Mark Taylor said:

@Eloy , did you register for Farmers Daughter?

I did not. I can see it sold out! ouch! oh well.

Did you ride HoH? Wanna head out to Natchaug Epic this Sunday?

HOH , was awesome , day started out at 31 degrees , finished at 61 degrees, Great day , hence my excitement to do Farmers daughter ,only to see it sold out last night,
Don't think i can get away this weekend ,but want to do other events , i'm thinking D2R2 ?

Mark Taylor said:

HOH , was awesome , day started out at 31 degrees , finished at 61 degrees, Great day , hence my excitement to do Farmers daughter ,only to see it sold out last night,
Don't think i can get away this weekend ,but want to do other events , i'm thinking D2R2 ?

Responded to this here
https://forum-archive.kissenacycling.com/discussion/1312-p2.html#Comment_102792

Started back training in earnest about 4 weeks ago and for the first time have followed the training 26week stage race plan fairly well (or at least much better than ever before).  Just had my FTP test last night and bumped it up 12% from 4 weeks ago.  Another 12% bump over the next 4 more weeks may be a stretch, but one can dream!

Why the 26 week stage race plan you ask?  GMSR 2019.  That's right.  I'll draft an email soon to get the interest going.  Best 4 days racing a bike.

Been using a plan for a few weeks now.  It's good.

One day last week, I found the workout on my Wahoo Elemnt Bolt's screen after I turned it on.  The same had not happened before and has not happened since.  While it's a bit creepy, I kind of liked it.  

How can I get this to happen regularly?  And can I refer to it while I'm riding?

https://help.trainingpeaks.com/hc/en-us/articles/115001353912-Sync-workouts-from-Wahoo-ELEMNT-and-ELEMNT-BOLT-to-TrainingPeaks

Tim Cusick
TrainingPeaks WKO4 Product Leader
Velocious Cycling Adventures
717.515.5382 / tim@wko4.com

TimCusick said:

https://help.trainingpeaks.com/hc/en-us/articles/115001353912-Sync-workouts-from-Wahoo-ELEMNT-and-ELEMNT-BOLT-to-TrainingPeaks Tim Cusick TrainingPeaks WKO4 Product Leader Velocious Cycling Adventures 717.515.5382 / tim@wko4.com

Tim,
     Isn't this how my ride files already go from my Wahoo to Training Peaks?  Seems I've already done that.  

     As I mentioned before, in the recent past, only a single workout description went from my TP account to my Wahoo.  I'm thinking maybe I there was something else going on.

This works for me on my Wahoo quite flawlessly. 

If you are racing Saturday, let's discuss post race.

Meanwhile, are you in the latest firmware? what do you see under 'planned workouts' (in the wahoo, quick click the left side button, then navigate to 'planned workouts' using the right side buttons...)

It should work smoothly, well tested and used.  Might need to check with Wahoo support.  

@eloy @TimCusick

Thanks! 

That does it.  Though nothing is there, which I assume is because tomorrow is a day off.

Hope everyone doing well!  Been traveling a lot and just checking in if any questions or if anyone needs anything, let me know. 

Thanks for checking in, Tim...

Just finished the first 4 week block of the 80/20 FTP program.

Tested this morning, ended with about 20 more watts in the 5 minutes, and about a 10 watts FTP improvement. 

Heading into the Bear Mountain Spring Classic this Saturday. Still not sure if it'll be enough, but the 5 minutes bodes well for the Tiorati climb.

Wondering about the next block, specially the days that have a morning and an afternoon workout. Simply, I wont be able to both. Should I try to do a little more in the morning?

workouts from the past 4 weeks...

I've been following the half-year plan with some modifications for some time now and have seen some big improvements. I have time on the weekends so I've done a good deal of 4.5-5.5 hour rides but have used the weekday workouts fairly religiously. I also have been using a ramp-test to assess fitness for the past year so I sub those in on assessment weeks. 

From the start (after a long break) in December to last month, I improved by about almost 40w on my ramp-test! I tested about equal to where I was in July last year at the TNN camp and I don't feel too sharp yet. The recovery weeks are super effective. 

I'm super happy with how things have been going and I'm excited to head into the Killington Stage Race in a few weeks! 

@TimCusick Last week I threw out my lower back. I don’t have a specific diagnosis given that the back doctor did not think I needed and MRI yet (he said to come back in two weeks if I was still in pain). Last week on’t know if it is simply muscular or a herniated disc. I was pretty it was painful to get up and down from standing and putting on socks was agonizing. Since then, I have gotten better every day with regular acupuncture, chiropractic, epsom salt baths, back exercises/stretches and anti-inflammatory meds. I now feel more tightness/discomfort rather than pain. 

Any suggestions from your experience? It kills me to loose all my fitness, as I was in a pretty good place, but I would rather take it slowly than risk throwing my back out again. I figure I will try some active recovery and endurance rides and monitor how my back responds. If my back continues to be okay I will slowly start to increase intensity. Thoughts?

Eloy - yes, do as much as you can in the morning.  I write those AM/PM blocks to really push a peak but life is always the limiter...till you go pro :-) 

Robert!   Great stuff! 

