If you select a 10 week build me up (or an 11) which week(s) get dropped though? I’m doing the 12 week one and the last week looks like a recovery week with an FTP test at the end. If you do a shorter one I would assume you still have that final week. Also the two weeks prior to that look to be the hardest with the most load so cutting those would cut a lot of the hard work from the plan.
As I say I’ve no idea what the answer to my question is, but just pointing out selecting the 10 week program and then deciding at the end to tag the last 2 weeks on manually may not be possible depending on which weeks were dropped to get down to 10 weeks in the first place.
Oh interesting, I’ll try that, didn’t know that’s how it worked. The game crashes pretty quickly (like before I can get into the actual biking screen - on the route selection screen) so not sure if it will have had a chance to sync the workouts to the cloud by then or not.
Looking at David’s comment, it’s probably the case that it’s not just clipping off the last two weeks when you choose the 10 week I suppose, so I guess I’ll just choose the 10 week one and see what happens, if I miss any “fun” workouts from the missing two weeks I’ll try to import them via the PC and do them after the 10 weeks is up.
Well, week 11 is turning into a bit of a disaster. I did the first 3 workouts (Breakfast Returns, Thew, and Ruckus) and they were tough but ok. Then took a couple of days break over Christmas and had a go at Aspire and just fell apart during the first block. Knocked it down to 95% but still awful.
I’m pretty sure that part of the problem is that the drivetrain on the bike I mostly use for Zwift (my gravel bike) could really do with a deep clean, it’s oiled but has been ridden a lot outside in terrible weather and really needs a full chain and cassette service - I’m pretty sure this is losing my quite a bit of power.
So I decided to switch over to my summer road bike - this involves changing the cassette/freehub on the trainer as my gravel bike is 11-speed SRAM and my road bike 12-speed Campagnolo.
This is where it all went wrong as the STUPID freehub retaining nut on Elite Suito/Direto is made of cheese and is incredibly thin walled. And of course I managed to ovalise it and, a. didn’t manage to get it off and b. now can’t get the thruaxle adapter back in.
I’ve ordered THREE new nuts from Elite but I suspect they will take a while to get here from Italy, so until then no Zwift for me as I don’t have a QR bike anymore (the QR adapter still fits). My kid and wife can still use it at least.
Sorry to hear of your technical difficulties Nick, with all the hassle of changing cassette and quick release to through axle I just leave my mountain bike on the trainer now. Also from a selfish perspective I enjoyed reading your weekly summaries since they helped me plan out my training week for picking out the order to do them in.
I’m coming to the end of week 10 (just Exemplar left) and I feel I’ve managed this 5 workouts a week a lot better than the first two (weeks 6&7) where I fell apart towards the end of week 7. I guess I still have next week of 5 to go yet, but I’m feeling much better so far. I think actually taking the recovery week more seriously and not fitting in extra rides has helped!
I think I’m set for starting the 10 week version of BMU tomorrow. Calibrated trainer and did an FTP test this morn (FTP went up so I’ll probably regret it later).
My background: I started Zwift mid-end of October when I bought a kickr core, while I biked a lot before Zwift (mix of downhill, freeride, gravel, and road), I had never used HR or power meters. I did the 6 week beginner FTP booster Nov to early December, supplemented it with Neokyo events, and some other workouts along the way.
At the start of FTP Booster I was at an FTP of 254W, mid-point I went to 265W (this is where I put on my clipless pedals so that probably helped), and at the end of it I was 279W. My setpoint from the test this morn was 289W (I’m sitting at 80kg, and don’t expect to lose much from there).
I’ve been using the ramp test, and I’m sure a bunch of the gains are from better cadence and pacing during the test, and I’m pretty sure I’ve burned through the “easy gains”. But my original hope was to break 300W in the ramp test at the end of BMU, before this morn I was thinking it might not be possible, but after this morn, I think it’s within reason to try.
The worst part of my power curve seems to be the short term power, I failed miserably at “The Wringer” earlier this month, only made it through 7 intervals before I blew up on the 8th. Will probably not try it again until after BMU, but I will be doing the Tour de Zwift.
There’s a chance the family ends up taking a trip in the next few months, so that’s a risk that would cause me to stop the program, we’ll see.
Well I’m coming to an end now, at the start of this my ftp was 263. I started the program at 270, half way through I went up to 280.
