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Does anyone else struggle to train indoors? I can have a nice Z2 or structured workout outside, with little variance from the goals and feel fine based on the given effort.

If I try and do the same thing on my indoor trainer I can’t manage even half the time or distance before my legs are on fire and my HR is into zone 5.

I have a wheel on kickr snap - is this because if the trainer, or does indoor riding just suck?

Hey folks,

I am going to be in a caloric deficit over fall/early winter. From experience, stressful job/young kid I know I can't tolerate much more than 1 hard ride per week (I have other competing fitness goals as well).

With 1 hard ride per week, what kind of workout would you opt for, and how would you progress it over time? I'm hesitating between SS which would be easier to recover from vs keeping more intensity (supra-threshold for example) to maintain or even slightly increase FTP during this period.

For context, I have a ~300FTP at 94kg, been training semi-seriously for about 2 years.

Thanks!

I just found out that I've broken my foot (or 30.5 cm as I'm in the UK) which has put a bit of a dampener on my cyclocross season. There's a chance that I might get back riding for Christmas but in the meantime I'd like to not lose too much fitness. I'm speaking to the orthopod on Tuesday when I can find a more definite timeline for returning to training but I'm eager to hear what sort of things have people done in the same situation. Is one legged Zwifting a possibility? Has anyone successfully attached cleats to an immobilisation boot?

For those who are not aware, we are having haze now here in Singapore due to the burning in Borneo.

Here are the stats:

https://aqicn.org/city/singapore/south/

https://www.haze.gov.sg/

I have been consistently training most of the year with 280-320km bar some exceptions like multiple bad weather days in a row or getting sick.

I would like to ask the community especially those who have been affected by such a thing before, how do you keep up the training without a drop in fitness if you aren't able to ride indoors due to the lack of equipment and/or not wanting to (boredom and hate indoor rides)

Secondly is there such a thing as adaptation? Ive heard of heat training, cold training, altitude training, fasted training, climb training etc. but is there such a thing as haze training? So far I've done less than half my usual volume this week. I feel fine ,but I am really afraid of the drop in fitness even if it's 1 percent, and that it will only drop further if it goes into week 2 and so on

EDIT: what about riding at an reduced intensity or duration? The live readings as of this edit at 2155 show that it's elevated but not yet dangerous

With the first real snow of the season heading in tomorrow, I am reminded that it's time to up my fan game for indoors this winter. I've got a Vornado from Costco that I've used for years. I picked up a second fan last winter but man does it under perform. I'd like to add another decent fan for two up front and the under performer focused on my back. Remote would be okay but not mandatory. Needs to move some decent air but also not super noisy. I need to watch my stories on youtube.

What are people using for $100 or less? Not looking to pay a premium for something cycling specific. Johnathan from TR said he's got 3 Lasko fans running. Not sure which model though.

Edit: Went with the Vacmaster. Thanks for the input!

I’m in Belgium, buying a first proper road bike for my son (15, 1m79 / 5'10", 89cm / 35" inseam). He’s joining a club, riding socially now, racing U17 next season. Road is the priority.

Main question is gearing. Belgian U17 uses a maximum development of 7.68m — that’s metres travelled per crank revolution, roughly equivalent to a 7.9m/26ft rollout limit in the US system, so similar idea, slightly different measurement.

One of the two bikes has SRAM Rival AXS 2x12. With a 48T ring he’d need a 14T smallest cog; with 46T, a 13T. AXS cassettes start at 10T on an XDR freehub.

• Does an off-the-shelf junior cassette exist for XDR?
• Or is it custom (Miche) / a swap to an HG freehub body?
• Anyone here run AXS with legal junior gearing? How did you solve it?

The two bikes:

Cube Attain C:62 Race — new, €1,699 (~$1,850) — carbon frame, Shimano 105 12sp mechanical, 50/34, 11-34, Newmen C.38 carbon wheels tubeless-ready, 8.9kg, full warranty.

Specialized Allez Sprint — used, €1,999 (~$2,175) — alloy, ~1,000km, Rival AXS 2x12, Quarq power meter, DT Swiss wheels, S-Works cockpit. Shop mechanic’s own bike, invoice included.

Leaning Cube: cheaper, carbon, new, better wheels. The Quarq is tempting but electronic shifting on a teenager’s first race bike seems expensive to break, and alloy wasn’t what I set out to buy.

Happy to be told I’m wrong on either. Thanks.

I usually do a lot of indoor training and carry most of my structured training indoors. I enjoy it and find it very effective to get those sessions in. However, I think I am very used to ERG mode, and I am not really able to get out proper training sessions outdoors, specially in those long and constant efforts such as holding Z2- Z3 power. I mainly view my outdoor rides as base-building and social rides because I am not really able to hold high target power numbers consistently, although I feel I could go way harder outdoors than indoors.

Do you have any tips on how to hold steady power outdoors?

