First roller session

ChrisSA

Hello All,

I've just completed my first roller session. It took a little getting used to, but after 10 minutes I was happy to let go of the door frame. It gets a hell of a lot easier once the wheel rpm gets up.

Following this I only did 5 minutes, as I was getting too hot. I wasn't prepared for this!
Still a bit wobbly. Good fun too.

Unfortunately I don't yet have a cadence unit for my Forerunner (hopefully under the tree though), so it's hard to work out what I'm doing on it. I can immediately see that my pedal stroke is uneven, but still trying to work out how to fix it.

What kind of RPM to people find that rollers become more stable, or the best RPM range to work at?

Cheers,
Chris

58585

Good for you mate, it's a nice feeling once you get your confidence up and spin away without worrying about falling off
As you say things get a lot more stable once you get up to speed since the only inertia is in the wheels and the drums unlike on the road, so you need to keep turning the pedals.
With a bit of practice you'll probably find that you can hold 60 rpm or lower without any problems, but there's no magic cadence to aim for. Anything over 130 and I get sloppy and start to bounce, I tend to land somewhere around 100-110 not that that means much.
If you have a stopwatch/computer with time you can count your pedal strokes over 10s - no real reason to worry about a cadence meter in my opinion.
A big fan is a good idea, or training in the garage with the door/window open to get some air circulating. Roller training in a warm house is best reserved as a punishment for your worst enemy :twisted:

StevieDexter

Definitely get yourself a fan! And keep looking ahead rather then down at the rollers, this makes it much easier to stay steady.

Check out thesufferfest.com for some quality videos to watch while on the rollers.

golfergmc

I have had mine for about one month now, the first few sessions were ropey but now get on great with them. Have just done 10 miles in 20 min 30 sec and felt really comfortable on them.
After a few sessions you will really notice your pedal stroke and balance improving, keep up the good work.

ChrisSA

How long to people roller for, and what type of training?

fish156

ChrisSA wrote:

How long to people roller for, and what type of training?

I tend to do all my indoor sessions on the rollers, anything from 45 - 90 mins. Tonight was a 55 min VO2max session.
The exception is some one-legged sessions I'm doing on the turbo to try to improve my pedalling - I ain't that good on the rollers.