Agreed! Never let anyone shame your accomplishments. It's all relative anyway. Just stumbled upon your page. Nice content! Congrats on your accomplishments.
First off, great job! Consistency really is the key. A couple comments on the ftp. The big jump in that first 6 months is most likely due to “newbie” gains so you should not get discouraged by smaller jumps in ftp going forward. Another factor that I have noticed is that I always get a higher ftp number doing a Zwift ramp test compared to a TR ramp test. I have seen the same thing on other cycling channels. Their protocols are slightly different but I believe TR is more accurate. Good luck on your racing in 2024!
Thanks brother 🙏. That is a really good point I never thought of that before, I did notice that their ramp test is different than Zwift. 100% on with you on the fact that consistency is always key 💪🏽. Good luck to you as well and let’s crush 2024 💪🏽💪🏽.
What a great journey, man. I'm on my second try at Trainer Road. First one was a few years ago and it didn't go well. This time is going much better and I've been consistent for about three months. Hoping for some gains as an older dude. Thanks for sharing and best of luck to you.
Thank you for sharing your experience as well. I Believe from what I have heard about other people using it years ago that is much much better now and all the new features they’ve added through out the years have really improved the system. Best of luck to you as well 🙏.
Nice video man! Also, super inspiring and useful story so thanks for sharing. I've just started a new TR plan and hoping to gain 30w on my FTP before an event in June.
Okay im just gonna be honest here, i was just out today doing intervals; 4x4 @110% FTP, and i just could not do the intervals, my form has been stationary for 3 months now, and its starting to affect me mentally; today i literally started crying because i couldn't do the intervals despite 3 months of hard training, but still no progress at all (my FTP has actually decreased), honestly i felt like i was about to give up until i saw your video! I am really gonna start researching my nutrition and make sure that i do it right, and that i get the right amount of carbs each training session, and you've also convinced me to start using trainerroad, because you showed me your big gains, and also because i know two cat A's who use trainerroad. I am gonna give it another shot since i don't feel like giving up so i hope that im soon gonna see some gains, even just small 1w gains would make me happy! And let me tell you, training 14 hours a week as hard as you can and seeing no improvements is hard, VERY hard. I hope that god will be by my side!
Glad you found the video man. Do no give up I went through the same thing and until I started to fuel properly on and off the bike I was on the same rut. Fueling is so important not only on the bike but also off to be able to recover and hit the next session ready to go. Also a bad session is normal here and there. Keep your head up man if there anything I can help I’ll be here man 🫶🏼💪🏽.
@@DennisGonzalez101 Yea i know that a bad session here and there is normal, thing is that it's every time man. Any tips for fuelling btw? P.S your gains are so crazy, after that 1 week break!
@@erlendsteren9466 Hey i just saw your comment, i no longer ride because of a back injury, and loss of motivation, but doing the intervals at 105% does not give you Vo2Max adaptations which was the purpose at that particular time.
I found out hoe effective fueling is last year when I rode a planned 200km ride, I worked out roughly 60g carbs per hour for my ride, which I had never done before. Normally after a longer ride (100km+) I feel absolutely shattered, but this time I felt so fresh, I could have easily done another 50km if I'd had lights with me. I'm now planning on doing ultra events, but I'm glad I saw this video as I've been neglecting the fueling during training rides on the turbo, this makes so much sense.
Absolutely brother that’s one of the biggest things I noticed, how much energy I still had after hard or long rides where before I would’ve been absolutely wrecked for days because my body wasn’t able to recover or I would barely make it home. I fuelles every workout now don’t matter if is on the trainer or outside. My weekend rides like for example the over under session I talked about on my previews video I took 100-120 grams per hour and I try to do the same on long rides. Nothing less than 100G. And 60-80 for endurance rides.
Thanks a lot for sharing your traininghistory and experience. I guess that your dark time wasnt only under-eating, but also some under-resting. All in all you had a fantastic improvement. About consistency, I think avoiding overtraining, under-eating, injuries and illness helps a lot. My self I have to do some slight under-eating due to obesity, and I will do it carefully. I want to go from 2watt/kg to a better place, maybe 2,5. I am 62 years old.
Hey Bro! Just watched your review of the Madone Gen 8 and then saw this video. Congrats! Your neighbors to the north are praying for y’all in Florida - hope you are safe and the Hurricane Milton does not cause too much damage 🙏
Progression is very rarely linear, as as you start to reach peak capability, gains will logically diminish relatively - otherwise everyone has infinite capability which we know is physiologically not possible. That being said, the intial jump in FTP is astonishing & just proof of how good consistency is irresepective of the program followed - just a caution regarding burn-out because you need to allow yourself time-off both during season & especially off-season. This is not to reduce your training load, but rather to allow you time to regain motivation for the next "push".
Yeah I guess linear wasn’t the right term there but what I was trying to explain was that it wasn’t always an upward trend or even a steady trend it actually went downwards or something like that. I agree consistency is key regardless of plan or workouts you are doing. At the end of the year after I won’t states from October all the way until now all I was doing was big weeks of Z2 no high intensity aside from a few races I did, really focused on that base fitness and only 3 weeks in to 2024 I can already tell this is going yo be an even better year. First 4 weeks have been super positive doing numbers in training that I never did last year on any workout when I was in race wining fitness. I definitely want to do better this year on actually respecting my days off every week and more important recovery weeks. That is something I could’ve done a lot better last year, so definitely going to try and nail that this year.
