Hi David! It would be easy — er, simple —to do test outside if you have a safe stretch, since it’s just two durations after warmup and then your final push. If you do it inside I’ll get you the one I made on WC copying the original, once I figure out how to get it to the Team that @Raythebike created for us.
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Turned 60 today. yep full time guy too. Its been too hard to recover previously. Long days on the feet whole shift, and pretty high cognitive load. I’ve felt recovery /rest days aren’t that. I’m been either riding, working or both.
Soooo… it’s plan builder with an adjustment. Might work for me. I’ll let you know.
Hi David,
The years before TR (BCE, so to speak), I got my miles by commuting to work 2-3 times a week and saved my legs for the 1 or 2 weekend rides. I didn’t know what I was doing. I just enjoyed the bike. Upon joining TR (CE), TR became my Night Class with an occasional commute during the week – especially during the periods of precip. I don’t do rain/sleet/serious snow, so the incentive to stay indoors is even stronger.
Robert K’s blogpost on low-intensity rides so impressed me that I copied the gist of it. See attached.
I’m still in the 20th century. I don’t have Strava (my brother does, though and uses it all the time). Can you use intervals.icu w/o Strava? I think I’m too busy at work to fully nerd out and get completely sucked in this new virtual environment. It will probably have to wait until even more extended covid isolation or retirement, whichever comes first.
Cheers,
Steve
(Attachment Benefits of long rides vs Sweet Spot_TR Forum.docx is missing)
Happy Birthday, Ray!
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I have experienced the same. Joined TR in march. Did ramp test with results similar to my Garmins estimate. Did another ramp test last week and had an increase of 14 w. I am surprised because did not think there was any room for improvement. I prioritise my training over everything in life, do not socialise and have given up alcohol and have a high level of fitness for a 64 yr old.
I think it is down to consistency, and more sustained ss training and better pedaling tecnique. + giving up alcohol. I have limiters due to accidents and injuries and a past of running long distances, combined with bad physiology (knock knees)
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but you didn’t draw a nice picture 
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Congrats, Lydia. Are you doing LV or MV? LV has not resulted in an FTP bump so I’m starting MV.
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Bob, Since you can’t import custom workouts to outside, I’m not sure how to design it with apprpriate wattage prompts except memory or index card reminders? 
I would like to try it outside for comparison to an indoor version as a crosscheck.
Back in hot water again (private joke, sorry), and back to bike stuff. Outdoors, it’s memory and/or index cards, as you say, David. Not much to remember, though, and you’re still young!
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I’m doing mid volume. I started doing SSBLV1 but felt it wasn’t enough, as I was recovering well, so switched to mid volume. The workouts felt a bit easy, so I wasn’t surprised when I had a FTP bump.
Definitely try mid volume. If you have the time to do the workouts and you are recovering well.
I had a big MTB crash (hidden ditch) bloody farmers! My knee was the size of a football and I cant ride at all. It’s getting better, but I will have been off for over a week, so starting at my new FTP is a bit daunting!
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Sorry to hear about the knee. I’m currently off due to a tendon injury in my calf. Seems I end up with something every year that keeps me off the bike for a month.
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Lydia ,sorry to hear that you’d come off. The rest might be good in a strange way, allowing adaption of the base work done already. What bump, apart from the ditch, did you achieve?
BTW I started a Team on TR for this group which your welcome to join. We have over 12 now to share rides and experiences.
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I had a 14w FTP improvement. Just from doing structured training in SS.
My usual training before TR has been either 30 sec - 3 min vo2 type intervals, hill reps etc, but not SS training. My outdoors rides are usually a mix of zones but nothing like TR workouts!
I get bored easily, and do not enjoy long rides unless I am on my MTB exploring . I am pretty bored with my local rides.
Hence why I crashed into a ditch. Bloody farmers. Think they do it on purpose.
The Team sounds good. How would I apply to join?
Link to the group. Teams are below Workouts on the home page.
I just wanted to say that it’s inspiring seeing all of you 60+ fellas on TR! I’m about half of the age of many of you. After reading through this thread, I’m encouraged to try and get my dad to stop making excuses and train and possibly try out the platform.
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Careful…some of us have a serious bike addiction.
Happy to be joining this forum thanks to Nicholas at TR. Love seeing the comments, feedback, stories and accomplishments.
At 61 and back on the bike after a 10 year drought following my 15 year racing career, I found two significant changes; first, my FTP dropped from 320 (as a CAT 3 racer) to 150 when I got back on the bike and performed my first FTP test (hard to accept psychologically) and second, my resting heart rate (RHR) increased from 40 to 65. Granted, during my racing days, I rode about 10K miles 300 days per year.
When I jumped back in, my objective was improved fitness and to reduce my resting heart rate as I have no plans to race again. And with so many people looking at their phones while driving, 95% of my riding is on a Wahoo Kickr due to safety. I started with Zwift to simulate outdoor riding but quickly grounded on TR and the programs offered to accomplish my objectives.
One of the consistent themes throughout this thread is the overtraining and not making the desired gains. Even with my experience, I fell into the same trap. Then a friend told me about his experience with the @Whoop Strap, so I gave it a try. What I found is that I had increased strain without the proper recovery (a byproduct of aging), which led to overtraining and poor results. During my first year on TR, my FTP would increase maybe 1-2% per 8 week training cycle. After using the Whoop strap for 6 months, my FTP has been increasing 4-5% per 8 week training cycle and I’m spending about 25% less time on the bike. Now, when I get on TR, I set a strain factor and stop when it’s reached versus a 60, 90, 120 minute training program.
For those that are experiencing symptoms of overtraining, I would definitely recommend some type of fitness device that tracks recovery. Full disclosure, I do NOT work for, or have any affiliation, with Whoop but did significant research on the platform, device (arm band v. ring) and cost. I was between the Oura Ring, Fitbit and the Whoop but felt the Whoop fit my diverse needs best.
Hope this helps with many of the comments/questions herein regarding overtraining. Ride on!!
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