My Cycling Journey - Complete Beginner

:muscle: For what it’s worth, I started SSB as a complete beginner with literally zero fitness in February, and it was hard but super satisfying. I read a lot of people on here suggest that it’s too hard or too intense or too structured for beginners, and I’m sure that’s true for some folks, but it wasn’t for me.

It depends on the kind of workout you’re doing. It’s kind of a crapshoot, for a couple reasons:

  • Heart rate would be a great metric, except it’s capricious. It’ll vary because you slept poorly, or you had a bad meeting at work, or you watched a great movie, or you’re fatigued. It’s useful to track how your body is responding to exercise, but it’s not great for setting your targets.
  • You’re just starting, so you don’t know what the targeted zones feel like yet, so you can’t reproduce them outside with consistency.

TR uses a subjective scale called RPE, or rate of perceived exertion, to define the outside workouts if you don’t have a power meter. Supposedly it takes practice, but you can get pretty close once you nail down the zones. (Supposedly because I’m terrible at it but I’m sure I just need more practice. :sweat_smile: )

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Ah interesting, I’ll check this out and give it a try when I’m riding outside. Thanks for sharing!

So how did it go? have you starter on TR?

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So I decided to delay taking the FTP Ramp Test until tomorrow, because I flew back to Berlin today and wanted to make sure I was able to get the best result possible. Instead I decided to do one of the endurance workouts to just get my legs moving again after being away for a couple of weeks.

Here’s the workout - https://www.trainerroad.com/career/alchemisto/rides/66061075-bald-knob

Unfortunately I couldn’t get my heart rate monitor connected to my ipad, but I also had Zwift running on my PC. So you can also see that here - 25.7 km Ride Activity on November 11, 2019 by Ellis P. on Strava

I felt way better than I expected after being away, in particular I enjoyed the form work exercises during the ride. Looking forward to seeing how they help me improve my technique over time. I’m also pretty sure i’ll follow everyone’s advice and do the longer rides 2hrs+ outside, because it does get a bit boring inside! :smiley:

Thanks for checking in!

P.S - If anyone has any tips for using Zwift and TR simultaneously, let me know :slight_smile:

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For using TrainerRoad and Zwift simultaneously I would check this video out

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Thanks mate, this is very helpful!

So here it is, Day 1 - Ramp Test: Log In to TrainerRoad

I ended the test with an FTP of 152, which is a decrease from the estimate I received on Zwift which is a bit disappointing, however I think there are a number of encouraging factors that will hopefully allow me to improve this relatively quickly.

Firstly, I have been off the bike and travelling for the past two weeks. Arrived back yesterday but have been a bit congested which didn’t help in the later stages for sure.

Second, I decided to ride to work. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but it felt so good to be back on the bike I had a bit too much fun. By the time I got home my legs were already feeling a bit fatigued, although not sure how much impact that had.

With all that said, I’m really excited to get the training started and hopefully work towards some FTP improvements relatively quickly!

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I’m also a newcomer to TR & structured training, I’m losing weight as well to make it more tricky. Did the ramp test on Zwift & got 154 on the free trial, moved to TR as prefer the simplicity & getting lapped by everyone on Z isn’t that fun.

Did a ramp test on TR but sweat dripped on my phone & the workout was lost just as it was over :frowning: so just logged in the zwift number, couple of workouts on the sweet spot base 1 soon decided it was a bit high so dropped to 145. Doing the mid level & so far nearly done 3 weeks without failing one but the 90 min rides are pretty tough (McAdie …ouch).

Good luck

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I had an idea to do something so similar to this with a daily update of my SSB 1 & 2 and Build MV, but this being my second year I don’t think the feedback would be as interesting as for a newbie. Welcome, good luck, I gave you a strava follow to keep track!

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Honestly, if you plan to ride to work and continue TR workouts on the same day, you did it right. The ramp test should replicate your real world training conditions (fatigue, fuel and all). So don’t worry if you came in a bit tired.

If the workouts are too easy even into week 4-5, you may want to bump it a few watts, but I’d say go with that number.

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One thing I would do is adjust your FTP down from the 175 you have to the 152 you ramp tested at for future work, at least for the first few weeks. If you feel the workouts are too easy you can always add intensity and you’ll likely get a nice mental boost too, but if the workouts feel hard and you have to lower intensity, it could also mess with your head, it always does for me because I feel like I can’t keep up with the plan.

