Could I be doing better?

crispybug3

This is my first seriously prolonged try at training on a turbo trainer, and I'm just wondering if I'm doing it right or not.

I basically do two 11 minute sets(this has gone up from 7 1/2 minute sets) first off on the big ring at a cadence of 80 rpm or above followed by a set on the small ring at a cadence of 100rpm or above. By the end of these I'm basically falling off the bike, I follow this five minutes later with about 150 jumping jacks, I just want to know if this is a good session or not as I've nothing to measure it against.

ride_whenever

warm up warm down?

It's okay for some things, but what and when are you training for.

crispybug3

I'm training for weight loss primarily, I'm 17 stone useful for a rugby player bad for a cyclist, and also I'm planning to do 5 or 6 cyclosportives starting, hopefully, with 'The Hell of Ashdown' in late Jan.

As for warm up/warm down I do five minutes before starting the serious cycling and I mix in stretching with the jumping jacks.

amaferanga

What's a jumping jack?

turboslave

ahh the turbo, a great tool in the right hands, and a dangerous one in the wrong hands.

The basics of using the turbo over the winter should be to hold your basic fitness then build strength/speed and stamina over the coming months through to March, some people will ride it all year round whilst others stay clear as they find it mind numbingly boring.

The key to beating the bordum threshhold is to vary the sessions, during the sessions you should be geting feedback on your efforts by way off a heart rate monitor and or computer fitted to the rear wheel of the bike.

As you want to lose weight I reccommend you cut down on the intensity of your sessions and increase the volume of weekly sessions, you state you are almost falling off the bike then go and do 150 jumping jacks. Drop the star jumps, your sessions should leave you feeling slightly heavy legged which will worsen next day then clear on the third day ready for another session.

Start with a 7min warm up gently spinning in the small ring, mid ring on rear block, at 8 min go up a gear and each minute after, once at 10 minutes engage the big ring and go back up the rear block, say 3 down from the biggest sprocket, you should be spinning at 100rpm minimum for 3min then back right off for 2min, dont change gear just drop the revs,repeat this 8x, warm down for 10 min. A good 1hr session, In order to get the maximun benifit you must back right off for each 2 min, if you cant get to 8 sessions then stop at whatever you can manage for now. If the intensity is not enough and you find it easy then start using a bigger gear, as you progress you will be able to use a bigger gear each month.

Tip, dont use a cadence sensor on the turbo, count 25 revs per 15sec interval, this will help aliviate the boredum.

This session should be manageable 2-3 times per week, depending on weekend rides, if you dont feel up to it do something different, a short session light spinning 25 min or 1min on 1min off going up the rear cassestte then back down is less strenous, but dont miss a session and dont over do it, rest is also benifical to improvement, and with turbo work there will be times to back off, draw up a structured plan, tuesdays thursdays saturdays etc.

Turbo sessions take away the junk miles, a short 40min session can be far more benifical than a 2-3hr ride, your fitness will improve and your power will increase, and your weight will fall off, remember as you want to ride sportives you will also need to get longer distances into your legs, your rides should be 70% of those distances.

Enjoy

Dave



oh and drop the jumps

rokkala

turboslave wrote:

Start with a 7min warm up gently spinning in the small ring, mid ring on rear block, at 8 min go up a gear and each minute after, once at 10 minutes engage the big ring and go back up the rear block, say 3 down from the biggest sprocket, you should be spinning at 100rpm minimum for 3min then back right off for 2min, dont change gear just drop the revs,repeat this 8x, warm down for 10 min. A good 1hr session, In order to get the maximun benifit you must back right off for each 2 min, if you cant get to 8 sessions then stop at whatever you can manage for now. If the intensity is not enough and you find it easy then start using a bigger gear, as you progress you will be able to use a bigger gear each month.

And what sort of slope setting should turbo be set at when doing a workout like that?

turboslave

Slope settings, all my sessions are done on a level setting of the front wheel, if you mean resistance settings then dependant on the turbo trainer being used then I would suggest you set the resistance to being comparable to on the road, remember less is more, dont get hung up that you have to ride the turbo on max resistance, that is not the idea and is where many go wrong.

Progression is the key:

It is more important to be able to complete the session without being too stressed, you should be feeling good after the session is completed and not as many do feeling totally exausted, a few weeks of build up then if possible go up a gear, you must allow recovery time between sesions and not get to feeling its so difficult I wont do it any more.

Most of your general riding will be done on the flat, these turbo sessions will improve your climbing power when you hit the hills so dont worry about raising the front wheel.

Remember work out a training plan based on sessions per week 2-3 max to start with and progressivly build up the resistance using the gears and if possible add an extra session, but never miss one even if its much shorter light spinning, this will bulid your mental stamina for turbo training.

If you get out on the road and feel you have lost power or cant keep up with your mates you are over trained and fatigued, dont train for a week, next week go out with your mates and blow them away.

You must also rehidrate and eat well.

Good luck

Dave

jacster

Weight loss = calories in vs calories out.