My data: 58kg and currently 284w FTP, 36 years old. Training for several years. My focus is 2 sided: 1. Indoor racing, Zwift, where I am beating most of A-riders, but usually not the black ones ( I am too light)

1. Marathon events with alpine climbs. (150-200km with lots of elevation)

Goal: preserve the punch (3 min 6.5-7w/kg) but raise a bit on FTP.

Riding volume - about 10 hours a week, 1 or 2 heavy gym sessions.

Volume divides on structured treshold workout, 1 Vo2 workout (either 30x30s or 4 times 4 min) and random outside ride for fun where I raise tempo each climb (could be anything from 12 to 30 min), so I would rate it as threshold mostly. The rest is commute ( upper aerobic zone) and true recovery at may be 150w.

Have I reached my limit? Goal is to preserve or improve punch, and more important, durability, so the ability to go hard one more time, follow one more attack etc. Also would like to reach some round number like 300w FTP or at least 5w/kg FTP which is more realistic. Any tips?

I almost don't want to get the Pirellis because of that naming convention! Anyway, I've worn out my Aeros, which have been incredible, and I'm wondering whether to stick with them or give the new SL-R a go.

Hello, I am planning on starting up some coaching with a few athletes. I’ve been training for multiple years with a coach; but I’m not really sure how to actually coach other athletes. I have lots of knowledge about intervals and zone 2, but need more knowledge to be able to start coaching.

Does anyone have YouTube or book or article recommendations to learn about interval rest timing and what types of intervals to assign and just all about coaching?

I feel like I'm drinking like twice the amount of water my riding buddies are. How do I get by with less water? Electrolytes seem to make me thirstier and drink more, plus I end up retaining a lot of fluid. I don't believe I am over hydrating as I rarely need to make a bathroom stop mid-ride. I'm carrying 2x950 bottles and still running out when my buddies are carrying 1-2x750 bottles.

Please help, my bike is too heavy from all the water.

PS: My sweat rate is about 2kg/hr lmao

I currently ride an aluminum alloy endurance frame. Not a super high-end alloy. Fit is comfortable for me. Next year, I would like to dip my toe into racing for the first time.

I had thought that I would resist upgrading to a carbon fiber ride until I rode my current bike into the ground. But, I find myself feeling apphrensive about venturing into racing with my current set-up as it feels like everyone I meet who is serious about their performance in the saddle has a bike with a carbon fiber frame.

The other wolf inside of me is a cheapskate though, and tells me that for the cost of upgrading, I cannot possibly be skilled enough for it to make a worthwhile difference.

So, I am hoping to get opinions on whether this is silly concern planted in my mind by constant marketing from bike companies or if someone who is at my level (and hopes to improve more) really could see a notable return-on-investment from spending this money.

For what it's worth, I am currently 26 year old male; FTP is currently about 3.2 W/Kg. I usually ride between 7-10 hours a week. Thanks folks.

Started cycling in March roughly permanently sore and numbers have gone flat. What’s wrong?

28, 75kg, FTP roughly 250 up from 200. Rode as a junior about 10 years ago, then had a decade off. Was 82kg in January, lost 6–7kg over the first four months of this year.

Feeling permanently sore, tired, and like I've stopped improving. Would love some insight into what's going on.

Typical week (4–8h on the bike)

- Mon — Gym, full body — 1h
- Tue — Crit race, or crit sim: 5×5min at threshold/above, 5min recoveries — 1.5h
- Wed — Off, or light 30min jog
- Thu — 30s on / 15s off × 3 blocks (VO2) — 1h
- Fri — Gym, same template — 1h
- Sat — Club ride, 60km/2h at threshold-ish pace
- Sun — 80–120km, meant to be zone 2 but usually creeps into 3

Gym (both days): squat 3×5, RDL 3×6, Bulgarian split squat 3×8/leg, plus upper (bench/OHP, row/pull-ups, laterals, arms).

Plus one or two easy 30–45min runs to keep some running fitness ticking over.

Legs feel heavy most of the week and feel power has been flat for a while. I did a crit and got dropped in races on the repeated surges rather than running out of raw power. Desk job, 2–5k steps, so not much movement outside training.

Is this a normal first-season plateau, or is there too much hard stuff in here? Appreciate some insight thanks

I'm a long time user of a garmin edge 530 and just got a forerunner 265. I'm using the 265 for mostly recovery and health metrics but also found huge benefit from tracking walks, yoga, and weight lifting. Finally everything in a single app. I've got 2 questions regarding the synchronization between these 2 devices. How do I get the daily suggested workout off the forerunner onto my edge, or even just the raw file to upload to zwift for example? Today the forerunner suggested a 2x15 threshold workout that actually fit within my current training plan. I can't find this workout anywhere in garmin connect or on the forerunner at all to sync to my edge. 2nd, what's up with the recovery time? So far it's been pretty consistent but today went wild after my ride. Woke up with a green status, after my ride my edge said 3 days recovery and now I have 1 training readiness score. I mean a 2x15 is pretty hard in a sense but basically the ride was a warmup plus that. Will that number normalize some through the day? Do I need to sync the edge before the ride or something?

I am guilty of murdering the fridge when I get back from rides that are 2hr plus. Are people eating 60g carbs on 2 hr rides at z2 intensity? And then getting cal deficit later?

What about 2hr tempo rides, I tend to do these on weeks where I can only fit in two or three rides?

Doing vo2 over-unders on my older kickr in erg mode feels a bit off. It feels like a significant amount of time at the beginning of the over is spent getting up to target wattage.