You summarise with the message "keep consistent", but I'm not sure that's the message at all from this video, "eat more and take recovery weeks" is. You were very consistent with your training during the period when you were seeing no progress, that was actually the problem, no?
That’s a good point but when I say stay consistent and be responsible I meant with every aspect of training and that included diet and fueling. To me training includes everything, I didn’t mean, stay consistent with every workout. I can definitely see how that was confusing and u made a great point brother. Sorry about that 🙏.
Thanks so much for sharing this. Love your content man. Epic TH-cam channel. People will catch on - just keep posting. You’re one of the best kept secrets on YT.
I tried Trainer Road but it made me slower. I organised it around a goal event but got dropped on the first climb. Trainer road doesn't help with climbing at all and is super depressing staring at a graph. I'm Back on Zwift and am seeing my performance finally start to improve.
Thanks for the feedback brother. Glad is working out for you. As I always say is not always the perfect plan or the coach because in my opinion neither exist. As long as it work for u and are you seen the progress that all the matter man. Good luck 👍🏼
Great info and awesome job you did. I am trying to lose weight and increase my power but I am suffering both at work and on the bike. Maybe I need to take in a little more calories to fuel my recovery so I will have more energy at work and hopefully be better on the bike so I can lose some pounds and stay consistent.
Fueling before and during your rides is so important especially when you add intensity. If I don’t fuel a morning ride well enough I want to gorge food the rest of the day. I don’t get the same hunger if I properly fuel with carbs before and during my rides. Worth a shot!
You nailed it brother that’s is great info and I notice the same issues. When I fuel properly I get home with no hunger and want to eat everything on the fridge, I’m able to recover so much better and go hard again next day and never lack energy at all during just regular everyday activities off the bike which was terrible before I was fueling properly. Big think I notice was that before during work every afternoon I needed a energy drink to get through the afternoon and be able to be energetic enough to get my workout done and now I never ever crave a energy drink at all.
Thanks brother 🙏. So what I would do is not worry about the weigh lost part so much and only worry about being consistent and fueling. Lot of people under fuel because they worry about the extra calories you are taking in and I say it because I was literally doing the same. When I started fueling properly tho I notice I was able to get so much more work done, I was able to recover better and because of it I was able to work harder, increase my FTP and by that I was burning more KJs during every ride because I was able to ride at a higher power so weigh lost happened on its own. A good well balance diet is of course a must but do not skimp on fueling your workouts. By fueling and been able to recovery and increase your power on the bike you will get stronger feel better and also burn more kjs per ride which is a win win win. Good luck brother, u can do it I believe in you 💪🏽.
@@DennisGonzalez101 About fueling, weightloss and calories. If I go for a hard 2,5 hour ride, Strava tells me I burn 1750 kcalories. If I refill with 90 grams of carbohydrates pr hour, thats 270 gram and 1080 kcalories, which mean that I lose some weight also on wellfueled rides. So you that shal not lose weight have to eat good meals all over the day besides the ride-fueling.
Enjoyed the video! I have one question for you - how are you scheduling your strength training with TR/cycling? I want to do strength training (mainly squats, deadlifts, and shoulder/back compound exercises) just to be well-rounded. I used to do both TR and gym on the same day, but with my work schedule, this turned out to be unsustainable. At the moment, I am doing alternate days, and I'm keeping volume somewhat low (e.g. 3x5 sets for squats instead of 5x5). I feel fine for now, but of course, doing Threshhold workouts, followed by squats the next day, followed by VO2Max should theoretically compromise on some improvements.
Hey man thx for the comment. So if I’m honest brother I haven’t done actual strength training side from just core and body weight exercises in over a year. I been just doing it after my easy rides on Wednesday and Friday and sometimes on my days off on Monday. Those won’t cause any extra fatigue since is all easy and mostly core. When I was doing actual weight training in the gym I was going twice a week and I was doing it on my hard days. Tuesday and Thursday, I would wake up early do my TR workout indoors before work and then hit the gym after work. Line you said that after a few months just became a lot and if I’m honest I just love getting my sleep everyday 😂😂. So I haven’t actually done gym work in bit now. I am planing to get at least a squat rack I can set up at home and use that for some squats, deadlift and things like that. Hope that helps and keep crushing 🤙🏽🤙🏽.
Were you on a TR Crit plan? It pretty much had you doing Anaerobic and Vo2 max workouts with Threshold workouts on the weekends. Your outside rides seem to be endurance rides? Great progress. Love your presentation bro. Also, mind sharing how tall you are?
Thanks 🙏. Yes last year I was doing CRIT and rolling road race plans which is those short punchy efforts because those where my A races. Everything else was Z2. I’m 6’ tall.
