said:
Your mates ride title sums it up! :D
Click to expand...

We won't be friends in the summer haha. He is one of few that makes the bundy a smash fest. *****.

https://www.britishcycling.org.uk/points?person_id=132245&d=4&year=2018

More results than me that's for sure.


Where are you getting the Orca from @PardonTheWait as they may add on 10% if the bike is discounted already as the voucher is is worth 10-15% less once it hits the bank account.

The Orbea website shows pretty much live stock/lead times if you did have to order one.
 

Berger

Berger

Berger

Soldato
Joined
22 May 2003
Posts
10,855
Location
Wigan
New etap dropped.

It looks great sure but I'm a bit meh.

Rear hub needs looking at to see if you can fit it. Not backwards compatible. Disposable power meter when the chain rings wear out!!!!

The new chain looks great.

Force version in April which doesn't have the stupid built in power will sell loads though.
 

6thElement

6thElement

6thElement

Soldato
Joined
17 Oct 2002
Posts
9,055
Location
In my penthouse, Park Ave
Berger said:
New etap dropped.

It looks great sure but I'm a bit meh.

Rear hub needs looking at to see if you can fit it. Not backwards compatible. Disposable power meter when the chain rings wear out!!!!

The new chain looks great.

Force version in April which doesn't have the stupid built in power will sell loads though.
Click to expand...
I'd been waiting to see what it was going to be like, but I've just bought a new etap HRD wifli flat mount 22 speed groupo for about 1100 quid plus red crankset for £230 and I'm happy with that decision after seeing the new release. It would have cost an awful lot more without giving many advantages and having some negatives. Having the two largest cogs on the cassette ALU doesn't appeal to me with the amount of climbing I do so happy to have an all steel 1170 cassette about to go on my new build.
 
Last edited:

Berger

Berger

Berger

Soldato
Joined
22 May 2003
Posts
10,855
Location
Wigan
Having to go all-new cranks isn't so good.

If you can bolt 12 speed rings to a normal 110bcd crank and change the rear cassette that would be better.

See what the Force version brings.
 

PardonTheWait

PardonTheWait

PardonTheWait

Soldato
Joined
26 Aug 2003
Posts
24,262
Jonny ///M said:
Where are you getting the Orca from @PardonTheWait as they may add on 10% if the bike is discounted already as the voucher is is worth 10-15% less once it hits the bank account.

The Orbea website shows pretty much live stock/lead times if you did have to order one.
Click to expand...

It’s from Tredz, spoke to customer services on the phone and he says they’ve got ten in stock and unlikely to move so many of one bike over the weekend so should be fine.

I got a cyclescheme quote and it showed the right price so all should be well hopefully.
 

Roady

Roady

Roady

Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
8,432
Location
Hereford
UTmaniac said:
Only a hunch, but I reckon you might be riding at heart rate threshold Z4 on the turbo with less noticeably less power than outdoors, because you aren't doing turbo rides often enough.
Click to expand...
Hi mate, I think you've utterly hit the nail on the head, but therein lies the current 'problem'. I'm just not riding much outdoors (except commuting) so all I have is my numbers from Zwift. Where all I seem to be doing is riding at threshold - I'm that time pressured I use it to 'kick start' myself back into fitness, but don't have the volume to continue it, so feel like I'm always needing a 'kick'! Haha :rolleyes:

At the moment I'm not doing any specific types of riding, no sweetspot, no base/endurance/Z1-2 stuff. It's all Z3/4/5 on Zwift races, with only my <50 miles per week commuting as my 'base' riding. And I ride my commutes harder than I probably should to try and combat the lack of mileage... :D

PardonTheWait said:
Yep definitely in the little legs crew over here :(
Click to expand...
No bad thing, Lots of good riders with short legs!

I've found it loads easier to get trousers to fit now I'm a 34/32 or 32/30. When I was looking for 38/30 I found them quite difficult to find! Weight loss ftw! :D

Berger said:
New etap dropped.

It looks great sure but I'm a bit meh.

Rear hub needs looking at to see if you can fit it. Not backwards compatible. Disposable power meter when the chain rings wear out!!!!

The new chain looks great.

Force version in April which doesn't have the stupid built in power will sell loads though.
Click to expand...
Got a link? #lazy mode ;)

Disposable power meter rings? A bit like my Powertap C1 then... Mine is still going strong but after 6500 miles it does look quite worn. No skipping gears but I'm fully prepared when that comes - a choice between £300 replacement & recalibration or changing the whole thing (my likely solution). :D

I fully thought that because Powertap where discontinuing the C1 (they moved it to being a direct to consumer product only with 'limited stocks') and nobody else had gone that route with power measurement, it was a 'dead' area for such.
 

Shamrock

Shamrock

Shamrock

Soldato
Joined
24 Jul 2003
Posts
5,664
Location
floating down the Liffey
Realsies of course! Fewer than 900 out of 100,000 times logged on the official segment are under 6 minutes.

My point was any climb can be hard if you want it to be, but no, Box Hill isn't objectively more difficult than climbs up norf or even locally in Surrey. The appeal of Box Hill is it feels like a taster of a French Col with its steady gradient and couple of switchbacks.:D
 

Jonny ///M

Jonny ///M

Jonny ///M

Soldato
Joined
23 Nov 2004
Posts
10,646
I see Alex has the KOM for box hill on there it seems, only really ridden against him on a chaingang where he did smash beat me in the sprint.

No riding for me this weekend, missing the reliability that's on, as I've got work then a Japanese restaurant tomorrow with a few beers and chilling with the mrs on Sunday :cool:
 

Lethal`

Lethal`

Lethal`

Soldato
Joined
25 Oct 2006
Posts
5,386
Last edited:

SDK^

SDK^

SDK^

Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
21,055
Everytime i’ve done it on Zwift it’s been part of a longer effort. I could add another 120w if it was just the short effort up.
 

UTmaniac

UTmaniac

UTmaniac

Soldato
Joined
9 Nov 2005
Posts
8,637
Location
Southampton
Only did Box Hill twice during a single social ride event last year at 216W, while I was new to turbo training and had a much lower estimated FTP, I'd expect to knock chunks off that 10min27secs given I did 342W for ~8mins recently https://www.strava.com/activities/2100626031/analysis/13/489 on Stelvio Pass.

A decent example of one of my short but constructive sessions squeezed in before kitchen needed to make dinner. ;)
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom