Failed Ff (again)

[Stonechat]

Did not feel wonderful this morning, did 15 minute extra warm up, then the ff, sprints ok, halfway through 5 minute effort, was clearly not at peak so abandoned until I can give 100%.
Did extra shot @90% so I had a workout.

I really feel I may need to make up a pre plan week of my own, I have;not been coming into the plan quite right

[mindas]

My suggestion is you just do it. I’ve learned a lot by reading a couple times the documentation for the FF, plan, try, adjust plan, try again. Now, I nail it all the time. I think.

[CPT_A]

@mindas

My suggestion is you just do it.

+1

If you’re not feeling it as a test, just do the FF as a workout. Gives you practice, experience, and readies you for a “real” test effort down the road. You can even ride it in ERG mode @ whatever numbers you would LIKE to get, just to get a feel for the effort.

[Dan]

@Stonechat

Did not feel wonderful this morning,

Training related? Illness? Mentally blocked knowing what was coming?

@Stonechat

was clearly not at peak

How do you know your peak before the test is complete? Did you go out too hard? Pacing not a factor?

@Stonechat

I have;not been coming into the plan quite right

Have you changed something from your previous foray into FF? I hope you find your FF mojo.

[Sir_Brian_M]

FF can be a tough bugger, mostly from the expectations we have for ourselves. We want to see improvements in each segment of the test, so that makes us prone to start the 5 and 20 harder than we can maintain.

I have taken FF 15 times, so I have some history with it. And for me it is always a beast. But I’ve learned to temper my enthusiasm with a realistic mindset that I won’t always improve. The results are what I am capable of on that day.

But it still leaves a huge question of how to pace it properly when you don’t know what power to start at. Start too hard and you can burn out mid interval. But starting too easy and increasing every minute, called a negative split, helps to dial in just the perfect amount of suffering.

I like to do a mid-week HM, this gives me a ball-park figure for MAP and FTP, that I then use for the FF on Saturday. I’ll deduct 5-10% from the HM values and use that for the start of those segments.

Lastly, no shame in living to fight another day when you are having a bad day. Splendid the way that you handled that, still getting a solid workout in.

[Saddlesaur]

I’ve only been on SYSTM ~12 weeks so am no expert, but what I found works for me is doing the 7 day HM/FF plan. The HM sets the suggested power levels for the subsequent FF and I set up gearing and level so my cadence is ~90 (my fav) for the FF 5min MAP and 20min FTP intervals at the recommended W. I then maintain power by controlling cadence, trying to keep slightly above the recommended power level and never drop below it. For me, a big advantage is it requires no skill or judgement on pacing. Not surprisingly, results are some Watts better than I got in the HM.

No matter what, I figure that’s a solid week of workouts.

[Stonechat]

I have done quite a number of FFs
I was getting better.
I could put it down to my age (70), but it’s best not to make excuses.
HM gave me FTP of 200, and it should be at least 210, HM figures are usually low.

I will have another go in w we, or so.

I did this after the post TOS plan.

[Dan]

I guess at 70 years young you will be feeling much more than us babies, but you have more years of wisdom ahead of us, so no doubt you will find your way again when FF testing.

Also, ride it without any expectation and focusing solely on the section you in and not ‘look ahead’.

Give it horns.

[Heretic]

Here is my suggestion for overcoming Full Frontal fear:

The story of failed Full Frontal - aka fatigue sets in

May I make a suggestion? It is sort of a Cognitive Behavioral approach to FF. Next time you do FF, do not try to crush it. Just ride it with a 90-95% effort and allow yourself the possibility of failure. Keep doing FF in that manner until you feel comfortable, and then you can up the effort. The very first time I did FF (as part of my free trial), I pushed too hard, and got really angry when during the MAP session the words to the effect of “you should try harder” came on the screen. I stoppe…

[Stonechat]

This time my failure was not due to over ambition, I tried extra warm up but was clearly not 100% so had to bail. Yes I have overdone it in the past

[TTDragon]

I found this one of the most helpful bits of advice when approaching full frontal. It takes away some of the emotional/psychological stress and you are more likely to have a positive split on the paced efforts, rather than going too hard and blowing up.

[timbo]

I did FF in erg mode once, to see if I really could hold a target FTP. I was surprised at how much ‘easier’ it was when you didn’t have the stress of trying to hold a wattage, just the stress of trying to hold a cadence.

I would suggest giving it a go too. Might give you a bit of confidence, if not some good pacing guidance for a level mode FF!!

[CPT_A]

Thank you. I’ve preached this approach for awhile. Good to try in practice if nothing else.

I’ve even used ERG + a % in the past to obtain measurable gains w/o blindly chasing numbers. I’ve been pleased with my (ongoing) improvements.

[Stonechat]

I have done it that way, just adjust percentage to change wattage