FRC and VO2 work in Resistance Mode

I’m trying to do some FRC intervals where I simply go as hard as possible for a certain period without a power target, fully RPE based. I cannot use ERG for this because HR and cadence are the anchors, not power. Resistance mode doesn’t seem to allow me to increase load by changing gears. I suppose I could hit the “+” and “-” buttons to get here but I’m jumping from lets say 180w to ~500w and letting that decay as I melt down.

What’s the best way to handle this? Thanks.

Also, it would be cool if the + and - buttons were way bigger because they can be a challenge to press when I’m melting.

Resistance mode should definitely increase power based on switching gears, you can also try slope mode in our settings. You can also create automated slope changes and back and forth between slope and erg. Erg for rests for example. Let me know if you are still having problems or need more info. Search slope mode here in the forums to learn about that.

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I’m sure this is user error but I give up. I have a workout that sits at FTP and I’m trying to trim resistance to like 190w and you can see I’m on “resistance” with power at 25% but it’s still making 280w of force.

Yep user error :slight_smile: or miss understanding of resistance mode. So our target does not mean anything in resistance or slope mode and 25% is 25% of your trainers max resistance.

Since resistance is in newton meters and not published by manufacturers we don’t know exactly what it is. But if your trainers max watts is 2200w @120 rpm then 25% is about 550w at 120 rpm. So 300w @ 80 rpm is about right.

So a common approach is to set resistance to what is probably around 50% below your target watts in a middle or lower middle gear and shift and use rpm to get to your target watts.

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Excellent, thanks. I knew it was me. I’ll try this again tomorrow. I want to use the trainer as a dyno, like tuning a car, so this should get me what I want for these types of workouts. I should also note that I’m using a first Gen Cycle Ops trainer, if that matters.

I should note that otherwise I’m quite happy with the application and interface.

Slope mode are the only type of workouts I create. I do use erg mode for recovery intervals, but never for hard efforts. If you want to progress to next level, consider Sprint Level Training (SIT) to augment traditional HIIT workouts. SIT workout intervals are 30 seconds or less with up to 5 minutes in between. You push as hard as you can. Your goal for progressive loading is: produce more watts for an interval versus previous efforts.

I’ve been doing the type workout for decades. I finally found some academic studies that support what we SIT riders already know:

Sprint Intensity Training (TrainerRoad Video)
The Power and Importance of Mitochondria

Here’s my suite of bespoke workouts. All use Slope mode. Not for everyone - but I look forward to them all.

Unfortunately, I have to increase my FTP so that TrainerDay will show the workout peaks when riding them or showing summaries like these. It only shows up to 220% of FTP which doesn’t work for SIT riders. We push up to 400% FTP. Fortunately, analysis tools like GoldenCheetah.org don’t have this arbitrary restriction. BTW: I am 63 years old. You will blow away my numbers :rocket:.

I’m a little ignorant to the way the app controls the work I do but I’m going to just sort of describe how I’m using the application and what I would like to have in each case.

FTP TTE Work:
I’m frequently doing TTE @ FTP work and want to adjust resistance with shifters rather than the computer. I’ve been using ERG and after the target power kicks up, I switch to resistance mode and use the shifters to increase or decrease resistance. I then have to remember to press the ERG button to cut power when the interval is over. This is working fairly well but I’d love to extend the intervals 15-30 seconds at the press of a button. Again, this is working fairly well.

VO2 Work:
When the intervals hit I’m going as hard as I can for the duration of the interval as power decays. I don’t really know how to do these workouts using Trainer Day and pressing the +/- buttons is too difficult when I’m simulating heart attacks. ERG cannot be used for this type of work. I really prefer to do these outside and not expecting to simulate these on a trainer, but it’s like 110*f all summer in Texas now so I’d take it if I could get it. There is just no way a computer can estimate the pain and discomfort I’ll endure on these.

Endurance work:
I just start with ERG on a simple workout targeting ~190w, switch to resistance mode, use shifters when needed to adjust for RPE.

Yes we need a “back button” with this, you could double your current interval, and when you are done just hit next to get to the end of the interval. This would effectively give you an extension.

We had this request discussing this.

But maybe your ideas is better (simpler) which is just “extend interval X seconds.” We gave up on back button because it was too complex but extending would be much easier and you could put in settings your default extension time. 10s 15s 5m for example.

For VO2 work I am not fully understanding what the problem is. Why not just use resistance mode and shifting? Doesn’t that solve your problem? Again I think our automated slope mode which is basically the same as resistance mode except you don’t need to press buttons might help you in some of these cases.

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I keep thinking of voice controls “harder” makes the slope, resistance or ERG mode hit the + button.

A post was split to a new topic: Can you add ability to extend current interval?

FWIW: I let Slope mode do as much as possible automatically and use gear changes in rare circumstances. It is like a proper race sprint: You pick your gear and pedal all out until the finish line. Need more power? Pedal faster. Want to always win the sprint? Hope your competitors change gears in mid sprint.

Indoors, I set a target power goal for 80 rpm at let’s say 900w. If pedal faster, I will hit 1000w. Slower - or near the the end of a short interval - I might hit 800w. If my interval repetition is designed right, I will be able to just hold 900w on the last interval in the set.

Changing gears makes it harder to plan the next set of intervals with desired progressive resistance. If I don’t know the gear, it becomes harder to create the best next power target. I could write an algorithm to integrate cadence and power to get gear. I avoid that because sprint training is about hitting maximum power at optimal cadence without changing gears. Keeping the gear fixed, makes things simpler - and teaches good habits.

BTW: Changing settings on the screen will not work for me. Touching the screen during a sprint is virtually impossible. I use Erg mode during recovery segments. This means I can’t make level changes until the slope mode sprint has started.

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Slope mode is basically the same as resistance mode but instead of specifying a resistance %, you specify a slope %. It should be a 1:1 relationship. For your trainer 25% slope might be the same as 100% resistance.

The beauty is as Craig has mastered is programming automatic slope percentages to get you in the ballpark for your efforts based on you being in a specific gear in your bike and hitting “exact” targets with cadence only.