Looking for some training advice/probably some level-setting as I head into the off-season and start planning for next year.

I'm 30 years old, 195 Lbs. and have just completed my first year of doing any structured training. Currently, I have an FTP of 270, so not great w/kg but I do have decent raw power with a 15 sec sprint of about 1,050 W. 2026 was the first year I've done any structured training. My biggest weakness right now is the fall off in my power after about 90 mins, with my best at 226W.

My build and power curve would definitely say that I'm best suited for short, intense races like crits and probably even CX but the racing scene near me is pretty much all 60+ mile gravel races, usually with at least one notorious climb in the middle. Ex/ 62 miles, 5400 ft of climbing with a few mile-long climbs at <10%

With all that in mind, I'm planning on doing a lot of sweet spot and tempo work this off-season to try to build more aerobic capability. My thoughts are 3x 15s @ 85% ftp and 4x8s @ 90% ftp on my hard days with Z2 in between and long endurance rides on the weekends. Also hoping to get my weight down to about 185 lbs.

I am on the right track with this structure? Do I have a realistic shot of being at the point end of longer races given my w/kg?

Information online about this zone is not as common as other zones. Some say it is 5-10mins zone while others say it is 10-15. How much time in zone should I accumulate if I am an intermediate cyclist trying to improve 10mins-20m power?

If you know where I can find a full guide for this sessions it will really help.
🙏🏿

I'm confused, so hopefully people can explain what I'm missing.

I getting more and more into the science behind training, but one thing I can't get my head around is using yesterday's TSB for today's recommended workout (I understand other metrics will go into a recommendation but TSB seems important).

For example, yesterday was a rest day for me and I ended the day with a TSB of -19, I had a very good recovery sleep last night (HRV above average, RHR below average) and I'm showing TSB today of -10.

Based upon yesterday's TSB the recommendation would be not to push too hard today, as fatigue is on the edge of where I want it to be. Based upon today's TSB, I could push harder. In my mind, it's the difference between doing sweet sport and threshold intervals and I feel like in this situation I don't get the full benefit of the rest day if I do the sweet spot. Whereas, if I did a workout yesterday, the fatigue would have been included in yesterday's TSB, and therefore in today's recommendation.

What am I missing?

Or am I just over thinking this?

Or maybe I'm just creating my own riddles because I constantly feel like TSB is holding be back from training (I'm old, when I was young I just rode (pre HR monitors/power meters), a lot, now I'm old, I look at my ATL and TSB and try and find something else to do other than ride, like overthinking metrics).

I am interested in road races and gravel races, but my area has literally nothing unless I want to drive 3 hours away. Seems most of the races in my area died during Covid and haven’t returned….

What city has either the most races, or best races in the US?

Need help. New house, new pain cave. I'm staring at a blank white basement wall, because setup constraints.

Recommendations for posters, art, etc. What am I staring at while zwifting this winter?

I want to set up a one year plan to finally peak for a race I do every November. In the past I just used TR to set up a plan for me during the winter when I ride indoors. But when outside season comes along I ditch it all and will ride for pleasure some times or have family summer obligations where I can’t train. I end up losing some fitness. When fall comes around I start to panic and get back into training for the race. I want to have a plan that gets me through winter trainer riding and then allows me to transition to outside rides so I don’t lose fitness and can enter the final race at peak form.

I understand some very basics of plan building but wondered if intervals would help create a plan automatically for me or do I need to come up with each workout? TR was nice because it did just make a plan. But everything had to be on the trainer and I couldn’t really ride for pleasure some times. It was almost too structured for my life and work schedule.

What I see me doing is this:

Base over winter, build in spring, then base over summer, build and peak in fall. Will intervals make this for me? Or do I have to figure out the stress scores and what workouts to put in?

I'm 55 and can't remember a time my body has felt this good. I'm at close to twenty years of riding, doing a few races here and there. I've been doing yoga 3-4 times a week for a bit over a year now. Different sessions but mostly power and slow flow. It hasn't helped my FTP at all. But I did have less lower back pain than usual on my last death march 10 hour ride.

I've ridden L'Étape du Tour de France five times now and am debating whether to return for 2027 or try something different, ideally closer to home in North America.

Looking for events that offer a similar level of challenge: ideally 80–120+ miles, 8,000+ feet of climbing (10,000+ would be even better), and almost entirely paved roads. I enjoy the atmosphere of a large, competitive event.

I've done Horribly Hilly Hundreds in WI and Levi's Gran Fondo (way too expensive now).

Chinook Gran Fondo caught my eye as did the The Death Ride in California, but I'm curious what else is out there. Open to events anywhere in North or South America.

Any recommendations for truly epic, well-supported road cycling events that rival L'Étape?

I have been experimenting lately with this…..ERG has a tendency to bog down where I’ve clearly pushed the cadence higher with it off to stay on top of the power…….

