Turbo training or WattBike sessions are a great way to really get a top-quality bike session in. They take away worries about traffic, remove the ability to draft behind your roleur friend, eliminate concerns about weather, and allow you to work consistently and measure your effort.
This is why on Sunday the 17th, while it was blazing sunshine outside and Beccy was out on her new road bike with a couple of friends, I turned to the WattBike... I had originally planned to go out with Rupert for a long ride, but he decided to destroy himself on his turbo the day before, having signed up to Trainer Road recently, another option for this type of workout. Basically, I felt guilty about this so gathered myself to submit to the pain of a solo indoors session.
I recently looked into some British Cycling plans and decided to use their threshold under/over set. This consisted of a 20min warm-up followed by four ten-minute efforts during which I alternated between 90% threshold and 110% threshold for 1 minute at a time. Each 10 minute block was followed by a 5 minute active recovery.
I established my 20min threshold pace a couple of weeks ago- nauseatingly fun, I promise! This gave me a pleasingly-round figure of 250W.
So for clarity...
20min warm-up
1min 90% (225W) then 1min 110% (275W) x 5
5min active recovery
Repeat for a total of four reps
Cool down.
The purpose of this was to try and help raise my threshold wattage. I tried to maintain a consistent 95RPM for the unders, the overs, and the active recovery, adjusting the resistance to alter the power output.
During the second rep I didn't think I'd be able to complete, but I overcame that negativity and pushed through- this gave me a much enhanced sense of satisfaction. Furthermore, given that this was based on my own numbers, it should be doable so it was more about the mental battle!
I must confess, I did have le Tour on at the same time which probably helped, if only as a distraction, but I think it's important to use these little things and it's not really cheating, is it?!?
So this took a total of 1h20min, which is a fairly long session on the turbo/static bike, but the variety in the warm-up, changes of effort within the main set, and le Tour, made it... well not enjoyable, but certainly more interesting. I am certainly glad I made the effort and look forward to seeing my threshold power going up and up.
Watch this space.
This is why on Sunday the 17th, while it was blazing sunshine outside and Beccy was out on her new road bike with a couple of friends, I turned to the WattBike... I had originally planned to go out with Rupert for a long ride, but he decided to destroy himself on his turbo the day before, having signed up to Trainer Road recently, another option for this type of workout. Basically, I felt guilty about this so gathered myself to submit to the pain of a solo indoors session.
I recently looked into some British Cycling plans and decided to use their threshold under/over set. This consisted of a 20min warm-up followed by four ten-minute efforts during which I alternated between 90% threshold and 110% threshold for 1 minute at a time. Each 10 minute block was followed by a 5 minute active recovery.
I established my 20min threshold pace a couple of weeks ago- nauseatingly fun, I promise! This gave me a pleasingly-round figure of 250W.
So for clarity...
20min warm-up
1min 90% (225W) then 1min 110% (275W) x 5
5min active recovery
Repeat for a total of four reps
Cool down.
The purpose of this was to try and help raise my threshold wattage. I tried to maintain a consistent 95RPM for the unders, the overs, and the active recovery, adjusting the resistance to alter the power output.
During the second rep I didn't think I'd be able to complete, but I overcame that negativity and pushed through- this gave me a much enhanced sense of satisfaction. Furthermore, given that this was based on my own numbers, it should be doable so it was more about the mental battle!
I must confess, I did have le Tour on at the same time which probably helped, if only as a distraction, but I think it's important to use these little things and it's not really cheating, is it?!?
So this took a total of 1h20min, which is a fairly long session on the turbo/static bike, but the variety in the warm-up, changes of effort within the main set, and le Tour, made it... well not enjoyable, but certainly more interesting. I am certainly glad I made the effort and look forward to seeing my threshold power going up and up.
Watch this space.