Patrick - sorry, that sucks.  Here is my advice, don't win a battle and lose the war. You can ride through so many injuries on a bike but if you think it is a disc, I would not push through as the damage cycling can do to a disc is big.  My advice is to let your body heal.  When you ride through painful injury two things occur.  1.  You protect or guard at the muscular level.  Training through a specific injury can really worsen imbalances and lead to other injuries.  2.  Your immune system is busy trying to heal your body / injury.  What most people do not consider is your immune system is responsible for the adaptation to training (think about it all training damages your body, it is the healing that makes it stronger).  When compromised, less response to training occurs. Best bet is to play it safe. 

Hey @TimCusick what have you observed to be a sustainable calorie deficit as a % of total?

Hi @TimCusick, left you a massage in your inbox. I'm not sure you've seen it. Thanks!

If you'd like to sign up for a training plan, go here to get the full lowdown: https://bit.ly/2EsjYjR or you can cheat and just do this:

Ok gang, it's time for me to jump into a training plan.

Thank you @JohnMalcolmson for the helpful, I've watched the introduction video, I've read half of this discussion channel threads, I have a trainingpeaks account and I've looked at the different training plans from Velocious.

I was thinking about the Full Season plan. Is this the recommended way to start? Any thoughts about which plans would work best for someone like me who hasn't constructively trained before?

Peace upon you my beloved Moroccan mountain goats.

@DotanGreenvald , do you have a goal or target event you are planning on doing? that could choose the plan

I don't have a goal like a race or a grad fondo or something. However, I do want to be in shape where I can go 22mph on the flats easily. I would like to improve my climbing and descending skills. Eventually I will race too. But for now - I just want to better my fitness.

DotanGreenvald said:

I don't have a goal like a race or a grad fondo or something. However, I do want to be in shape where I can go 22mph on the flats easily. I would like to improve my climbing and descending skills. Eventually I will race too. But for now - I just want to better my fitness.

Based on the goals you state "22mph in the flats" "Improve Climbing". I would agree that the Full season plan could be a good place to start, altho it would put your peak super late in the actual season, around October/November.

Full season.
https://www.trainingpeaks.com/training-plans/cycling/road-cycling/tp-100676/1-4-full-season-plan-with-coggan-classic-training-levels-power-hr-pe-8-12-hrs-we

Master Full Season.
https://www.trainingpeaks.com/training-plans/cycling/road-cycling/tp-122628/3-4-masters-full-season-plan-classic-training-levels-power-hr-rpe-8-12-hrs-wk-st

If you think worth considering something shorter...

12 Weeks to Crushing the Local Group Ride
https://www.trainingpeaks.com/training-plans/cycling/road-cycling/tp-108763/12-weeks-to-crushing-the-local-group-ride-classic-levels-structured-workouts-pow

Once you selected a plan, please let Debi Martin <debi@wko4.com> know which plan you want, she'll return a code that will let you purchase the Training Peaks plan for $0. Use the subject line "Kissena Code Request"

Obviously, you will need a Training Peak account. 

A caveat, you will manage to go 22mph in the flats, but it might never be "easily".

Let's go ride bikes!

@eloy I loaded the plan, tomorrow, while sharp, we can discuss this further. I have some questions.

@DotanGreenvald you forgot to add “while eating cookies”

That's a given

I've been riding religiously according to the Full Season training plan. I love it. I get up every morning for an hour ride, where I follow the plan and meet the goals. Thank you @TimCusick for this very detailed program.

I work with a heart rate monitor and even though the exercise fully accommodates HR, I can't find instructions on how to set my zones right.

• How should I set the threshold values? 
• What are we using to auto calculate Heartrate Zones?  Lactate Threshold / Maximum Heartrate / Max and Resting Heartrate / LT and Maximum Heartrate?
• Which method to use (Andy Coggen for example)?

I have set my heart rate Zones a while ago, but I want to recalibrate them. Next week on my training plan is Test Week: VOMax2, FTP Test, Anaerobic capacity test and a Sprint test.

Peaches and cream,
Dotan

The instructions for the plans are on the 1st day of all Tim's plans.  Open the Training Plan Instructions and click on the Training Plan Instruction Guide link.  This is a 6 page guide on how to set threshold etc.  
During your 20 min test next week...take the average heart rate for the last 15 minutes.  We use Andy Coggans method. 
b. Heartrate: Average heart rate during last 15 minutes of test

I know power meters are pricey but they are coming down...and training with power vs. heart rate is so much more effective.  Your heart rate will spike with too much caffine...stress..and a number of things...how do you know if you are going hard enough?  

Thank you for your speedy response @KathyWatts1 !

But I still have questions about this process. The instructions in the booklet refer to Power meter settings. The auto calculation in power is done by threshold power formula (and then you choose a method), yet in the heart rate settings, you have 4 types of auto calculation formulas to choose from: Lactate Threshold / Maximum Heartrate / Max and Resting Heartrate / LT and Maximum Heartrate. So which one should I use? Second question, "During your 20 min *test* next week...take the average heart rate for the last 15 minutes" you mean FTP test, correct? And third, I tried to edit my data using the Trainingpeaks charts, but it requires a premium account. Is there a way to calculate my average heart rate from the last 15min of the test? 

Best of all the gold in the world,
Dotan