General question for the 'long' ride of the week.....

Today was a 2H ride, and I stopped at the 60', 90' and 100' (around there)'. I was about ready to go bananas and had to get off. Hope that is sort of normal, but I just couldn't get through without those breaks. I know this affects the integrity of the workout a bit too.

Yah, you're not going to ruin the workout if you take a short break.

What are you using for entertainment? My favorites are netflix, rent a movie via Apple TV, Tour de France (in july), hulu or even XBox. If I'm on my TT bike and doing a long endurance ride I the XBox is awesome to keep me entertained.

Others like to listen to music the entire time.

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

Anything over 1:15 and I have to take a 90 second break. Part of it is my room is insanely hot (have 3 fans plus a/c blowing, I just sweat and get hot) and part of it is mental. Even with Netflix, Hulu, etc I go bananas after that much time on the trainer.

I wouldn't sweat it. Even with a brief break they're still high quality workouts, especially if you compare that to riding outdoors with stops, lights, etc.

I wouldn't start taking 15 minute breaks, or anything crazy, but keep it short, brief, and get back to it and not a big deal IMO.

Yep, Netflix is saving me. And I am outdoors with a fan overhead and an industrial fan in my face. Still terribly hot though.

Daredevil is a good netflix show too, FYI.

I did "Mist" this morning, the second 3' VO2 Max interval session of the oly-mid plan. I noticed that the workout instructions refer to five intervals when there's actually six in this one. ;)

It's hard enough to read while cross eyed, but this one threw me for a loop in morning. hah

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@floathammerholdon | @partners_in_tri

I think I noticed that too. Just figured it was a cruel joke....

I was a little bummed because I thought I could run Netflix with TrainerRoad on screen simultaneously without toggling back and forth off my iPhone 6+, without needing to jerry-rig my lap top. Any suggestions for how to set that up best?

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“Bloom wherever you are planted"

iOS doesn't let us do this right, but iOS 9 will let us do some type of split screen between the apps. We haven't tried this yet, but theoretically it's possible.

We need to do more investigation and try it out.

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

I just messaged Coach Chad about this, he's going to fix the text.

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

Hahah, just trying to keep you sharp! Thanks for catching that, I'll fix it right now.

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

Is there any way to upload rides to Garmin Connect without first downloading to my PC? I am mostly using the iOS version and it would be great to eliminate the PC requirement altogether.

No, not through us :(. We don't have an auto sync to Garmin Connect, here's why:

Garmin Connect has no official API to upload rides to them from a third party like us. Some apps like Tapirrik do it via saving the user's username/pass and doing some stuff to imitate a web browser to upload the workout.

What we've read (reported by DC Rainmaker) is that Garmin has shut down some third parties or limited the amount of workouts they can push. What I want to prevent is doing the same thing that Tapirrik did but then having Garmin shut us off. That would be really hard to explain to users that a feature that we wrote suddenly doesn't work.

We actually have a ton of rides (+2.2 million) and I wouldn't doubt that we'd be one of the top API users pretty quickly.

But, you could setup Tapirrik to sync the workouts for you. You could setup a sync between TrainerRoad and Garmin. If you did that, it would upload directly to Garmin.

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

Hi Nate,

I'm doing a road race in about 13 weeks - the K1 which is a 100km race with about 1000m of climbing. More info here http://www.arcevents.co.nz/k2home/raceinfo/

I'm looking at your plans and think the rolling road plans would be good for me. But there seems to be a little snafu at least in the iPhone app. Week 1 has a few too many rides each day. I'm hoping that's an error......

Cheers

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I ride:
Cervelo - P-Series/R3
GT - Sensor Carbon Expert

Supporters - Flo Cycling, Mount Bikes

Hi BayDad,

Good luck on your race! I just double checked the plans and the core data is right. Make sure you're looking at the right level of plan (low/mid/high). The mid and high plan have a more workouts in that first week compared to the low volume plan.

If you still have bad data that means we have a sync problem. The best thing to do here is to just uninstall your app (press and hold on the app on your homescreen and click the "x") then install it again from the app store. That will trigger a new sync and your data should be a OK again.

Hopefully it's one of those two things!

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

Ahhhh there we go. Should have thought of that.

