Looking for Feedback on my effort in Jepson

I’m pretty new to this whole structured training business as I’ve only been on TR since January. I’m really enjoying the workouts indoors on my Stages Bike especially using Erg to keep my efforts on-target. What I have noticed is the sprint type workouts are easy-ish for me. Take today’s Jepson workout below. I have no trouble hitting the requested power and so the rest of the sub-FTP efforts don’t strain me. So I started messing with my cadence to see what would happen during the sprints. The last set is the only one where I really “pegged” it, starting from a low 60rpm cadence just to “put more” into my legs and hopefully “help” the trainer respond to the sprint.


So what I’m wondering is - Am I approaching this session properly? What would you recommend I change or do differently?
—Note I understand ERG and sprints are a bad combo—
Side note - I’ve wondered if it makes sense to put a “1-2 second step” in these sprint work-outs to help ease the transition into the sprint for the rider and trainer. Could do the same on the back-end to help the trainer maintain and reduce the “abruptness” of the drop post-sprint.
Thanks for your insight,
SuperSArni

Nice work!

I’d suggest doing this workout in resistance mode instead of erg. Then you can sprint to your hearts content

I did this workout today. Congratulations, looks like you had a great session :+1:

I’m not sure I’d tell you to do anything differently. In fact, I think we both approach the bursts in a similar fashion. I do use ERG for all of my workouts and I, like you, drop my cadence down before each burst. I find that this gives me more muscle activation.

In a hard group ride or race, you can find yourself in the ‘wrong’ gear yet you still have to get the power down and get on top of the gear.

I would say that I don’t suffer from any knee pain and I track my knees during every workout. What works for me might not be the best or advisable for another rider.

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Opinions are pretty evenly divided on that one.

I guess I’m confused. Yes you can try to sprint with erg, but it will correct you within a couple seconds. Perhaps changing gears will give you an additional challenge initially, but it’s still going to try to elastic snap you back to the target. How can you sprint properly with erg?

That’s a fair point Russell and that’s what I’m guess I’m wondering. Is the focus of the work-out to hit the power number in the sprint (which is too easy for me in this case) or to actually get after it and SPRINT ? These are only 10 second efforts, so I was trying to split the difference a little here and that’s where I started tinkering with cadence.

IMO ERG mode is troublesome for sprints under 10 seconds. I can hit 800W+ pretty consistently but it takes a moment to get there. Often these work-outs just “FLIP” to a power number and when it’s lower like in this work-out I just blow right past it. It’d be nice if the spikes were more of a step (say 1 second 400W, 1 second 600W, then peak) and maybe that’s easier to do just using resistance. I’m super I’m misunderstanding something, but I’m willing to work!

just to make sure i’m clear, I prefer erg on all efforts, even 10 second “sprints.” I think the difference is the definition of sprint or really the degree of a sprint. Not all sprints are mean to be all out. You can do the workout how you want, but just because there is a spike in the anaerobic zone doesn’t mean do it as hard as you want. When I do ebbets or jepson, I look at these as surges, not sprints. When I do something like Spanish needle, it’s more of a sprint, but a controlled one, and yes, I use ERG for Spanish Needle. What I think you are doing is trying to go ALL OUT for 10 seconds. If so, I see ERG as limiting your ability to do that because it will snap you back. It’s not as much about how fast erg reacts to the initial effort, it’s more how it reacts to that effort. My interpretation of this workout is it’s just a surge at the prescribed power, not an all out sprint.

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Good point, surge makes sense. I’m primarily a mtn biker so I see those peaks and I’ve been treating them as the quick-spin to get over an obstacle. But I’m in SSBLV-2nd round so surge makes more sense.

I know that the ‘effort’ registers as SPRINT in the TR workout but, I don’t see these efforts as sprints. As I believe Coach Chad says in the workout text, they’re purely muscle activation. Can you activate a lot of muscle in that very short timeframe and then settle back into a sub/threshold effort?