A couple weeks ago I found out about a site called trainerroad.com. It's a site that uses data collected from equipment like a HR monitor, cadence/speed sensor and power meter (if you have one) to determine metrics like LTHR (lactate threshold heart rate), FTP (functional threshold power) and other things that I'm finding are part of the cycling vernacular. All this can be useful, but the other thing the site provides is training plans, such as base building, power and endurance, etc. While I'm sure that I could make significant gains in cycling simply by piling miles on the trainer, if I can have focused workouts, it could probably go a long way to maximizing the benefit I'd receive.
For the past few weeks, as I get closer to the 24 week countdown (Feb 5) before Lake Placid, I've been formulating my training approach for that timeframe. One of the things I've been contemplating is exactly how to mix/match running with cycling - and I think the answer I've settled on is to treat cycling very similarly to running, as they are both 'build the engine' activities. One of the followup questions, then, is 'what workouts do I do?' - and that is where something like the workouts on trainerroad.com can come in.
Until I discovered the site, I was planning on mimicking run workouts on the bike - LSD, intervals, threshold, etc. While that may be effective, if I can follow workouts that do things such as basebuilding, etc that have been designed/used by other cyclists, I stand a better chance of optimizing the returns on the effort. And the best part is that trainerroad.com only costs $10/month. The downside is that I had to order an ANT+ USB stick that my equipment (HR monitor, cadence/speed sensor) was compatible with. That was an easy $30 fix, however.
So today was the first time I had a chance to actually follow a workout. I decided to start with a baseline type workout called the 8 minute test. Basically, it is a series of warmups followed by two 8 minute speed tests intended to be performed at maximum sustainable effort. Then, using some magic calculations, it comes back and tells you what it predicts your LTHR would be.
Once I got things all sorted out and fired up the workout, the first thing I noticed was that it wanted a warmup at what seemed to be a random target HR - 117 if I remember correctly. I could change the intensity of the workout, but I had no idea whether it was already going to be killer or not, so I kept it where it was. In fact, the whole routine seemed to be driven by target HR, aside form the high cadence warmup section where it was looking for a target cadence as well. I tried my best to follow the target HR's, but in some sections I was bouncing around a lot - I still tend to take a while to zero in on a specific HR, so any of the short bursts were the equivalent of a hail mary pass for hitting the target HR. For the first 8 minute test, I took things a tad conservatively, because at the end I still had more in the tank - but I've found I'd rather do that and up the intensity than overdo it and have no idea how much to lower the intensity to get it right. For the second 8 minute test, I increased intensity, but my HR was overshooting the target, so I eased up a bit to bring it back down.
In the end, it said my LTHR should be 136, as opposed to my user inputted value of 150. I decided to stay with the 150 because I've done an hour of cycling at a HR of 150, so I know 136 is low. This tells me two things - I could have pushed harder, and I shouldn't necessarily go by target HR (although that is probably workout dependant). I'd expect that over time, I'll either figure out how to compensate, or my parameters will zero in to something more accurate that represents fitness level.
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