Worked a charm. Cheers

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I ride:
Cervelo - P-Series/R3
GT - Sensor Carbon Expert

Supporters - Flo Cycling, Mount Bikes

So I raced this last week at Nats -- held 290 (NP: 296) and that's with 90 seconds of huge issues coming out of T1 -- so assuming it could be a little more like 300. Regardless, knowing how I had an issue with the 120% FTP intervals, what would you suggest I focus on now since I've finished the oly distance plan? I have four "B" races coming up, with maybe a late season peak in November. I'm kind of spent and don't know how I will feel by then. I have taken Sunday and Monday off and ran an easy 4 this morning for a break to let my CTL come down from the peak. Suggestions? Thanks!

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@floathammerholdon | @partners_in_tri

I still think your focus should stay trained on increasing your muscular endurance/steady-state power output, and since it sounds like you have a solid 8 weeks between now and even early November, I'd recommend dedicating 8 weeks to the 40k TT plan or a repeat of the Olympic Distance Tri plan if you are happy with your recent results and think can stay interested in a repeated training block.

The VO2max intervals in the 40k TT plan in particular work steadily up to 3 minutes long, so nothing excessive, but feel free to trim the intensity by 5-10% such that you can complete them in their entireties. A reduction in their Target power is totally in line with the objective of those max-aerobic repeats since the goal isn't so much about a certain amount of power as it is to fully tax & build your cardiovascular system, e.g. muscle enzymes, plasma volume, capillarization, etc. This output reduction is especially necessary if you live at altitude because VO2max intervals are even more challenging the higher you live, acclimated or not.

In the interim, check out my latest blog post (http://blog.trainerroad.com/...tween-cycling-peaks/) and see if any of those scenarios will fill the time gap you have prior to the commencement of that 8 weeks which will taper you right in time for your second peak in November. In any case, sounds like you need a little downtime both physically and psychologically so try to take it easy and give yourself a break before jumping back into the training fray. ;)

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

Hey Chad,

I've got a road race in 11 weeks. 192km with around 2,500 meters of limping from memory. I'm looking at the low volume climbing race plan. Of course this will finish 3 weeks before the race - what wold you recommend for those 3 weeks? Just get out and ride some hills etc?

Also, if I do an outside ride can that replace one of the planned sessions?

Cheers

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I ride:
Cervelo - P-Series/R3
GT - Sensor Carbon Expert

Supporters - Flo Cycling, Mount Bikes

Hey BayDad,

Apologies for the delayed reply, took a short vacation.

I'd recommend postponing beginning your Climbing RR block and using the time to work on either Sweet Spot or aerobic Endurance workouts as a primer for your more focused block. You could either choose 2-3 weeks of Sweet Spot Base II or perhaps Trad Base II or III depending on the level of intensity you feel you can get away with prior to an 8-week specialty block. In any case, probably make the 3rd week a reduced-volume week such that you start the CRR block fresh and ready to assess/work hard.

It's easier to lay some additional groundwork than to extend your peak conditioning, but if you'd rather do it the other way then repeat weeks 7 & 8 in such a way that that taper lasts for those final 3 weeks leading up to your event. That's probably too long of a taper on a low-volume plan though, so my advice is to choose the first option.

Best of luck!

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

Hi Nate,

Can TrainerRoad iOS automatically control the resistance on a Vortex Smart or do I have to go the PC/Mac and ANT+ dongle route?

Also, if I want to run TR and Zwift at the same time, I read somewhere that I need two dongles. Is that right? If the first one is a TACX T2028 ANT+ dongle, does the second one have to be a different brand or should two T2028's work fine off the same machine?

- Ken

I can answer that. Yes it can. I setes have TR controlling my Vortex via the iPad app and have Zwift going getting data from my Powertap.

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I ride:
Cervelo - P-Series/R3
GT - Sensor Carbon Expert

Supporters - Flo Cycling, Mount Bikes

BayDad is right on both counts :). We can control your Vortext Smart and you will need another dongle. It doesn't have to be a different brand.

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

Hahaha. I play my Xbox360 on a 110 inch screen while riding. Mainly NHL 15 which is kinda tough. I get out of aero for key face offs and power plays. Sometimes my pace takes a hit. However, when I play MX vs ATV and do a race, I am usually pulling back. Something about the race is making me go faster.

Nate, glad to hear you guys are getting ready to launch the android app. If winter got here without the app, I was prepared to start a first world problems thread and bitch.

Thanks!
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