The training thread: How was yours? (today/yesterday/etc)

[Parker]

Wow... all about the TSS. Then mine was 708.8 for last week.

[vander]

If we want to discuss TSS then I did 1836 last week..... My knee is sore.

[boss]

Ended up getting 4th in the bunch sprint tonight, which kinda has me a bit excited because I'm a cruddy sprinter, I haven't been doing enough sprint intervals and my sprint tonight (by my own cruddy standards) wasn't strong. I was able to get myself in the right spot and slingshot past a couple of stronger riders. Good stuff.

Ended up being 208w/228NP for the 42 mins... so while this is my best result so far, it's also my lowest effort. Very happy with that.

[Xplora]

Careful if you sat in, sprinters don't usually have the big numbers over a whole race, just the sprint
You might be a sprinter and not know it!

[toolonglegs]

When you have a PM you know if you are a sprinter or not

[boss]

Yeah powermeter confirms I'm not a sprinter. And I'm only like 67-68kg and really should be 65kg.

Not higher than 600w for 15 seconds tonight. It was more about just being in the right spot.

I think I can do 550-600w for a minute so the numbers tonight were pretty cruddy.

All of that said, it does have me motivated to get out and smoke some proper sprint intervals.

[Xplora]

Don't undersell yourself, if you haven't trained something you will probably not be very good at it yet. If you did well in the sprint with 600W then the only way is up

[Parker]

I hit over 500watts yesterday, keep in mind this is only my third week with a coach and a power meter

[g-boaf]

I did some high intensity intervals today:

140%/30sec
110%/30sec
140%/30sec
100%/60sec
100-140%/30sec
10%/30sec
140-160%/30sec

Repeat 7 times. Good workout. Did nicely.

[vander]

Don't undersell yourself, if you haven't trained something you will probably not be very good at it yet. If you did well in the sprint with 600W then the only way is up

Not quite the truth with sprinting even without training sprinters will still hit good numbers. I am not the best sprinter and without training it will still hit into the 1500s

[toolonglegs]

Yup ... sprinters are born. Training changes very little.
My numbers vary about 10% from middle of winter slug to fitting fit in middle of summer. Either way my numbers are still pathetic .
Still that 10% matters ... plus I am usually 10% lighter in the middle of summer compared to 6 months before

[Xplora]

It's all relative, an unpracticed A grader should manage better figures than a D grade sprinter in the form of his life. I've increased my peak figures enormously this year with training. Looking forward to next year's results now I have a base to work from.

[march83]

Training changes very little.

that doesn't mean it's not worth training. most people go weeks and weeks at a time without sprinting to their fullest capacity. it can be looked upon as skill so co-ordination (muscle firing) and timing of power delivery can be improved making a faster sprint without the rider changing very much. duration can also be improved with training.

It sounds like boss got to the end of the race with more gas in the tank meaning he was better able to position himself and what little kick he has was more valuable. training ftp/vo2 can give better sprint results

[g-boaf]

I'm a quite poor sprinter so I'm not going to enter that discussion. I'm like a diesel engine.

I did a 100TSS session this morning 3x20min at 0.80IF.It doesn't feel that hard, but you always end up with sore legs after it. I use it to gently push up the FTP, rather than using flat out 2x18min which really, really hurt. I've been doing these 3x20 sessions at lower cadence.

[Cul]

A few solid sessions the last few days.

Yesterday was a short session on the trainer… Over/Under 3 x 8mins (1min over / 1min under), legs were zinging afterwards!
This morning I was hoping to do a fast bunchie, except the bunch never turned up! So I ended up doing 2hrs of Z2 with 4 x 5min pushes at ~105% FTP.
Tomorrow will be a long easy one before a weekend of Crit racing.


Boaf, 3 x 20mins... SOLID! I struggle to bring myself to do 2 x 20 let alone 3 x 20 

[boss]

Don't undersell yourself, if you haven't trained something you will probably not be very good at it yet. If you did well in the sprint with 600W then the only way is up

Not quite the truth with sprinting even without training sprinters will still hit good numbers. I am not the best sprinter and without training it will still hit into the 1500s

Yup ... sprinters are born. Training changes very little.
My numbers vary about 10% from middle of winter slug to fitting fit in middle of summer. Either way my numbers are still pathetic .
Still that 10% matters ... plus I am usually 10% lighter in the middle of summer compared to 6 months before

It's all relative, an unpracticed A grader should manage better figures than a D grade sprinter in the form of his life. I've increased my peak figures enormously this year with training. Looking forward to next year's results now I have a base to work from.

Training changes very little.

that doesn't mean it's not worth training. most people go weeks and weeks at a time without sprinting to their fullest capacity. it can be looked upon as skill so co-ordination (muscle firing) and timing of power delivery can be improved making a faster sprint without the rider changing very much. duration can also be improved with training.

It sounds like boss got to the end of the race with more gas in the tank meaning he was better able to position himself and what little kick he has was more valuable. training ftp/vo2 can give better sprint results

Quoting everyone for completeness...

I think the first thing that's worth saying here is that I'm not a d-grader in overall fitness. I know this doesn't mean much but I mix it up with A/B graders regularly and hold my own (especially climbing). I can kick a few B graders off my wheel in the final 30 seconds of 10 minute climbs.

And I do repeat, I know that doesn't mean much and it's not me attempting to illustrate how large my appendage is.

Because right now I lack race smarts, strategy, etiquette, skills etc etc etc. Which is exactly why I'm in d-grade.

