Hi, folks. More than you…actually, likely same as you today 
I’ve seen that for Half is Easy it ‘dependz’ on your trainer if you should use ERG or Level mode. I guess I’ll find out tomorrow through trial but thought I’d ask fellow Wahoo Kickr users: which do you use? Is the Kickr quick enough switching resistance to use ERG?
Cheers!
UPDATE: I used ERG with no issues. Dare I say it was to my benefit, as it controlled my max power target a bit. so.tired. made for the toughest G.O.A.T. ever!
Possibly depends on your Kickr model? I got a Kickr Core the end of last year and sometimes I may have a second or 2 delay, but most of the time it’s almost right on and I’ve done Half is Easy with no issues.
As Sir Evan said it may have a second or two delay on starting/ending. Done it on Kickr and other quick changes on Kickr bike.
ok, thanks guys. I have the regular Kickr, not Snap or Core. I’ll give it a go soon enough!!! ugh
My 2016 Kickr used to cope with HIE in ERG mode (and other workouts with even shorter intervals) and I plan using ERG mode tomorrow on my 2020 Kickr (2016 Kickr RIP). Very little lag in my experience.
I will also use ERG mode on my Kickr Core today. It will hurt …
Good luck
I am not sure if it applies to Kickr as well, but on my Tacx Flux S i have found out that if i do not start pushing on the pedals before the interval starts, but just after, the power applies correctly.
While entering the recovery interval, i have to reduce my cadence for less than a second when the high intensity interval ends, which drops the resistance quickly.
It took some time, but i got used to it.
If you only get 1-2 seconds delay, it is not a big deal if it does not happen frequently. On my flux s, i can get as much as 6 seconds if i do not follow the above procedure.
The kickr can cope with the transitions, but it’s a slightly different workout depending on mode.
In ERG you ideally spin up to around 100 rpm a few seconds before the orange sections and then ‘catch’ the power surge. Then you need to keep spinning for an extra second or so for the power to dip. I find sometimes this lags several seconds.
Alternatively you CAN wait for the gun but it’s a lot trickier and you will inevitably end up grinding through the start (or all) of some intervals.
In level you can work out your correct gear (and/or level) to be as close as possible to the target and spin up to it more ‘naturally’ each time but it relies on you to be honest with yourself to do the full 15 seconds even when it’s really burning and maintain consistent form to keep the power up.
Personally, I’m in two minds because I’m not sure what I’ll need left in the tank for Norway. I’m confident of grinding through GOAT in most scenarios, the focused plan says do HIE at 80% but my AC was poor last FF, wildcard option would be do it on RPE.
I’m going Level mode (Kickr Core). Psychologically, I don’t think I can deal with falling into the death spiral. I kind of hate these short sprints, short recoveries, so any excuse I can remove for not doing them well is good.
Having done battle with various issues I would say it is almost entirely down to whether you’re on ANT+ or Bluetooth. With ANT+ I found that often it would get ‘stuck’ for a few seconds at either the beginning or end of intervals, and on Half is Easy, getting stuck at the top of an interval isn’t much fun.
On Bluetooth I have had very few problems, but agree that waiting a split second to spring until the trainer engages the power usually guarantees strong suffering (if you kick in too early you can end up at high RPM/low power), and spinning through the end makes sure it backs off promptly.
I genuinely don’t get how folks are able to get power jumps that big by manually shifting - as I have to typically jump to the big ring and up a gear or two, all in a second or so!
Same situation for me.
I usually find the appropriate cog and then i also switch from small to big ring.
Sometimes i do shift one gear on the back as well.
It depends on the trainer. Newest trainers can put higher wattages on low flywheel speeds, so you do not need to shift gears.
Older trainers hit a ceiling, so you need to shift in order to get the correct resistance.
Thanks. I used ERG throughout and use the strategy of moving rpm up in the last 5 seconds of the ‘rest’ so that I wouldn’t get burned with the power increase…bummer, though, to cut into such a short 15-second recovery…
From my many months of dumb trainer training, I pretty much had every power vs Rpm combo memorized and I knew almost exactly how many gears to switch. And especially on workouts with monotonously regular intervals like Half is Easy. I would find the gears that worked the best and then just switch from the small ring to the big ring for the intensity and then back to the small ring for recovery. I did drop my chain here and there, but a lot less often than you would think. It’s just like anything else. If you do it often enough it starts to just come naturally without much thinking. Which is important when you’re suffering and your brain has gone into the mists.
Did it in Erg mode on Kickr Core and its fine…I do however spin up at end of recovery period to ‘catch’ it as f2f posted above. I had a Tacx Flux way back and there was always a delay in releasing the power on it. Not so this time but you ave to ensure you push right through to the last to make sure anyway,
I am long time fluid trainer user who recently switched to a Flux 2. I did HIE in ERG and my god was it a glorious pit of terrible pain. It was so much harder…
The trainer coped really well except for a couple of times when the resistance started late or held on too long.
Kickr core here. I was concerned it would death spiral, but it worked fine for all of the intervals. I did ramp up my cadence just before the start of each one, and pushed through the end of each one.
If erg works for you, I would recommend that. I tried using Level and made the workout much harder than it needed to be (maybe that’s a good thing?) I was destroyed after HIE and GOAT was definitely as hard as its ever been for me. I felt like it was death spiraling on the climbs. Kinda hard to engage your core when your diaphragm is dominating your posture
Parroting the same as above. On a Kickr Core. For Half is Easy I would ramp up my cadence 1 or 2 seconds before the intervals hit and that made a huge difference. There were a few times I forgot to ramp up my cadence and for those intervals it was much harder to get on top of the gear.