How to warm up for full frontal + MAP pacing?

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I’m in the last week of my 12 week training plan (60 min e-sports racing) with FF in three days. I’m wondering what the best way to warm up is? I’ve previously done Igniter just before, same with Half-Monty and sometimes before some other hard workouts but I wonder if I should just do the FF without anything else?

Last time I tried FF I performed terribly on the 5 min max. My legs just felt like lead. This has happened to me on several workouts where my legs are just dead, despite a warmup, and then finally seem to wake up. I’m determined to avoid this problem yet again.

I’m also quite anxious about the test and being able to pace myself properly as my performance last time was so poor on the MAP that I received the following message “ Your 5 min power is less than 115% of your 20 min power. We’ve adjusted it to the minimum of 115% of your 20m power, but we strongly suggest manually decreasing your 20min power by 2-3%.”

Test #s for reference
FF - 20/12/2020: NM 750, AC 288, MAP 229, FTP 199
FF - 28/02/2021: NM 846, AC 358, MAP 254 (adjusted), FTP 221
HM - 08/04/2021: MAP 280, FTP 223

Last question: any suggestions for how much to eat/when to eat pre-FF?

Advice is much appreciated.

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@mndo Check out this thread for info on pacing:

For warm ups I have used GCN Ready, Steady, Go, SUF Ignitor, GCN Max Effort, Minimum Time and the Pre-Ride Activation Yoga video.

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The Pre-ride Activation yoga video is my go-to warmup for FF.

Regarding eating beforehand, I try to not have much to eat for a few hours before starting the FF test. You shouldn’t need anything right before it, and should have enough energy stored to get through it without any special fuelling immediately before or during.

There is definitely a learning curve to the pacing. Don’t beat yourself up too much if you don’t nail it every time. I’ve seen that same message, and I think my normal MAP/FTP ratio is close to the warning limit, so it doesn’t take much to have me get that warning.

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Hey @mndo ,
Welcome to th forum! All the suggestions by @JSampson and @way9e0 are awesome. I can’t emphasize enough the value of the MTP. The positive self talk and focus exercises are perfect for Full Frontal prep. The warm up is something you can experiment with and see what works best. You could try doing FF without any prior warm up and if you don’t feel ready for the efforts at the end of the warm up, rewind and do it again. Or try the alternatives as the others have suggested.
Good luck and let us know how you do.

Cheers,
Spencer

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all these are good suggestions.

My preferred warmup is to just start riding at a low intensity without any video. I use my garmin to control the trainer (there’s a setting where you can set the target wattage in erg mode on a trainer). I set it at somewhere like 150 watts and just ride, bumping it up until hit a comfortable all-day pace, and do it for like 20 minutes.

gets that Krebs cycle moving, doesn’t fatigue me. I throw in a hard effort or two also but i think most of my warmup benefit just comes from getting all those aerobic wheels turning, which really you can’t rush (i.e. a shorter but higher intensity warmup is not the same impact)

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Hi all,

Thanks for the advice. I achieved my overall best Full Frontal performance today and I think the advice about how to pace the MAP had a positive psychological impact even though I don’t know if that’s how the test went because I try to avoid looking at numbers while I do the efforts. At the end of each segment I felt like I could have gone just a bit more so I think next time will be even better as I get more practice at pacing these efforts.

I think I really messed up the sprinting technique as my NM dropped by like 10% compared to last time! Today was the first time going into the MAP section where my legs did not feel like lead from the beginning, I actually felt kind of strong to start it! I wonder how much of that has to do from the poor sprint performance making my legs not as fatigued as usual going into the MAP section?

TLDR. I had best overall 4DP numbers today, but I messed up the sprints. See full story and screenshots of results below. My rider type changed from Sprinter to Rouleur, but like I said, I messed up the sprints today. Fantasy me definitely wants to be a rouleur or puncheur though. I don’t care so much about the sprint performance, but I definitely want to continue to work on my VO2 max. Any suggestions for a next workout program from the Sufferfest library?

Today’s morning sequence went something like this: woke up, told myself I wasn’t going to overeat breakfast this time, began dreading FF and MAP performance - “there’s no way that half-monty 280 watt MAP is correct.” Made a double portion of steel cut oats (about 280 kcal), with a huge banana, some coconut shavings, chocolate chips, dollop of yogourt and a small glass of milk. Regretted overeating and decided to wait longer before exercise compared to last FF attempt. Had a latte. Played with the dogs a bit. Tried to talk myself out of my anxiety. Watched some Giro d’Italia and used a massage gun on low setting on my thighs for a bit. Watched some more TV. Foam rolled my thighs. Did the Pre-Ride Activation Yoga session. Played with dogs. Weighed myself.Did the GCN Ready, Steady, Go session while watching more Giro. Walked around a bit and delayed the FF. Ate a medjool date and a cookie. Did the Breathing to Crush Them session (even though I hate box breathing).

Started FF feeling pumped and positive and telling myself “you can do this! Don’t focus too much on the numbers, you’ve been training consistently for 22 weeks, you know you’re fitter, you’re performance today doesn’t really matter because you’ve enjoyed all the training! You know you’re better because you actually finished Nine Hammers while keeping the efforts at 100% for the first time ever recently (vs the two previous times lowering it to 85-95% partway through and still feeling like I died at the end). You’re not a competitive athlete, you just discovered that you love cycling late-ish in life (mid-30s), and this is just for fun and to get in shape.”

Started FF, took a couple mini-breaks to check on the dogs who were crying about something to make sure nobody was injured. Finished the warmup. Messed up the sprints and was disappointed, but I didn’t let it get me into too much of a funk. Started MAP thinking “my legs don’t feel like they weigh 500 lbs each today, maybe this will go well for once?!” Noticed my power output was around my Half-Monty predicted MAP of 280 and breathing felt ok - tried to keep my cadence around 100 RPM, but while avoiding looking at the screen too much because I didn’t want to focus on the numbers and get into an anxiety spiral so I just kept my head down and tried to force out consistent power. I peaked up every now and then and saw the power was still up there which gave me a huge confidence boost. Started the FTP and noticed my numbers were way higher than last time. Again, kept my head down for most of it. Started thinking again about how I wished I had time trial bars because I never feel comfortable and always switch my handle bar position. Finished FTP with a little extra effort and wished I gave it a little more overall. Went into the 1 minute pretty high power and it dropped quickly and about 30 seconds in I think I lost the mental game and my legs kind of felt like jelly, yet not really fatigued, and my power numbers dropped, but I finished it and it felt ok, just not my best effort.

Results:

4DP
4DP2840×1495 290 KB

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4DP part 2
4DP part 21562×1381 103 KB

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4DP part 3
4DP part 31501×894 48.4 KB

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@mndo Great work! Your next plan choice depends on your goals but whatever you pick you will crush it!