Got a Turbo Trainer

richardjallen

I got one today. An 'Elite Crono Force Inertial'. I put it together, swapped my rear wheel and tyre for one that is no longer road worthy - now I have reason to keep them Then I did an hour on it.

First off the resistance even on the lowest setting is far more than I experience on the road so there is no problem with finding it too easy. To keep cadence up I'm afraid I had to use almost the lowest gear. It is not noisy at all - a bit loader than a new washing machine on spin. I was sweating buckets but for the level of fatigue I felt my heart rate was not as high as it would be on the road. If I keep doing this - and I will - I think I'm going to see a world of improvement.

McBain_v1

I use a fluid-based trainer and it certainly is quiet. One thing that you notice straight-away on the turbo trainers is that the absence of moving air really makes you sweat loads. I have installed a fan in my garden shed (which is where the turbo trainer is permanently based) to combat this. After an hour I feel wrung out irrespective of distance covered

richardjallen

While on it I started thinking 'A fan is what I need.'. Then I started thinking how the logical thing to do would be to link the fan the the trainer so you generate your own wind via pedalling. Would seem like the perfect solution, as you pedal faster the fan speed increases and keeps you cool. The blades would probably provide resistances at the same time.

SteveR_100Milers

would be an interesting looking device!

popette

richardjallen wrote:

I got one today. An 'Elite Crono Force Inertial'. I put it together, swapped my rear wheel and tyre for one that is no longer road worthy - now I have reason to keep them Then I did an hour on it.

First off the resistance even on the lowest setting is far more than I experience on the road so there is no problem with finding it too easy. To keep cadence up I'm afraid I had to use almost the lowest gear. It is not noisy at all - a bit loader than a new washing machine on spin. I was sweating buckets but for the level of fatigue I felt my heart rate was not as high as it would be on the road. If I keep doing this - and I will - I think I'm going to see a world of improvement.

I've bought a book called Smart Cycling, which has a 12 week turbo training program in it - I find that working to the program makes the time pass more quickly because it's broken down into shorter chunks of different kinds of work. Last week I was doing some isolated leg training, which really highlighted to me how much more I can improve my pedalling technique as it was really jerky; not fluid at all.
Good luck with it anyway

richardjallen

I went on it again yesterday, raised my heart rate to road levels and used higher gears. One thing I noticed was my cool down 10 minutes did not work well. I tried to wind down over 10 mins but could feel muscles tightening so I decided to get back on and do another 5 mins at high cadence in a low gear. Immediately the tightness was relieved and my muscles felt warm again. When I got off the second time I felt better but still a bit cramped up. This has never really been an issue before so what techniques are there to warming down?

Bronzie

richardjallen wrote:

Then I started thinking how the logical thing to do would be to link the fan the the trainer so you generate your own wind via pedalling.

I'm pretty sure some of the old fan turbos had a vent to blow the air off the fan up into your face...............so maybe too late to run along to Dragons Den with your new idea

Alex_Simmons/RST

popette wrote:

Last week I was doing some isolated leg training, which really highlighted to me how much more I can improve my pedalling technique as it was really jerky; not fluid at all.

Hmmmm.

Not unless you are interested in one legged riding that is.

Attempts to even out the torque applied around the pedal stroke do not equate to improved cycling performance, indeed it is likely to be counterprductive (unless you are really new or untrained where pretty much any training will help). The best performing cyclists have the greatest variance in torque applied around the pedal stroke. They produce more endurance power simply by stomping harder on the pedals rather than trying to "pedal circles".

It was discussed recently on this thread:
http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtop ... t=12550707

popette

Hi Alex,
Thanks for the link - interesting reading. I just read it in the book and assumed it was the right thing to do. The book advices isolated leg training as a means of building leg strength - is that something I should be thinking about? I am new - 10 months cycling.
Thanks
Popette

richardjallen

Alex_Simmons/RST wrote:

The best performing cyclists have the greatest variance in torque applied around the pedal stroke. They produce more endurance power simply by stomping harder on the pedals rather than trying to "pedal circles".

It was discussed recently on this thread:
http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtop ... t=12550707

I read something like this recently. So why do people obsess about circular pedaling? Are clipless pedals nothing more than placebo?

dennisn

You will improve riding a trainer as opposed to not riding at all. I used to try and ride them in the winter but the boredom was just to much. These days I'm not concerened with
competition so I run and lift weights during the winter months and start riding when the weather breaks for the better.

Dennis Noward

SteveR_100Milers

popette wrote:

richardjallen wrote:

I got one today. An 'Elite Crono Force Inertial'. I put it together, swapped my rear wheel and tyre for one that is no longer road worthy - now I have reason to keep them Then I did an hour on it.

First off the resistance even on the lowest setting is far more than I experience on the road so there is no problem with finding it too easy. To keep cadence up I'm afraid I had to use almost the lowest gear. It is not noisy at all - a bit loader than a new washing machine on spin. I was sweating buckets but for the level of fatigue I felt my heart rate was not as high as it would be on the road. If I keep doing this - and I will - I think I'm going to see a world of improvement.

I've bought a book called Smart Cycling, which has a 12 week turbo training program in it - I find that working to the program makes the time pass more quickly because it's broken down into shorter chunks of different kinds of work. Last week I was doing some isolated leg training, which really highlighted to me how much more I can improve my pedalling technique as it was really jerky; not fluid at all.
Good luck with it anyway

would that be Arnie Baker's book?

It's not bad is it with its 12 weel turbo programme. If nothing else, ILT's alleviate some of the boredom of riding a turbo for 60+ minutes.

Alex_Simmons/RST

popette wrote:

Hi Alex,
Thanks for the link - interesting reading. I just read it in the book and assumed it was the right thing to do. The book advices isolated leg training as a means of building leg strength - is that something I should be thinking about? I am new - 10 months cycling.
Thanks
Popette

The forces you generate riding a bike are way too low to induce changes in muscular strength (when we refer to strength in its correct physiological sense). Forces in pedalling are no more than walking up a step and we don't need much strength to do that. What we need is improved power to be able to do that repeatedly, quickly and for longer durations.

I think it is simply a matter of some people using the term "strength" when really they mean "power". You know - "I felt strong today".

Strength is the maximal force generating capacity of a muscle/muscle group. In reality it can only really be measured at zero velocity (e.g. an isometric exercise or pushing against an immovable object) but in practice the speed of say lifting a weight such as in a leg squat is low enough to use say 1 rep max as a definition of muscular strength.

Even when sprinting, the forces generated are way below (around half) of those produced at maximal strength. The only time riders approach maximal forces on a bike is in track standing starts such as in track kilo time trials and team sprints.

Strength Endurance training should really be called Power Endurance training.

Here is a more detailed paper on the topic.
http://home.earthlink.net/~acoggan/misc/id4.html

and one on "Strength Endurance" training:
http://home.earthlink.net/~acoggan/setraining/

In the end Popette, ride your bike, don't worry too much about all the fancy "pedal technique" drills for the time being, gradually increase the duration and intensity of your riding over time and have some recovery every so often.

The more you do, the more you can do.