On one hand you “feel” like you should be doing more on ramp tests but when it comes to the regular workouts you say you’re suffering. Perhaps this is an indication that you’re doing more than enough. And if anything perhaps you’re pushing yourself too hard?
What if we said you’re brilliant exactly where you are. And it’s ok to dial back the numbers and enjoy the workout at 90% instead of 99%?
Perhaps inappropriate, perhaps a little confronting but I would ask any athlete including myself;
Do you experience self doubt or self loathing? Do you often feel like you should have or could have done more? Do you ever feel like you’ve let your self down?
If so this is the area I would focus on. Not the watts or the intervals or the podiums.
Very often, I close my eyes and imagine myself riding. I have one section of trail and two sections of road that I normally think about, but it can vary. Sometimes, I’m by myself. Sometimes, I’m chasing other riders (in my head). This could obviously be done with POV videos, but I’m using my aged iPhone, so it struggles.
I may switch between ERG and Resistance just to get different feels.
I have been surprised by how much music helps. I often listen to podcasts, but if a podcast ends mid-workout, I will usually switch over to music and it’s actually pretty neat to experience the change in RPE.
When the interval is over, I pretty much make myself keep pedaling for another 30 seconds, per Chad’s recommendation at some point. Most often, once I get through that 30 seconds, I’m actually OK to keep going.
And for what it’s worth, I definitely agree that it shouldn’t always be that hard. For a short time years ago, I got pulled into the trap with weightlifting (and cycling workouts a little, too) that it should hurt every time. Not true. Do work. Struggle. Enjoy it. Don’t run yourself into the ground.
I think every time I finish a ramp test, after about 20 seconds, I think I could have gone on one more step!
I train whilst watching films with subtitles on. The higher intensity intervals are much easier when it’s a dramatic action scene, so sometimes I’ll cue it up to try and time it with the hard part of the interval.
My personal movie moment is Avengers Endgame, near the end, when a certain hero appears and shouts ‘bring me …’ that’s normally enough to get me through another minute or so
I do a lot of weird mental math while I’m doing hard intervals to distract my mind. I’ve found that most of my failures are usually resultant from mental stamina/toughness rather than an actual physical limitation. I’ll just take the interval length and try to chop it into fractions and keep myself busy that way. E.g If i’m doing a 6.5min interval I’ll break it into sixths, and focus on the 6x 1:05 chunks, or I’ll get through the first 30 seconds, and break the next 6 minutes into 4x 1:30 chunks or do 1:30 and focus on 4x 1:15, etc. The harder the interval, the shorter I’ll make the chunks. This morning I was doing 70/60s, so it was 10s, then 4x 15s.
I have the exact same self-doubts as the OP — I bet we all do. Hard is hard. It just is.
I rarely bail on an interval, but you can be sure I play every mental game in the book.
I count to 10 in my head. Once on the hoods, then again in the drops, then again just sitting straight up.
I look at my shoes.
I turn the volume up on my earbuds.
I never look at the power on the screen, or HR. Knowing the number doesn’t change the reality of the workout. I have black construction paper covering those metrics on my wall-TV. Yes, I do.
I tell myself the most horrible things about my physique, toughness, or current weight. Poor @ambermalika – your sage advice to “be kind” simply doesn’t work for me in the depths of a rough interval.
exact same on my side. On really hard stuff, I have trouble doing my mental counts from 30 down to 1. I can forget the sequence of numbers and miss some.
Even a pre-schooler can count to 30, right? Put them at 110% of FTP and see what happens.
Probably why I struggle on hard indoor workouts is that there’s a timer. Outdoors I would NEVER have the timer up on my head unit, I’d go by target or average power and let the beep tell me I’m done. Not knowing makes a big difference.
To be honest the very best distractions I’ve found that aren’t external (ie music or watching racing) are:
Macro strategy - train when I’m motivated. Prep myself by taking carbs beforehand to committ myself to the work.
Meso strategy - for dealing with sets and repeats - spend alternating time at different positions and cadences. If I had say, 5*1min@vo2 in a set, I’d ride back of the saddle at 95rpm for the first, then shift forward and spin 105-110 on drops, then back, then forward, then reward myself for good form with a final minute standing. Suddenly 5 minutes at vo2 max just feels like one or two…
Micro strategies - inside the interval - Pedalling drills. This way you think: “oh it’s only a 20 count pushing over the top then I can give those muscles a rest and push down for 20”. Repeat.
I think a lot of people struggle with what you are mentioning. For me a couple things work. I usually watch a mindless TV series or race while I train. If it is a lot of intervals I might put a live set by a EDM (or punk/metal) band on the TV with the volume up. Pushing until the end of the song helps.
