How best to train on rollers

Shavedlegs

My turbo has broken and I've borrowed a set of rollers. Apart from getting bored, I haven't managed much on them.

30 minutes in my biggest gear produces sweat but I suspect not much in the world of training.

Any tips on how to get the best out of them would be greatly appreciated.

Toks

Shavedlegs wrote:

My turbo has broken and I've borrowed a set of rollers.

I'm more interested to know how you broke your trainer Alex. Putting out some serious power no doubt

oldwelshman

either used a fixed on them or use lower gears and do 200rpm 30second reps with one minute intervals.
Maybe try to veloriders forum and ask the track guys there what they do.

Tom Butcher

If you have ever done roller racing you'll see that it's possible to ride to exhaustion on rollers in a lot less than 30 minutes - you just need to pedal a bit faster.

Shavedlegs

I can easily believe you can ride to exhaustion very quickly - I've made myself sick in 5 minutes of training following advice on this forum!

However what benefit will training at a cadence of 150rpm have? Suppose I could take up roller racing.

Alex_Simmons/RST

drop some air out of your tyres

put an old pillow to rub under one of the rear rollers

ket a kreitler fan to connect to your rollers

oldwelshman

Shavedlegs wrote:

I can easily believe you can ride to exhaustion very quickly - I've made myself sick in 5 minutes of training following advice on this forum!

However what benefit will training at a cadence of 150rpm have? Suppose I could take up roller racing.

Help to make a break when descending?
It will help for sprinting and obviously for track if you ever wish to do that.

Shavedlegs

drop some air out of your tyres

put an old pillow to rub under one of the rear rollers

Brilliant advice.

Reducing the pressure in the rear tyre, increased resistance perfectly. Why get a resistance unit? Plus it makes the ride less harsh and I don't get a sore arse.

I didn't think I'dfind a spare pillow. But blimey our airing cupboard is full of them. I have no idea why we have them, or where they came from. I've never bought a pillow as far I remember.