I’ve done a couple of workouts that have form drills - where you have to sprint out the saddle, but at low power (if I understand them correctly!).
This just doesn’t work in ERG mode - I’ve tried both a high and a low cadence and it just spins out immediately.
How to people do these? Do you do the whole work out with ERG mode off? On an iPad there’s not a quick way to turn ERG off.
Are they worth bothering with? Can’t see when I’d get out the saddle to sprint but maintain a low power?!
In a similar vein - one leg drills are tricky with a single sided Stages. What do people do here? I have a Hammer - so guess could use the Hammer power for these workouts?
I’m not sure about the ERG stuff but I have experience with single leg drills with a non-drive-side only Stages. It was mentioned on the podcast that completing the single leg drills is the icing on the cake not the actual cake. So you’re better off focusing on completing the intervals rather than worrying about doing the single leg drills.
I have a single sided PM as well. For the single leg stuff, I just do both legs at the same time so I complete the optional drills and improve form. Usually the drills are in quadrants so it isn’t usually too much to concentrate on.
I do the sprint drills, but stay seated, because as you noted its hard to do these in ERG mode.
Seated sprints are very helpful in my opinion, for example I frequently use them on group rides when someone in the middle of a paceline drops off and I need to bridge a small gap.
For one leg drills, I’m not going to bother doing them in TR. Instead Instead, I’ve been doing a lot of work in the gym to correct imbalances and increase strength. Currently working on improving hip hinging and glute strength with exercises like doing a “correct” single leg romanian deadlift:
After perfecting my single leg RDL form, I’ll probably retry some one leg drills in short TR workout like Dans. My left leg is a bit weaker than right, and I personally feel its better to focus TR workouts on FTP/metabolic stuff and leave imbalance issues to be fixed in the gym.
A couple of sprint tricks, since swapping to Resistance is not easy on mobile (I submitted a feature request for that to be improved).
Before your sprint, slow your cadence at least 5 rpm, but up to 15 rpm if you can. This will cause the resistance unit to increase. That gives you a harder setting to overcome during the initial part of your sprint. This works well for sprints around 5-15 seconds.
In stead of or in addition to the above, consider starting in a lower gear, and then shifting up as you continue to sprint. This only really works if you do it in the 2nd half of a sprint, where you commonly return to a seated position.
