After feeling somewhat under the weather yesterday and missing my planned session I felt compelled this morning to make amends. Usually Sunday mornings would be a long road ride but with the thick frost and ice on the roads this was simply not going to happen today. So it was out to the garage for a session on my trusty turbo. I accept that turbo training is not everybody's cup of tea so I've been trying to think of different sessions that would make life on the turbo more interesting. I'm just starting my base phase so it should be lots of low intensity work, but frankly these are THE dullest sessions you can do on the turbo. I've already mentioned the 30 seconds flat out 4 mins recovery set that is supposed to equate to a 2 hour L2 ride and today I thought I would try something a bit different.
No warm up required as the first few levels will take you into the session progressively. My turbo bike is set up with a 53/39 chainset and a 12-23 cassette.
Start in 39-23 and then every minute go up one gear, maintaining 94 rpm (my personal preference; each will have their own ideal cadence). To avoid bad chainlines I avoid 39-12 and 53-23. Once I got to the 53-12 it was then a case of going back down the gears (again avoiding 39-12 and 53-23) until it was back to the beginning. With a 9-speed cassette it takes 30 minutes to complete one set. So how was it? Well it starts off OK and you get a bit of recovery when you move from the 39 to the 53 sprocket due to gear overlap (39-12 is a bigger gear than 53-21). By the time I got to 53-16 I was working hard, and by 53-12 I was puffing like a steam train. I managed to complete one set and started on the second. I got all the way up the cassette to 53-12 but then blew, and had to drop back to recover and completed the hour at a steady 200 watts.
So what did I learn from this? Well this session is way too hard for this point in my season. Perhaps with some small changes it could be a useful addition (maybe starting in a slightly harder gear and only go up to 53-14 and then going up and down the cassette between that and 53-19?). We shall see.
Anyway, I'm back into the training mindset and looking forward to the challenges of 2010. Train smart folks.
Alsager 5 Mile Race
1 month ago
3 comments:
Good to see you're in the training mindset young Turbo, nice and easy does it though. Train smart!
Yes indeed, nice and easy does it. I was just trying some new stuff to keep it interesting; tomorrow its back to the 75% stuff (which is mentally tough as its neither really hard nor really easy) and then later in the week it will be the 95% and 105% sessions that are much more fun..
sounds like something I will have to try on my next turbo set
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