Turbo Trainer Advice

Hi all,

so, I got me a turbo trainer to spin along on and pretend to get fit. I did 45 mins on Monday night and 1hr last night. Pretty much a warm up followed by steady state stuff as I've been off the bike for a while. After last night, I got off and my baby making gear was positivly numb / tingling. Not good. I was riding in a pair of padded shorts. My question therefore is whether anything should be set up differnently for a turbo session or if I just need a not so cheap and nasty saddle? Do I need to think about riding position? Also, any pointers for session structure welcome.

Thanks
Joe.

It's just a very static activity.

Ideas:

• stand up/shift position occasionally.
  
• limit sessions to 45mins (worth about 1.5hrs on the road)
  
• raise front wheel (I use about 2 to 3 inches worth of phone directories/catalogues)
  
• consciously slide back a bit, to make sure your sit-bones are on the widest part of the saddle.
  
  

You can get a lot of benefit from 5 to 10 mins warm-up / 5 mins warm down / 20 to 30 mins actual 'work'.

Billions of sessions posted on the interweb, geared to different needs ie. spin/form/strength/power/VO2/lactate threshold/recovery/blah.

I'm assuming you've got a towel draped over your top tube and a great big fuck-off fan pointing at your face :D

Thanks BMMF

more like few can's of wife beater and remote control next to him :p

look at that power

try 5 min wu, the 1min single leg high cadence (85+rpm) then (assuming you have gears), stick it in the big chainring and 3 biggest on the back now...

9 mins at 85rpm, 1min rest, switch to next smallest cog on the back and 8min at 85rpm, 1min rest - continue down to 5mins and 1min rest - gears get harder to turn but intervals are shorter

Or after warm up, 8mins in the big ring, start on smallest cog at the back and switch up a gear each minute - keep same effort - increase cadence (power meter/hrm is uesful).
2min rest, then in the big ring again 8min working back down the cassette to the smallest cog, 2 min rest then one more 8mins back up the cassette.

Warm down for 5 mins.

expect to meet my friend PAIN...

Joe.S so, I got me a turbo trainer to spin along on and pretend to get fit. I did 45 mins on Monday night and 1hr last night. Pretty much a warm up followed by steady state stuff as I've been off the bike for a while. A

don't ride along at one cadence... gets so boring. change speed at a regular interval, i.e. higher gears for a 5 minutes, then lower for 10, repeat... (or whatever time works for you).

He already met pain, sitting in one position too long :p

the pain is less boring though that way :P

i haven't done interval training on a bike for a while.... usually just do it on a treadmill. 3 min fast run, 1 min sprint. the 1 min sprint seems to go on forever!

anyone recommend a good trainer? Rollers/resistance....?

@ eeehhhh: I've got one jelly leg and one normal leg at the moment! Figured some steady state would be a good place to start for loosening things up.
@ plingboot: ta. Will have a stab once in I've moved on a bit.

atomic.a anyone recommend a good trainer? Rollers/resistance....?

http://www.roadcyclinguk.com/review/reviewcategory.asp?sp=&v=2&RCN=131

Loads of reviews.

Thanks. I did see that but they are all the same type. I was just wondering if anyone had any thoughts of using roller style trainers over those kind of holding the rear wheel style ones...

From what I've seen, the rollers are a lot, lot cheaper. They look more fun to me because you have to balance yourself, rather than being held.

I guess it depends how serious you are about training on one?

Rollers are great for fluid pedalling & recovery, and you can buy add-on wind resistance units, though these negate the quietness of rollers.

Turbo trainers offer more versatility. The magnetic and fluid ones are pretty quiet. I'm totally smitten with my Cyclops Fluid2 jobbie - definitely got a road-like resistance curve, in that the resistance increases with speed, it's quiet, stable, blah, blah. Prefer it to a magnetic thing I had in the past.

I owned a Minoura rim trainer. Two, in fact, after I blew up the rubber/plastic wheels on the first one.
My club uses tyre-friction mag trainers and providing these are done tight enough seem fine for the 1hr sessions.
I'd like my own trainer here but it'd barely fit in my flat and I hate indoor training (having an MC makes it bearable).
Advice above is kosher.

Have a Tacx Flow. It needs a service and I think a bolt which has fallen out in transit. ANyone know where you can get these things serviced??
Obscure I know....
Thanks guys

SImon

Dunno - send it back via an authorized Tacx dealer?

did try a search, and apart from classifieds, couldn't fine out much.

is it worth paying more for one with resistance adjustment on bars? dont want to spend more than £100, unless there's a really good reason. will be running on a 700cc fixed wheel, but oddly to increase fitness for bmx racing.

Get rollers

I have a Trans X turbo trainer...very basic, but it does the job, checkout te trackies thread as well.Rapsac posted a link to a turbo training schedule for power, speed etc.
Will help with your BMX training....you shoould be as smooth as Doc Smooth Dylan Clayton himelf by the nationals!

How will you mount a fixed hub to a turbo triner?

Surely you'll have to get rollers.

Most turbos have quite a bit of latitude in terms of the rear axle width, so should not be a problem.Only thing to check is what size are the cups, into which with axle ends will fit.

In fact, not having the rear deraileur in the way, and associated cables, will probably make it more simple to set up.

+1 to what bernie said