I haven’t been on my bike much lately. The frame on my Commencal Meta 5.5 is cracked so I can’t ride that and I’ve yet to buy a new road bike. Also, it’s been pretty windy so I’ve been out windsurfing and haven’t had much time. I have been on the Turbo Trainer a few times but only easy recovery rides after hard days windsurfing.
Yesterday though I decded to have some quality rather than quantity time on the turbo trainer. Time for a quick half an hour session with some 1 min intervals. As usual this is a 10 minute warm up followed by 7 reps of 1 minute hard and 1 minute recovery. Last time I did these I did the first 3 reps at 410 Watts and the next 4 at 420 Watts so yesterday I increased that and started at 420 Watts. I was doing fine at that intensity so did the seventh at 430 Watts I’m obviously improving somehow.
- 10 minute warm up – ramp from 120 Watts to 200 Watts
- 1 min @ 420 Watts : 1 min @120 Watts
- 1 min @ 420 Watts : 1 min @120 Watts
- 1 min @ 420 Watts : 1 min @120 Watts
- 1 min @ 420 Watts : 1 min @120 Watts
- 1 min @ 420 Watts : 1 min @120 Watts
- 1 min @ 420 Watts : 1 min @120 Watts
- 1 min @ 430 Watts : 1 min @120 Watts
- 6 minutes @ 220 Watts
- 5 minutes Cool Down
Turbo Training may not be the most exciting thing to do and you don’t get to paint red lines all over Google Earth as you do in the real world, but having a set workout to do and pushing yourself makes it a little more interesting – and you get to draw red lines with your heart rate traces instead.
Heart Rate Cadence and Speed trace
It doesn’t look as though the lack of exercise and far too much food during my few days away recently have done too much damage.
I did a turbo trainer session the other day and my performance was OK. I even checked the tyre pressure before the session to make sure things were consistent and managed to do a 3:2 minute interval session with a power output of 350 Watts for the hard efforts. I also did a few 1 minute intervals afterwards as well.
Here’s the actual workout:
Warm up: 10 minute ramp from 120 Watts to 200 Watts
Main set: 7 x 3: 2 minute intervals
- 3 mins @ 340 Watts, 2 mins @ 120 Watts
- 3 mins @ 350 Watts, 2 mins @ 120 Watts
- 3 mins @ 350 Watts, 2 mins @ 120 Watts
- 3 mins @ 350 Watts, 2 mins @ 120 Watts
- 3 mins @ 350 Watts, 2 mins @ 120 Watts
- 3 mins @ 350 Watts, 2 mins @ 120 Watts
- 3 mins @ 350 Watts, 2 mins @ 120 Watts
- 5 mins @ 210 Watts
- 1 min @ 420 Watts, 1 min @ 120 Watts
- 1 min @ 420 Watts, 1 min @ 120 Watts
- 1 min @ 420 Watts, 1 min @ 120 Watts
- 5 mins @ 220 Watts
Cool Down: 2 mins @ 150 Watts, 3 mins @ 120 Watts
Here’s the trace from my heart rate, cadnce and speed sensors, including the time when I dropped the chain after the third 3 minute interval.
Heart Rate, Speed and Cadence Trace
Swimfit was good on Tuesday this week.
As usual I was fairly tired by the time I got there having done a lab test for Jon at Sports and Exercise Science and then an hour of circuit training, but I soon got into the swimming.
After a warm up and some drills Lauren had us doing 15 x 75m for the main set off 1:45. The first 5 reps were steady for the first 50m followed by a 25 sprint. The next 5 reps were steady for the first 25m followed by a 50m sprint and the final 5 were flat out all the way. It turned out to be a pretty good set as I tried hard to keep my times the same on the final 5 reps and just about managed to do it and actually knocked off a few seconds on the last few.
One swim a week just isn’t enough though so I think I’m going to have to find a way to fit an extra one in now and then.
I didn’t think I’d be able to do that!
Yesterday, despite still having a bit of a cold, I did my 3:2 minute intervals workout on the turbo trainer. Last time I did this workout on Feb 1st I did the hard efforts at 280 Watts and wrote:
My legs were feeling it come the end, but it does seem as though I’m improving. Just in time for some races throughout the summer. It does mean I will have to increase the wattage to 290 Watts next time, which I sure will start to hurt!
So, true to my word, I increased the wattage to 290 Watts yesterday and thought I would struggle. Once again though I completed all seven repetitions and it wasn’t too bad. you know what that means… 300 Watts next time.
