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Hello everyone, I have a question about the recovery and I would like to get your opinion. I am a master (45 years) and I am training 5-7 hours at week. Until now, I have usually made a fixed recovery schedule: 3 weeks structured and one week with no intensity and less volume (couple of hours in Z2). I am doing a SS block and I am feeling that my body is sustaining it very well without too much fatigue. I was thinking to change my recovery approach and reduce the volume only if my HRV and HR are going out of the baseline for more than 2 days.

What do you think? Is this risky?

My favorite skinsuit has many pinholes but one resulted in a small tear about 2-3mm. Does anyone know of an easy option for repair? I was thinking maybe a self adhesive patch placed on the inside to stop the tear getting bigger..thanks in advance

Recently in Singapore we have been experiencing haze for the past few weeks or so. It was particularly bad the past 10 days and I haven't ridden since last Sunday.

I usually ride between 250-320 km a week (excluding short commutes) , sometimes higher but almost never lower. I have been doing this every week of this year. Additionally I also run or walk but it's not much, probably like a dozen and half kms or so a week.

Since this is different from taking a break out of necessity due to illness, how much fitness would I have lost not riding for 6 days voluntarily ? How long would I take to regain this list fitness

Also a break from my streak of consistency for this long has been me depressive, moody and not be able to concentrate at work. Anyone else had this happen to them too?

I'm sure this has likely been discussed before, but I'm curious to the improvements (or decline if you've gone the other way) of athletes who've been time crunched and training 3-5 hours a week and have found the time to train 10-15 hours a week.

How much faster did you get? Improvements in durability? How much more seriously did you have to take recovery? Anything else that required attention?

Obviously everyones training response is different, but still curious.

29M, 65 kg. Last ~100 h of road riding (~90 days), mostly long mid-high Z2 rides plus 30-90 min sweet spot sessions. Almost no VO2 intervals. Roughly 35-40 h/month in summer, ~20 in winter for the past two years. Half the time the two years before that.

Bests: 1 min 480 W, 5 min 330 W, 20 min 290 W, FTP 275W ~4.25W/kg

Questions:
Does this look sensible for my numbers, or am I leaving something on the table?

I really struggle mentally with intervals above FTP. Is it worth adding VO2 or short anaerobic work, or can I just keep stacking base and sweet spot and expect gains forever?

How do your distributions compare, and what are your bests?

Would love to see your zone charts and power numbers. Curious how much variation there is between riders at similar levels.

since I stopped cycling. For the past 7 years I've been doing 15 hours of training on average with couple week vacations every year. I've been racing nearly every available race that was reachable for me. I did UCI amateur road racing champs.

Then my daughter was born, then I switched jobs. Then I lost interest in riding same routes and training without any reward or purpose for that matter. What is it all for?

So I stopped. At first it was strange, then I learnt to let go and stop thinking about numbers going down. I started to say Yes more to the matters that I've been neglecting due to cycling.

I got into gym and weight lifting. I noticed that grit I've built from years of cycling transfers to pretty much any aspect of life, in this case, I'm pretty happy with my results at gym. I'm pushing weights I didn't even think of, and my upper body is not limp anymore compared to my legs. People notice and compliment me on gains. But I know that compared to cycling, this is pretty much nothing- its too easy.

So today, more than 12 months after my last interval session, I thought about starting to ride my bike more again. Tonight I will be taking it out from the basement and preparing for tomorrows ride. 2 hours on the road, nothing fancy, see how that feels.

I know I will never be as passionate or find time to do it like good old days, but maybe it is still possible to enjoy it without creating that mental toll that we sometimes put on ourselves in this beautiful sport.

I did a 90-minute power Z2 ride using ERG mode on Zwift (Ave 144W, 70% FTP). This is on the higher end of Z2 for me. My HR however was split 40 minutes Z2, 40 minutes Z3, with an extraneous 10 minutes a little hugh, a little low. Average was the ver top end of my Z2 range.

