SETTING THE STAGE FOR THE VELOCITY PLATFORM: WHAT IS 'NORMAL'?

Remember that we are simulating an outside riding experience. This means that it will sometimes be tough to "stay in the green" for power and cadence in certain intervals. In most cases, this is okay and can even be purposeful. But on the other hand, we don’t want you to be too far off the mark.

Example:  In one of our workouts, we simulate variable, hilly terrain by varying the grade from -1% to +7%. Your goal is to stay in Z3 at 85RPM and master the skill of effective gear shifting.

On very steep sections (6-7%), it might be impossible to stay ‘green’ at Z3. Just like outside, the hill demands work. So how do you know if you are good to go, or need to make adjustments?

• Good to go: You’re able to hold 85 RPM, but you might need to go into your lightest gear and/or the power might hit Z4 (under 120% FTP).
• Adjustments needed: Your power bursts into Z5 (over 125% FTP), and/or you’re unable to hold 85 RPM. If this is happening, we need to reduce trainer resistance in Velocity (more on this below).

What’s OK:

• Having to use your smallest chainrings in some intervals (we promise ;) )
• Edging into one higher zone (Z3 –> Z4 or Z4 –> Z5) on grades over 5%
• Struggling to get enough power on negative grades, even in your heaviest gear at high RPM

What’s not OK:

• Running out of gears during easier or moderate efforts
• Struggling to stay “in the green” for power and/or cadence even at shallower grades (under 5%)
• Finding yourself far over the prescribed power (e.g. into Z5 for a Z3 effort, or Z2+ for a Z1 effort)
• Experiencing "trainer lockup" where you can't pedal because there is so much resistance

If you find yourself out of gears, and/or really struggling to hit prescribed power and cadence, here’s what we recommend:

1) Make sure you’re set up correctly. This means having the correct FTP and weight in Velocity, and ensuring that you’ve correctly enabled trainer resistance control during the connection process. (Wheel-on trainer users: also make sure your tire is properly inflated and your trainer is calibrated correctly)

2) Adjust your trainer resistance. Find the Trainer Resistance toggle on the top left corner of your workout screen, and adjust it up or down. Typically you'll only need to adjust it about 20-25%, so start with that. This setting will change how grades are applied to your trainer. It doesn’t make the overall workout or targets any easier – it just adjusts how strongly/lightly resistance is applied:

3) If you feel like you still can’t get things right: reach out. In rare cases, there may be hardware or software issues that we can help you address so that you can ride successfully.