Turbo Time

The clocks went back last weekend and it’s at this point in the year that inevitably sees an upturn in my time spent on the turbo.

I like riding in the dark, I’ve even arranged a gravel ride to do just that in November, but I do struggle to mentally make myself get out after work when it’s dark, particularly if I’m tired during the week. The turbo is attractive because I can just get on it and get the session done in quick time rather than changing into all my winter clobber and going out for 90 mins in the cold n wet.

So with turbo-training, I tend to focus on workouts rather than aimlessly riding. Zwift group rides were a good alternative but that relationship is still to be rekindled again at some point and is off-limits for now. For me its just MyWhoosh and a workout.

I have some go to’s I tend to repeat. Something I’ve found quite useful this year is repeating a basic VO2 max session and a strength workout weekly where possible. They’ve been particularly effective when I’ve tried to regain a bit of lost fitness after some time off or maintaining when I’m short of time.

My VO2 Max is quite simple. It’s not super-hard but hard enough for me for what I need. A simple warm up then 10 x 30 secs @ 125% FTP with a minute off. That’s a 30 min session. Quick, simple and effective for me.

The strength workout I find easier than I think it should be when I do it but I always have sore legs the next day so I know it’s worked

It’s a little more complicated than simple on-off intervals. After a short spin, I do 4 x hard 10 secs sprints then a 3 min Zone 2 effort. Then comes a 5 min Zone 3 effort which is always the guage to how I’m feeling. I can glide through it or struggle which tells me how I’ll find the rest of the workout but it’s always enough to deplete you a little to find the next bit a little bit harder than you think it will be. The efforts are broken down into 2 sections. The first section is 3 intervals @ 65rpm churning a low gear with a demand for more power and torque over 3 mins from Zone 2 to Zone 4. Each interval feels easyish for 90 secs then begins to bite and bite particularly hard for last 30secs and tests your brute strength as the lactic burn sets in. The 2nd section is similar but you pedal @ 75rpm and start at a higher power in Zone 3 and finish at a lower power but you maintain a higher average for longer and the rest is reduced by a minute too.

What I really struggle with on a turbo are long, hard intervals at a prescribed effort. A 20 min FTP test is my worst nightmare. I need short repeats or longer intervals broken up into smaller chunks, so I’m always looking for a quality session that fits that criteria and yesterday I found one.

I did this session yesterday and it had everything for me and will probably be a regular feature of my turbo repetoire this Winter now.

In headline terms it’s long and has 6 x 5 min intervals, something I normally wouldn’t touch but when you dig into the detail of it, the 4 main intervals are actually 5 x 1 min intervals in their own right and it’s that detail that made this mentally something I could cope with.

The numbers of intervals matter too. I look at that diagram and see 6 intervals. The first interval is fine, its Zone 2 and I’m fresh. The next 4 I breakdown by seeing the first one as the first bit of work. The 2nd is always slightly better because 1 is out of the way and I’m warmed up properly AND I’m at the half-way point. Interval 3 will be the hardest but I only have one more after and the last one I’ll always go deeper for if I have to because it’s the last hard one. The last 5 min Zone 3 block, I just hang on again for.

I way over think it but that’s literally how my mind works. 😁

This was such a good session. The 5 min work demanded 1 min @ 55rpm, then 65, 75, 85 then 95rpm for the final sprint. More power, more cadence meant loads to focus on rather than how I feel. Each interval was pretty taxing physically and when my legs were complaining 2 mins in, I questioned whether I would actually complete the set but because the current block was only a minute long, before things changed up, I didn’t get time to dwell on it as if it and I saw it out.

In the end, a long 75 min session in the bag @ 67 TSS (Training Stress Score) which is higher than sessions I normally do around 50-55.

I will definitely be going there again

Adios