Oh, man. My first time doing The Omnium was on level mode in my first training plan early last year shortly after I started using SUF. It was brutal in level mode. Didn’t help that I was in Tri shape, not road cycling shape, and had so few “real” cycling workouts under my belt.
@Pierre You’ll have to do it the week after FF at 100%. It’ll feel just like home. All 9 Hammers of home… 
Power meters aren’t allowed on the track so erg mode shouldn’t even be an option for The Omnium (imho). Turn all the metrics off and old school Suffer. MAX! More MAX!!
I‘m only a few days into this „challenge“ many of you consider a way of life and I‘m really warming up to your way of thinking. 
Maybe I‘ll slot in The Omnium as a substitute workout in the next few weeks.
Right now my KickR Bike is set to 1x11 48t. Maybe it’s time to play around with a few different options.
Kind of zoned out after ToS, did I miss anything?
I am defo down for doing more level mode! Won’t be all of March as I obviously did not see this until now, but the thought had crossed my mind and this was exactly the trigger I needed. Thanks Pierre!
No more mr. ERG slave!
I really enjoyed doing the Micro Intervals workout today in Level mode. Being able to push harder if/when I felt good, and ease off if I needed to was just the right recipe for this session.
And I’m enjoying level mode for some of the longer intervals as well. A bit more thinking to dial in the right cadence for the power target, and then I just try to ride by feel, holding something close to the right cadence.
Thanks for suggesting this @Pierre.
I am just getting used to level mode on a smart trainer, which I got after the ToS (Wahoo Kickr). Before on my dumb trainer I got used to knowing when to wind up to sprint and the fact that the resistance from the trainer slowed things down after the sprint. Now with the smart trainer I am having some “errors” in judging my wind up to sprint. If I start at 80-90 rpm I hit a peak really quick but it backs off really fast once I get it spun up, so having to shift quite a bit to keep up with it. But afterwards it feels like there is no resistance at all and it drops to zero power, while I am still at 120 rpm slowing down. I like level mode, but it will take some getting use to. Will be going back and forth between level and erg mode for the time being.
3 intervals in…’oh yeah, meant to be trying out level mode!’
Straight after 4th interval ‘sod that!’
Struggled to find right gear and it was also up and down out of saddle so felt all over the place. Each time I tried to accelerate to up the power I completely overshot target but then undershot as I backed off again. Repeat…repeat…repeat.
Good that you remembered. 
It‘s definitely try and error at the beginning but I‘m optimistic you will get the hang of it.
Maybe you can switch an upcoming workout against Open 30 and just play around with your gears and options without the stress of target values.
Yes. Good idea re:open 30. Think a bit of practice needed.
In theory, we each should be able to figure out what cadence/gear combo produces certain powers in level mode, so you’d have an idea what combo to aim for heading into the interval.
Probably was jumping in at the deep end to try MAP focussed intervals as they are really hard anyway.
I’ve done level mode on things like shovel and love it when the instruction is just ‘go all out’, but some more balancing required in a 3min MAP interval as going too hard too early isn’t sustainable.
Doing Primers in level now; should I aim for the displayed targets, or tomorrow’s FF FTP and MAP targets?
I just did Primers – I boosted the targets but not quite as high as I’d done earlier this week, then let myself push above them based on feel.
4/31: It was painful, but I took a total rest day – nothing on the bike, no running. It helped that the temperature dropped back down below freezing, so I wasn’t especially motivated to go out.
5/31: Primers! Boosted the targets slightly and then rode at or above them in level mode. The MAP interval felt particularly tough, which has me a bit nervous about FF tomorrow since it’ll be a longer interval at a higher wattage – but at least I can waddle around like a penguin afterwards!
I think Andrew (@frenata) has the right idea. Push a little and see what’s possible, but don’t go all out and leave a bit in the tank for tomorrow.