People don’t realize that a caloric deficit completely ruins your recovery. It‘s a legitimate goal to want to lose weight, but you should switch all training to „maintain form as well as possible“. It’s also one of the reasons PEDs are so widespread in many sports, it changes the equation dramatically. Bodybuilders that walk around with huge muscles at 7-10%BF are 100% doped up to their eyeballs, nothing eats away at muscle mass like dieting without PEDs
You couldn’t be more right about that. Unfortunately being so new to the spot and having no real guidance and knowledge made me learn the hard way. I wouldn’t change anything looking back at it because I learned a lot and did a lot of research and listen to podcast and learned so much from the mistakes I made. Now is time to just look forwards and make the real gains 🤙🏽. Thx for the comment 🙏.
I also learnt the hard way, although for strength training. I tried to lose 5 kg and lost a years worth of strength progress! Then I read Mike Israel's book on volume landmarks, where he said: don't waste your effort trying to improve while dieting, you will only dig a deeper hole. Stick to your minimum viable program- Other people are of a different opinion. But I think it's also a mental thing: relax and be happy to keep your level rather than trying to improve. Anyway, great vid, I use TrainingPeaks, but I'd give TrainerRoad a try@@DennisGonzalez101
I see the workouts that bumped your FTP in 2023 are NOT sweetspot - but short VO2 intervals... so you have identified that riding at power above your FTP will raise it.. so don't do more sweetspot, but go polarized. Also, training is not linear, at end of a season take some time off for the body to reset and expect the FTP to decrease but quickly come back and potentialy increase again once some structured training is completed.
Wow that is an amazing observation. As of now I am doing some sweet spot just because I feel that I’m lacking that muscle fatigue resistance from being so new to the sport, that’s something that takes years to develop. So I’m working on just longer sustained power intervals. I feel like muscle fatigue is holding me back more than my aerobic capabilities, also being so new I’m just trying new things and finding out what works. In 2022-end of 2023 when I didn’t have the nutrición issues my FTP was going up at a very fast rate without me doing V02 and things like that so I feel I can still gain a lot more before having to switch it up. After I won Florida state championships in October I stoped structure training and just did few races for fun and some rides but mostly was just Z2 very big weeks, few 400-500 miles 20-22H weeks when it was possible, I’m sure in that time frame it allowed my ftp to drop and also I reset and got more motivation back to go again in 2024 which I started only 3 weeks ago but the numbers I’m seen already in training are personal records compare to what I was doing last year when I was in race winning shape.
Nice video. Keep it up. Where in florida was this ride in the video? I'm in the same spot. Training almost everyday but also need to drop some weight. good insights.
Thanks brother 🙏. This is in southwest Florida. Ft Myers area. Just stay consistent and fuel for the work required my brother and the rest will come by itself, just need to trust the process.
Thanks for the question. I don’t really integrate them. What I do is I go on TR and I put my endurance ride for Outside and then I just do it on Zwift and TR will still count it as the workouts. Hope that helps.
Lol , my Inscyde coach laughs at TR workouts , the only thing TR is doing is to wear you down . The interval blocks has no science to back this up . The only thing to find out where your fitness is at the moment is not by doing a ramp test , it Will be done in the lab . Thanks for sharing the experience
Thx for your feedback as well. I’ve had great success. Go look at all the races I’ve won this year and finished 2nd in my age group at unbound and 7th overall in the amateur 200. Remember that is not always the coach but your work ethic, discipline and how deep are you willing to go. Good luck with your training and racing.
@DennisGonzalez101 Consuming 100g per hour-what exactly do you eat? One GU gel contains 20g of carbs, so for one hour, it's going to be 5 GU gels. It challenging for me to eat so many gels. What are your thoughts on that?
That’s a great question. So no I wouldn’t do 5 gel an hour that is definitely too much 😂. I do one gel which is 22G and then I would have around 80G on one bottle. To me drinking the carbs is the easiest and quickest way to get them in but also get your body to use that sugar. For racing I use Maurten and I love them but they are way too expensive to use during every training session so for training I simply just use table sugar and add a bit of salt for sodium. Sucrose or (table sugar) has a 1:1 ratio which is honestly all you need. I know it don’t don’t with everyone’s stomach and you will need to get yours use to it but it was never an issue for me. I can do 120G easily per hour this way with no GI issues.
That’s is a great question. I find simple stuff really helps like a big toast with lots of honey or something I do a lot also is cereal. U just need something simple before getting on the bike and then try and do the carbs on the bike liquid as that’s is the quickest and easier way for your body to use that sugar and adjust the amount depending on the intensity and duration of the ride. Honestly if u where responsible enough and fueled properly between session you will have enough carbs in your muscles and liver even for a very intense session and then just need to remember to fuel properly through out the day. Hope that helps 🤙🏽.
Your video and stories are really good. I already wrote that I am in the same situation as you was. Very heavy rider and trying to lose weight. Now fueling during training. As weightlifter to lose weight was super easy for me but while riding a bike this a completely other story. I tried out TR but I quit it because I cant export workouts to import than on zwift before doing them. When you accomplished a workout you can export it. Don't understand this philosophy. But yeah it is what it is :-) I am using pushing limits club now. it's a german a platform and I am using their workouts,. One question Dennis. You still doing gym workouts combined with cycle workouts?