Just done a quick ramp test and got 303 so that’s good as I done a workout late last night. Managed to hold on for 3mins longer. So I’m happy with my progress that’s a 10% improvement there
Started it this week, and the pedaling drills showcased how bad I am at pedaling technique.
I often don’t ride clipped in (especially when trail/downhill biking), so constant pressure on the pedals around the whole pedal-cycle isn’t something I have a ton of experience doing. In the drills where the program asks you to pedal with one leg without making any ‘clunking’ sounds … I was so far from being able to do that it was comical. Anyone ace this no problem? How much practicing is this gonna take? Did you have to sit there doing single leg drills over and over, just try to focus on it more when riding, or something else work better?
On one side I guess I can be happy there’s a lot of room for technique improvement that could possibly translate into easy gains if I can crack this nut
I wasn’t too bad at it and only had the occasional clunk. I did find I needed a medium resistance on the pedals, if it was too light I’d get a clunk between the up and downstroke. Not sure if it’s good or bad, but I noticed my upper body was bobbing up and down. My upper body would go down as the pedal goes down and across the bottom and come back up on the upstroke.
I find more issues with the spin up drills where when I try and focus on not bouncing and staying solid in my core and not bouncing I’d bounce even more!
Yeah, that’s exactly where the huge clunking was for me too, I tried to focus on being smooth through that section and couldn’t do it for the life of me. I assume that’s because I’m used to putting a lot of force in the downstroke, but focusing on trying to do less power right then didn’t seem to help for some reason.
I also was bobbing more than I wanted to when I went above 105 RPM, so that was also a problem, just didn’t seem as bad as how loud that clunk was
Week 1 ended on a disappointing note. Devedeset was pretty easy, but I got wrecked on Red Unicorn which surprised me because it’s the ‘easiest’ out of the unicorn workouts, with a pretty low intensity week, so now I’m thinking I might have to drop my FTP for next week. I had to pause in the middle of the second last set of intervals, which was a pretty big hit to the confidence level, my legs didn’t really recover fully after that.
Now… I did all 4 workouts 4 days in a row without a day off, (and did some workouts outside of the game), so carried some fatigue into it, but I did that on purpose because Red Unicorn was the easiest of the 4, the other workouts were not high intensity, or particularly long, and later in the program there will be much more intense workouts 5 workouts a week, so I figured I should be able to easily do at least Red Unicorn for now.
Maybe I had an off day, so I’m gonna rest at least a day before the start of next week, keep the FTP where it is and see if I have trouble with another before lowering FTP.
I fell apart in week 7 which I think was due to an overestimation in my FTP and not getting enough rest. I’d been working out 5 or 6 days a week (usually playing soccer once and the rest cycling) so at the start of the plan I would often fit in an extra Zwift session or two to bring the number up and occasionally done a workout and a group ride back to back. I would try and keep it easy in the group ride (Z1 or 2) and it wouldn’t be a race. I managed this ok until week 6 (the first 5 a week) and just followed through into week 7 until I had to skip a workout to give myself an extra rest day before completing the week having missed a workout.
Since then I’ve only done the workouts and no extra curricular riding. Also Christmas and now omicron lockdown has meant I’ve had no soccer since week 8 and won’t have any until after I’ve finished the plan. The rest has definitely helped with weeks 10 and 11 (which are both 5 a week) which I went into fresh and I have a rest day tomorrow before having to do the last 2 workouts of the week.
I think you mentioned in your earlier post that you do ramp tests. This is also my preferred FTP test, but I do know that I can out perform my FTP doing it so I’ve been using that number more as a guide to see if I’ve improved rather than telling me what my FTP is.
I finally completed the final FTP test tonight and didn’t enjoy it much even the warm ups before felt hard and like I was pedalling in treacle so the first time in the whole workout I skipped the sustained effort just before the main test. Happy with the result though finished with a 295, done a ramp test and got 303 the other day so will set my level at 300 and try a couple of workouts next week.
So that’s a decent improvement seeing as I thought I was pretty bike fit before although new to indoor training. First test were around 263 and set myself an ftp of 270 for half the program then half way through upped to 280. So quick maths almost a 10% gain
I think you mentioned in your earlier post that you do ramp tests. This is also my preferred FTP test, but I do know that I can out perform my FTP doing it so I’ve been using that number more as a guide to see if I’ve improved rather than telling me what my FTP is.
