I have to confess I have not run since I did a half marathon some weeks back, nor blogged!

Running has taken a back seat and the Kickr been my only training regime, I have got used to the setup and thought for this post talk about what I have found useful and how to structure my training now in the winter.

First of all, how to set up the bike in the room, it is mandatory to have a fan blowing at you, it is sweaty enough. I have bought a cradle for the iPad and have a phone holder on order, that will use the Garmin cradle (phone is for the Zwift companion app, more on that later).

I have subscribed to Zwift which makes the whole drudgery of turbo training actually fun, it was easy to setup to sync with TrainingPeaks, Garmin and Strava, annoyingly it doesn't just go into Garmin and then out to the other two like the Garmin gear does.

Zwift itself has a great interface and with the iPhone the "companion app" which is supposed to give a better view at your current speed, cadence, power and HR, however, it very rarely connects and I am not sure if it is a WIFI, Bluetooth or service issue, I do see other users complain from time to time so assume it is not me!

So after a trial ride on Friday 6th November (the day the Kickr arrived), I got to work trying the features out.

Zwift fundamentally is a game and virtual world, you ride in realtime with other users of smart trainers. There are events, training sessions and gear to unlock, the more you ride or complete certain segments/routes.

Strava shows you all the usual readings, now I have Power which is the best way to train on the bike, these power meters cost a small fortune to fit on bikes so never bothered. Now my bike training will be centred around power and the first job is to work out your Full Threshold Potential (FTP), happily, there is a training session to do this!

I chose to do the shorter version, FTP's are worked out using your best effort over 20 minutes (over more brutal ways are done by professionals) this one takes around 45 minutes, has a warm-up and down segments and the 20 minutes bit, slap in the middle.

It worked out my FTP was 191W which I then enter into TrainingPeaks so that planned sessions use this for %Max FTP and Strava so it knows how well I am performing, in 6-8 weeks I will perform the same FTP test and hopefully it will go up!

I have purchased ($9.99) a basic plan in TrainingPeaks and this automatically puts the sessions into Zwift on the day I am doing the workout. During the workout, it uses ERG mode which means you can still enjoy the scenery and company of other riders, but the trainer will disregard the hills etc and set the resistance on the trainer to ensure you are cycling whatever Wattage you are supposed to be training at. Whist you are riding, the game will give you a heads up to what is coming and encouragement to stick to the mission i.e. cadence and wattage which is super helpful.

So next week I start training in earnest and promise to get back running!

Laters

Mark