Winter training

disgruntledgoat

Just put together my turbo training set-up in the garage ready for use next week. I have a dvd player, my MP3 hooked up to some old computer speakers, a big fan and a stack of cycling DVDs.

Distractiong entertainment is all that gets me through an hour on the damn thing.

Escargot

Are you a member of a gym that offers spinning classes ?

Not quite a substitute for a turbo or riding outside but I'm thinking about this myself. When it gets really cold I'm thinking of doing an hour on a spinning bike before a class (with headphones on), doing a 45 min spinning class and then warming down for 45 mins afterwards. This would give me 2.5 hours on a bike, which is not far off a reasonable ride outside and would be far more interesting than spending 2.5 hours at home on a turbo.

fixiebob

scapaslow wrote:

dmb101 wrote:

don't bother with the fortius. I got one and found it just as bad as as a normal turbo, what a waste of money

I find the Fortius a valuable addition to winter training. It is possible to do base training using the Real Life Videos of famous routes as well as more intense short sessions. I can easily do upwards of 3 hours on it without boredom.

Obviously it's not for everyone.

I have to agree with dmb101 I have a fortious with a few video's including alp d' heuz but after a few times it get's boring.
I do intervals and fitness tests using the data feature and if weather is really bad 90 minute sessions whilst watching a movie.

billy whippet

embarrassingly, I love my turbo - love getting in to the zone and the focus and the sheer intense pain of it all - and use it winter and summer... winter 5 times a week in the mornings supplemented with commuting every day and 2 longer rides at the weekends and in summer 3 times a week with longer rides on other days and weekends and commuting every day. Despite loving the turbo, I think you have to supplement it with road stuff - it's no substitute for climbing, and feels harder than it actually is...

surista

I also have no trouble being on my turbo. For 2x20 type interval training, it's great for podcasts and audiobooks. For lower-intensity workouts, I through in a movie or watch TV - just in the past few months I got the entire season two of The Wire, season one of Entourage, and am now most of the way through season one of House. Or I'll pop in a Spinerval/Real Life/ErgVideo. For higher-intensity stuff, rock music works best.

And the best part is, I can watch or listen, and can still concentrate on pacing and cadence without worrying about crashing or cars running me over.

Added advantage, I can be up and on my bike quickly; getting ready for an outdoor ride always seems to take a lot of time....