Turbo Trainer Advice

I normally (I've only done three) do extra warmup before the test and all three tests have been within 10W of each other. The more consistent you make your warmup, obviously the more repeatably accurate your tests are though, right?

I do at least 10min without TR started anyway to get the Computrainer/tyre up to temp and make sure the spin down tests are similar. Then the warmup for the Ramp Test isn't long enough for me so I'll normally do 20min of one of the other Workouts beforehand.

Yeah, so you're a stick. I'm 20kg heavier and maybe 5" shorter.

That's why your FTP looks like my warmup. :)

Last weekend I bought some bathroom scales from Lidl for £10. I have never owned bathroom scales.

When I was racing properly and for a few years after, my weight was stable at 83kg/12st3. Weight crept up over the following 10 years. Now, having owned a van for 3 years, commuting less and doing more techy riding when the weather's not been rubbish, I weigh about 99kg/15st10.

So I bought an Elite Crono Mag Speed Alu trainer missing one small rubber foot from Wiggle's eBay store for £40. It's arrived also missing the manual, QR and the bolts to attach the resistance unit.

I suspect bad things will happen if I substitute bolts that are too long. Any tips?

Also looking at ways to measure by exertions and possibly give me something to pay attention to. I use Strava and Veloviewer. Considering speed, cadence, heartrate since I don't own any power measuring devices. I have a Garmin Edge 500, so ant+ seems sensible but Bluetooth could work too. Zwift, Trainerroad and Sufferlandia are tempting apart from the subscription aspect.

My training aim is to be able to do sprint interval sessions 10-20 minutes long multiple times per day, because bike polo. Not sure what kind of workout would support this kind of high-intensity, fast-recovery fitness.

tl;dr:
Feeling quite out of my depth, help plz

First build the trainer and see if you can ride on it without destroying your back wheel.

Need to identify the missing bolts in order to build the trainer :-/

For £30 more you could've just bought a working one. :P

Measure the diam. of the holes in the frame and the width and buy something to suit?
https://www.chainreactioncycles.com/elite-crono-mag-speed-alu-trainer/rp-prod165259

I always do the TR warm up included in the test, it just creeps up slowly so when you're at threshold you'll be already pedalling a few minutes.
Also, it adjusts to your threshold. I've done it several times and generally I always go bust at the same step, but the FTP result keeps growing higher

I have a montth free for trainer road if you want to try it.

Then ramp test.

Then do a month of training.
Then have no races for a month.
Then do hill sessions with people because you've been told you're slightly wonky on the head after all the turbo time.

Wrong thread

Did a RAMP TEST at lunch on Zwift*, after feeling left out... The pleasure at seeing an improvement soon gives way to the dawning realisations that my training sessions are all going to be harder.

*They don't do offer a built in one so I made my own.

What was you score?

I failed at 382W , so about 285W estimated FTP. Was 270 from last test about 6 weeks ago.

That’s good. Nice to see an improvement.
I’m going to redo it once more tomorrow and then start some actual workouts.

Half tempted to do it again, in case it was a fluke and then I can lower my FTP back down for my future workouts :p

My FTP has naturally decreased with not much training.

No ramp test required.

Prove it.
Ramp test!

Same body measurements as me then. First 20min test I did about 15 months was around the 200-210 mark ... it just means that you can get insane improvements at the beginning of your training. Then it sort of becomes harder to make "gainz".

I am dreading 20 min tests so much that I haven't done one in a whole long time, just nudged my value in TP upwards every now and then.

Also there's the whole indoor vs outdoor thing. I think they're like 20-30w apart for me.

It's w/kg then?

That’s good to know, I think I was at 270 back in the spring but I’ve slipped since then for sure and no idea how accurate that was.
Still very much early days with the smart trainer but know I work well with numbered targets.

Yeah, that's where I'm sitting ish. Out in the road probably better.

If only there was a test that could help you against the fear of 20 minute tests...