Can you elaborate on the crit season and the way the preparation failed you?
Six races from the middle of January to the end of February. Two top tens, one 12 place, two bunch finishes and a complete out-the back solo. So half and half at best.
I lacked snap. I could put the power out but it was always a second or two too late. Out of a corner, that’s a life time. Looking back, I needed more micro bursts. 15 seconds on, 5 seconds rest. Quick fire. I don’t chase the breaks, I’m too lazy, I hop wheels. Yet I focused too much time on efforts that enable you to do just that. Whilst I’m sure the training made me a more rounded racer, you need to have the mentality to apply that learning. It’s a shortfall that I have to improve and experience will show if it’s something I’m capable of doing.
The training didn’t really let me down, if the truth be told, I’m not experienced enough to apply everything I learned. With time I’ll learn to tweak the plans and ensure that I train my weaknesses as well as sharpening my assets.
Ha! I wouldn’t go that far.
Thanks for your original post, though. I haven’t been feeling great recently and wasn’t too happy about my fitness. I hadn’t really bothered looking at the numbers.
Couldn’t agree more
Headunit integration? Just leave another emoji to confirm lol otherwise no teasing us!
You big tease. 
The hints you guys dropped at the end of last week’s podcast are quite interesting as well.
I’m honestly surprised more people haven’t mentioned them.
Sounds like we have a big week ahead for TR 
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he keeps dropping bombs…
https://www.strava.com/activities/2225351281
Hopefully tomorrow’s podcast will reveal more!
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my schedule forces me to do just that and I’ve made great gains over the last 6 months by being consistent.
@nagge Thank goodness you say that - it is exactly what I am experiencing. Been doing TR inside through to Sustained power build for TTs, but really feel I have missed riding hills outside. I also find I am being dropped in the weekly group ride on hills, where I would not expect to be. Also I am finding the ramp test miles away from my FTP (Ramp test says 222W, whereas I can train in TT position assuming an FTP of nearer 240W).
two years ago I was training for hilly sportives, but I feel I am missing that hill climbing ability even though I am training for longer TTs this year.
Thanks for your input
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similar except ramp test was giving me 190W estimate of ftp, while I could do 225-240W sweet spot work. In my case it was loss of vo2max, and in February I did some vo2max work and that resulted in a ‘good’ ramp test two weeks ago (in early March).
Over the past couple years I’ve hand entered several TR workouts into my Garmin and do them outdoors. Its pretty simple if you set them up on Garmin Connect then sync to the head unit, but it is labor intensive enough that I’ve limited myself to about a dozen workouts. Once you get the intervals in there, it runs out on the road almost exactly like it does inside the TR app. If I do a TR workout using the Garmin, it looks just like Nate’s Stava link he posted - even including going back and forth on a well suited road 
It sure would be nice if they have figured out a way to let subscribers download workouts without putting their product at risk of pirated distribution.
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well I have an older pioneer model, not sure what they have for workouts, never looked into it enough. But if they do announce something today it might make my garmin vs wahoo decision easier!
as for fear of riding outside for fitness, I’ll admit I’ve opted to ride inside on beautiful days so I can get a quality workout, but I’m going to try and change that mentality this year and just go out and ride lots when it’s nice. I got into cycling in part to enjoy the outdoors and get fresh air, and while training indoors is rewarding, I have to make sure I connect with what makes cycling fun, and it’s just being out.
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The issue I have outdoors is finding roads to do 8-12 minute SS intervals. Living in Texas the best I have access to is rolling hills. 2-3 minute VO2 max intervals I can do but there are no sustained climbs and finding a stretch of urban road to do 10 minutes un-interupted is pretty difficult. Tips from others in this situation are welcome. For this reason I think I will continue to do some indoor training just for the longer intervals since my goal is to travel to Colorado for some serious climbing.
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I’m in love with Zwift and all my trainings and races are in winter inside season. Summer is my time for recovery and fun rides 
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Cheers, Not just me then :). And that is my revised plan as well - and doing some hill work now the weather is (hopefully) staying nicer.
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In urban environments you need to get creative, not think in straight lines and be willing to do laps. For example I have a 2.2 mile loop in a subdivision that 9 laps out of 10 I can go without slowing at all that is my go to workout course. This route would not really be self evident unless you studied a map but it is pretty close to perfect. Its about a 20 minute ride from my house so it works out well to either do that whole ride as a warm up/warm down or squeeze in one less than ideal interval on the way to save time. Office parks are another great option as they are usually pretty empty in the evening or on weekends.
It helps coming from a swimming background. I cut my teeth training 4 hours a day repeating 15-20 second laps so cycling the same ground every 5-10 minutes for an hour or so is nothing
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Good thoughts. My solo weekday routes do tend to go through office and warehouse districts where there is less traffic in the evening. I can try that although even there I have to deal with intersections where I need to at least be prepared to stop if necessary. I also have a couple of loops like you mention that would work early AM or evening. It’s easier on the weekends where I can drive out of the city far enough to get to rural roads where I can do several miles at a time with no stops. Thanks!
I used to live in the downtown of a large city so getting TR outside was never usable or of interest to me.
Now I live in a place that is flat, flat, flat with nothing but long straight roads, no stop signs, and most importantly no vehicles. Perfect for intervals of any sort. It’s like riding a trainer but outside.
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Same. Only negative is the roads are really bad, but the positives outweigh the negatives.
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