max power intervals in erg mode

[chrisbainbridge]

I would welcome some help and advice please from those with experience of wahoo kicks and tax neo type turbos.

when coach says do a 40 second max power interval i have been creating workouts in trainerroad and setting the power for 3 times FTP which is the max programmable in workout creator.  if i am tired the legs seize and slow down following which the resistance goes up, etc.

Has anyone experience of changing to resistance mode for sets of such intervals and then changing back for the recovery, etc.  How easy is it on the Neo and is it worth it for what I am doing or do I just man up.

Thank you

[zigzag]

40s at 3x ftp seems like a huge load, normally max power test takes 5-6s. there's no easy way out if you let your cadence drop on neo, i have to either shift the gears down and get back up to efficient cadence or set your targets a bit lower. what i'd like is a "bail out" button, which temporarily lets get you up to speed.

[simonp]

Do the workout in resistance mode?

[chrisbainbridge]

Simon
I think I will have to swap to resistance mode.  It annoys me that I cannot do this automatically in trainerroad as part of the workout creation.  I just wondered if anybody had any other ideas.

[simonp]

In the FTP test workouts, the switch to resistance mode is automatic at the start of the test effort.

There must be a mechanism, but it might not be accessible via workout creator. Perhaps support@trainerroad.com could advise.

[LMT]

You need a difference coach if they are giving you 40s at 3*your FTP. Typically a max power interval is around 150% of FTP, so if your FTP is 300W then you should be looking to put out 450w for the interval.

A pro rider would have trouble putting out three times their FTP for 40 seconds.

[chrisbainbridge]

I probably did not explain it probably. He asked for max effort for 40 seconds and I just put in 3x FTP.  In retrospect it was stupid.. My fault not the coach.  Part of my problem is getting used to the words used in training and what I can expect to do coming from a background of never having properly trained before.

[chrisbainbridge]

response from trainerroad is to take an existing FTP test and edit it in workout creator! simple

[simonp]

I didn't think about it too hard, but I have been doing some fairly similar workouts from the TrainerRoad library and indeed I would not get anywhere near 3xFTP for 40s.

This is hard enough:

https://www.trainerroad.com/cycling/workouts/6032-ansel-adams

(3x12-minute sets of 50 seconds at 135% FTP + 50 seconds of rest between each interval)

I've also been doing 30s on 30s off ones:

https://www.trainerroad.com/cycling/workouts/1792-gendarme

That has felt too easy at my current FTP so last time I upped the workout intensity by 5%.

(This is another way to adjust a workout to suit - take something off the shelf and just bump it up or down).

[chrisbainbridge]

Thank you to all.

In conclusion.  I set myself stupidly hard targets and trainerroad was not properly set up.

My wife would say that the first is normal for me and the second I can sort.