Wow, nice. Great job on the gains!

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CEO at TrainerRoad
Co-host of the Ask a Cycling Coach Podcast

Agreed - nice gains, although is the gain from June to July accurate? Also, are you dialling back your volumes for swim and run, or do you have a high volume already? Really interested to see how you go.

Lastly, I've had awesome gains with plans used to date, but looking to try a more maffetone approach for a longer than usual base of 2-3 months next year after the end of the Aussie tri season. Wondering what everyone thinks the best best plan for this would be. Thinking the trad base higher volume and adjust to hr if going too high during that time.

Thanks Nate. There's 8 Days in California in there somewhere too which is probably 80% of my gains!

Is the July gain accurate?.....I mean I think so. I've been pretty consistent in my training and putting in way more time on the bike than previously. I havent changed anything between tests...same bike, same tyre, same pressure, same resistance (well as close as I can get each time).

I've done the first week training relative to the 261FTP and it seems to be fine so we'll see.

Swim volume is staying the same. 2-3 swims a week for me at 2.5-3k per session. (Only started swimming again probably 6 to 8 weeks ago).

Run volume is actually up from last year. I'm trying to run more often with more easy runs. Previously I would just run 4 times a week and run hard every run whether it was 10km or 15km. Seemed to work for me actually but I thought I’d try the BarryP approach.

Now I’m running 2 short easy runs each week (~30min), 2 workouts which are about an hour (1 tempo and 1 interval) and then 1 long run which varies from 1h15 to 2h00 depending on what I feel like. Some long runs easy, others tempo.

Last season I averaged around 8-9 hours training a week (only did more than 10 hours 3 times) whereas in the past 12 weeks I’ve averaged 10 hours a week which includes a couple 5 hour weeks and a couple 13/14 hour weeks. Just constantly trying to make sure I’m still doing quality stuff as opposed to just trying to hit x number of hours

Hi !!
Just subscribed to trainer road today and can't decide which plan to do.
My main goal is to increase my aerobic wattage. I wanna have a high ironman wattage for next year. Please help!

Best place to start is Intermediate Base I, then move on to Intermediate Base II and see where you stand.

This is usually the best starting place for people unless they are very experienced with power based training and do intense intervals with a lot of TSS all the time.

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CEO at TrainerRoad
Co-host of the Ask a Cycling Coach Podcast

Hi Nate

Do you have a recommended Maffetone type plan? Thinking one of the mid or high volume plan making sure hr is capped.

I'm guessing that you're looking for something that conditions your metabolism to utilize a higher percentage of fat than it's currently doing, and if that's the case then the Traditional Base plans are your best fit (choose the volume limit that best suits your time constraints).

These are base plans though, so you won't see any big gains across the board but they do largely target aerobic adaptation which is what I think you're after. Let me know if this isn't the case though!

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Head Coach at TrainerRoad
Co-host of the Ask a Cycling Coach Podcast

Hit Nate,
This is probably a stupid question but I have ant+ usb1 stick and its asking me to get the ant+ usb2. I amazoned the ant+usb2 and they look exactly like ant + usb1 with no description if its a 1or2.
I found this miniUSB. I wonder if this is ant + 2? http://www.amazon.com/...ywords=Ant+%2B+usb+2
thansk!

Also, which is a better buy? Ant 2 or bluetooth? Assuming Im gonna use the kickr with other 3rd party app.
thanks!

I have two questions:

First, I have a Garmin 510. I tried to pair the virtual power from trainerroad's 'trainer relay', however, after enabling the power meter on my 510, and pressing the search button, the 510 is failing to find signal. I tried pedaling while it was searching as well, with no result. I'm using Windows 8.1, and have a Suunto Movestick Mini. Anyone have the same setup and getting the same problem? It's definitely not a deal breaker, as I can just take the file that is created from the software and upload to whatever I want to upload to, but it would be a nice feature to have.

Second, I just did my first workout this morning - the 20 min. FTP test. After I finished, I realized I forgot to set the wheel circumference. It's currently set as the default, whatever that is. So my FTP from virtual power is 253. If I update the wheel circumference to a higher mm, that should mean I would need to reduce that 253 to something lower right? Or if I would need to update the wheel circumference to a lower mm, that would mean I would need to increase the 253 to something a little higher? Just trying to make sense of how wheel size affects power numbers. I'm thinking I will just leave it what I have it set to right now, but I'm really just curious how it would affect the numbers.

The Kickr needs the ANT 2 stick. All mini sticks are ANT 2. It's pretty hard to buy an ANT1 stick, most of them are all ANT2 now. But to make sure, buy the mini. It's a lower profile and nicer to leave in your computer too.

The ANT2 has some firmware fixes over the ANT1. You can also pair more devices at once (which usually isn't an issue).

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CEO at TrainerRoad
Co-host of the Ask a Cycling Coach Podcast

Unless you're wheel circumference is really different I would just leave your FTP at 253. It might change by a watt or two, but that really won't matter.