My heart rate did peak a little higher than last time (158 bpm rather than 155 bpm), but that is nowhere near my maximum, so hopefully I’ll at least get close to completing it at 300 Watts. Maybe I am improving for real.
Turbo Trainer Workout
I’m enjoying this and seem to be getting better.
I did the same workout as last week, 3:2 minute intervals on the turbo trainer. Last week I did them at 270 Watts with the final one at 280 Watts and my heart rate hit 164bpm on the last one. This week I increased the wattage to 280 Watts and expected to struggle. The first repetition did feel quite hard and I still thought I might struggle come the end, but as I got into it they seemed to stay relatively easy. So much so that I increased the wattage to 290 Watts on the last one. Despite that my heart rate only peaked at 155 Watts.
My legs were feeling it come the end, but it does seem as though I’m improving. Just in time for some races throughout the summer. It does mean I will have to increase the wattage to 290 Watts next time, which I sure will start to hurt!
Nice steady interval workout
It looks as though my hard work on the turbo trainer may be paying off as I seem to be making some improvements.
I did my 1 minute interval session yesterday, where after a warm up I try to do 7 repetitions of 1 minute hard and 1 minute easy. After a little bit of experimentation over a few weeks I found my limits and could just about do these with the hard effort at 350 Watts. I have since done a few of these at 350 Watts, which normally gets my heart rate up to around 90-95% of my theoretical maximum.
Last time I did them on January 19th they felt a little easier and heart rate was only 89% of its maximum so today was the day to increase the output to 360 Watts. I had tried them at 360 Watts before and failed miserably. On that occasion I only managed 5 repetitions, but today was different. In fact, although the last one did feel quite tough it wasn’t as bad as I was expecting. I managed all 7 reps and with a maximum heart rate of 162bpm I was still only working at 89% of my maximum.
This may all sound very encouraging and it looks as though there are signs of improvement, but it also means that I should try them at 370 Watts next time. I don’t think I’ll be able to complete all 7 reps at that power output, but it has to be worth a go.
I felt quite good at circuits and in the pool on Tuesday too, so maybe I’m just having a good couple of days – We’ll see how I fare in the real world on my night MTB ride tonight.
Heart rate from todays Turbo Trainer workout
It’s always good to mix things up a little on the Turbo Trainer. Also, I had coffee with Jon the other day, my friend who did the various tests on me at the Sports & Exercise Department at Aberystwyth University. Whilst chatting about training he said that the session to do out of the ones he’d given me were the 3:2 minute intervals. I hadn’t tried these before so I though I’d give them a go yesterday.
The idea is that after a warm up you do up to 7 repetitions of 3 minutes at a pre-determine, hard workload and then have 2 minutes rest. John had set me a target of 275 Watts for the hard 3 minutes. I can only set the power output in increments of 10 Watts on my Tacx Flow Turbo Trainer so decided to give it a go at 270 Watts. My workout therefore was:
Warm Up:
- 5 minutes @ 140 Watts
- 4 minutes @ 200 Watts
- 1 minute @ 100 Watts
Main Set
- 3 minutes @ 270 Watts, 2 minutes @ 100 Watts
- 3 minutes @ 270 Watts, 2 minutes @ 100 Watts
- 3 minutes @ 270 Watts, 2 minutes @ 100 Watts
- 3 minutes @ 270 Watts, 2 minutes @ 100 Watts
- 3 minutes @ 270 Watts, 2 minutes @ 100 Watts
- 3 minutes @ 270 Watts, 2 minutes @ 100 Watts
- 3 minutes @ 280 Watts, 2 minutes @ 100 Watts
Cool Down:
- 4 minutes @ 180 Watts
- 3 minutes @ 140 Watts
- 3 minutes @ 100 Watts
Here is my heart rate trace during the workout, peaking at 164bpm (90.6% of my maximum)
Todays Turbo Trainer Workout
As you can see although it was quite hard, I still felt OK on then final repetition and actually did it at 280 Watts rather than 270 Watts. Next time I shall have to try it at 280 Watts throughout. In fact, talking to Jon last week, he was saying that if I can do all 7 repetitions of any of these interval sessions then the idea is to up the wattage immediately as they should really be so hard that you can’t quite complete them. That sounds like torture to me but I shall start increasing the wattage until I can no longer complete the whole set.
I did enjoy this set of intervals though as they seem to be working a little on endurance as well as power. 3 minutes can actually seem like quite a long time!
