I’ve been following a mid-volume training plan since mid November. Made it through Base 1, 2, 3 and General Build 1 without missing, failing, or reducing intensity on a single workout. Increased my FTP from 270 to 302. Once I got into the second half of General Build 2, I failed a couple Level 7+ VO2Max and Anaerobic workouts. No big deal I thought, as searching forums found plenty of people with similar issues, and these workouts are supposed to be brutally difficult from what I can tell.
Now I’m onto the Rolling Road Race specialty plan, and I seemingly cannot complete any of the Tuesday and Thursday workouts. The Anaerobic workouts like Mud Lake and D’Aujour are so difficult that I have to turn them down or I’m hitting my max HR even in rest intervals. I actually experienced muscle failure during the last 2 intervals of D’Aujour last week, which has never happened to me on the bike before.
Furthermore, the “attacks” VO2Max workouts like Iron Mountain, Martellese, Opheim, etc. I don’t understand these workout instructions or how to complete these. The Iron Mountain workout text says that the 6 second 150-200% FTP bursts are supposed to be done standing… OK. Then later in the text it says: “Try to keep your spin above 100rpm throughout the 2-minute intervals and shoot for 120rpm or higher during the bursts.” So I’m supposed to spin at 120rpm, while standing?? What happens in reality when I try these is I stand up and the power spike slows my cadence to like 60, and then when the interval ends it’s brutally difficult to spin my cadence back up to 100 to complete the rest of the 106% FTP interval before the next burst. When I first tried Iron Mountain last week I quit because I thought I broke my trainer or drivetrain. Today I failed Martellese.
If it helps, I’m doing everything in Erg mode. I’m 43 and I have only been training since last summer, but I try to have a great deal of consistency except for 6 weeks off the bike due to a surgery last fall.
Someone please give me some guidance as to what I’m doing wrong, and how I can either complete these workouts, or something else I can do to improve my anaerobic capacity. I feel like the Rolling Road Race specialty plan is not working for me at all right now. Had disappointing performance in a race last weekend, and actually dropped out of a planned race this weekend, because I just feel like I haven’t had any consistent training with all these failures.
Put the hammer down while standing, then sit and keep a high cadence. Don’t worry about exact numbers for cadence, or even power if you’re a few watts off. Try and do those workouts in resistance mode, ERG mode is complicated.
If you have the opportunity and terrain to do that, try to do them outside.
Thanks for the tips, I’m also confused about resistance mode as I actually tried switching to it during Iron Mountain last week and all that happened was that I could not turn the pedals… at all. I think it was set to the default of 60% resistance. I’ve never used resistance mode for workouts before so trying it on an advanced one was probably a bad idea.
I honestly don’t have a trainer to tell you how resistance works exactly or give you advice for a proper %, I’m sure someone will help you out with that technicality.
As for ERG mode, my take for higher efforts - above sweet spot - is that it makes it unnatural and sometimes unsustainable due to the constant resistance the machine - trainer - is offering.
When you’re not using ERG mode, means that if you soft pedal for 1 second, it’s 1 second of rest. 1 sec here, another there all you need to go over the inveral sometimes.
This is a particular opinion, some people prefer to do all in ERG, but I’m the opposite. Try and see what works for you.
That makes a lot of sense, I have definitely experienced the “clamp down” effect of ERG mode increasing resistance as cadence slows, like in the “muscle failure” reps of D’Aujour I described in my first post. 500+ watt intervals, slowing my spin due to fatigue, and then the resistance increases so much that I physically can’t turn the pedals forward anymore. I guess I need to play with resistance mode on some easier workouts to get the hang of it.
That’s precisely what happens. You alleviate to have 1 sec of relief and instead of relief, you have more resistance that you have to overcome. It’s terrible.
I really like ERG mode for workouts that have sustained efforts but for Vo2max and Anaerobic I have to do them outdoors or on resistance mode because like you said if you drop your cadence at any point you’re hosed. Resistance mode definitely takes some getting used to but it’s well worth doing for any of those workouts that require bursts of power.
@funsplosion do you have access to any fast group rides? If you do, I’d say just swap one of those workouts for an actual group ride and try to replicate the spirit of the session in the group ride. For example, try and get in a number of similar type of efforts whether you are instigating the attack, or responding ot an attack. The workouts in specialty phase are tough, and if you can knock them out then great, but I find great value in actually mixing it up in a group ride and going deep several times. Also, I don’t have a smart trainer so I have never used erg - but I understand that it doesn’t replicate real world variations in cadence and power output that you would experience in a race or outside training scenario. BTW, great job on those gains you made, very well done!
Yes I do. I’m in a club that does actual training races twice a week, the same days as these workouts actually! I haven’t been attending because we’ve had a pretty cold and nasty spring so far, but definitely will soon. Also good advice, thanks!
It looks like you struggled with your first couple of hard workouts shortly after your B race. That’s not too uncommon, and those attacking workouts like Martellese are super tough. I think I failed my first two like that..
Since you’re on a rest week this week (well deserved by the way), let’s see what happens with your hard workouts next week. It looks like Tuesday’s workout has been adjusted based on last week’s performance, so I have confidence that one will go well.
As for Martellese on Thursday, that may adapt between now and then, but either way, I’d just focus on keeping your cadence high during the surges. You don’t need to stand if you don’t want to, and sometimes, I find that it only helps for me to stand for the final few pedal strokes of the surges. It’s totally up to you!
Thanks! Since my original post I actually found out that I’m suffering from a bit of iron deficiency anemia, so that explains a bit of the lack of punch I’ve been experiencing as well. Next time I hit these workouts I’m definitely going to try the suggestion of using resistance mode as well.
