šŸŽ‰šŸŽ‰šŸŽ‰ Introducing Outside Workouts! šŸŽ‰šŸŽ‰šŸŽ‰

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649

Is there any negatives to incorporating a workout into a longer ride?

This evening my workout was an hour and 15, but it was such a nice evening I ended up doing double that.

If I have 3 hours on Saturday morning for a ride and want to do a workout, but only select a 90 min workout, am I losing any of the benefit of the workout by doing some endurance after it?

I guess this question is probably more aimed at if you were on a specific plan.

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  • If your extended workout leads to excessive fatigue, that then means you arenā€™t able to meet the demands of the next workout, that is a problem.

The workouts are set with a progression in difficulty. Each week they increase in one form or another (intensity or duration usually) and are meant to gradually stress you more each week.

Additionally, if you get a big spike in one week, followed by a lower ā€œnormalā€ week to follow, you are messing with the TSS progression. Nothing is sacred, but these plans are set with a specific purpose in mind.

Altering them should be done with some thought to the implications. In general, any chance should be considered with how it will impact the next one or two workouts, if not the whole plan progression.

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651

Yeah thatā€™s kinda what I was thinking, during the summer though I tend to just do workouts rather than actual plans.

Itā€™s just when the weathers good in Ireland you have to just make the most of it and forget about the TSS!

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  • That can work, but unless you plan them appropriately (with good progression from week to week), itā€™s not something that can be counted on to give rewards.
  • Itā€™s marginally better than just ā€œridingā€ since they are actual workouts. But I wouldnā€™t expect to get the same payback as following a structured plan that was set with intention to build from one point to the next.
  • There is far more to building fitness than simple hours on the bike. Those hours need to be applied with direction or you get results like stagnation or regression.

If your goal is to actual build and gain fitness, Iā€™d suggest following a Low Volume plan (to keep plan structure), use the new Outside Workout feature (to maintain workout structure) along with some non-structured play/fun/hammer rides to keep the summer interesting.

This stands a better chance than simply winging it with random selections and no progression.

Edit to add: I am likely blending responses to various riders as there seem to be 2 or 3 discussions all closely linked, but slightly different. Juggling a few threads and confusing myself :stuck_out_tongue:

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653

Thatā€™s what I do during the winter, I always do a low volume plan as generally the weather allows for outdoor rides during the winter, I would try and add the Saturday workout into an outdoor ride and then Sunday for fun/endurance.

But during the summer I do an 18 week club league, some open racing at weekends, so I tend to just go for rides on the other days I get out.

But now with the new outdoor workout feature, Iā€™m much more inclined to actually do workouts, I just didnā€™t want to limit my time on the bike to the length of workouts. I want to be able to enjoy the summer too if that makes sense.

I think I will do a low volume plan and see how it goes.

655

Hi, there seems to be a bug that bites when you mark certain workouts as ā€œoutsideā€ when setting up a training plan and then delete initial weeks and pull the remaining weeks. The descriptions of those outdoor workouts show very very very low wattages.

Longer version: I set up the half ironman build plan, marking the latter two bike workouts in each week as ā€œoutsideā€. Then I cleared weeks 1&2 as well as 7&8 and pulled week 3 back in order to end up with weeks 3-6 instead of 1-8. In the week starting July 8th the description of Carpathian Peak+2 is:

Warm Up:

  • Ride for 18 minutes gradually raising your power from 2 to 3.
    Main Set:
  • 3x16 minute over-unders. Where 1 minute is at 3 followed by 3 minutes between 3-3 repeated for the 16 minutes. Then recovering for 10 minutes easy after each interval.
    Cool Down:
  • 5 minutes easy.

Similarly, Cloud Peak (=Pettit) says ā€œ- Settle into 50 minutes between 1-1 watts.ā€ It gets a lot more challenging a couple of weeks later: ā€œ- Settle into 50 minutes between 10-12 watts.ā€
The workouts that I set up as indoor are fine, i.e. their outdoor versions show correct wattages, as do indoor versions of the above (e.g. Pettit peaks at 202 w).

The deleting and pulling probably matters because I did a similar operation with Specialty (deleting weeks 1-3 and pulling the rest 3 times). The outdoor workouts descriptions were fine before the operation but the same problem occurred after.

