Group Turbo Sessions

Kirky

Hi guys (and girls), does anyone here belong to a club (or group) that runs group turbo sessions?? There's been talk of it in our club - simply to avoid staring at a wall for a 60 minute session!! Just trying to figure out what the best format would be??

Would I be right in thinking that they are used (in most cases) to simply allow you to do a good 60 odd minute steady turbo ride during the winter - but with your mates in the room to chat with so the time goes quicker and you're less likely to climb off after 30 minutes cause you've completely lost motivation??

Or do people do more structured sessions (almost like a spinning class)??

Would be interested in some thoughts, especially from some of the coaches that post on here.

KIRKY

SteveR_100Milers

The chris carmichael DVD's seem to be just like this, only with carmichael wandering around encouraging the various riders.

Monty Dog

Out local tri club hold a weekly turbo session in winter - following a structured programme with a coach. Typically comprises 10 mins warm up, 45 min set of drill/intervals etc with a warm-down and stretch. I find them better than spinning because you're on your bike, you can set the intensity using HR or power and you don't have to do the stupid, pointless up and down, side to side drills that spinning instructors insist on. I usually do the same session again later in the week too. The sessions are divided into 3 blocks - spinning, climbing, and high intensity intervals

J2R2

Our club does them. I don't do them myself as I prefer to do my own thing but it is quite organised and structured, a bit like a spin class at a gym, rather than people just sitting twiddling and chatting. They're quite popular and one positive factor is that they allow riders of different levels of ability and fitness to train together.

hazychris

We've started doing turbo session at my club which is a CTC group, so not race oriented.

Last week I did a session to simulate a race... you need a bit of imagination for this one, so stay with me....

After warmup, select a sustainable but hard gear / resistance with space for 4 or so steps harder...

Everyone starts at that base pace for the "neuralised section"....

Then we get a breakaway going - 2 or 3 people crack on in a higher gear / resistance, and alternate with a higher gear every 30 seconds to simulate through & off.

After a while the "peloton" organise a chase, along the same principles, but higher intensity while "on the front" but being in a group, less of those intervals for each individual in a given time period.

Eventually the caller agrees that the peloton have caught the group up, and the pace drops for a short while until a prime sprint for 30s in a gear 4 higher from the base gear.

repeat for as long as you want with different "breakaway" groups.

Throw in a couple more sprints and you have a session with short intervals, long intervals and sprints, to suit the participants.

Concensus was lots of fun and a bit different - now if only I could find some race coverage on a DVD that matched it perfectly..... :-)

bahzob

We do, combined with local triathlon club.

Find it good fun and time passes quite quickly. Only downside is that an element of competition inevitably sneaks into the training. So while at the moment we are, in theory, training at 85% I think most do their last few intervals at a bit more than that.

Here is our schedule for anyone interested:
Nov 1st Max HR ramp test, 6gears at 2mins, balance of time at 95 rpm
Nov 8th 40mins at 95 rpm alternating 5 mins at 75 % to 85 % MHR
Nov 15th as above changing at 3 mins.
Nov 22nd as above changing at 2 mins
Nov. 29th 7 x 1 min on and I min off, start in 7th gear maintain 95rpm HR at 85%
Dec 6th 7 x 2 min and 2 mins off.
Dec 13th 7 x 3 mins on and 3 mins off
Dec 20th 7 x 4 mins on and 4 mins off
Jan 3rd 7 x 4 mins on and 3 ½ mins off
Jan 10th 7 x 4mins on and 3 mins off
Jan 17th 7 X 4mins on and 2 ½ mins off
Jan 24th 7 x 4mins on and 2 mins off
Jan 31st 7 x 4 mins on and 1 ½ mins off
Feb 7th 7 x 4 mins on and 1 min off
Feb 14th 7 x 4 mins on ½ min off
Feb 21st 28 mins continuous
Feb 28th lactate (aerobic) threshold 4 x 5 mins at app. 90% MHR ( 10 mile pace) 1 rn rest between each effort. Aim is to push up aerobic threshold. This is the one to get you race fit.
Mar 7th 20 mins at 90% MHR
Mar 14th aerobic power. 4 x 30 secs max effort in bg gear with 30 secs rest between each effort 5 sets with 5 mins rest between each set.
Mar 21st pre race warm up. 5 x 15 secs big sprints 1 min rest between each sprint 2 sets with 5 mins between each set. Then 20 mins at race pace.