Simulated workout for a 'Group ride'

On many of your plans (especially sweet spot base 1-3) you stipulate a ‘Group ride’.

While I appreciate groups rides are different for different groups I rarely go on a group ride because of where I live.

Hence what sort of session would you prescribe in place of a group ride or at the very least what zones would you like hit in place of a group ride.

Greetings @sam -

I think this is one of those questions that we’d put in the ‘coaching bin’ because a coach can talk with you to creatively come up with a solution. A coach will find out what resources you do have, what terrain and be able to design workouts and give your riding concepts to mimic the physiological demands of a group ride.

The reason we prescribed group rides other they than are super fun and good for your pack riding skills is that a group will help you to dig deeper and make more power than you would if you were to train alone. Extrinsic motivation + the physics of staying in the peloton to not get dropped.

For the purposes of trying to answer your question (briefly):

-ride fast all zones and achieve the prescribed TSS
-use Zwift for a portion of your ride
-find like minded training partners (you only need 1-3) for a small group ride

Sorry couldn’t be more helpful but hope that gets you going in the right direction!

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Once COVID19 restrictions are lifted I think a coach may be worthwhile.

For the purposes of my enquiry Frank PLEASE PLASE PLEASE give me a session for this ride :slight_smile:

Any kitchen sink type of workout would work. Kitchen sink is just referring to everything and all zones. Think about how group rides are typically ridden. Rarely is the power consistent so that is the type of workout you are looking to do.

If there are segments around where you live you can hit those full gas. These can range from short sprints to longer 10 - 20 minute efforts. Map out a ride that would include a few of these different duration segments and when you get to them go full gas. A short 1 minute segment would be an anaerobic effort while a longer 15 - 20 minute effort you might just do sweet spot.

Another thing you could do is a workout such as this. Warm up in zone 2. Then complete 2 x 15 minute Sweet Spot Burts efforts. During the 15 minute efforts do a Zone 5 effort every 3 minutes for 20 - 30 seconds. Like taking a pull in a hard fast pace line. Rest 7.5 minutes between. Ride 15 minutes. Then finish off with 3 x 2 minute full gas efforts. Rest 2 minutes between.

Honesty there could be about 100 different workouts you can do and variations. A coach could give you the specific type of workouts or ideas for each weekend. Like Frank said these group rides are about variety and pushing yourself. Also the idea of group rides is to think less about a timer and kind of go with the flow. Keeps the training a bit more fresh. Obviously group rides are not always a possibility and that is when a little creativity can go a long way.

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agreed with both coach Jakes and Franks suggestion.

another option (which is similar to a kitchen sink) is 1 per hour. So doing a race like effort every hour of varying length. This will test you in key points much like a group ride does and then you can customize the efforts based off of the demands and adaptations you are looking for.

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I like this because we all have our FTP at the beginning of the ride and then our FTP when we are four hours deep into a ride. The differential between the two is dramatic. I thought of this last weekend while barely being able to make tempo watts up the final climb of our Crusher in What Tushar Strava segment.

My differential was about 50 watts.

Whereas 4 hours prior I had to hold back on FTP watts up the first climb. So you could do 4 x 10 minutes at 98-104% of your FTP with 50 minutes off inbetween. Essentially one 10 minute threshold interval every hour with 50 minutes of zones 2/3 inbetween and try to ‘do’ threshold watts for all 4 especially the last one when you are really tired. That will bring the pain but this is how group rides go + races, for example

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Okey doke. Thanks for your considered response gentlemen. I will start licking my lips and drawing out some routes to encompass my simulated group ride.

With all my strava followers no doubt I’ll get some requests to join and then turn my simulated group ride into an actual one!

Thanks for the inspiration @sam :: let us know what you think after you listen:

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Ah ha! Will play it on the way to work tomorrow.!

Another brilliant podcast!

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