Paging @Tommy and @bnied :slight_smile:

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656

Thatā€™s the ultra-recovery version of Pettit :joy:

Thanks so much for pointing this out, @kajet! It looks like trying to push/pull any planned Outside Workout breaks the power targets in the text-based version and changes them to these super low values. Iā€™m writing up a bug report for this for Brandon to review next time heā€™s in the office.

Thank you again, we certainly appreciate your diligence!

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I love ultra-recovery. :wink:

@kajet, it looks like refreshing the page will fix this. That said, weā€™ll still try to get it fixed but in the meantime, a quick Ctrl/āŒ˜ + R to refresh your Calendar should be an easy workaround. Thanks for pointing it out!

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658

@Tommy @larry Thanks a ton for the quick reaction, a refresh did restore the good old ā€œhigh intensityā€ Pettit and other triple-digit power levels :smiley:

Itā€™s not diligence as much as the fact that I use the workout descriptions to see whatā€™s in store for the week and to execute the simpler workouts outside. Iā€™m a bit 20th century that way :wink:

659

Could someone please post a picture of a Garmin Edge 530 unitā€™s workout screen, during a workout?
I havenā€™t been able to find any online. Have only found pictures of the workout description.
I have en Edge 1000 and find it to be lacking some useful info in the workout screen. Especially whatā€™s coming up.
Also, does anyone know if its possible to pause the workout without pausing the ride itself`.
(Iā€™m thinking about buying a 530, but not if the WO features arenā€™t any better than the 1000ā€™s)

660

I had problems with Galena yesterday. It seems like the first 30 minutes of the workout werenā€™t loaded to my Garmin. What could the problem be?

https://www.trainerroad.com/career/anirudh/rides/58761411-galena

661

I realize that you get asked this every few days, but very curious about the future of outside workouts on Wahoo given the Sufferfest acquisition news. Is that still a feature us Wahoo users can look forward to?

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662
  • Wahoo integration with outside workouts is still on and in the works.
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663

Is Outside Workouts available for all now or still as an ā€œearly accessā€ feature only?

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Available for all!

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665

Really loving the outdoor workouts! I think the indoor ones are more efficient since you donā€™t have to deal with interruptions (ex: traffic, intersections, etc.). But the fact I can do the workouts outside makes me more enthusiastic about doing them! And itā€™s more fun as well! :slight_smile:

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Video coverage from @tariqhali .

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667

Hi TrainerRoad Team,

great job on the outside workouts. Have used a few times now since release and all working really well. Two pieces of feeedback I;d like to submit.

  1. Would be ace if you could do ā€˜outsideā€™ workouts for the warmups (Cajon, Laurel, Ramp Test etc. Not to be done on the road but to be done on the trainer in the car park but ā€˜outsideā€™ so that we can use our head units instead of fiddling with the phone. I say this as my phone is old and unreliable.

  2. When about to start some sprints, it would be good to do a 10 or 20 second countdown lap to the sprint in order to get ready. So instead of 3 mins rest then a 15 second sprint do 2:40 rest, 20 seconds ā€œget ready to sprintā€, and then the 15 second sprint.

Thatā€™s all. Keep up the great work.

Chris.

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Hi Nate & Co

Iā€™ve tried it a couple of times for different types of workouts. So, a bit of feedback.

First, its a great feature with long-term potential. Not without itā€™s issues, for me at least which is stopping me using it more,

Iā€™m using it with a 520 atm, and the text is quite small, for my eyes at least, Looking to move to a 1030 so that hopefully will alleviate that. Though putting the power range in bigger text would help.

Big issue, which had be swearing at the screen and ending my session early is the low power warning. Itā€™s making it unusable.

Itā€™s not always easy to find a safe flat road, many have bends, dips, rises etc. After a few seconds of the power going under range for an interval the edge beeps and the power warning comes on. Problem is that itā€™s full screen overlay and stays on for 5 seconds. During that time road conditions change and I havenā€™t got a clue what power Iā€™m putting out.

I know what the power range is Iā€™m trying to hold. Is it possible to either turn the warnings off, or at least the full screen layover. Just beeping at me to let me know would be ok.

But to essentially block the screen is a bit overkill.

Thanks

Stephen

669

Yup.

I think the majority of your complaints are all things TR has no control over. Text size, full-screen alerts: thatā€™s all Garminā€™s doing. Hopefully you will get a cleaner experience with the 1030 :+1:

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