Yup, I’m thinking ramp test might overestimate for me too (I’m going to use it to assess progress either way), but I did use the ramp test to set FTP for the 6-week FTP builder program which worked well for me (though I know that is a less intense program, but I’m better at pacing/cadence in the ramp test now too). I did feel in the correct zones in the initial BMU zone test this week, so I was hoping maybe it was ok to keep it as is.
I’m gonna give current FTP one more shot next week, then drop it if I wreck myself on anything since next week is still pretty low intensity compared to the later weeks. I don’t think Red Unicorn was supposed to feel as bad as it did, so I expect I’ll drop.
I’ve been looking ahead to the FTP test since I’m in week 11 now. I usually do the ramp test, but I know I can put perform my FTP in that so I’m going to give the 20min one a go. Yes, the 5min sustained effort over current FTP as a warm up seems odd, although you do get a 10 min rest before the main effort.
I hate long sustained efforts like this in a workout so I’m not confident for it at all. Did you have a wattage target that you tried to hit, or did you just go on feel?
I wanted to try and match the ramp test but was a struggle tonight. I reckon on a fresh start I could equal it as I was only 8watts off and this is only the 2nd ftp test Iv done. I think you need to do a couple to get a feel for them, that’s why I like the ramp as it’s simple keep pedalling to you can’t anymore. I seen it gives you an average off your wattage on the screen so I was keeping that over 300, think it finished on 310 so it obviously takes a percentage for your ftp level. I gave it quite a hard effort then eased off for a minute and done this twice were I took a little break
I was keeping that over 300, think it finished on 310 so it obviously takes a percentage for your ftp level.
Yeah, if you’re doing a 20 min test it takes 95% of your 20 min average. I would find it pretty hard to pace 20 mins (let alone an hour), but maybe I should try one of those anyhow just to start learning.
The Ramp test only considers your last full interval * 75%.
A good proxy for that is an ITT for 1lap of Tempus Fugit, or even a balls outs race up ADZ.
I now use intervals.icu to tell me my FTP, as its proven to be spot-on over my years of data (spot on enough to set FTP good enough for workouts, which is the only place it matters).
Riding up ADZ is how I’ve validated my number in the past. I didn’t think I could hold my FTP for an hour so I set off up the alpe at my FTP which was 3.2 w/kg and I did it a few seconds under the hour and was shattered. When I did a ramp test which gave me a higher number I tried it again and couldn’t hold it.
If I get raised FTP after this I’m going to try heading up the alpe and hold whatever it says my FTP is and see if I can hold it!
You could also make a custom training plan based on your ftp and use the adjustment slider to push yourself a tad too. Good luck … I’m enjoying re-living all my BMU experiences through you lot currently doing it!
I really dislike ERG mode for long hard sections. I like to take mini breaks where I may back off for a second or two before getting back on the power and may well change up my position a bit too which is hard to do in ERG mode.
I did aspire (one of the 2 hour week 11 workouts) this morning and I’m glad I’ve done this weeks out of order and did the other 2 hour one earlier in the week because I’m feeling this in my legs now and I’ve just got 1 real workout (thew) to go before 3 recovery ones and the FTP test next week.
Aspire did nothing to ease my mind about the FTP test though. It had 3 20 minute intervals which the first one was 2min over, 2 min under (I think at 105% and 95%) and then this repeated another 2 times with the over portion decreasing by 30 sec and the under increasing. Anyway the first of these averaged around my FTP and this felt bad enough so to think to improve my FTP I need to go higher than the over and just hold that for 20 minutes doesn’t fill me with confidence for the test.
I can at least say that come the test I’ll be rested since today is close to the end of 2 weeks of 5 hard workouts per week and maybe even hope my booster shot (had 3 days ago) has affected me more than I think it has.
As I said I’m close to the end now and I’m sure my final feelings will be swayed somewhat by any changes to my FTP, but before that can skew my views of the plan. I have enjoyed the plan and if nothing else it has raised my cadence to a much better level (was probably 70-80 before and is probably 90-100 now for efforts around my FTP). I hit bottom at the end of week 7 as the training load and my other activities (extra Zwift sessions and other sports) took their toll, but that at least taught me my current recovery speeds and to pay more attention to rest. After the rest of week 8 I felt much better and mentally have been much better and able to finish these last few weeks.
