Creative shifting or not ?
I'm doing my intervals in the JOS that I have had to restart due to medical.
So as I'm biking the sets range from MS 2x10 , 2x14, 2x20 ect, it changes as you move in on the OS or in season.
As I'm doing my sets I like to keep up a cadence of 85 to 90 , sometimes higher.
I want to break up the monotony of the sets by shifting into a harder gear , which will make my cadence drop and force me to apply
more pressure on the peddles. If I keep up the cadence that I just shifted out of my watts will be to high and causing long term over
achieving. I want to keep shifting every 2 min or so to harder gears then work it back the opposite way. I usually do the first main set
Z4 at my higher cadence then play the second set as listed above.
My thoughts are that , why not it effects different muscle fibers simulates outdoor conditions seems like a win win to me.
Is this a good idea ?
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Short answer: yes. Another way to shift things up a bit is to try Trainer Road. I've been doing the TR bike hack the past month, and find that, with very little creativity, the pre programmed workouts they have can be adjusted to become OS-type FTP and VO2 workouts. The TR WKOs have variations in effort level built into them, e.g., going from 95-102% of FTP, with various time lengths for intervals. It took me a week to understand what was going, but it's been worth it from an anti-monotony perspective. If you want to give that a try, but don't quite get it after exploring their website, ask here, and I'll give a few more details.
Also, try the Sufferfest videos. There is a link on this site somewhere to download them. Another good monotony buster. And there are always Spinnervals too.
EN Forum thread on TrainerRoad
Definitely I would recommend Sufferfest and Spinervals as another way to keep things mixed up. There are an absolute ton of Spinervals DVDs out there. I alternate between those, watching a movie on the trainer with my watch set to give me the intervals from the EN workout of the day, or going to the local tri shop for a Computrainer class.
That was my first reaction too but if your in this sport , I'd say we are all geeked out with toys of the trade !
Yes. My first impression was that it was just a way to display on a computer screen WKO metrics in real-time, which of course is what any head unit will do. But the system includes several other unique elements:
• A suite of pre-programmed workouts, scores of them, based on on'es FTP level, most in the range of 60-90 minutes long.
• A way to integrate with one's trainer; in my case, a CompuTrainer, the TR takes over control of the CT, and alters the resistence as needed during the course of the workout, thus providing pre-set recovery intervals, and the ability to modulate power levels during each interval.
• A very user-friendly display, which is easily seen by even the most presbyopic among us. Like some treadmills, it will show you not only your current watts, but what the upcoming and preceding workot pattern has been and will be. And it shows your current watts compared to the current goal watts, as well as HR, cadence, time left in the interval, time spent total in the WKO, etc.
• The ability to adjust pre-programed effort level. E.g., if a workout is set @ 90% of FTP, but I think it would be perfect for my day;s FTP workout if only it were a bit harder, I can just click an arrow to get it up to 100%. Also, the ability to stop at any location in the workout, and pick up again at a later point - a good option if I think the workout interval or the rest interval is too long - which Compu Trainer would not allow me to do.
• They make a big deal of coordinating somw workouts with SUfferfest videos, but I see that as too manhy moving parts. Others like it.
• The one big ask I have of the system is the ability to edit workouts - make intervals longer or shorter specifically, and adjust effort levels withith subsets of an interval - so that we could easily use the system in a more EN friendly mode.
All This for $10/month, no contract required, so you could just use it for the three months of winter, e.g.
Correct. I just set myself up a month ago because I had an old computer sitting in a closet so I put it in the garage with a nice 24" display right next to my 37" HDTV
As for changing up the cadence - a little variety is good and working slightly higher and lower cadences than your comfortable sweet spot may come in handy. Just remember that dealing with that boring monotony is also an important mental skill for IM racing.