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Got on the turbo, then got straight off

birdy247birdy247 Posts: 454
edited February 2010 in Training, fitness and health
I was going to attempt 2 x 20's

Got on, and did a warm up, 3 mins into the 1st 20 I just felt like my legs couldn't go so I gave in an just did 10 mins easy spinning.

I have been doing some longer tempo rides recently so am sure that is why I felt cooked, but in that situation is it best to power through or stop and recover?
www.turbotraining.co.uk

Posts

  • PokerfacePokerface Posts: 7,960
    Excellent question. Which I don't know the answer to.

    But I've been in the same situation before many a time. Some days you 'have it' and some days you don't. If you can't go on, then you can't go on. I've climbed off the bike early before when I was overtired or low on energy - or changed my plan to go from something intense to something more recovery-based.

    But - there have also been those times where I felt like [email protected] at the start, but powered through it and felt much better shortly afterwards.

    A lot of cycling and 2x20 is mental too. You have to be in the right frame of mind or your body will give up.
  • chrisw12chrisw12 Posts: 1,246
    Same here, had plans to ride around the world and ended up doing 10 minutes. :)

    So here's what I've come up with to try and get me to stay on the thing (and it's worked so far in that I haven't bailed a session since Christmas.)

    My goal is to do 3x20 with 5 min rest inbetween.

    I use the first 5 mins to asses how I feel. If not to good or power is down then I'll switch to doing 5 min intervals with 1 min rest and then aim to do a total of 12. If during these I start to feel better then I may again change things and perhaps go back to doing 20 mins intervals or even 10 min intervals, rule being for every 5 mins of work I get 1 min off, if I manage 20 min I get an extra minute reward.

    So my aim is to do aroung 1 hour at ftp with about 10-12 mins rest. How that is composed will depend on how I feel, rather than some rigid plan.

    It's not perfect but at least it allows the work to get done.
  • Tom ButcherTom Butcher Posts: 3,830
    Yeah that's the way it goes sometimes. Monday night I did 12 minutes and stopped - did 5 minutes easy and then felt I should at least complete 20 minutes so restarted with the aim of doing the other 8 minutes - ended up doing 28 minutes straight through at the same power and it felt relatively easy. Ideally I think I'd warm up for longer but when you've got a window of maybe 50-60 minutes a 20 minute warm up and a decent recovery aren't possible.
    it's a hard life if you don't weaken.
  • BronzieBronzie Posts: 4,927
    Had a similar thing couple of weeks ago - just couldn't hold anything like target power and ended up climbing off after 10 mins. Felt distinctly below par for the next 2 days (neck glands swollen) and did a very easy ride 3rd day so I just put it down to a bit of a bug.

    Sometimes, it's best just to call it quits and see how you feel next day.




    Other times.......MTFU! :lol:
    It's a Lifestyle! -+-+- Coggan Training Levels
  • JimmyKJimmyK Posts: 712
    credit to anyone who can do 20 mins on a turbo, it would bore me to tears after about 5 mins and id be hopping straight off too.
  • mebakemebake Posts: 28
    1 hour everytime, and its all down to the sufferfest 1 hour video.
    Otherwise I,m sure I would only do 5 minutes.
    If boredom or motivation is cutting short your planned time on turbo, try the vid.
    I,m sure I,ll get a few "+1s" with that.
  • amaferangaamaferanga Posts: 6,789
    If you can't manage 20min on a turbo then either you have serious motivational issues or no goal that will make it all worthwhile....

    Having said that I've not been on my turbo for 3 weeks now. I had a cold that knocked me out for a week which was then followed by blocked sinuses and post-nasal drip that has left me with wheezing and coughing like a 20/day smoker. The week before the cold hit me properly, I had 3 abandoned sessions on the turbo as I was feeling so weak. I'd never abandoned a session before that.

    Think I'm getting back to 100% now, but am still limiting myself to endurance rides on the road. The bloody annoying thing is that I just bought a PowerTap and I'm desperate to do a ftp test, but don't see the point until I'm actually fully fit again.
    More problems but still living....
  • sampras38sampras38 Posts: 1,917
    JimmyK wrote:
    credit to anyone who can do 20 mins on a turbo, it would bore me to tears after about 5 mins and id be hopping straight off too.

    You ain't training hard enough...;-)
  • PokerfacePokerface Posts: 7,960
    amaferanga wrote:
    The bloody annoying thing is that I just bought a PowerTap and I'm desperate to do a ftp test, but don't see the point until I'm actually fully fit again.

    Do one now. It will make your improvement when fully fit look all the more impressive.
  • MikeWWMikeWW Posts: 723
    If I feel I need to rest I do but If I get on the turbo or the rollers I do what I plan to do
    Have only cut one session short once when I had some knee pain and didn't want to aggravate it
    A turbo and sufferfest is a great way to spend an hour-honestly look forward to it but don't do it every night as I need some rest in between
    www.lichfieldccc.org.uk
  • birdy247birdy247 Posts: 454
    How does anyone manage 2 x 20's I just cant get my heart up. My legs burn and burn and I just cant push anymore to keep my heart rate in the zone I want.

    At a pace I can keep all day on the road is a real effort on the turbo.

    Is there any benefit to doing short interavls (5 min or less intervals) at FTP pace (as this is all I can bear!) to help me improve my 25m TT ability.
    www.turbotraining.co.uk
  • birdy247birdy247 Posts: 454
    How does anyone manage 2 x 20's I just cant get my heart up. My legs burn and burn and I just cant push anymore to keep my heart rate in the zone I want.

    At a pace I can keep all day on the road is a real effort on the turbo.

    Is there any benefit to doing short interavls (5 min or less intervals) at FTP pace (as this is all I can bear!) to help me improve my 25m TT ability.
    www.turbotraining.co.uk
  • chrisw12chrisw12 Posts: 1,246
    birdy247 wrote:
    How does anyone manage 2 x 20's I just cant get my heart up. My legs burn and burn and I just cant push anymore to keep my heart rate in the zone I want.

    At a pace I can keep all day on the road is a real effort on the turbo.

    Is there any benefit to doing short interavls (5 min or less intervals) at FTP pace (as this is all I can bear!) to help me improve my 25m TT ability.

    How are you defining that? I hope you are not comparing your road SPEED with your turbo speed?

    I don't think doing 5 mins is ideal but if that's all you can do, then that's all you can do so go for it. At least keep the rest interval very low if you're looking for ftp gains (perhaps) and the number of reps high. As I said aim for 40 mins at ftp mixed up determined by how you feel.

    Anyway, summer's coming, no more turbo for me, up and down the Rhigos a miillion times instead. :lol: :shock:
  • BronzieBronzie Posts: 4,927
    @birdy247 - sounds like you are either trying with too much resistance on the turbo or perhaps you are not adapted to riding the turbo yet - I find it can take a few sessions to get the legs used to the deadspots in the pedalling action caused by the low inertia nature of the turbo
    chrisw12 wrote:
    At least keep the rest interval very low if you're looking for ftp gains (perhaps) and the number of reps high. As I said aim for 40 mins at ftp mixed up determined by how you feel.
    8 x 5min @ high Level 4 with 1 min recovery can be used instead of longer intervals - at least you keep the power in the right area this way
    It's a Lifestyle! -+-+- Coggan Training Levels
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