End of the day, I should be able to train up to easily kick the D guys off my wheel in a crit bunch sprint. When I move up grades, I will have to be smarter and more wiley as I don't believe I will be able to do the same thing to the more gifted sprinters.

But that's getting ahead of myself. Right now it's one race at a time, work on my weaknesses, experiment with strategy, etc, etc, etc.

[toolonglegs]

Plenty of D graders around with 1500w sprints ... plenty of A graders with little over a 1000.
I think group rides with lots of sprinting fun are way more important than lots of solo sprint training... my club sucks for sprint training. Without a doubt my "sprint" has suffered... the outright numbers probably haven't changed that much but everything else that goes into winning a sprint has.

[Xplora]

France has changed you, I have never had my dignity besmirched by a D grader sprinting but I ride them off my wheel before it becomes an issue. I was beaten in the sprint in my first race but I had no idea what was going on - my only D grade race too.

[toolonglegs]

Sure has changed me... I don't love it here, I never will ... but I think we are here for good now so gotta make the most of it.

[brendan c]

I should post here now I've got the PM, despite the fact I'm back in Sydney in March and probably racing with X and the gang again

I'm not surprised you had no gas in the tank for that sprint in Tuesday Boss, it was brutally windy, and in C grade it was attack after attack all race, My NP was about 260 for the race and I only had enough in the tank for 657 for 15seconds which was good enough to kick around half a dozen fading guys for about 6th. Still confused how I hit 909 for 15seconds after that Uraidla race which was 278NP for 71mins...

I guess everyone in town is worn out after a big week chasing Le Tour!

Had a day off and then checked out the weekend's Corky TT (the 3.6km segment so the flattish bit before the climb too). 303W at 74kg for 13.45 into a headwind. Well I was 74kg on Xmas day, so close enough.
I'll probably skip it anyway, no gradings and it ruins the rest of weekend's riding if I'm hanging out for 10am on Sunday.

[Xplora]

You'll be out of C faster than you can say "I'm not sandbagging, seriously" BC - those hills are doing good things for you.

2x 275w NP 30 minutes each doing the M7 Bubbler run yesterday. Haven't uploaded to Strava, but that has got to be a top 10 for the in and out. The legs are getting stronger and stronger

TLL, I reckon the quality of rider you're up against seems to be higher over there - although maybe it is just because they put more effort into the grading.

Calibrate those PMs people!

[boss]

I should post here now I've got the PM, despite the fact I'm back in Sydney in March and probably racing with X and the gang again

I'm not surprised you had no gas in the tank for that sprint in Tuesday Boss, it was brutally windy, and in C grade it was attack after attack all race, My NP was about 260 for the race and I only had enough in the tank for 657 for 15seconds which was good enough to kick around half a dozen fading guys for about 6th. Still confused how I hit 909 for 15seconds after that Uraidla race which was 278NP for 71mins...

I guess everyone in town is worn out after a big week chasing Le Tour!

Had a day off and then checked out the weekend's Corky TT (the 3.6km segment so the flattish bit before the climb too). 303W at 74kg for 13.45 into a headwind. Well I was 74kg on Xmas day, so close enough.
I'll probably skip it anyway, no gradings and it ruins the rest of weekend's riding if I'm hanging out for 10am on Sunday.

I had plenty of gas... at least relatively speaking... did no real work... sat on the front a couple of times with short turns, casually chased down a break... ended up being 208NP and I've seen as high as 260NP (AT) 68 and still felt OK for a sprint.

My sprint is just pretty crappy. Untrained and ungifted for sprints hahaha.

I went out last night and did some 10-15 second efforts. It was actually pretty brutal. Was doing sets of 5 15 sec on/off (AT) 500w, then 2.5 min break, then repeat. Got the third set done and dragged myself home 30km.

I was particularly surprised at how hard my HR kicked up towards the end of the sets. 500w for 15 seconds first time round is pretty comfortable but the fifth one is breathing fire. Will definitely be doing more of these, the numbers feel a bit pathetic right now!

Same thoughts about Corkscrew TT by the way. Tempted but it's kind of a bit silly structuring the weekend around a 15 minute effort that isn't a goal of any sort.

[g-boaf]

Calibrate those PMs people!

Indeed important. I've also managed over the holidays some very quick runs on the M7 from Elizabeth Drive down to Prestons. I was pretty sure one day I was in with a shout at a 42km/h average speed, until I found the gates closed because there was a tiny of water across the track. No tailwind that day either, just warmed up well and feeling okay. No idea where it might have put me on Strava. Previous best before that was 41km/h. None of that uploaded to Strava however, as I dislike it.

I hoped to do hill repeats this afternoon but other commitments I only discovered I was involved in yesterday will prevent that.

[Cul]

3hrs of Z2 this morning, solid ride (226w avg), the legs are a bit sore now. Really looking forward to racing on the weekend!

Calibrate those PMs people!

Hahaha tell me about it; I am using a wireless SRM at the moment (borrowed while waiting for my new Powertap); works fantastic with the SRM head unit… The Garmin however, it worked for a while then then started reading 20w low, and finally it started saying “multiple power meters found” let’s just say it works no more!.. I know I am getting off topic here but I love the SRM head unit, so much better than the Garmin.

[Gunlock]

I had a bike fit the other day and we had the bike on a Computrainer that gave power data. Makes me want power data even more now (even though i really dont need it).

Finally able to get some more training time in after 2 months off with a knee issue. Am allowed up to 50 minutes now with 5 - 10 minutes added each week if no pain persists. Woo!