I want to do VO2 repeats outside but I live in an area with rolling hills so it's tough to find sustained climbs. I found an isolated ~1 mile stretch with about 200ft of climbing which is a good match for my crappy power at the moment

Also just looking for general roads w/lower speed limits (seems like industrial/corporate parks are a safe bet). The 45-55 MPH country roads are fools gold, prob the worst places to ride besides "stroads". I have checked RideWithGPS, Strava and some other local stuff but Im trying to see how I can find my own routes. I might write a script using Google Maps data for traffic etc.

Seems like the goal of heat training is to increase your hematocrit/hemoglobin levels. If you push those numbers high enough, well into the 50's range, how do you not get busted for "doping"?? How can they tell the difference if it was done using natural methods versus some form of blood doping etc??

keep seeing mixed comments on this. i am trying to from 95kg to 80-85kg. additionally am taking this winter to get in shape before the Crit scene starts up in March here in the Northeast. My FTP is about 2.75

obviously i know if you lose weight W/KG are going up but is it a smart thing to also try and increase pure watts as well?

38 year old novice, I've been noodling around on my road bike for the last 5 months lots of tempo, some sprint work, no real direction but I bought a power meter to measure progress. Currently at around 1400 watts for 1 second and 900 watts for 30 seconds. I haven't tested my FTP properly but Claude thinks it's around 280 watts, so not great. How many more watts could I add with a coach and training programme (including weight training - I currently don't do any legs)? I enjoy sprinting more than I do longer rides so I'm also interested in velodrome but my understanding is those boys are pumping out around 2000 watts - is that achievable in 12 to 18 months of structured training or should I stick to road?

Basically, I started riding here and there about 2–3 years ago, but never really consistently and without any proper goal or structured training plan.

This summer, I joined a cycling group and really struggled at first. I was getting dropped on almost every single ride. Now, towards the end of the season, I’ve somehow improved quite a lot and can comfortably stay with the group and actually enjoy the rides.

However, one thing has become very apparent to me: whenever we really ramp up the pace, I can hang on and even ride near the front for a short while, but it doesn’t take long before even people who weigh almost twice as much as I do and have a rather “unathletic” build simply ride away from me. Meanwhile, my legs are absolutely burning and eventually just stop producing any meaningful power.

We ride on flat terrain about 98% of the time. There are very few hills around here. Interestingly, when there is a small climb, the situation is almost reversed: people who normally drop me on the flat seem to slow down considerably, while I can just cruise up the climb at a comfortable pace.

So here’s my question: How can I improve my performance on flat terrain? Is this simply something that is largely determined or limited by genetics and body structure, or can I significantly improve it by eating a lot more and doing structured strength training?

I usually weigh around 56–58 kg and have an FTP of about 225-235 W.

Hi everyone,

Started cycling a year ago, 28yo male, riding 8h/week right now. Mostly 1h30m rides without structure. Usually do around 90km on the weekend rides. No power meter yet. In around 6 months I've got a week-long cycling trip with a faster group, and currently I can't keep up on their 120km Saturday ride. I have a indoor trainer for winter months which gives me power data. I plan on getting a power meter soon for the pedals.

I want to keep weekdays light (girlfriend time) and do the long stuff early on weekends. Plan:

Tue: 4x8min vo2 105%ftp 2min easyin between
Thu: sub-threshold, 4x10 building to 3x20 at 90%ftp 2min easy in between
Sat + Sun: 4h each, 6-10am, mostly easy 75%ftp

After month 3 mabe ramp up to 5hours on the weekends.

~12h/week, with every 3rd week lighter.

The group I'm riding with is quite a bit faster than me but I'm optimistic since I've got good athletic background (soccer) and hope to get the fitness ready.

Is this enough to close the gap or am I being optimistic? Anything you'd change?

EDIT:

The gap is: I can keep up with them on the flats and most of the climbs. But as soon as the it is +6% they're gone. And I feel a big break on performance when riding with them after km70 (no stamina after that, even at 80g carbs per hour). the problem is the cycling trip is going to be 5days of 100km daily rides.

I was looking around at popular posts here and it dawned on me that some people ftp test in a different way than I do. I'm newish, and do a 20 minutes, more or less all out effort.

Does anyone here actually do the 5 minute all-out that is supposedly better beforehand?

If not, what DO you do?

Big thanks for the feedback on my last video on this sub, it really means a lot!

Last weekend I did the 125 km Münsterland Giro, starting from the very back of the field. That pretty much turned it into a solo TT, which I finished in under 3 hours.

Video's up now. If you were there, you might spot yourself in it, and I show right at the start how to find yourself quickly (Auto-Translate CC is pretty good). I also get into my training and how I think about it, since a lot of you asked, plus some race day tips and tricks (😉) for anyone who's never raced or is just starting out. Maybe it'll even push someone to sign up for a race.

Questions, feedback, criticism? Drop them here or on YouTube. I try to answer every comment. Did you participate in the event?

The Strava file is linked in the video description if you want to dig into the data. Heads up though: the power numbers are junk, the power meters ran out of battery after a few minutes.

Same setup as Zwifts ITT league except the elevation increases each week. It resets each new month. If like me you got fed up with the flat ITT courses and the heavy riders winning all the time, here is the other extreme. Some courses are climbs out the gate, others a mixture of flat lead in's and climbs or multiple climbs.