Hey brother thx for the comment. I have no issues exporting my workouts to garmin is very very easy not sure exactly what your issues were , I export them and do them outdoors very easy. Right now I am not lifting weight what I am doing is core and foam rolling and things like that. Never heard of that platform but to be honest in my opinion there ain’t no perfect coach or workouts is all up to you, your commitment and your consistency. Keep it up brother 🤙🏽.
@@DennisGonzalez101 I got back into cycling this past summer after 8 years off the bike. I started in June with an FTP of 137 and ended up at 150 in September but I wasn't consistent. I started consistently riding the first week of December following NorCal Cycling's Couch to Crit plan and after the first block of base training my FTP improved to 171. I am about to finish my second block of base! I may be slow but I feel stronger than ever and I hope to bump up my volume up to 9-10 hours a week going into base 3 and then build. I have a few target gravel rides and local crits I would love to be dropped on! 😂 Despite it all I am loving the process and finding out how important consistency and nutrition is over everything else.
@@greyspaniard amen brother. That’s one of the main reason why I made this video. Me and many other are suffering from the same issue and don’t see any progression and think is us without realizing is not our plan or our bodies is simply fueling. Our bodies are capable of doing so much but they won’t do it without fuel. Keep on training brother and more importantly stay consistent and you will surprise yourself. I’ll be here waiting for your next comment on how u got to the next level by just staying consistent 💪🏽💪🏽.
On this video I spoke more about fueling on the bike and around it didn’t really go in depth in to my actual nutrition but the biggest change was just riding consistently the weight lost just happened to be honest.
At the point where each month my ftp goes up by 1-2W, and 3 if I’m lucky. But honestly that’s fine, seeing as I’ve got more fun things to spend my time on like console gaming and chilling lol. Cycling is purely for the health benefits down the road, so 6hrs cycling weekly for small increments monthly seems fair.
Totally. Many people see structured work progs like TR as only beneficial if you’re aiming to be competitive. But truth be told it’s helpful to anyone, even it’s for the purpose of just staying fit, since TR increases how bang for the buck the time you spend cycling is.
You nailed it brother. That is exactly how I do it now. No more counting calories for me. There’s nothin wrong with it if you know what you are doing which I didn’t at the time.
Most of your initial FTP improvement is because of your weight loss. Loosing weight is the fastest way of improving FTP. Once your weight stabilises, FTP gains plateau
@@DennisGonzalez101 Yeah, it's the same here. In cycling, dieting is only possible in the off-season with Zone 1 and 2 rides. Zone 3 and higher, and you get burned out very quickly. Perhaps only one VO2Max session per week is necessary to preserve your top-end fitness, and there should be no calorie deficit from the night before and on the day the session is conducted. Another thing that helps a lot is a low-fat, high-carb diet. Protein consumption should also increase when in a calorie deficit to minimise muscle loss. I know being in a deficit is difficult and stressful, but I'm afraid it is the only way to lose weight 🤷♂️
Trainer road will most likely over train people It’s been shown repeatedly in actual research that 2 hard sessions is all that is needed TR has 3 and sometimes 4. Doesn’t make sense
Maybe but all my results show otherwise, so until is proven otherwise I’ll keep doing it. You either need volume or intensity. I can’t do crazy volume so intensity is the way but is not the same for everyone.
Overtraining and not enough nutrition, proven and confirmed when you had a rest then felt better, the struggling with the mental side of it is also proof.
I agree with the not enough nutrition and not been able to recover. After I’ve nailed my nutrition on and off the bike I been able to train even more and way harder this year than I did at any time the year before and the progress I made once again was pretty remarkable and my race results speak for themselves. I think all my issues were nutrition related which can lead anyone to think you overtrained because you just can’t recover from the load your doing.
Agreed! Never let anyone shame your accomplishments. It's all relative anyway.
Just stumbled upon your page. Nice content! Congrats on your accomplishments.
100%. Thx brother really appreciate u watching and the positive comment 🙏.
First off, great job! Consistency really is the key. A couple comments on the ftp. The big jump in that first 6 months is most likely due to “newbie” gains so you should not get discouraged by smaller jumps in ftp going forward. Another factor that I have noticed is that I always get a higher ftp number doing a Zwift ramp test compared to a TR ramp test. I have seen the same thing on other cycling channels. Their protocols are slightly different but I believe TR is more accurate. Good luck on your racing in 2024!
Thanks brother 🙏. That is a really good point I never thought of that before, I did notice that their ramp test is different than Zwift. 100% on with you on the fact that consistency is always key 💪🏽. Good luck to you as well and let’s crush 2024 💪🏽💪🏽.
What a great journey, man. I'm on my second try at Trainer Road. First one was a few years ago and it didn't go well. This time is going much better and I've been consistent for about three months. Hoping for some gains as an older dude. Thanks for sharing and best of luck to you.
Thank you for sharing your experience as well. I Believe from what I have heard about other people using it years ago that is much much better now and all the new features they’ve added through out the years have really improved the system. Best of luck to you as well 🙏.
