Adding variability to a sustained effort interval

I want to make all of my sustained intervals vary the (intra-interval) target power like Eclipse.

Do I have to recreate each interval (painstakingly) by hand in Workout Creator to achieve this? If so, may we have an option to add this variability to any intervals that are longer than X mins?

The Purpose: I want to develop my sustain power for MTB marathons but I feel like I’m training for a road TT when I do these long efforts on the direct-drive trainer in ERG mode. Adding a little power variability would break up the monotony and at the same time acclimate my muscles to the small gradient changes that you encounter on long off-road climbs.

I often tweak the standard TR workouts in the workout creator. Doesn’t take long at all if you use the TR workout as a base.

Other than that, I find adding standing drills for 30 seconds really helps. Drop my cadence in Erg mode to around 65-70 and I’m puffing by the time I’m back in the saddle. I think this rests certain muscles and brings other, less used ones into play.

Some workarounds to creating new workouts would be:

  1. Vary your cadence throughout the interval (95, 85, 75 rpm)

  2. Introduce standing (30 secs every X mins, 15 secs beginning every min)

  3. Put power into Resistance mode and change gears with cadence.

  4. Introduce quick 10 sec cadence spin ups. This will temporarily up the power until Erg catches up, then slowly drop into your natural cadence again.

If you turn off power smoothing you’ll see you’re actually getting quite a bit of variance even when it appears you’re pedaling smoothly. However, the above workarounds will give you even more variance.

In my testing between my Kickr Snap versus Quarq PM, see below how I varied cadences and gearing and how that effected the power:

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