I think I will continue with it off this winter.

Anyone else have an opinion

Thought some of the folks here might find some of this interesting….

I previously used WKO5 but having upgraded my laptop to one with an Apple cpu it no longer works. Also, it seems like training peaks aren’t really supporting wko moving forward (I could be wrong on that though).

What are good alternative to WKO5?

Your interpretation of this question may vary depending on your age, skill level, etc. for reference I'm in my early 30s, so maybe getting "older" is a factor. I'm not that talented but I've been riding a long time and I'm still getting faster.

I'm asking this question 100% earnestly. I'll start by saying that my pipedream is to someday win a national level mountain bike event. I have accepted I probably won't ride in a grand tour, or an XC world cup. But life is more fun with dreams, even if they are a long shot.

I'm constantly surrounded by amateur and semi pro racers, most of whom are too normal to say these types of dreams out loud. I know I can't be the only one daydreaming about this stuff though. Recently another amateur I ride with vocalized a similar goal to mine, and it was weirdly refreshing. I usually keep these things to myself because I am afraid of sounding delusional.

I am in the final stages of my prep for the Tour de Tucson in November. I have been “training” for this event since mid-March, and cycling since late January.

My ftp has risen from about 180 watts to about 250-260 watts in that timeframe. My bodyweight has decreased from 206lbs (93 kg) to 170lbs (77kg) as well.

My recent training has been as follows:

Monday: Rest

Tuesday: 2 x 20 min SS @ 230 watts

Wednesday: 90 min @ 165 watts endurance

Thursday: 90 min @ 165 watts endurance

Friday: Rest

Saturday: Zwift race (~30-40 miles)
OR
2 x 12 mins @ 250 watts) followed by 1 hour @ 165 watts

Sunday: 4 hours @ 175 watts endurance

I intend to follow essentially this same structure until about two weeks before the race, and then begin a taper.

For those who have raced something similar to this before, is my structure sound? Should I add more volume and less intensity, or vice versa? For reference, the majority of these rides (especially the Sunday long ride) are done on an indoor trainer. This will be my first race style event ever, and I’m hoping to perform well, but definitely not near the top for either my age or gender brackets (28yo male). My goal time is 5:30, and I won’t be joining with a set group; the goal is to find a group of roughly the same fitness level as me and ride with them the entire time.

Is there anything I should change between now and the race date? Open to any and all suggestions.

Hey everyone, ive been having doubts on which stats to follow for my heart rate. I measure it with a Polar H10 and use my garmim edge 1030 plus. First pic is from garmin connect and second is from Strava. They are both from the same ride I did earlier today. I'd why the show diferent result. Both have the same max heart rate (201 bpm) set

Hi all,

Just checking in to see what the feelings are on whether you guys intentionally cut weight by calorie counting or let it drop off naturally as you train progressively more and more. I'm riding 8 hours a week and have just hit 246 FTP, but I'm obviously eating too much to compensate for my training because my figure and weight are staying the same - pretty doughy on the torso which, although I'm being very vain, is something I'm not happy with especially when attending events in cycling gear. I'm 5'8" at 74 kg/163lbs currently.

When I started road cycling over a year ago I lost a lot of weight very quickly on my body and it seemingly transferred to my legs, as I only dropped 3kg despite being very noticeably thinner. My question to the sub is one born of a little bit of amazement, in that I competed in a gravel race a couple of weeks ago and was much faster than a lot of competitors, but everyone else there had completely flat figures and could easily pull off race jerseys, I have been sticking to club fit for perhaps obvious reasons. Did you intentionally count calories to achieve your peak figure, did you increase training amount to offset calorie intake, how did you go about it? I have picked back up calorie counting and I'm running a 200-300 calorie deficit each day at the moment to try and lose the fat and maintain my legs where they are for now, as well as increasing protein intake within that deficit.

Just curious what the intended approach here is, as I look towards competing in more events, sportives and perhaps races next year.

Cheers.

Hi r/Velo,

I've been reverse engineering the firmware of my Bryton Rider S510. It's a good bike computer with a few annoyances, and I now have a set of patches I ride with every day.

Everything is open source, and you build the patched firmware in your browser from Bryton's own firmware file, so I never distribute their code. You copy two files to the unit and you're done.

What works today (tested on my unit):

  - Media buttons for your phone in the ride overview: previous, play/pause, next, volume. Tested with an iPhone so far.

  - Workout screen: 3 countdown beeps before a step ends instead of about 9, and the full-screen "next step" popup becomes a small strip over the chart.

  - Tap the big power number during a workout step to cycle between instant, 3 s, 10 s and 30 s power.

  - HRV recording: beat-to-beat heart rate (RR intervals) from your strap is saved in the FIT file as standard hrv messages, like Garmin units do. Intervals.icu, Runalyze or Kubios can then show DFA a1 and HRV afterwards.