Nice video man! Also, super inspiring and useful story so thanks for sharing. I've just started a new TR plan and hoping to gain 30w on my FTP before an event in June.
Thx brother. Good luck and stay consistent with it 💪🏽.
Okay im just gonna be honest here, i was just out today doing intervals; 4x4 @110% FTP, and i just could not do the intervals, my form has been stationary for 3 months now, and its starting to affect me mentally; today i literally started crying because i couldn't do the intervals despite 3 months of hard training, but still no progress at all (my FTP has actually decreased), honestly i felt like i was about to give up until i saw your video! I am really gonna start researching my nutrition and make sure that i do it right, and that i get the right amount of carbs each training session, and you've also convinced me to start using trainerroad, because you showed me your big gains, and also because i know two cat A's who use trainerroad.
I am gonna give it another shot since i don't feel like giving up so i hope that im soon gonna see some gains, even just small 1w gains would make me happy! And let me tell you, training 14 hours a week as hard as you can and seeing no improvements is hard, VERY hard. I hope that god will be by my side!
Glad you found the video man. Do no give up I went through the same thing and until I started to fuel properly on and off the bike I was on the same rut. Fueling is so important not only on the bike but also off to be able to recover and hit the next session ready to go. Also a bad session is normal here and there. Keep your head up man if there anything I can help I’ll be here man 🫶🏼💪🏽.
@@DennisGonzalez101 Yea i know that a bad session here and there is normal, thing is that it's every time man. Any tips for fuelling btw? P.S your gains are so crazy, after that 1 week break!
What about doing those intervals at 105% ftp in stead? Will that be more sustainable and efficient, and make recovery faster?
@@erlendsteren9466 Hey i just saw your comment, i no longer ride because of a back injury, and loss of motivation, but doing the intervals at 105% does not give you Vo2Max adaptations which was the purpose at that particular time.
I found out hoe effective fueling is last year when I rode a planned 200km ride, I worked out roughly 60g carbs per hour for my ride, which I had never done before. Normally after a longer ride (100km+) I feel absolutely shattered, but this time I felt so fresh, I could have easily done another 50km if I'd had lights with me. I'm now planning on doing ultra events, but I'm glad I saw this video as I've been neglecting the fueling during training rides on the turbo, this makes so much sense.
Absolutely brother that’s one of the biggest things I noticed, how much energy I still had after hard or long rides where before I would’ve been absolutely wrecked for days because my body wasn’t able to recover or I would barely make it home. I fuelles every workout now don’t matter if is on the trainer or outside. My weekend rides like for example the over under session I talked about on my previews video I took 100-120 grams per hour and I try to do the same on long rides. Nothing less than 100G. And 60-80 for endurance rides.
Thanks a lot for sharing your traininghistory and experience. I guess that your dark time wasnt only under-eating, but also some under-resting. All in all you had a fantastic improvement. About consistency, I think avoiding overtraining, under-eating, injuries and illness helps a lot. My self I have to do some slight under-eating due to obesity, and I will do it carefully. I want to go from 2watt/kg to a better place, maybe 2,5. I am 62 years old.
Thx for the comment brother. Very accurate keep it up and consistency is key 💪🏽.
Hey Bro! Just watched your review of the Madone Gen 8 and then saw this video. Congrats!
Your neighbors to the north are praying for y’all in Florida - hope you are safe and the Hurricane Milton does not cause too much damage 🙏
Thx for watching brother but even more for the wishes. We are all hoping for the best 🙏.
Progression is very rarely linear, as as you start to reach peak capability, gains will logically diminish relatively - otherwise everyone has infinite capability which we know is physiologically not possible. That being said, the intial jump in FTP is astonishing & just proof of how good consistency is irresepective of the program followed - just a caution regarding burn-out because you need to allow yourself time-off both during season & especially off-season. This is not to reduce your training load, but rather to allow you time to regain motivation for the next "push".
Yeah I guess linear wasn’t the right term there but what I was trying to explain was that it wasn’t always an upward trend or even a steady trend it actually went downwards or something like that. I agree consistency is key regardless of plan or workouts you are doing. At the end of the year after I won’t states from October all the way until now all I was doing was big weeks of Z2 no high intensity aside from a few races I did, really focused on that base fitness and only 3 weeks in to 2024 I can already tell this is going yo be an even better year. First 4 weeks have been super positive doing numbers in training that I never did last year on any workout when I was in race wining fitness. I definitely want to do better this year on actually respecting my days off every week and more important recovery weeks. That is something I could’ve done a lot better last year, so definitely going to try and nail that this year.
Great video baby. I’m so proud of you for staying motivated and determined believing in yourself. Your self discipline is inspiring
Thx love. Wouldn’t had been possible without all your support ❤️🙏.
You summarise with the message "keep consistent", but I'm not sure that's the message at all from this video, "eat more and take recovery weeks" is. You were very consistent with your training during the period when you were seeing no progress, that was actually the problem, no?
That’s a good point but when I say stay consistent and be responsible I meant with every aspect of training and that included diet and fueling. To me training includes everything, I didn’t mean, stay consistent with every workout. I can definitely see how that was confusing and u made a great point brother. Sorry about that 🙏.
