I have my A race in August and have been training consistently for 6 months My FTP is progressing under the TR plan but my race is not an FTP test. It has a short 4 minute climb that is not hard really until my competition who is a multi world champion decides to hit the gas and I’ll need every once to hang on. Can’t tell AI in TR that can I? ChatGPT and I myself know I need 4 to 5 minute efforts at 120 over ftp … how can I direct TR to give me those? Or what suggestions does anyone have for TR intervals that might prepare me for 4 /5 minutes of 4 to 5 percent climb ?
Just find any workout with the required interval duration and suitable recoveries.
Don’t do the workout in erg mode. Do the first interval at about 95% of your best power for that duration and try to drop as little power as possible across the remaining intervals.
Even better, forget rigid workout structure and just do hill repeats.
If you really want to do some traditional VO2’s, you can “edit” any of the workouts on your calendar to get them.
Just click on the workout, and then click the edit pencil. From there, you can switch it to any type of workout you’d like.
I’d switch those anaerobic workouts to traditional VO2 and do whatever workouts we recommend, even if they aren’t 2 or 4 minutes specifically.
Personally, I’m happy to do these in ERG mode because TR is usually really good at setting the power target in a way that they are just hard enough that I am really struggling to finish each interval. ![]()
This, forget percentages of FTP. Who knows if your 4 minute power is 120% of your FTP? It may be more, it may be less.
Go find a quiet hill, with a good road surface, steady gradient (I like 3-4%), and no junctions. Warm up, then head up that hill at the maximum effort you think you can hold for 4 mins. Make a note of the land marks on the way up, and where 4 mins of that effort gets you. Turn round and descend the hill, drinking some water with carbs on way down. Spin the legs lightly to clear the lactate on the way down. Repeat somewhere between 4-6 times if you can. If you start an ascent and the legs are now dead, time to end the session and head home.
If your heart rate is getting into that 90-95% of max range after around 90 seconds or so, you are in the right ballpark. Hold it there, do not go above 95%; too much recovery needed vs. reward. Can’t push into that 90-95% range on subsequent ascents, again a signal to end the session.
Power takes care of itself, and the first ascent of each session calibrates the subsequent ascents. How far you get up the hill in 4 mins gives a real world and immediate assessment of how you are progressing.
