Glad to be part of the Wahoo X forum. I’ve been getting more interested in indoor cycling, structured training, and improving overall fitness, so I thought this would be a great place to learn from experienced riders and athletes.
I’m currently exploring different Wahoo features, training plans, workouts, and gear setups. There seems to be a lot of useful information and helpful people here, which is awesome to see.
I’m looking forward to joining discussions, learning new training tips, and hearing about what equipment or workouts work best for others. Feel free to share any beginner advice, favorite workouts, or recommendations for getting the most out of Wahoo X. Happy to be here and excited to connect with everyone!
Just to clarify, I’m not a bot. I’m a real person who recently joined the community because I’m genuinely interested in indoor cycling, structured training, and learning how to get the most out of Wahoo X.
I understand that my introduction may have sounded a bit formal, but I was simply trying to introduce myself properly and connect with other members who have more experience with the platform. One of the reasons I joined this forum is to learn from the community, ask questions, and share experiences as I progress.
Regarding the fitness tests, I haven’t completed Full Frontal or Half Monty yet. Since I’m still getting familiar with the platform, I’m currently exploring the training plans, workouts, and features available. From what I’ve read so far, both tests seem to be important tools for setting accurate training targets, and I plan to try one of them soon.
I appreciate the feedback and look forward to participating in discussions with everyone. Thanks for having me here, and I’m excited to learn from the experienced riders and athletes in this community.
Haha, if my bot is doing the fitness tests, it’s definitely not sharing the results with me. To be fair, I haven’t even done Full Frontal or Half Monty yet. I’m still figuring things out and trying to learn from people here who have a lot more experience than I do.But I appreciate the laugh. The bot accusations started pretty quickly after my first post!
Do you have an idea what your FTP and 5 min power is?
Full Frontal is kinda tricky for the pacing if you don’t have some idea roughly where you’ll end up.
If I was just starting and didn’t have any info here, I might start with Half Monty - it will give you your FTP and MAP, and then you can do Full Frontal after a bit to get your NM and AC plus update the others.
Welcome,
When I first started (re-started) riding indoors, I focused on riding to a HR zone. I have never really adopted a habit of riding to a power output. I did my first Fitness test based on the HR zones I had figured out. Once I had power zones established, I played with the % setting to dial in what felt more appropriate. I began using Ai (Claude in my case) to assess my outputs to help refine my 4DP numbers. Those refinements feel more dialed in than the numbers I was getting via the fitness tests. It was likely my inability to properly pace, but I recognized that doing a Sufferfest session at 100% didn’t feel as hard as it should have. I gradually manually up’d my FTP and MAP around 7% and 5% until I got to a point where I felt (and Claude agreed) I rode 100%. After a few months I felt I had the numbers well dialed, but I have accepted that Full Frontal and Half Monty aren’t the best measures of my capability. I occasionally ride at 105% to see if I can hit the cadence, power and HR targets, but I still mostly prescribe to the HR based 80% Zone 2 and 20% Zone 4/5 training.
This morning was an example of my methodology. Woke up feeling great, well rested HRV high, RHR low. Plan was Quality work, BAT at 100%, finish the June Challenge strong. Midway through the 3rd BAT I hadn’t reached Z4 HR, so I bumped the FTP up to 105%. Next BAT, HR was up into mid Z4 and the last BAT I was begging for mercy.
Some days that might mean 95% some 105%. That’s my methodology, I’m not training for anything other than fitness and fun, with a vEverest in the relatively near future.
Thanks for sharing that. As someone who’s just getting started with all of this, it’s really helpful to hear how other people approach their training.
I actually like your way of thinking about it. Some days you wake up feeling amazing, other days not so much, so adjusting things based on how your body is responding makes a lot of sense to me. The example from this morning was interesting too. If you’re not hitting the effort level you expected, making a small adjustment and seeing how your body reacts seems pretty reasonable.
I’m still learning the difference between training by heart rate and training by power, so it’s great to hear real-world experiences instead of just reading the numbers on a screen. And honestly, fitness and fun are pretty much my goals too. Good luck with the vEverest. That sounds like a huge challenge, but also a really cool goal to work toward.
I think the biggest difference for me is that power doesn’t care about how you’re doing. You either push hard enough or you don’t.
With HR training you sort of have to consider other things that affect your HR, like how you slept, if you’re sick, etc. For me, it makes it easier to make excuses on HR because it’s so variable.
So, regardless of how I’m feeling, if I start a workout I will try and hit the power targets. It very well may suck, but that’s kind of the point, HIIT ain’t supposed to be easy. If I reach the point where I just can’t hold the power target, I’ll dial it back, and that’s OK, I gave it all I have and that’s more important than hitting some arbitrary number.
The other nice thing about power is that it’s repeatable. Say you do 9 hammers on erg mode and you slug it through, but it took all you had. Then, you do it again in a month, same power targets, but you’re not completely dead. That means your MAP power probably went up, and it’s easier to tell that via power than by HR.
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