What did you do to lose weight?
@@ketle369 just ride consistently and watch what I was eating that’s pretty much it.
Awesome video and that’s one of the things I still need to learn “fueling” keep it up bro !!!
Thanks brother really appreciate it 🙏.
Thanks so much for sharing this. Love your content man. Epic TH-cam channel. People will catch on - just keep posting. You’re one of the best kept secrets on YT.
Thank u so much Man you literally just made my day. Thanks for that ❤️. Really appreciated you.
I tried Trainer Road but it made me slower. I organised it around a goal event but got dropped on the first climb. Trainer road doesn't help with climbing at all and is super depressing staring at a graph. I'm Back on Zwift and am seeing my performance finally start to improve.
Thanks for the feedback brother. Glad is working out for you. As I always say is not always the perfect plan or the coach because in my opinion neither exist. As long as it work for u and are you seen the progress that all the matter man. Good luck 👍🏼
motivating shit brother, keep it up
Thx brother really appreciate it 🙏.
Cool story and also very educating!
Thx u so much. That was exactly my goal behind this video 🙏.
Great info and awesome job you did. I am trying to lose weight and increase my power but I am suffering both at work and on the bike. Maybe I need to take in a little more calories to fuel my recovery so I will have more energy at work and hopefully be better on the bike so I can lose some pounds and stay consistent.
Fueling before and during your rides is so important especially when you add intensity. If I don’t fuel a morning ride well enough I want to gorge food the rest of the day. I don’t get the same hunger if I properly fuel with carbs before and during my rides. Worth a shot!
You nailed it brother that’s is great info and I notice the same issues. When I fuel properly I get home with no hunger and want to eat everything on the fridge, I’m able to recover so much better and go hard again next day and never lack energy at all during just regular everyday activities off the bike which was terrible before I was fueling properly. Big think I notice was that before during work every afternoon I needed a energy drink to get through the afternoon and be able to be energetic enough to get my workout done and now I never ever crave a energy drink at all.
Thanks brother 🙏. So what I would do is not worry about the weigh lost part so much and only worry about being consistent and fueling. Lot of people under fuel because they worry about the extra calories you are taking in and I say it because I was literally doing the same. When I started fueling properly tho I notice I was able to get so much more work done, I was able to recover better and because of it I was able to work harder, increase my FTP and by that I was burning more KJs during every ride because I was able to ride at a higher power so weigh lost happened on its own. A good well balance diet is of course a must but do not skimp on fueling your workouts. By fueling and been able to recovery and increase your power on the bike you will get stronger feel better and also burn more kjs per ride which is a win win win. Good luck brother, u can do it I believe in you 💪🏽.
@@DennisGonzalez101 About fueling, weightloss and calories. If I go for a hard 2,5 hour ride, Strava tells me I burn 1750 kcalories. If I refill with 90 grams of carbohydrates pr hour, thats 270 gram and 1080 kcalories, which mean that I lose some weight also on wellfueled rides. So you that shal not lose weight have to eat good meals all over the day besides the ride-fueling.
Enjoyed the video! I have one question for you - how are you scheduling your strength training with TR/cycling? I want to do strength training (mainly squats, deadlifts, and shoulder/back compound exercises) just to be well-rounded. I used to do both TR and gym on the same day, but with my work schedule, this turned out to be unsustainable.
At the moment, I am doing alternate days, and I'm keeping volume somewhat low (e.g. 3x5 sets for squats instead of 5x5). I feel fine for now, but of course, doing Threshhold workouts, followed by squats the next day, followed by VO2Max should theoretically compromise on some improvements.
Hey man thx for the comment. So if I’m honest brother I haven’t done actual strength training side from just core and body weight exercises in over a year. I been just doing it after my easy rides on Wednesday and Friday and sometimes on my days off on Monday. Those won’t cause any extra fatigue since is all easy and mostly core.
When I was doing actual weight training in the gym I was going twice a week and I was doing it on my hard days. Tuesday and Thursday, I would wake up early do my TR workout indoors before work and then hit the gym after work. Line you said that after a few months just became a lot and if I’m honest I just love getting my sleep everyday 😂😂. So I haven’t actually done gym work in bit now. I am planing to get at least a squat rack I can set up at home and use that for some squats, deadlift and things like that. Hope that helps and keep crushing 🤙🏽🤙🏽.
Were you on a TR Crit plan? It pretty much had you doing Anaerobic and Vo2 max workouts with Threshold workouts on the weekends. Your outside rides seem to be endurance rides? Great progress. Love your presentation bro. Also, mind sharing how tall you are?
Thanks 🙏. Yes last year I was doing CRIT and rolling road race plans which is those short punchy efforts because those where my A races. Everything else was Z2. I’m 6’ tall.