Should I use my decoupling percentage from intervals.icu to very slowly reduce power to keep HR Z2? Or is that overkill and the high Z2, low Z3 is basically the same?

Holy shit was it both the hardest and most fun I’ve had on a bike since I was 16.

I had no idea what I was doing, my heart rate was 188 for most of it, and humbled by the stairs and hurdles.

I feel like I have been enlightened… Wout and MVDP are definitely on to something here and I can see how ripping around a muddy track, sprinting out of each corner can immensely help with racing.

I will definitely return, I just need to convince the mrs that I need a new bike. I definitely recommend if you miss that thrill and pain of a criterium.

i did an ftp test on zwift which came to 260, my garmin estimates my ftp to 296. When i trained with garmin z2 for 1.5h felt still easy but was still a little challenging. 260 FTP sets my z2 to 160W which just feels super unproductive and slow. My HR is only getting to around 120 (in running z2 is at 145 at aroung 5:20 pace).

Is it supposed to feel like it? Do i need to do a different ftp test? what is it supposed to feel like?

When doing vo2 I normally just go all out, basically trying to hit a power record for that time interval. This leads to some pretty dramatic power drops interval to interval, so I’m not sure if it’s the ideal approach.

Is it better to set a power you can hit constantly every interval or just just go balls to the wall every time?

Building up a TT bike and I'm stuck on gearing. I keep going back and forth between the SRAM XPLR 13s group and just going SRAM road. I want to go SRAM for the wireless blips that I can put anywhere, but if I go SRAM I'm definitely going 1x. is using the XPLR group crazy for a TT bike? Are the gear jumps going to be too much? I will say that I've ridden the XPLR group on a road bike and hated the jumps. To the point I replaced it. So I'm guessing that will be even worse on a TT bike.

90% of the riding will be pretty flat. I go months without using the FD on my road bike. That has 50/34t and 10-33t so most of the time I'm just running 50 and 10-33t for all intents and purposes.

So maybe 52t or 54t with a 10-33t in the rear?

Update: I went SRAM road AXS. 10-30t cassette. I have a 56t laying around that I'll start with and decide if I want to change the gearing later. Thanks for the input.

I have been trying to lift more regularly but so far it has really thrown a wrench in the quality of my cycling. I do my best to lift heavy, usually i do:
3x8 squat or split squats
3x10 leg curls or rdl
3x6 leg extensions
3x10 abduction and 3x10 adduction.

I do this once a week the day after my key session. But my legs are dead enough the day after that I really struggle to do my usual 2 hr zone 2 ride. I’d like to try to stick to 1 lift per week but is doing same volume on two days the move? I want to avoid having any lifting soreness before my key session and long ride.

I’m holding off on buying a new gravel race bike while trying to find out whether 32-inch wheels will be allowed in UCI events in 2027.

I’ve seen some reports that the UCI has discussed limiting gravel wheels to 700c, however, I haven’t found a final decision or a published rule with an effective date.

This uncertainty puts amateur racers in a difficult position. Race bike is a significant investment for many of us, and buying one that could soon become ineligible for the events we’re targeting is a real concern.

Meanwhile, Leon Kaiser won the Sea Otter Europe UCI Gravel World Series race on a 32-inch Avona, and brands such as UNpaved, Stinner and Mosaic are offering 32-inch gravel bikes to consumers.

Has anyone found an official UCI statement or regulation confirming their status for 2027?

Also, has anyone actually ordered or received a production 32-inch gravel bike? Which model, what price, and what was the delivery time?

Would appreciate links to original sources or firsthand experience before committing to a new bike.

I've been thinking about trying to qualify - going in '27 would make for a good event during a France cycling trip, and I could watch road worlds in person a few days after the gravel race.

Question I have for anyone that's raced at UCI Gravel Worlds - is it fun? Worth doing? From what I've seen, no matter how fit I am on race day, I might still just be buried among masses of other age-groupers?