For your 510 issue that should pair no problem. You're looking for a "Power meter", correct? Maybe toggle the trainer relay button. Make sure you have your other devices paired too, which it sounds like you do. If that still doesn't work, drop us a line at support@trainerroad.com and we'll investigate more.

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CEO at TrainerRoad
Co-host of the Ask a Cycling Coach Podcast

Thanks Nate! Yeah, I am looking for a 'power meter'. I did try toggling the relay button on and off. I have heart rate paired, and then speed & cadence paired together using the GSC-10. I'll give it another shot tonight to see if I can get it working.

I love what you guys have done by the way. This is going to make the winter months fly by!!! :-)

Forgot to mention, I did open a case already. And they've responded with some suggestions. One is to unpair everything from the Garmin and just try pairing the 'power meter' from trainerroad. I think I'll give that a shot tonight if I still can't get it to work.

Hi Chad - thats exactly what I'm after thanks. Basically use the trad base after my off season. But thinking I may also cap my heart rate if any of the efforts go above whatever my aerobic threshold is to fit to Maffetone principal.

Would there be much advantage to doing a 40k plan in the offseason? Would those gains stay around with maintenance upon moving to aore balanced plan? Perhaps a build plan would be smarter January/ February work.

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Aaron Bales
Lansing Triathlon Team

As always, it depends :).

I know Coggan has had some success with doing year round FTP building training.

The traditional way would be base -> build though. That doesn't mean it's right.

I think the most important part is doing a plan that you can be consistent with. If you burn yourself out in the winter you're not going to be fast in the summer.

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CEO at TrainerRoad
Co-host of the Ask a Cycling Coach Podcast

Yeah, I'm probably young enough in endurance years that the traditional periodization makes the most sense.

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Aaron Bales
Lansing Triathlon Team

Nate

I am at the edge of signing up for TR. I have been training with power for a number of years and the last couple have been satisfied using a simple combination of eMotion rollers, Edge 500 and Powertap hub. Yesterday morning I ordered a Wahoo Kickr and a friend of mine highly suggest that I use TR with it. I have to say that I like my current simple weekday (indoor) structure and I believe using a simple ERG mode for intervals is probably what I will continue to use.

What I noticed looking at the TR page last night was the "Get Started" page. Is it necessary or highly important with the application to do the FTP test if you already have levels established for FTP?
Again I am asking from a perspective looking from the outside not being able to see all the initial setup to using TR. I will wait until the Kickr comes in before I sign up. I've looked in the obvious places like DC Rainmaker's reviews.

I am also wondering why signing up for a subscription to TR might be a benefit if the person typically trains with a simple weekly structure that would fit ERG mode. I will probably sign up for a year and see how that goes just to check it out.

Hey Nate,
I have a couple of quick questions for you about TR and the Workout Creator.
Yesterday, I made a new FTP test using a clone of the TR 20 Minute Test.
Essentially, I pulled the TR 20 Minute Test into Workout Creator, named it something different and then modified the warmup and the cooldown.
Today when I rode the Custom Test, the program put me into slope mode during the 2 minute ramp up immediately prior to the test. However, when it started the 20 minute test, it switched me back into ERG mode (so, I manually switched it back to Slope mode, no prob). I continued with the test and when it bumped me into the Cooldown phase, it stayed in Slope Mode, so I manually changed it. Unfortunately, TrainerRoad did not calculate my new FTP from the Test.
So, based on that, here are my questions:

• How can I build in the slope mode functionality to a section of a workout that I've created in Workout Creator?
• How can I build in functionality so that the test I've created will calculate my FTP based on that 20 minute interval and ask me if I want to update my FTP based on that test?

Thanks!!!

We don't have a way in our workout creator to switch people from ERG to slope. We actually do that by hand right now in a file (since there's only like 3 workouts that do it).

Same thing with the percent FTP. Because you copied and reprocessed those workouts it lost that data.

For the power calcs, you can take 95% of your average 20 min power.

It's been on our list for a while to put switching in the workout creator. Right now all of our dev resources are working on getting iOS out the door (which will hopefully be soon).

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CEO at TrainerRoad
Co-host of the Ask a Cycling Coach Podcast

Thanks Nate. That's what I suspected. It's a bit odd because, like I said it jumped into slope mode on it's own when it started the two minute lead-in for the test. It just wouldn't stay there. I may try it again and see if I can get it to work.
The power calcs are the easy part. I was hoping to figure out how to get TR to automatically recognize that.

Anyway, thanks for the speedy reply. I appreciate it.

No rush random question since I saw this thread at the top and happened to be thinking about this as I brushed my teeth this morning (not sure why).

But any testing on window 10 preview yet? or any reason that you can think of the installer would kick it out saying unsupported OS? Haven't loaded it on any machines yet but my only current junk machine is my trainer machine, yes I Can run it on a VM but figured I would ask :)

Maybe AIR isn't supported yet on windows 10? We haven't tested that yet.

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CEO at TrainerRoad
Co-host of the Ask a Cycling Coach Podcast