People don’t realize that a caloric deficit completely ruins your recovery. It‘s a legitimate goal to want to lose weight, but you should switch all training to „maintain form as well as possible“. It’s also one of the reasons PEDs are so widespread in many sports, it changes the equation dramatically. Bodybuilders that walk around with huge muscles at 7-10%BF are 100% doped up to their eyeballs, nothing eats away at muscle mass like dieting without PEDs
You couldn’t be more right about that. Unfortunately being so new to the spot and having no real guidance and knowledge made me learn the hard way. I wouldn’t change anything looking back at it because I learned a lot and did a lot of research and listen to podcast and learned so much from the mistakes I made. Now is time to just look forwards and make the real gains 🤙🏽. Thx for the comment 🙏.
I also learnt the hard way, although for strength training. I tried to lose 5 kg and lost a years worth of strength progress! Then I read Mike Israel's book on volume landmarks, where he said: don't waste your effort trying to improve while dieting, you will only dig a deeper hole. Stick to your minimum viable program- Other people are of a different opinion. But I think it's also a mental thing: relax and be happy to keep your level rather than trying to improve. Anyway, great vid, I use TrainingPeaks, but I'd give TrainerRoad a try@@DennisGonzalez101
Hey men ! Gracias por toda la información que comparte con nosotros nos ha servido de mucha ayuda ❤
Gracias bro ☺️.
I see the workouts that bumped your FTP in 2023 are NOT sweetspot - but short VO2 intervals... so you have identified that riding at power above your FTP will raise it.. so don't do more sweetspot, but go polarized. Also, training is not linear, at end of a season take some time off for the body to reset and expect the FTP to decrease but quickly come back and potentialy increase again once some structured training is completed.
Wow that is an amazing observation. As of now I am doing some sweet spot just because I feel that I’m lacking that muscle fatigue resistance from being so new to the sport, that’s something that takes years to develop. So I’m working on just longer sustained power intervals. I feel like muscle fatigue is holding me back more than my aerobic capabilities, also being so new I’m just trying new things and finding out what works. In 2022-end of 2023 when I didn’t have the nutrición issues my FTP was going up at a very fast rate without me doing V02 and things like that so I feel I can still gain a lot more before having to switch it up. After I won Florida state championships in October I stoped structure training and just did few races for fun and some rides but mostly was just Z2 very big weeks, few 400-500 miles 20-22H weeks when it was possible, I’m sure in that time frame it allowed my ftp to drop and also I reset and got more motivation back to go again in 2024 which I started only 3 weeks ago but the numbers I’m seen already in training are personal records compare to what I was doing last year when I was in race winning shape.
Nice video. Keep it up. Where in florida was this ride in the video? I'm in the same spot. Training almost everyday but also need to drop some weight. good insights.
Thanks brother 🙏. This is in southwest Florida. Ft Myers area. Just stay consistent and fuel for the work required my brother and the rest will come by itself, just need to trust the process.
How do you integrate TR with Zwift?
I’d love to see a how-to video for trainer road and Zwift
Thanks for the question. I don’t really integrate them. What I do is I go on TR and I put my endurance ride for Outside and then I just do it on Zwift and TR will still count it as the workouts. Hope that helps.
Lol , my Inscyde coach laughs at TR workouts , the only thing TR is doing is to wear you down . The interval blocks has no science to back this up . The only thing to find out where your fitness is at the moment is not by doing a ramp test , it Will be done in the lab .
Thanks for sharing the experience
Thx for your feedback as well. I’ve had great success. Go look at all the races I’ve won this year and finished 2nd in my age group at unbound and 7th overall in the amateur 200. Remember that is not always the coach but your work ethic, discipline and how deep are you willing to go. Good luck with your training and racing.
@DennisGonzalez101 Consuming 100g per hour-what exactly do you eat? One GU gel contains 20g of carbs, so for one hour, it's going to be 5 GU gels. It challenging for me to eat so many gels. What are your thoughts on that?
That’s a great question. So no I wouldn’t do 5 gel an hour that is definitely too much 😂. I do one gel which is 22G and then I would have around 80G on one bottle. To me drinking the carbs is the easiest and quickest way to get them in but also get your body to use that sugar. For racing I use Maurten and I love them but they are way too expensive to use during every training session so for training I simply just use table sugar and add a bit of salt for sodium. Sucrose or (table sugar) has a 1:1 ratio which is honestly all you need. I know it don’t don’t with everyone’s stomach and you will need to get yours use to it but it was never an issue for me. I can do 120G easily per hour this way with no GI issues.
Anything specific you were eating to fuel the workouts? I struggle to get enough food in, especially if I'm riding early in the morning.
That’s is a great question. I find simple stuff really helps like a big toast with lots of honey or something I do a lot also is cereal. U just need something simple before getting on the bike and then try and do the carbs on the bike liquid as that’s is the quickest and easier way for your body to use that sugar and adjust the amount depending on the intensity and duration of the ride. Honestly if u where responsible enough and fueled properly between session you will have enough carbs in your muscles and liver even for a very intense session and then just need to remember to fuel properly through out the day. Hope that helps 🤙🏽.
