Turbo Trainer Advice

Dalsnibbe.

Not a great photo. But it shows the most awsome part.

Nice.

http://www.climbbybike.com/profile/Dalsnibba_Geiranger_profile.gif

Golly. The Swedes appear to have dibbsed it, also.

Golly. The Swedes appear to have dibbsed it, also.

I'm only going to do the blue bits.

This looks better.

Bought one of the climbing vids from sufferfest last night. Plus a Ant+ tongle to connect my cadence, speed, and HRM to the laptop. Then I'll do the sufferfest vids via trainer road.

The panic buying has begun.

I'm not worried about the ride, it's the run that petrifies me.

I'm not worried about the ride, it's the run that petrifies me.

Well its -6C here. I'd feel a lot better if spring was here, and I could get some saddle time. Which is the catalyst for all this panic buying.

But yeah. The rides not the going to be the killer. I've done it 41:23 fixed, and despite the shite I talk on here, I'm no natural cyclist. My interest in this thread is more down to my dislike of lost training time cuz the kids are in bed, and Mrs Smallfurry is out.

What worries me is shear volume of work our legs will need to do, resulting in a slow run. If you're running barely a few kph faster than walking pace. Its fecking hard to motivate yourself to keep lifting the legs.

At least we will know the course, and have loads of people around us for the run.

If the run hurts as bad as I suspect.

I'm going to have to re-evaluate blinding saying yes to suggestions from strangers on the internet.

..........well that and the embaressing rash.

Are you plums doing a slevless thing?

There will be slevs, as there's no swimming involved. I hope.

I'm only going to do the blue bits.

This looks better.
Hill willy waving.

1 Attachment

There will be slevs, as there's no swimming involved. I hope.
Theres a lake 5km from the peak. If its not frozen we could swim that.

in for a penny.......

Hill willy waving.

Show me some commonly ran climbs next to the dalsnibbe, and I will bow down to your willy.

....well I mean

....not literally

.....but.....

Show me some commonly ran climbs next to the dalsnibbe, and I will bow down to your willy.

....well I mean

....not literally

.....but.....

What happens in the cabin, stays in the cabin.

:)

Running >>>

I've started using a new gym near my work and cried for joy when I saw two 'Watt bikes' unloved and unused in a corner.

But to be honest I've no idea what any of the figures or graphs actually mean. I've never trained to power output before.

I can push 200 Watts for an hour (what should I aim for?)
My stroke balance is fairly even but never completely 50/50% eitherway and dances between the two by a few percent.

Im producing a horrid peanut shape on my power curve.
Should I be aiming for a perfect circle - the bigger the better?

My cadence is around 100RPM - Is this a fast enough cadence?
It already feels unnatural to my normal mashing technique.

55 minutes of zone 2 on the turbo:

I set the zero offset, span for 10 minutes then reset the zero offset- changed from 286 to 280 in that time. What is interesting is that the turbo clearly warms up during that time- power rises whilst speed falls slightly over the 10 mins.

Just to look super-dorky I wore both my Garmin HR strap AND my PowerCal HR strap, giving the following:

The SRM reckons I averaged 240 watts for the 10 minute warmup, the PowerCal reckons 194 watts.

Moving onto the longer session we have the following:

The SRM gives an average of 220 watts for the 45 minutes, the PowerCal says 191 watts.

Now the PowerCal works by tracking change in HR - and it may also rely on wheel speed, which it didn't have here- I'm not sure about that part.

Anyway, it's possible that my fairly constant HR isn't ideal for the algorithm- I simply don't have enough data yet.

I'll go out dorked to the max at the weekend and see how the two power devices track each other when on the road.

What do you call Zone 2?

Endurance. All day pace. Not on the gas, but not cruising around.
RPE 4ish.

115-152 bpm.

EDIT- what Skinny said, fast cruise.

I've started using a new gym near my work and cried for joy when I saw two 'Watt bikes' unloved and unused in a corner.

But to be honest I've no idea what any of the figures or graphs actually mean. I've never trained to power output before.

I can push 200 Watts for an hour (what should I aim for?)
My stroke balance is fairly even but never completely 50/50% eitherway and dances between the two by a few percent.

Im producing a horrid peanut shape on my power curve.
Should I be aiming for a perfect circle - the bigger the better?

My cadence is around 100RPM - Is this a fast enough cadence?
It already feels unnatural to my normal mashing technique.

You need to read the Watt Bike training manual over here

Watts on their own are pretty meaningless without weight/HR as additional variables.

90-100 rpm is suggested to be more efficient generally but YMMV

The SRM reckons I averaged 240 watts for the 10 minute warmup, the PowerCal reckons 194 watts.

The SRM gives an average of 220 watts for the 45 minutes, the PowerCal says 191 watts.

Anyway, it's possible that my fairly constant HR isn't ideal for the algorithm- I simply don't have enough data yet.

I'll go out dorked to the max at the weekend and see how the two power devices track each other when on the road.

Thats kinda disapointing. I was expecting the 45 min workout to be more accurate on the PowerCal.

Also I thought HR data was collected at the same time as power with the powercal belt. Why did you need the Garmin belt?

I'm quickly coming to the conclusion that I'm going to have to compare indoor, and outdoor performance separatly. Which is no big shock* I *guess. But with only TrainerRoad to calculate turbo training power, PowerCal to guesstimate road performance, and no absolute meter. They just dont seem comparible.

Still for the monies they seem like two nice training tools.

The SRM head unit is twinned with the Garmin HR strap, the 910xt is twinned with the PowerCal, I could have twinned the Powercal with the SRM but it was easier to just put both straps on and I am a lazy bastard.