So – AT served me up Tyndall as the workout for today. I’m using a classic trainer.
Instructions say to keep cadence high – around 100 during intervals and 15-sec recovery valleys.
Seems like the only way to do that is via a lot of shifting up during the recovery valley and then downshift during the 15 sec interval at 150% FTP?
I’ve heard on the AACCP that smart trainers are more of a luxury than necessity, but this kind of workout feels like a stretch for a classic trainer. What I resorted to doing is keep the bike in my 150% FTP gearing, and just slow the cadence way down during the recovery valley – which seems to be what the instructions are implying NOT to do.
What am I doing wrong? Is the answer that I just have to shift “my brains out” on this one? #ugh
You know what you are doing wrong.
just shift, that’s what the gears are for. I have a simple trainer too, works just fine.
I like this better than erg mode…i think.
I’ve got a smart trainer and prefer not to use erg mode for these. They’re so short the trainer doesn’t really respond properly anyway. Just work out what gear you need for the work interval, then shift to small ring for the rests. Last time I ended up about 50 cadence during the rests to keep the power low enough, but the other option was shifting to small ring and up the block 4 gears, then the opposite 15 seconds later!
You are doing nothing wrong, that’s what gears are for. Even on a smart trainer, you probably don’t want to do workouts that involve fast changes in cadence in erg mode without changing gears.
Since I used to train on a dumb wheel-on trainer, even on my new smart trainer I prefer to do all my workout sweet spot and up in resistance mode.
You will quickly figure out what gears you need to be in, so shifting becomes much easier.