Here are a few other things
For the last set, I have a bluetooth speaker set up on the shelf next to my trainer. During the day I put together a playlist and have it set on Shuffle. When I feel like I getting towards the breaking point I press play on my phone the music starts, much louder than the TV. It’s a bonus if Iggy Pop’s Lust for Life is the first song. Shuffle keeps you guessing what the next song is.
Usually on the ramp test, the last couple minutes, I have to remind myself out loud “Whose one bad mother effer” hopefully my neighbors cannot hear that but sometimes we need to remind ourselves. Lots of people eating chips are on the couch and we are digging deep.
I do most interval work outside. I do better when I use landmarks to reach. I sort of have a 1 minute hill, 5 minute hill, 10 minute stretch of road etc…Once up to speed I nail power and then go more by feel with the occasional power check.
The other thing I do isn’t motivational per se but, if I’m struggling, I will take micro breaks from pedaling. Sort of just ease of the power for a second or two. For some reason it helps me keep power up…
Thank you, everyone, for your suggestions! I’m glad I’m not the only one.
Most workouts are fine, like SS, and I can deal with short intervals just fine (track sprinter is my forte). It’s things like long threshold intervals or over/unders that get under my skin. Coincidentally, since I’m so out of shape, the mass start races usually end up being like threshold intervals or over/unders the whole time just to not get dropped (damn you, genetics).
But, I could be kinder to myself too. Remembering that when I quit the ramp tests it’s usually because I’m dizzy from the oxygen debt, and that’s the whole reason I picked up cycling again (trying to claw back some aerobic capacity after COVID). Legs always have more strength to give, just gotta extend how long I can use it.
I will definitely check out the Brave Athlete book, since the comments about self-doubt are probably on the money.
Also I think it’s interesting how many of us do the mental math… I’m definitely in that club too . “Let’s see, 4 minutes left of this 15-minute interval… that’s about 70-73% of the way there?”
We all struggle - if somebody is not struggling, he’s just not training hard enough.
I employ similar strategies to what was mentioned:
don’t watch the timer - don’t know why, but seeing the time ticking, makes it much harder to keep the interval. For longer ones, I actually hide the TR app
longer intervals - action films - chase scenes, etc - whatever keeps your mind occupied
shorter ones - lots of song (max volume !)
rep by rep - just focus on the current interval. One at a time. Before you know it, you’re done
~20 tabs with videos that for some reason keep me focused - here is one of my favorite
focus on the breathing - started it recently, and it seems to really help
On a Mac, there is a TR option to ‘reduce’ the app to just a banner-size thing. I do that, then move it to the bottom of the screen. I have a piece of black construction paper which covers 90% of that app, showing only the ‘full workout’. For me, there’s nothing good that comes from seeing the data or even the ‘current interval’ graphic. In my little brain, that stuff just seems to exacerbate the pain.
In other words, I can still see the full workout moving along, and the ‘xx paired devices’ reminds me that it hasn’t crashed or something. To be fair, I can’t even remember the last time the app had issues. Years? (and I’m on the Mac Beta too…)
I echo what @Ukcarl had to say: THIS IS WHY I’M HERE.
I’m trying to grow, and change my body, and this will take some grit. I’m going to give it my ALL, and if I don’t hit the #s I hope for, that’s okay, I’m still BUILDING.
There’s too much credence given to “I’m shooting for 300w but I hit 285, so I completely failed”. No not really, some positive change will come from that. And then we figure out why we couldn’t hit 300 and go back to the drawing board.
And the tough intervals aren’t that long. And we know the pain stops in just a few minutes.
Have you tried chunking? By the 3rd or 4th vo2 interval I’m thinking, “Get to halfway” then “I can do that again!” halfway through, then step on the gas and finish strong.
It feels so good to feel dead but somehow complete the set or interval or whatever!
I try many things to distract me during hard intervals on the trainer.
lots of mental time gains. If I have a 5 minute hard interval I might mentally break it down in 2.5 minute chunks. I focus on the getting through that first 2.5 minutes and even that I might break it down to getting through 1 minute. I don’t stare at the time, I just glance over as I have my phone with TR running a little to the right.
Music on YouTube pick a song or playlist with a time that comes close to matching up with the interval time. Focus on the music video.
I agree with this. The after competition “I could have done more” is a really natural thought pattern but not usually realistic in my experience. I’ve done a personal best 40k tt that finished with be riding my bike into the ditch shortly after the finish line and dry heaving a bit. 30 minutes later I was taking in my recovery drink and pretty sure I could have done more in the last k
