Ergvideo is awesome

I'm just about to start into the 8th week of my Computrainer Ergvideo training program... so far things are progressing.... "nicely" I haven't gained an ounce of weight since season ended.. thats good because normally over winter I tend to put on a few pounds.. This year I also elected to squash the gym from the program... I usually end up (a) Hurting my knees (b) Feeling to sore to ride properly (c) Coming out in spring and my legs feel like concrete... so I figured this year its 6 days a week on the bike and nail the set program.. which reminds me I should go cancel my gym membership...

Ergvideo is unique to the computrainer... you can watch the videos if you want and ride try to ride the power profile if you have a powermeter and a regular trainer, but its not the same... Ergvideo is taped races and training sessions along with a power profile. You are considered to be a rider in the pack.. when the pack increases the pace/power output, the computrainer sends resistance (watts) to the load generator and you have to maintain the set watts (erg mode) If you start bogging you are getting dropped. The thing you have to watch with videos is if you see a hill coming the normal tendency would be to gear down... you can't do that in this.. when you see a power spike coming you need to INCREASE your RPM to maintain the profile... most of my rides have been averaging around 105rpm and I have been riding a 53X16 generally.

This was probably one of the harder weeks on the program...
The week consisted of:
5X9 minutes @ FTP with 3 min break between each effort
3 sets of 8 reps 45 seconds @ 125% FTP with 2 mins break between each effort
1+15 minute recovery ride - very cool ride with team CSC in South Africa
1+45 minutes @ Aerobic level with some bursts on the hill upto 400 watts
2+30 minutes with 14 hill intervals @ 80% FTP 4 minute intervals
1+45 Aerobic ride

It was funny today after climbing a few minutes @ 320 watts how 240 watts seemed rather "easy"

The best thing about this program is I can scale the video to ANY profile... you ride the videos at your ability... my threshold isn't the same as yours, so you can set your threshold to your level, but we get the same workout, just at different wattage output... Just because the CSC ride was easy yesterday, at the push of a button on the Computrainer controler I can ramp the ride foorm a Level 1-2 recovery up to a Level 3-4 hard ride...

This combined with 3 weeks in Maui in March should have me prepared for spring... unfortuneatley, the first race isn't until late in April...