Throwback to 10 years ago and I was the fittest I've ever (and most likely will ever) be. Raced B grade, won some races, averaged 300-400km a week, did an everesting, FTP of 375 and a very lean 85kg. The feeling of being able to just press on and on was unreal. Back then all I wanted was a house of my own, financial security, and happiness in love.

Now I'm a dad, married, mortgage, well paid but stressful job, and the image is very different. 105kg and barely touched my bike for 2 years. I'd get out of the occasional ride with my mates but it was so deeply deflating going 1/4 of the speed up climbs that used to be something that barely registered on RPE. It took a long time to come to terms with the fact I'm so far off my peak and that it is completely okay. Comparing my old self to my current self, in pure isolation of fitness on the bike, nearly led me to selling it all and just throwing in the towel.

I ended up deleting all my old data from Strava/Garmin and choose to treat cycling now like I'm starting again. I've been mainly commuting, maybe 60km a week, and getting out for one "longer" (1.5-2 hours) ride on the weekend before the family wakes up. The great news is that I'm setting distance PBs, power PBs, time on the bike PBs because I'm comparing myself to the last two years, not to 10 years ago. Just the feeling of making progress without the hanging visual of previous metrics has been such a breath of fresh air.

So, to all those out there who are in the depths of kids, career, the relentlessness of life - it's okay to not be the same as you were a long time ago, you can still enjoy cycling for what it is, a bit of fun.

Hi all. I’m a journalist writing a piece on why people replace their bikes. I used to race, and I’m still on a 2021 TCR, so I’ve been going back and forth on this question myself.

I figured this sub would have good answers, since a lot of you put serious hours on your bikes. When you replaced your last one, what actually made you do it? Did something wear out, or did it stop being compatible with newer parts? Did you want disc brakes or electronic shifting? Or did you just want a new bike? And what happened to the old one?

If you want to do the survey, it takes about 3 minutes, and you can find it here. Nothing gets quoted unless you say ok, and you can stay anonymous.

Also happy to just read your stories in the comments. Thanks!

I’m on a ship for 80+ days. The only decent equipment in a concept rower and a concept bike.

I’m looking for the best workouts you would recommend to increase power and VO2 max.

Don’t really do much in the day so I can do multiple sessions a day if needed.

At the moment I’m going zone 2 heart rate most days, there’s also a comp to get the fastest 5k. Currently I’m leading at 9:30

How do you all store your bikes in an apartment?
I wanted to check if my glazed balcony is suited for storage, but apparently the humidity is quite high, and temperatures vary greatly during the day, so there is a high chance of condensation damaging my equipment (I guess?). I've got two carbon frame bikes with AXS drivetrains (I'm taking the batteries out before putting my bikes outside) and an aluminium one.
Has anyone successfully adapted a glazed balcony for bikes? During the winter, temperatures might drop to -5°C / -10°C occasionally.

Does anyone have experience of this combination?

I know enduro 3 can import watts and cadence from third party power pedals.

But can enduro 3 import another IAV cycling dynamics metrics from assioma pedals such as power phase, torque efectivness, etc.? Official favero list of devices containes only Garmin Edge cyclocomputers. Watches no.

Does anyone else struggle to train indoors? I can have a nice Z2 or structured workout outside, with little variance from the goals and feel fine based on the given effort.

If I try and do the same thing on my indoor trainer I can’t manage even half the time or distance before my legs are on fire and my HR is into zone 5.

I have a wheel on kickr snap - is this because if the trainer, or does indoor riding just suck?

Hey folks,

I am going to be in a caloric deficit over fall/early winter. From experience, stressful job/young kid I know I can't tolerate much more than 1 hard ride per week (I have other competing fitness goals as well).

With 1 hard ride per week, what kind of workout would you opt for, and how would you progress it over time? I'm hesitating between SS which would be easier to recover from vs keeping more intensity (supra-threshold for example) to maintain or even slightly increase FTP during this period.

For context, I have a ~300FTP at 94kg, been training semi-seriously for about 2 years.

Thanks!