Baird + 1 question and ERG question

Training
1

I hope I can get some help here and thank you in advance. Apologize if this question(s) has been asked. Using Power Match with Stages Power Meter.

  1. Regarding Baird +1 ( 7 x 1 min at 120% ftp with 30 sec recoveries): After finishing the whole workout (not very difficult - perception wise). My HR never got out of tempo ( about 6 bpm below my 40-60 min power HR). I’m rested and my cadence choice for these types of efforts is usually 95 - 105 rpm (I try to replicate what I do outdoors).

  2. I did notice that for many of the intervals, the average power was upwards of 8-12 watts lower than the targeted power per interval. I use a Wahoo Kickr 2nd generation and keep the chain on big ring (50) and middle of 11/28 cassette in ERG mode.

Q1: Regarding Baird, i’m naturally relatively more anaerobic biased- I’m just wondering if this workout is not helping me aerobically because my HR should be 181 for very , very hard efforts of 3-5 minutes. And as noted, HR never got out of tempo.

Q2. Is it a trainer issue that it won’t hold my target power? Or at least be only 2-3 watts off ± rather than 8-12 watts?

Thanks.

2

  1. They are only 60 second intervals at 120% of FTP (Top of VO2 Max), so they will be some work, but not terrible like a 3-minute version. The issue with this is the relatively short recovery and more tightly stacked aspect. That is how they work towards the aerobic demand/goal for the workout.

    • My first thought is that you may be really good at these, but more likely that your FTP may be a bit low, at least with respect to top end VO2 Max.
    • But again, the length of these on their own is actually quite short. I would expect to be a bit worked at the end of each full set, but it should be doable.

  2. See this post, and the related links to see how I like to explain the interval summary issues for short and sharp intervals.

3

I have same setup as you and found as others suggest using small front ring helps the erg mode converge to target better on short spike efforts.

4

How are you setting HR zones? This is what I use:

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And as you can see zone 4 is 11 beats below FTHR up to FTHR (depending on FTHR since it’s a percentage).

And this is how mine looked after Baird + 6, which is 5 x 1.5 min, so the HR will get higher for each set, but even then, just look at the distribution (the + 6 has 30 min zone 2 at the end, so I spend a good deal more time in zone 2):

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So for Baird + 1 your HR data looks like it fits, but your zone doesn’t.