So…. you have purchased a shiny Cruzbike and now you want to go farther, faster for less effort and more fun. Or you want to maximize the smack down you put on those other bikes, or perhaps your friends who are afflicted with Bikeism. If so, then this is your thread.
Ok then, what is it that is stopping you? If the answer is you do not know how to train, or you are not motivated to do it in a vacuum, then this thread is for you.
If you do not care if you are the slowest bike around, but yet you love Data and the Science of cool things, then this thread is for you.
Ok, now that I have your attention; where-the-heck is this going?
We all love our Cruzbikes and we know they go faster pound for pound, watt for watt than anything else we have tried, and they do it far more comfortably on flat roads and on hills. However, there is a limited amount of hard performance data about them and recumbent bikes in general for that matter. The data is out there but most is in the hands of the individual riders or small groups. Race results speak for themselves, however, that only goes so far and is highly athlete dependent. In that void, I wanted to find a fun way to start to filling in the blanks for my own curiosity. Towards that end, I am organizing
4F the un-official Cruzbike Training Team and Support group.
The goal of the effort will be:
- Provide generalized training guidance geared to those new to structured training.
- Use the massive TrainerRoad.com workout library and their excellent training software.
- Gather all the training data in TrainingPeaks.com for analysis, feedback monitoring, and MBB platform analysis.
- Support and encourage you to reach your goals.
- Introduce beginners to the benefits of traditional aerobic base building (go slower to get faster).
See the details about what trainerroad.com and trainingpeaks.com are at the end of this post.
The execution at its simplest will consist of:
- You join in and decide what kind of riding you want to do and how much time you can devote to training.
- You select a prescribed TrainerRoad program at the volume level that matches your time requirements (High, Medium, Low). Guidance will be provided for beginners.
- Pretty much everyone without prior experience will start in the Traditional Base program and then branch off depending on their individual goals.
- Your results get reviewed and feedback is given to keep you on course; and the group at large can discuss (here in this thread and on the TR team area) progress and struggles to help everyone succeed
Now the deeper details:
Yes, the program will be limited to using the TrainerRoad library. There simply is not time for me to build custom plans for everyone and frankly; TrainerRoad has just about every base covered. The TrainerRoad library can get anyone from couch to competent, and after that you will have an excellent understanding of how to take it farther on your own. When they release their training camps if will get even better.
Yes, you will need a paid TrainerRoad account to participate in this adventure. If you did not; then you would have to steal their workouts, and I am not going there. That team has put much time and effort into their product, they are saving us all a fortune in coaching costs. The good news is: that subscription is the only recurring cost in this program (if you don't count chain lube and tires).
I am also pleased to share with everyone that a member of the TrainerRoad team has recently joined the forums. When informed of this project they generously offered to provide promo-codes for people participating in the program. Once we have our starting group of people assembled, I will disseminate codes that will allow you to sign up for a discounted TrainerRoad subscription. After that initial wave, if the project is successful, we can bring on board new participants in batches with additional codes. Therefore, if you do not have a TrainerRoad account yet hang tight before you get one so that I can request and distribute the needed codes. Likewise, if you do not have everything you need to join in just yet (aka you are waiting on your new V20 or Kickr), we can get you in a later batch.
Do you have to do the Traditional Aerobic approach to start with? No, but that is the focus of what I am organizing for the beginners as an approach, it is long proven, and has the broad applicability to all types of riding. If you want to go with a different approach, you will still be welcome on the journey, you will just be more on you own and it may take longer to answer your questions. If subgroups form around other approaches and people step up to guide that effort that’s cool.
The requirements:
- You will need to supply your own Cruzbike (all models welcome)
- You will need to supply your own TrainerRoad.com Account
- You will need an indoor trainer capable of at least TrainerRoad Virtual Power
- ERG Trainers like the KICKR are preferred
- Your trainer will need to be compatible with your Cruzbike, which may be a problem for the IGH Quests.
- You need to be able to regularly ride on your trainer; and when you fall off the wagon, you need to be able to get back on. Or in other words in some way shape or form you have to want improvement be it speed, effort, weight, etc.
- You do not need an outdoor power meter, but having one is beneficial
- You will need a HR Monitor for the aerobic phase.
- You will need an Electronic device cable of running the TrainerRoad software and gathering the data (Win, Mac, iOS, Android)
- You will need a Free TrainingPeaks.com Account.
- Your TrainingPeaks account will need to be linked to my Coaches account.
- You need to allow analysis of your data; which includes disclosing your weight and age.
- If you are going to gather outdoor data you will need a device (Garmin, Smart phone etc.) that can gather at least your HR and Speed.
- Cruzbike, Inc. may want to use your de-identified data for research or marketing, and you must be OK with that.
You can join in at anytime you like. Most people will find it beneficial to start in the offseason about 3 weeks after some rest. But we will start this in late June for those that want to get going right away; not everyone has the same offseason after all. This will help me debug the process. So you have many months to figure out if you want to do this and acquire the pieces; or you can jump right in.
So if you made it this far with this post, you might be thinking man I have to provide a lot if I want to do this training stuff. Yes, you do; but you already have the Cruzbike. In the end, you need to bring the motivation, enthusiasm and the TrainerRoad subscriptions to conduct your workouts in a format that can be consistent and digested without a huge time commitment from those lining up to help and support you.
What is going to happen with all the data? Frankly I do not know; I need to gather it in my Training Peaks coaching account to see if it tells an interesting story. At the very least, I would like to make it available to Cruzbike to study. It might be useless; and we might only have a nice little training community chasing goals. Then again, it might reveal some interesting trends; but until the data exists it is just guesswork.
How do I join in?
If you want to participate, reply in this thread to indicate your interest and the date you would envision being ready to start. I will compile the list and contact people with the next steps to get started. Ok so who is in? 1 person, 2 people, 50 people; does not matter to me. We currently have 3 people doing it now in Alpha test mode; and it's been very interesting and enjoyable.
What is TrainerRoad.com?
TrainerRoad is indoor cycling software for PC, Mac and iOS that makes cyclists and triathletes faster. By picking up the data from your Bluetooth Smart or ANT+ wireless devices, TrainerRoad gives athletes structured, power-based interval workouts.
After a brief fitness assessment, TrainerRoad tailors more than 800 workouts and 40 discipline-specific training plans to your individual fitness level to make you a faster cyclist.
https://www.trainerroad.com/getting-started
TrainerRoad also offers a free cycling podcast that averages 1 hour in length. Each week (the cycling authorities at
TrainerRoad gather for a roundtable discussion to answer queries submitted from athletes around the globe, as well as dish about their latest training experiments, discoveries and tips.
https://www.trainerroad.com/podcast
What is trainingpeaks.com?
TrainingPeaks provides the complete web, mobile and desktop solution for enabling smart and effective endurance training. Their products include TrainingPeaks.com Athlete and Coach Edition, WKO+ desktop software for cutting-edge scientific analysis and planning, and the TrainingPeaks mobile apps for iOS and Android. TrainingPeaks solutions are used by Tour de France teams, Ironman World Champions, Olympians, and age group athletes and coaches around the world to track, analyze and plan their training. WKO will be the primary tool for analyzing the data in this project.
http://www.trainingpeaks.com/about-us.html#about
Yep I changed the thread name to "4F" because if we leave out the fun what's the point