Your video and stories are really good. I already wrote that I am in the same situation as you was. Very heavy rider and trying to lose weight. Now fueling during training. As weightlifter to lose weight was super easy for me but while riding a bike this a completely other story. I tried out TR but I quit it because I cant export workouts to import than on zwift before doing them. When you accomplished a workout you can export it. Don't understand this philosophy. But yeah it is what it is :-) I am using pushing limits club now. it's a german a platform and I am using their workouts,. One question Dennis. You still doing gym workouts combined with cycle workouts?
Hey brother thx for the comment. I have no issues exporting my workouts to garmin is very very easy not sure exactly what your issues were , I export them and do them outdoors very easy. Right now I am not lifting weight what I am doing is core and foam rolling and things like that. Never heard of that platform but to be honest in my opinion there ain’t no perfect coach or workouts is all up to you, your commitment and your consistency. Keep it up brother 🤙🏽.
Thank you for sharing your story Dennis! What were your weekly hours during those six months you saw huge gains?
Thanks for watching and for the comment 🙏. I want to say around 10H or so.
@@DennisGonzalez101 I got back into cycling this past summer after 8 years off the bike. I started in June with an FTP of 137 and ended up at 150 in September but I wasn't consistent. I started consistently riding the first week of December following NorCal Cycling's Couch to Crit plan and after the first block of base training my FTP improved to 171. I am about to finish my second block of base! I may be slow but I feel stronger than ever and I hope to bump up my volume up to 9-10 hours a week going into base 3 and then build. I have a few target gravel rides and local crits I would love to be dropped on! 😂 Despite it all I am loving the process and finding out how important consistency and nutrition is over everything else.
@@greyspaniard amen brother. That’s one of the main reason why I made this video. Me and many other are suffering from the same issue and don’t see any progression and think is us without realizing is not our plan or our bodies is simply fueling. Our bodies are capable of doing so much but they won’t do it without fuel. Keep on training brother and more importantly stay consistent and you will surprise yourself. I’ll be here waiting for your next comment on how u got to the next level by just staying consistent 💪🏽💪🏽.
Thanks for your sharing your journey! Keep safe and ride safe
@@Hamsterlovers408thanks brother you as well 🙏.
Nice work bro!
Thx man 🤘🏼.
What did you do to lose weight? I can’t really figure it out by the video.
On this video I spoke more about fueling on the bike and around it didn’t really go in depth in to my actual nutrition but the biggest change was just riding consistently the weight lost just happened to be honest.
At the point where each month my ftp goes up by 1-2W, and 3 if I’m lucky.
But honestly that’s fine, seeing as I’ve got more fun things to spend my time on like console gaming and chilling lol. Cycling is purely for the health benefits down the road, so 6hrs cycling weekly for small increments monthly seems fair.
Absolutely man is all about having fun and enjoying it regardless of what your reason for doing it is.
Totally. Many people see structured work progs like TR as only beneficial if you’re aiming to be competitive. But truth be told it’s helpful to anyone, even it’s for the purpose of just staying fit, since TR increases how bang for the buck the time you spend cycling is.
@@87togabito definitely agree man 🤙🏽
keep it up!
Thx brother sure will 🤙🏽.
Fair to say counting calories is overrated? Just fuel for the workout.
Just use RPE (feel) to gauge how much or how little to eat 😂
You nailed it brother. That is exactly how I do it now. No more counting calories for me. There’s nothin wrong with it if you know what you are doing which I didn’t at the time.
Most of your initial FTP improvement is because of your weight loss. Loosing weight is the fastest way of improving FTP. Once your weight stabilises, FTP gains plateau
Yeah I can definitely see that and because I was so new. But after that is when the real work starts 💪🏽. Lots of hard work and discipline.
No dieting on the bike, that’s the golden rule. Diet only in offseason.
Definitely agree with that one except I don’t even diet on the offseason 😂 I just keep eating all season long now🤣.
@@DennisGonzalez101 Yeah, it's the same here. In cycling, dieting is only possible in the off-season with Zone 1 and 2 rides. Zone 3 and higher, and you get burned out very quickly. Perhaps only one VO2Max session per week is necessary to preserve your top-end fitness, and there should be no calorie deficit from the night before and on the day the session is conducted. Another thing that helps a lot is a low-fat, high-carb diet. Protein consumption should also increase when in a calorie deficit to minimise muscle loss. I know being in a deficit is difficult and stressful, but I'm afraid it is the only way to lose weight 🤷♂️
Trainer road will most likely over train people
It’s been shown repeatedly in actual research that 2 hard sessions is all that is needed
TR has 3 and sometimes 4.
Doesn’t make sense
Maybe but all my results show otherwise, so until is proven otherwise I’ll keep doing it. You either need volume or intensity. I can’t do crazy volume so intensity is the way but is not the same for everyone.
Overtraining and not enough nutrition, proven and confirmed when you had a rest then felt better, the struggling with the mental side of it is also proof.
I agree with the not enough nutrition and not been able to recover. After I’ve nailed my nutrition on and off the bike I been able to train even more and way harder this year than I did at any time the year before and the progress I made once again was pretty remarkable and my race results speak for themselves. I think all my issues were nutrition related which can lead anyone to think you overtrained because you just can’t recover from the load your doing.
Carbs are your friend
Learned it the hard way 😂. But I agree 🤙🏽