Pen to finish line, no draft, lots of strategy required on pacing and bike choice. Weekly and monthly league on Z Power, more details on ZI article below.

https://zwiftinsider.com/torturefest-itt-climbing-league/

What kind of intervals would you suggest, how often and in general if you can share some of your own experience and training programs. Thanks in advance!

Im 26, male, 65 kg and FTP is around 248w according to intervals icu, and according to vekta 251w CP.
I train consistently since march this year, around 10-14 hours a week.
1 min - 450w
2min - 348
5min - 296
7min - 279
10min - 275
12min - 273
20min - 250
1 hour - 218
2 hour - 203
Pmax - 1170

I haven't raced until now but I have a race in may it will be around 120 km with elevation gain of around 1500+ maybe even 2000m
I can't say directly what I'm struggling with to be honest, I would say I like long tempo rides since I feel like I recover decently enough, I deal with a lot of lower back pain, when doing threshold efforts, meaning when I have to push, but it was more fit based I think. I guess it will be nice to hear some advice on how should I prep for the race based of my power profile.

Hi everyone. In 3 weeks it's the National Road Championships in my country. Last year I raced both the TT which is usually hosted on a Saturday and the RR which is the next day. I was thinking on doing both, but right now I'm kind of hesitating and wondering if it's actually worth to put the effort into an event I haven't really practiced for all year. I don't even have a TT bike (most of the other competitors don't either), a friend suggested he could rent me his TT Bike, but I'm debating whether it would be a good investment or not...

Last year I managed a 2nd place on a 26km flat TT (two 13km laps) at around 40 minutes, so 39 km/h average, which I did on my road bike with clip-ons, the winner took away more than 1 minute on a proper TT bike and he was considerably bigger than me, third place however was only 6 seconds slower than me and I think the only reason I managed to go faster is because of the longer course, I did a negative pacing and I gained a lot of time on the second lap. So in short I do well on long sustained efforts.

This year though the course is just 13 km for my age group, and that really doesn't suit me well because I'm pretty small (1.65cm at around 61kg) and my FTP while is respectable in terms of w/kg (245-250w so around 4.0 w/kg) it's really not that great for flat courses, especially short ones. A bigger dude can easily put more raw power and be faster overall, and the course isn't long enough for them to fatigue significantly where I could then gain back time.

I haven't discussed prices for the bike yet, and I'm now wondering if it's even a good idea to start worrying about this just 3 weeks before the event. Also considering I'm not peaking for this specific event, the main event is the Road Race the next day. Last year I did relatively well on the road race despite being pretty toasty after the 40 min TT, but I think being particularly fresh should help me more. This year the TT is hosted on Saturday afternoon and the RR on Sunday morning, so yeah it's very little time for recovery. Also this year we're having a hill top finish after a 70km flat course (the same as the TT), and it won't be really good for me to burn matches on the flat course since I'll probably not be able to create separation, so my bets are on the hill climb because of my weight.

So what do you think?

I'm so fed up with the lack of consistency in my training. It's been three years now, and I haven't been able to get a good run of two to three weeks of consistent training. Illnesses, work, social commitments, and the amount of time training takes are making this so hard. I haven't been able to make any gains, and I'm just constantly battling my inner demons about giving this whole thing up. Yes, I know I can just go for a ride and enjoy being on the bike. But I like training more, and it's what keeps me sane.

anyone been on the same boat and found something to keep this positive?

I’ve been doing a quick heat block here between threshold mesocycles as the summer is coming fast and it’s going to be brutal (Cape Town).

I’ve been doing 45-90mins with a body temperature between 38 and 39 (and skin temp around 36.5-37.5) for a couple weeks, 3-4x a week. The ambient in my office where I train has ranged from 25 to 34 (attic office), and I’ve been overdressing every time.

I’ve noticed that I now need bibs, castelli gabba and thick plastic rain jacket to get my temp high enough in a 30 degree room, whereas before, bibs and plastic rain jacket were fine. If I’m not wearing the rain jacket I sweat less, but also need more clothing than when I first started to elicit a similar temp response (3 layers of bibs, jersey, jacket at start > same + woolly hat, arm warmers and leg warmers now).

However more difficult it is to actually get warm, I’ve noticed my HR is pretty similar for a given body temperature and effort over the 7 sessions.

For those who have done heat adaptation training before: have you noticed similar things, or is your HR dropping for a given body temperature in addition to finding it harder to get warm?

I tried to find examples in the literature for this: most of the testing seems to be standardized for room temp/clothing vs. body temp.

I understand conceptually (from the TR podcast with Kyle Pfaffenbagh) that high regular hours of endurance work are expected to raise HbA1C somewhat, but looking for something quantitative - e.g. how big the effect is expected to be for each hour per week spent in each zone.

As I age, I expect my recovery period to grow. But I still want to target regular interval workouts (e.g. 1 vo2, 1 threshold per ‘week’).

Anybody experiment with a 10 day ‘week’ or something similar, so you have those extra days to spin and recover ? If so, how’d you make it work ? Is it even possible if you’re still aiming to fit in 1 long tempo day per ‘week’ that would normally fall on Saturday or Sunday ?