Turbo Trainer Advice

What? No power?

Enjoy. Hang on in there!

I should get an avg power readout, but I'll be too ashamed to post it.

when you press the 'test' button so that the light on the button flashes red/green when you pass the magnets, i only ever get the green for cadence never get the red for speed

Its a while since I set this up. But I seem to remember there being a green light for cadence, and maybe a yello/orange for speed. But If youre not getting anything. It sounds buggered :(

The Reed switches in the GSC-10 are shite, and often kick the bucket quite rapidly.

Off to do my first turbo 'fitness test' of the year.

This comprises of a 20 minute warm up, then 20 minutes at 85-90% of MHR. ( probably up to 95% in the final 2-3 minutes ).

Should be.........

Fun :-(

Posting this in the hope it might shame me into riding more.

1-10 mins - around 85% mhr
10-17 mins - around 90% mhr
17-20 mins - between 93-95% mhr

Average power - 300w :-(

How often would you suggest I do such a test? I have no specific goals other than trying to defy the ageing process get fitter on the bike.

I was thinking of doing this test every 3-4weeks. Too often? Not often enough?

A bit late to the debate, but I had a Cylceops Fluid 2 and now have a Cycleops Mag, and I don't really notice any difference between the two. There was a six month interval between selling the former and buying the latter, so my memory of the Fluid 2 may have dimmed.

On the Mag I can adjust resistance to the level of hurt I can tolerate for a given period. What more do I need / what am I missing?

It's pointless over-complicating any of this shit. If you get a chance to ride at tempo (or race) once or twice a week on top an endurance ride, your bike fitness will fucking soar compared to any amount of systematic longterm turbo work. Thankfully this is the kind of thing that tends to happen in springtime as road conditions improve, you get to feel sprightly during the summer, and then you retract back to a comfortable endurance state over the winter. Repeat ad nauseum. The turbo is a fitness tool which can grab you short term quick burning / quick fading gains in a relatively brief and unpleasant space of time, or a tokenistic calorie burner, or occasional ride replacement option (where 'ride' only equals excitation of heart, lungs and legs rather than anything holistic).

adjust timescales as necessary for weird disciplines like cyclocross and hillclimbing

Posting this in the hope it might shame me into riding more.

1-10 mins - around 85% mhr
10-17 mins - around 90% mhr
17-20 mins - between 93-95% mhr

Average power - 300w :-(

How often would you suggest I do such a test? I have no specific goals other than trying to defy the ageing process get fitter on the bike.

I was thinking of doing this test every 3-4weeks. Too often? Not often enough?

Once a month is enough for fitness testing. I usually do 3 weeks build, 1 week recovery (lighter) and then you would do the test.

It's pointless over-complicating any of this shit. If you get a chance to ride at tempo (or race) once or twice a week on top an endurance ride, your bike fitness will fucking soar compared to any amount of systematic longterm turbo work. Thankfully this is the kind of thing that tends to happen in springtime as road conditions improve, you get to feel sprightly during the summer, and then you retract back to a comfortable endurance state over the winter. Repeat ad nauseum. The turbo is a fitness tool which can grab you short term quick burning / quick fading gains in a relatively brief and unpleasant space of time, or a tokenistic calorie burner, or occasional ride replacement option (where 'ride' only equals excitation of heart, lungs and legs rather than anything holistic).

/thread

It's pointless over-complicating any of this shit. If you get a chance to ride at tempo (or race) once or twice a week on top an endurance ride, your bike fitness will fucking soar compared to any amount of systematic longterm turbo work. Thankfully this is the kind of thing that tends to happen in springtime as road conditions improve, you get to feel sprightly during the summer, and then you retract back to a comfortable endurance state over the winter. Repeat ad nauseum. The turbo is a fitness tool which can grab you short term quick burning / quick fading gains in a relatively brief and unpleasant space of time, or a tokenistic calorie burner, or occasional ride replacement option (where 'ride' only equals excitation of heart, lungs and legs rather than anything holistic).

I was looking at it as a fitness test, as well as a way to train when I stuck indoors looking after sleeping kids.

I might invest in a PowerCal belt for rough'n'cheap evaluation of my 'proper' cycling.

What happens to me each spring is that all the road cycling media, and forums etc. Are full of folk getting back out on their road bikes. While I'm still slogging a singlespeed MTB through foot deep snow.

While I'm waiting to get out properly. I just want a cycle computer read-out to wet nurse my insecurities.

What happens to me each spring is that all the road cycling media, and forums etc. Are full of folk getting back out on their road bikes. While I'm still slogging a singlespeed MTB through foot deep snow.

That's still better than having a pile of Aussie mates with lovely tan lines from toasty warm dry rides all over Oz, posting sunny cafe pics while you're detraining through gloomy Euro winter. Need a job with 6 month here and 6 month there. Then sell all turbo kit. Any ideas?

Once a month is enough for fitness testing. I usually do 3 weeks build, 1 week recovery (lighter) and then you would do the test.

Cheers hippy. I was hoping it wouldn't be too often.

Without the winter months. There would be no fattening up part of the usual seasonal weight cycle.

Think of the pie merchants man!

Without the winter months. There would be no fattening up part of the usual seasonal weight cycle.

Think of the pie merchants man!

Right, who is having the bell tent? 2500 tokens.

http://www.pieminister.co.uk/vipie-club/pie-tokens/

Evenings got a lot less unpleasant for me when I realised that 20min stretching gave me far more bang-for-cycling-buck than 20min turbo. Doesn't fuck up the resting part of 'training' either.

Mrs Fix uses it much more than me now, as a weight control / fitness thing for someone who doesn't do any other sporty stuff.

20min on a turbo is warm up and warm down with nothing in between.

I feel stretching has almost always been necessary for me. More so nowadays given my time on bike.

I meant the 20min of 'work' between warming up and down. 20min stretching > 2x20 FTP anyway. It wins on so many levels.

I'm shit at stretching.. When I say shit I mean almost never.. Unless you count palms to floor after I get out of the bath

Kinky

I meant the 20min of 'work' between warming up and down. 20min stretching > 2x20 FTP anyway. It wins on so many levels.

So you're saying; 20 mins of stretching is better than 65 mins on the turbo (10 min warm up, 20 min FTP, 5 min rest, 20 min FTP, 10 min warm down) - I know you know waayyy more than I do, but I find that hard to believe. I'm sure you're talking specifically about the return you get out of it, but then you've had years to develop that threshold engine.

Kinky

Now, how did I know you'd come back with that..

BMMF is taking the piss. Don't take him seriously. Ever.

I'm deadly fucking serious on this one. I've done all that turbo stuff. Got very good at riding on the turbo. You could say it became a bit of a hobby at one point. Not much to do with cycling though. The translation to road form is incredibly limited. Probably good for people who don't go round corners and ride steady state on the flat, most likely without sleeves and in a pair of pants.

Stretching on the other hand - huge benefit to real word cycling, and fits around my cycling time without stealing my cycling energy (unless I happen to stretch in the hours immediately preceding a ride, which I don't, as I know all about the science and shit). My threshold engine doesn't really respond much to FTP stuff on the turbo. If I were a pro, yes, I'd be doing a bit of both; but I'm not, so I'll take the one that happens to be least stressful and yet gives greater gains.

Plus stretching also crosses over to my general well-being - it doesn't just make me good at stretching. I'm not even that fucking hardcore about it. Simple maintenance these days.

N+1.

I completely disagree. I've responded in huge doses to turbo work and find it translates well.

But I do stretch a lot too, so maybe it's that that has bumped up all my numbers ;)