A thank you trainer road, failure turned success story

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Hi all,

I started on trainer road in November using plan builder with a road race climbing specialty and kept pretty faithfully to the plan through Nov and Dec, missed a few sessions here and there and supplemented with ski touring as seasonally appropriate. I became disillusioned with TR right at the end of my build phase after failing a few workouts and also having to lower the intensity on workouts that had me doing 105% FTP for 8+ minutes (those are soul destroying, dont know why they exist). I ignored my calendar beeping at me last week and didn’t work out at all (so I missed the last two scheduled workouts of the plan, they were fairly low intensity ones, but I literally was done)

HOWEVER.

Went for a Saturday spin with a buddy this past weekend and absolutely smashed all the climbs. Took 35 seconds off my previous PR up a segment I’ve done loads of times (think its roughly 800m at 7%, a nice tester). Rolled up a 2km climb that had sections of 19% gradient that previously I’d have had to walk up, and it felt not exactly easy, but definitely like i had more in the tank. I am genuinely stunned, surprised and really really happy with the result. So this post is a thank you to the trainer road folks, you did what you said you’d do and helped me be faster. My FTP hasn’t moved a lot, I’m not heading for the pro peloton anytime soon, but I’m so happy with the real world outcome for my cycling. Woop!

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and it felt not exactly easy, but definitely like i had more in the tank

It doesn’t get easier, you just get faster :stuck_out_tongue:
Good job on the improvement!

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If you were doing Sustained Power Build, they kinda pop up out of no where without much preparation. I also found them difficult and challenging but I think the biggest benefits I noticed from doing these was the increased mental toughness and ‘RPE recalibration’. Threshold intervals suddenly didn’t feel so bad. :sweat_smile:

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I get that, VO2 max intervals are a lot easier now than before, the progression from 1 min to 2 mins 30 of them doesn’t feel as bad as it could! Still the 8-10 min one just over FTP i just really struggle to do, its a head wrecker.