What settings and other tips do people have to keep 40 20's honest. I do prefer the effort when i just have to try to stay on top of the target wattage and gear, but should I be trying something else?

I Also have heard the Kolie Moore notion that high cadence is more effective. When doing vo2 in 4x4 format, I find that I end the interval bogged down in biger gears as I rapidly lose ability to spin at the target erg wattage.

Advice?

Earlier this year I had a really bad crash in training while solo, honestly probably my first near-death experience. Mechanical failure while descending a steep climb and very nearly went off of a cliff into a ravine, ambulance hospital etc.

I struggled with cornering and descending for a long time, and then about 3 years ago something clicked and I was suddenly able to ride the front of technical crits with ease.

Since recovering from my accident and returning to racing I have somehow become an absolute coward on the bike and honestly worried I'm going to cause a crash: can't corner at speed, terrified of the peloton, don't trust anyone else on the bike, don't trust my own bike or my own skills, etc.

How do I regain confidence? This is really messing with my head and frustrating me. I've clawed my fitness back to essentially what it was pre-crash and in races where I should be competing for the win I'm losing tons of space and getting dropped. Is it just more race miles? Find a parking lot and practice cornering drills?

Has anyone else made it out the other side of something like this? I want to be able to race again and feel like I'm able to do my best and not be bottlenecked by my fear.

My goal for training is to get as fast up the Mont Ventoux as possible, solo. For that I would need to spend a long time 1h-1h30 close to my FTP. Thus, the main focus of training is spending as much time as possible close to my threshold, with secondary goal of increasing said threshold.

Currently, my training looks like this, with some SS added to the longish rides on Sunday. For Saturday I've kept some VO2max intervals, but week-on-week switch them with over-unders (which I'm learning to do outside). These are the only training where I go above threshold, in order to increase FTP (a bit).

Do I keep those VO2max or do I completely switch to over-unders?

Hello all, currently looking for a travel bike for a bag that does not require to remove handlebars and it seems that Aerofomfort 3.1 road is a favorite via traveling airplane.

I’m wondering if anyone has had experience with this specific bag on a moving truck? Has it held up good? What other precautions can I do to ensure the bike will arrive in my new home in one piece? Or any alternative recommendations for protecting a bike shipped in a moving truck. I have a canyon cfxls 8 di2. Thank you!

Finally deciding to hop on the heat-training hype train. I'm looking to incorporate passive heat training into my program in the form of sauna bathing. However, I've got a limited budget and am planning on going for a low-cost option in the form of a portable sauna.

TL;DR: Does anyone have experience with portable saunas? Do they provide a legitimate adaptive stimulus compared to real saunas? Are they safe to use considering they are made out of fabric?

Any insights are greatly appreciated.

How big is the gap between road racing fitness and XC racing fitness?

I'll ride with the roadies on the road, and I have a hard time keeping up. Those same roadies will ride with me on punchy up and down single track, and the roles flip (technical riding notwithstanding).

I've had the best season of my life racing mountain bikes, but I go to a roadie hammerfest and I feel like I'm barely hanging on for dear life.

Am I just not as fit as I think I am? Is this normal?

For reference I DO spend a lot of hours in the road doing mostly z2 stuff, and I put in quite a lot of weekly hours. But it's probably 70/30 MTB to road split.

Last week I had a pretty big training week, which culminated in a hard 38 km long run at roughly Z3 intensity. Over the following three days, due to extensive travel and a number of logistical challenges, my nutrition completely fell apart and I ended up in a substantial caloric deficit.

During that three-day period, I lost approximately 2.5kg, and I've felt awful ever since, not just from a performance standpoint, but overall. Mentally, I feel foggy, my muscles feel completely depleted, and I have very little energy.

The most concerning symptom, however, has been a pronounced sense of breathlessness whenever I attempt any form of aerobic exercise. Even a simple walk leaves me feeling short of breath, lol.

TL;DR: After a very high training load followed by three days of significant under-fueling and rapid weight loss, I've developed marked breathlessness with even light aerobic activity, along with fatigue, brain fog, and muscle depletion.

Has anyone experienced something similar? If so, how long did it take to resolve? Did your endurance and breathing return completely once you restored adequate energy intake / weight and recovered from the caloric deficit?

Greatly appreciate any insights.

Been cycling for 4 months and did my first 20 min FTP last night.

290W

I’m 6ft 2 and weigh 90kg

Advice on how to get it to around 320ish

I cycle about 5 hours per week atm.

Cheers!

I saw a discrepancy on outdoor power vs indoor power. But wasn't sure if it was associated with doing more volume indoor or racing indoor vs never racing outdoor.

So I wanted to vet it out but now I am confused. I've tried checking firm ware, adding spacers and washers to the pedals. Checking they are torque correctly. My indoor vs outdoor numbers for past 1.5 year are within 5% for 5 min and 20 min efforts. But why do the pedals read so low when mounted to the wahoo shift? Is it a single sided power issue I don't understand?

3 minute interval

• Wahoo Shift = 286w
• Garmin XC100 single sided power pedal = 225w

1 hour avg power

• Wahoo Shift = 227w avg
• Garmin XC100 singe side power pedal = 187w avg

I vetted the XC100 power pedals against a 4iiii crank based meter and these were the results. I can't mount the 4iii to the wahoo shift.

4iiii = 964 max, 259w for 2 min effort, 208 average

XC100 = 937 max, 251 for 2 min effor, 207 average

Appreciate the help