Coming next (built, not yet tested on a unit):

  - A live DFA a1 data field, computed on the unit from the last 2 minutes of beats. Useful for finding your aerobic threshold on the fly (about 0.75 at the threshold).

  - A W′ balance field. The firmware already has a hidden "W' Bal" field that only ever shows "--". The patch makes it work from your FTP and power.

  - Later: a better Climb Challenge (ClimbPro style), and maybe offline Live Segments. The firmware already contains the whole Live Segments feature.

- Later: Better support for Di2 buttons.

Links:

  - Web builder: https://taladjidi.github.io/bryton-S510-mods/

  - Code, docs and how it works: https://github.com/taladjidi/bryton-S510-mods

Caveats: this is unofficial and not affiliated with Bryton, so use it at your own risk. It only touches the main firmware, never the bootloader, and going back to stock firmware is documented. Only R039 firmware on the S510 is supported for now.

Help wanted:

  - S510 owners willing to test, especially with Android phones or Bluetooth HR straps.

  - Climb Challenge examples where the unit split one climb into several segments: a route GPX plus where each segment started and ended.

Happy to answer questions about the reverse engineering side too !

EDIT : DFA a1 / Support for multimedia button action with the Di2 buttons / Miscellenaous performance improvements are up.

Thinking about road cycling in Paphos in the first 2 weeks of March. Been to various places in Spain so want something new. Weather, roads, drivers, rent, etc.

Any recommendations for 20s/30s/40s oriented training camp in Europe in January? Likely Spain or the islands given time of year.

I’ve found a few operators but I can’t tell the target audience.

Unfortunately need a relative chill or base building camp. A couple of months of illness took me off the bike but now recovery feels on track, 1h of volume this week…

Thanks

I race and train regularly, and I’ve hit a plateau. My training has been consistent for a while, mixing structured intervals with group rides, but my power numbers and race results have stopped improving.

I’ve tried adding more volume, doing focused intensity blocks, and tightening up my recovery. Each helped a little, but nothing has made a real jump.

What I’d like to know:

• What change gave you your biggest jump after a plateau: more easy volume, better recovery, a structured plan, a coach, or something else?
• How do you balance training with work and family without burning out?
• What’s one mistake you made early on that you’d tell newer racers to avoid?

I’ve read the usual advice, so I’m hoping to hear what worked for you in practice.

The president has announced that he is expanding the existing golf course so that it will absorb the park and the loop that goes around it. This loop is one of the most popular cycling loops on the east coast. In fact, in terms of pure attempts, it is likely the 3rd most popular cycling segment on the east coast behind Central Park and Prospect Park in NYC. I have personally done over 1000 laps of this park, and is my favorite place to ride and train in DC, so this would be a huge personal loss.

For those that live in NYC, this is pretty much like getting rid of Prospect Park and turning it into a golf course.

This would be a massive loss to the cycling community in DC, and a massive loss to the cycling (and running) community as a whole.

At this point, it seems the only hope to save the loop is an active court case, assuming court orders will be followed.

This is definitely a sad day, I'd encourage people to reach out to their reps about this, but part of me feels as though this loss is inevitable.

How'd your races go? Questions about your workouts or updates on your training plan? Successes, failures, or something new you learned? Got any video, photos, or stories to share? Tell us about it!

—

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What is /r/Velo?

• We are a community of competitively-minded amateur cyclists. Racing focused, but not a requirement. We are here because we are invested in the sport, and are welcoming to those who make the effort to be invested in the sport themselves.

What isn't /r/Velo?

• All simple or easily answered questions should be asked here in our General Discussion. We aren't a replacement for Google, and we have a carefully curated wiki that we recommend checking out first. https://www.reddit.com/r/Velo/wiki/index
• Just because we ride fancy bikes doesn't mean we know how to fix them. Please use /r/bikewrench for those needs, or comment here in our General Discussion.
• Pro cycling discussion is best shared with /r/Peloton. Some of us like pro cycling, but that's not our focus here.

I'm looking to plan an extended (2-3 week?) cycling training trip at the end of November. Currently based in the States, but open to international, and looking to go somewhere modestly warm (60f+?). If you could go somewhere and relax for a few weeks and get some serious training in, where would you go?

Is this an overkill of a wheel? Last year i averaged 44kph in my regional trials and I've built up a good 15watts over the last year and position has also been refined.

I'm 164cm tall and 59kg. Would this hamper my handling and cost power output instead?

Also need advice with rear disc wheel whether the aeox disc wheel is good enough or should I chase something lighter like the citec ultra 8000 which weighs like 800something grams of the farsports disc which also weighs 885g.? Will this aeox disc wheel be just as fast or better than those 2 on a flat course?