Structured Training to improve and accomplish goals = COMPLIANCE
To perform a scheduled Trainings Peaks workout without having an “agenda” or a description/list of all the “steps” in the work out is like shooting an arrow while wearing a blindfold. As you know, an hour-long workout can have a huge number of steps and changes throughout the hour.
Workouts I usually do start with 6 warmup ramps that are 3 minutes long. Then, a short recovery break of 1 to 2 minutes. Each of these “steps” have a watt goal and maybe a cadence goal.
Once through the warmup, there can be as few as maybe 10 to 15 different steps, with at least a recommended watts range or target. Some more interesting workout sessions may have as many 30 or more active training intervals.
The warmups and intervals are there for a reason. The interval sessions have been thought through and selected and/or created to improve the performance of an athlete related to a goal. They are not A.I generated. Training is NOT; hop on a bike and ride an unplanned variety of intensities and durations.
If you don’t have a way to visually track and execute all those intervals, you aren’t training, you are just riding a bike for personal fun and enjoyment. Just make sure you don’t confuse the two. Both are great goals and great ways to spend time on a bike, only one is structured, progressive training
There are a variety of ways to track a workout interval session. You probably have used some. The most common ways to visually track interval sessions is using a bike computer or a virtual ride platform. A printed list of intervals might work too and is about as low tech as it gets but is also a great way if you match it to some way to track time and bike performance metrics. (Time, Watts, Heart Rate, Cadence, etc.) In the past, I’ve used workout CDs with coaches calling out the efforts mostly based on cadence and RPE (Rate of Perceived Exertion), and that worked as well.
Be aware that most ride virtual platforms require a subscription and a fee, if your workouts are created in Training Peaks, or another platform, the virtual ride environment will need to sync to your workout builder account. I use the Training Peaks coach account and the Training Peaks Virtual ride platform for seamless integration. A personalized workout is created and loaded into the athlete account and automatically that workout will be synced to the TP Virtual platform. You open the Virtual world, and the workout is there, all the times, intervals, watts, cadence, etc. Just sync your bike trainer and/or other devices and you just follow the countdown flow. It’s great for indoor riding and tracking the suggested workout to get best results.
Outside rides are a bit more challenging. If you are invested in “training”, have a coach, have goals and want to increase performance as much or more than just enjoying the ride, you need more sophistication. It could be as simple as a GPS style bike computer. Simple, well sometimes, as bike computers can be quite challenging and at times uncooperative. In the best of all worlds, bike computers should be able to sync to Training Peaks via WIFI, download the workout file seamlessly and all you need to do is “Press Play”. It will also require some bike computer set up prior to ride to make the outside workout easy to follow and keep you safe with traffic and other outside obstacles. You would need to have a marvelous memory and ability to count time to be able to do the created workout without some device to manage the effort.
The challenges, bike computers age and lose function and support. Sometimes what they were designed to do, just doesn’t work anymore in the most convenient method. Luckily, most older model computers work like any other computer peripheral device. You can almost always plug the bike device into a laptop and transfer files which can be opened on the bike computer and used to manage your workouts.
With that in mind, I have created a variety of “Play by the Pictures” blog pages that can walk you through how to add a workout to your bike computer the old fashioned but reliable way.
I also have a few pictures of what a custom created interval workout looks like after the ride is done. What the ride graphically looks like for analysis, what looks great and what is challenging to analyze. What structured training compliance looks like.
Finally, I have some graphics showing what the virtual environment looks like before a ride, during a ride and at the end of a ride.