Been away from Trainer Road for a while. Starting back up to do some winter training. Disicpline is for mountain bike. I race occasionally but I don’t really have a major even I’m training for. I really just want to improve my on the bike performance. I’m trying to decide which goal to choose for my plan? I’m down to increasing FTP, getting faster for group rides or even general fitness. I ride alone probably 85 percent of the time. There is a group I ride with at time that is faster than me and I would like to be able to keep up better but I would say i mostly just want improve my overall cycling abilities.
I guess I am wondering what the actual differences are between increasing FTP and a getting faster for group rides plan is? Wouldn’t increasing FTP accomplish getting faster for group rides as well?
Yes…the two are 100% intertwined. If you increase your FTP, you will be faster on the group ride. If you get faster by doing the group ride, your FTP will almost certainly have gone up (assuming you haven’t just learned how to ride in the group more efficiently).
Yes as stated above.
Riding with a fast group, you will naturally push harder. That will increase your FTP. The key here is longer hard intervals. A progression over time would be something like ; 4x5 , 4x6, 4x7. .,etc. if you find that boring you could do intervals that ramp up. Start out at 75% FTP then build that interval up to 105% over like 4 minutes. Cool down and repeat.
Group riding is fun and fast
right, understood, but currently not riding with the group. Getting faster for group rides is one of the options in the dropdown when setting up a TR plan. Was just wondering if that choice would be similar/better/worse than choosing the build FTP path.
Welcome back to TrainerRoad! I’m excited for you to try all of the new features .
If you have any events in mind/ penciled in, I’d suggest that you build your Plan around those events so that we’re peaking you at the right time.
If you don’t have any events, we still use the information you give us about your goal to get a fuller understanding of what energy systems should be prioritised.
When answering the question, “what goal should I choose”, I suggest athletes think about what they feel was a limitation or biggest struggle from the previous season(s).
We’ll use this information alongside all of the other information you have given us about your discipline, goal, and desired time to train. Together, this information helps us optimise and target the apropriate energy systems that will allow you to achieve your goals.
I would distill what you actually want and identify goals.
You mentioned riding with quicker riders? What climbing and mileage are you talking about. short sharp repeat climbs require a different focus than long climbs with sustained power or a flat ride chain gang. Mental resilience is another aspect and indoor training helps build this and puts you on another level to most club riders.
If it’s more general ability then watts per kilo maybe a more rounded approach but don’t lose sight of the first point.
FTP is not the same and leans heavily into what your energy systems you have focused on.
You should just show up and do it, even if you get dropped every time. You’ll do a little better as time goes on. Don’t train first for the group ride, wanting to show up in top form.
Group riding is pseudo racing. Yes, you need to train and raise your FTP and all that but the other half of it is packing riding skills, staying out of the wind, not taking hero pulls or any pulls at this point, saving energy for pinch points where all hell breaks loose, etc. You learn all that by just doing it over and over.
You probably need to treat the group ride as one of your days of intensity. You can put it TR as a weekly B or C level race or whatever is most appropriate and let it build a plan around that.
Just build each plan (take ~30 seconds) and see what kinds of workouts you get and what you prefer.
From my explorations, I found that the “group rides” plan includes more short sharp high VO2/anaerobic workouts, which probably makes sense. “Build FTP” has more traditional long-ish VO2 intervals in the 115-125% of FTP range. I found “general fitness” to be quite similar to FTP in the types of workouts it gave me.
From what I saw, none of these is drastically different to the others. All will include a couple interval days and a couple endurance days. And ANY structured training will be a lot better than none, so if that’s your baseline you really can’t go wrong. I’d build the plans and see which seems more interesting/motivating to you. I freakin hate 3+ minute VO2 intervals (I’ve done SO MANY and I recognize their utility but just don’t really enjoy those workouts) so plans that rely heavily on those workouts are a turn-off for me. YMMV.
So my group ride here is basically when the shop I ride with does a group singletrack ride. It’s not a regular weekly group ride. the reason i’m not currently doing the group ride is that it’s kind of off season(and currently dark when I get off of work) where I live there aren’t a lot of options for high tempo group road rides although in the summer there is a wednesday night ride which is basically “let’s see who can ride the fastest and eventually drop everyone” kind of ride. I should probably do that in the summer and see how long I can hang on lol.
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