I’ve just finished a 4:1 minute interval workout on my Turbo Trainer. I have promised to people that I’d post some of my workouts here, but this is one I’ve mentioned before in a previous post.
As you would expect, the 4:1 ratio is 4 minutes ‘easy’ at 100 Watts and then 1 minute of hard effort. Which such a long rest, the hard efforts are pretty hard at 400 Watts for me. The first time I tried it I couldn’t manage all 7 repetitions, but I did manage them the next time with my heart rate peaking at 169 (93% of my maximum) on the last two reps.
Today it was pretty hard again, but my heart rate was only 165 (91% of my maximum) on the last couple of reps. Maybe there’s some improvement afterall. Trouble is that means I should probably try it at 410 Watts next time which will be difficult.
They may be pretty evil at the time but these interval sessions are pretty good and hopefully have some effect on my overall fitness and strength. Time for a nice cup of tea and a rest now though.
Heart Rate Graph from todays Turbo Trainer Workout
My Tacx Flow Turbo Trainer has a built in calibration device allowing it to ensure that workouts you do on it are consistent despite changes to things such as tyre pressure, contact pressure, bike you use etc. Any change to such things would make a difference to the efficiency and could therefore adjust the effort needed for a particular workout.
The calibration system is easy to use. Press a few buttons on the computer, then pedal up to a certain speed at which point it tells you to stop pedalling and it then measures the amount of time it takes for the wheel to come to a halt. From this, the turbo trainer can work out what braking resistance it needs to use so that it remains calibrated from session to session.
It is recommended that you do this from time to time just to make sure the machine is still calibrated correctly and you should do it if you change things such as a tyre, tyre pressure or anything else on the bike. I’ve done it a few times since having the turbo trainer and the calibration result has always been ‘+2′. As I understand it this means the braking resistance is slightly higher than a factory default of 0.
The bike I use on the turbo trainer is quite nice, everything works really well on it, it is smooth and has an amazing rear hub and I keep the tyre pressure high so that always made sense to me as the turbo trainer needed to up the resistance a little to compensate for the efficiency of the bike. However, the bike is also 20 years old and the tubular tyres on it have been on there for 20 years. Most of that time it has been sat in a shed and the years had taken their toll on the tyres. The cracks and splits in the rubber finally succumbed to 500 miles abuse on a turbo trainer so I replaced the rear one over the weekend.
Cue a re-calibration of the Tacx Flow. I re-calibrated today with the new rear tyre and this time got a reading of ‘+1′. I left it at that as I assume that means it will now give me a braking resistance that will allow me to replicate workouts I was doing before despite the new tyre.
The only way I could test it was to do a known workout and see how it compared. I therefore did my normal 1 minute interval session with the hard efforts at 350 Watts. Trouble was I was planning on upping this to 360 Watts next week as it was now beginning to feel quite comfortable, on top if which I was well rested today and felt quite good.
The workout did feel a little easier than usual with my heart rate reaching around 162 on the efforts rather than 166, but I now don’t know if this is due to the slighty lower braking resistance following the re-calibration or the fact that I should have been in good form and I’m improving.
I guess I’ll have to see how it pans out over the next few sessions… It does of course mean that I’m still on target and can increase the power output on the hard efforts to 360 Watts next week as planned.
Heart Rate from Todays 1 Minute Interval Turbo Trainer Workout
Don’t worry, I don’t intend to post these everyday as I’m sure you’ll get bored of them soon – if not already. However, I’m enjpying doing them and I like the heart rate graphs I produce in a strange, ‘heart-rate artwork’ kind of way. Of course, if you enjoy these posts or are trying to do the same workouts yourself then post a comment and let me know and I’ll keep them coming.
Todays workout was a little longer at an hour with some hard intervals in the middle. I did an extended warm up:
- 5 mins @ 120 Watts
- 5 mins @ 180 Watts
- 5 mins @ 240 Watts
- 5 mins @ 120 Watts
Then started the intervals where I did:
- 7 x 45 secs @ 400 Watts followed by 3:15 @ 100 Watts
I had intended to do 1 minute at the high power output and 4 mins easy, but couldn’t quite last for a minute at 400 Watts. My legs just died at around 45 seconds each time so I adjusted both the length of the hard effort and the rest effort. As you can image, it was pretty tough, but I have something to aim for with these.
I then extended the workout to an hour with:
- 8 mins @ 200 Watts
- 4 mins @ 120 Watts
Here’s the heart rate output which shows that I was at least trying!
Todays Heart Rate 'Artwork' - Click to enlarge
