Thanks for feedback. Yeah, I guess we’ll see how things go. I’m just in the first week (did my ramp test last Thursday) and the Tues/Thurs workouts this week felt really good, I couldn’t ride Wednesday, so I was really fresh for tonight and was able to close out the workout with 30 minutes of tempo. I’ll see how I’m responding a few weeks in and adjust from there.
I’m going to try to keep my long Saturday ride and see how things go. I’ll try to get in some structured FTP work (I have an hour+ solo ride to get to the group ride) and then I can get some smaller blocks where where the group has fast sections and climbs. I also sometimes bring my XC MTB on these group rides when it’s a flat route, so I’m just grinding it out all day. You’d be surprised how much it smooths out the power compared to using a road bike where you are sitting in the pack. Normalized power is only ~20-30 watts higher than riding my road bike, but average power is much higher. It’s almost like riding the trainer with very little coasting. Really great training for long MTB or gravel races.