You should make some pretty big gains in the first 3-6 weeks but better to play it safe than overdo it out of the gate

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Welcome to the world’s most addictive sport. :wink:

I’m new to TR but have been listening to the podcasts for awhile. I finally went for it and subscribed. My question is where to begin? I am NOT new to cycling but am trying to make myself be more consistent. I jumped in to the sweet spot base, but now I’m wondering if maybe I should have explored a bit before assuming that’s where I should start.

I have a power meter, know my FTP and my cadence is usually around 90. I can’t climb worth a damn. I have good handling skills but absolutely NO endurance at high speeds… so if I do a local practice crit for example, I can barely hang on and always get dropped about half way through. Same with fast group rides. I think consistency is my biggest issue.

TIA for any advice.

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Hey @sweepmoggy, thanks for sharing! Glad to find someone else who is also on a similar journey :smiley:

It’s a shame about losing that ramp test result, I can’t imagine going through that and then not getting to see the number at the end :frowning: But looks like you’re going pretty well so far, keep it up!

I just completed my first workout with this FTP and it felt pretty easy, but i’m going to give it a few weeks before changing anything because i’m sure it will get tired as the work mounts up.

Please keep me updated as you go through the plan, really interested to hear how you get on!

Good luck to you too :handshake:

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Hey @Cleanneon98, I definitely think you should make the thread!

I’m sure there will be someone out there in a similar position to you that can benefit from what you share. For me, I’ve also found it a good motivator so far for keeping my motivation up, and imagine over time it’ll help me maintain the commitment to the training.

Thanks for the follow, and looking forward to sharing my progress :slight_smile:

That’s actually a really solid point, never thought about it like that :thinking:

I’m definitely planning on keeping it at the 152, especially because you can increase the workout intensity relatively easily if things do end up being a bit too easy like you mentioned.

Yeah completely agree with you on this. I’m sticking with the 152 I got and will adjust workouts on the fly as necessary, but am planning on sticking with it for a decent while until I can properly tell whether or not the workouts are too easy.

One thing I don’t want to do is assume the fact I feel fresh is because the FTP is too low and increase it, only to end up not being able to finish at the end. Which as you said would mess with my head a bit.

Hopefully I’ll make some decent progress at the end of the 6 weeks, and it’ll feel great seeing the number rise (hopefully a bit at least :crossed_fingers:)

Hey @stephbc, thanks for the welcome and can confirm it is HIGHLY addictive (bank balance agrees :zipper_mouth_face:).

Honestly, the best thing to do especially for the base plan is to just pick one and commit. I know it sounds cliché but I literally switched between Traditional and Sweet Spot plans five times before finally deciding to just go for Sweet Spot, mostly based on the feedback in this thread.

The biggest thing I realised is that there are really good pros and cons to both, so in the end it doesn’t really matter as long as you commit to the one you choose. In the end the deciding factor for SSB for me was the time it takes to see the improvement, Traditional is more a long term commitment and SS has some better short term gains, which I need because I’m new and want to stop getting dropped in my local group rides :sweat_smile:.

For you this will be different but hope it helps a bit. After the base plan, then this is more specific to the kind of riding you want to do, so just adapt this as you want. For me i’m going with the most general plan.

Good luck with your riding!

So how are things going for you so far?

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Week 1 Update

Here it is, my first update :smiley:

I’ll start by recapping the FTP test. The result was lower than I had expected from my Zwift test a few weeks earlier, although there were some external factors that probably had some impact (had the flu, rode to work). With that said, I’d rather start lower and work my way up than starting too high and not complete the workouts.

The next workout came a couple days later in the form of Mount Field. Again I found the exercise quite easy, with the worst part being my saddle position causing some…issues (I’ve since tilted it forward a bit :pray:). One thing I noticed was that my trainer had some issues when registering the low watts in the middle and end of the ride, so I ended up having to ride a bit above target, which was fine.

At this point in the week I still felt really good so I decided to add another endurance workout in (Beech) before continuing with Baxter on Saturday. After both of these rides I still had a bunch of energy, but could definitely feel the stiffness setting in as this was the longest I’ve spent in the saddle in a week, ever! If after next week I still feel this good, then i’m considering going up to medium volume, since I have the time and would like to ride more if my body can handle it. Let’s see!

Overall I’m pretty happy with how the week went, although I was a bit sick with the flu at the start which didn’t help with the FTP test. Enjoying riding and I’m looking forward to Goddard, Monitor and Antelope in Week 2 :biking_man:

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Thanks for checking in and reminding me! Got sidetracked with work, but I’ve added my week 1 update to the main thread, also as a reply below :slight_smile: