Power Training Through Winter

RidwarePhil said:

I think my current plan of riding with club at the weekend for 3 hours should bring in the miles / L3 workload and be more fun than riding the turbo.

Just a point to note - My experience has been that group rides around here really don't put me into L3 for long periods of time. Unless you are riding with a more advanced group, you may not be getting much L3 time on a plain-vanilla group ride.

That's not to say that a good group ride is not what you want. On the contrary, they are fun and I think the variable nature of a group ride is a very good thing for a racer. There's a time and a place for everything though.

Because of organizational issues and because L3 ("tempo"😉 in large quantities is seemingly unpalatable for most riders I know, I generally do most of my serious L3 rides on my own.

Steve_B said:

...My experience has been that group rides around here really don't put me into L3 for long periods of time. ...I generally do most of my serious L3 rides on my own.

Ditto once again Steve....

Phil, do the group ride and take a good look at your PT data when you get home. Remember, sustained excursions into L3 are pretty important, not a few minutes here and there that add up to time in level. If you're a newer rider and need the group riding experience then great, but take a careful look at your data and you'll see what sort of training you actually get out of that group ride.

-Dave