I did just that, I think. Overshot the targets slightly just to see how it felt. And it felt goooooooooood!! My doubts and worries about FF got washed away, and replaced by a feeling of confidence I will CRUSH IT tomorrow.
Whether I am able to crush it with the 10-15% increase some folks on the forum are mentioning, I am doubtful, however I am pleased if I am able to get a 5-7% which would lead to some decent numbers I think.
Go hard tomorrow @frenata 
I did Primers, this morning, too. On level mode it was a mixture of being both easier and harder. I don’t know why, but the initial warm up being a little higher than full recovery always makes me feel tired right off the bat. I probably need to start doing a short warm up spin before I start Primers. 
I was happy to be doing Primers on level mode, today. My legs feel just a bit too fatigued, still. Did a short TT on Moday. Then did a mixture of longer Z2 session for endurance without too much strain and Z1 recovery spins to promote recovery, but they aren’t having the desired effect. So, Primers on level mode means I can get in some work to get my legs primed for tomorrow, but not feel forced to do more than I can.
I tried to hit all the targets, but allowed myself to waiver above and below them when needed. It’s supposed to be primers and not a workout, so I tested out my legs to see how well I can hold the power targets and hold a slightly higher power at times, but then allowed myself to drift below when needed so I didn’t overwork myself. Need to keep something in the tank for tomorrow, and my tank is still feeling a bit depleted. So, really needed those FTP and MAP efforts in Primers to be 2 minutes long instead of 3.
I’m not confident I’ll match or exceed my current FF numbers I’m still using from last year. Largely because of the 2 months off I had to deal with my knee tendonitis - even tho I felt pretty good during the TOS (but at focused level). But my analytical mind and sense of fair-play are in conflict.
I feel that I can probably be close to matching my MAP number - probably within 5w. But if I try really hard to match my 5 min power then my FTP number will likely suffer.
However, I don’t think that would really be true to my current fitness level. If I’m honest with myself, I think my MAP should be a bit lower than last time, but with a higher FTP. Because I haven’t been following a training plan since I did my KOS in Nov. So I haven’t done a lot of hard efforts while I have been doing a lot of longer efforts. But allowing myself to only go 95% on the 5 minute effort to get a higher 20 minute power seems like I’m gaming the test even tho I think that should be where I’m at.
This is why I should probably remove the numbers from the screen and just ride off feel.
Important to be realistic, which it seems you are, in addition not hasting to get higher numbers (bigger isn’t always better) considering your knee trouble.
For myself it has been 3 months since my first FF, and since I have «only» done ToS prep (adv) and ToS (100%). Been taking easy since stage 7b. Thus I was being reluctantly optimistic wrt increased numbers until today’s Primers which made me confident I will be able to improve on my last FF. However, I am not unhappy with my current numbers, thus I would not be disappointed to maintain my current profile either given the relatively short period of structured training.
Completed Cash Register on level mode! Quite a good one for practicing it.
One pitfall I fell into was probably going too hard in the recovery bits. Meant I didn’t ever beat any NM /5sec records as hit the sprints a bit heavy legged but my 20 min average power was 2watts > FTP!
Yes, absolutely agree. The real goal of FF should always be to have a fresh, current baseline, regardless of where that line is.
Yesterday I rode FF (yes, on level mode, lol). I think I rode the test correctly. I didn’t overwork myself, but I didn’t sandbag or only ride at 95%. I gave everything I had and couldn’t really have gotten much if anything else out of myself. This is also probably the most consistent that I’ve been in it. I always seemed to mess up one piece or another until this time. I won’t duplicate my other posts, so you see my results and analysis here at the link below. I’m pretty happy with my results and I now have new baseline I can work against.
Nice day today. Empty calendar. Looks like a perfect day to try some light suffering with The Omnium.
Really enjoying level mode now. Won‘t be able to go back to the old ways.
See you all in 47 minutes…
Ooh, now I crave a level mode workout as well! With new numbers from FF yesterday 
