Turbo workouts for a beginer

coopsman1

Hi all,

I have purchase a turbo trainer and a new Spesh Allez to get myself into a much better physical condition.

Now I have to be honest I have no idea where to begin with the turbo trainer. I know how to set it up etc but when it comes to what workouts I should do I am in the dark.

If it were left up to me I would probably ride like a bat out of hell and not gain anything from it (Well apart from sweating like a mad man.)

Would anyone be so kind as to point me in the direction of workouts that would help me loose weight and increase my endurance?

Any help would be appreciated.

Mr Dog

The sufferfest... job done. £10 per video for a well structured workout. Check em out. 8)

incog24

Top tip - stay off it until the weather gives you no option. It will eventually sap your enthusiasm, so best to make the most of decent weather and ride outside whilst you can. Then you can hit the turbo later in the year and carry on doing it for longer during the winter before it drives you mad.

Sufferfest is a good shout for a structured session. Big blocks of hard tempo help too, but might be a bit of a drag until you get used to the turbo.

ut_och_cykla

incog24 wrote:

Top tip - stay off it until the weather gives you no option. It will eventually sap your enthusiasm, so best to make the most of decent weather and ride outside whilst you can. Then you can hit the turbo later in the year and carry on doing it for longer during the winter before it drives you mad.

Sufferfest is a good shout for a structured session. Big blocks of hard tempo help too, but might be a bit of a drag until you get used to the turbo.

+1
ride outdoors all you can. Ride easy ride hard ride hills, ride long ride short - just ride regulalry in a way you can maintain over several months - ie dont thrash yourself every time or you'll end up quitting. When teh snow arrives retire to turbo dungeon with more knowledge about yourself your goals and some knowledge about planning your training that you have picked up by (critically) reading internet & books. Good luck

ajmitchell

I ride the turbo all year round, I find it useful when its too dark, too cold, too wet outside etc. For a beginner I recommend buying a turbo specific training tyre if you are planning on riding mostly on the turbo, or try the continental ultrasport if its mixed indoor and out (its almost the same as their turbo tyre). Also prop the front wheel up to match the increased height of the back (cyclops do an adjustable version for about £15). Increase the height more if you want to pretend you are going up hill (of course gravity is the same on the turbo!)

Regarding rides thats up to you, but i would start be getting a baseline on your performance. To do this you need a cycle computer attached to the rear (turbo wheel). This is not difficult as many standard computers do this anyway (eg Blackburn Atom range has long lead). After a couple of unmonitored practices pick a certain time....10mins is good (esp if repeated), 20mins is better still and see how far you can travel in that time. Obviously up this if you are training for long rides (but even then i prefer higher effort for shorter distances). Most find more than 30mins on the turbo a struggle. Then on future rides try to beat it (at the same resistance without cheating!). You could monitor effort (by HR or power)....I have both on my turbo.....but it correlates very tightly with ave speed.....so you don't really need it. just one more thing, the magnetic resistance is often lowish so you may need a higher gear (to avoid over-spining the RPM). The easiest way to do this is do swap the front chainring on your Allez up 4+ teeth. Remember you can always change the resistance down or go to a lower gear but its often the maximum resistance thats limiting on most average priced turbos.

symo

ajmitchell wrote:

I ride the turbo all year round, I find it useful when its too dark, too cold, too wet outside etc. For a beginner I recommend buying a turbo specific training tyre if you are planning on riding mostly on the turbo, or try the continental ultrasport if its mixed indoor and out (its almost the same as their turbo tyre). Also prop the front wheel up to match the increased height of the back (cyclops do an adjustable version for about £15). Increase the height more if you want to pretend you are going up hill (of course gravity is the same on the turbo!)

Regarding rides thats up to you, but i would start be getting a baseline on your performance. To do this you need a cycle computer attached to the rear (turbo wheel). This is not difficult as many standard computers do this anyway (eg Blackburn Atom range has long lead). After a couple of unmonitored practices pick a certain time....10mins is good (esp if repeated), 20mins is better still and see how far you can travel in that time. Obviously up this if you are training for long rides (but even then i prefer higher effort for shorter distances). Most find more than 30mins on the turbo a struggle. Then on future rides try to beat it (at the same resistance without cheating!). You could monitor effort (by HR or power)....I have both on my turbo.....but it correlates very tightly with ave speed.....so you don't really need it. just one more thing, the magnetic resistance is often lowish so you may need a higher gear (to avoid over-spining the RPM). The easiest way to do this is do swap the front chainring on your Allez up 4+ teeth. Remember you can always change the resistance down or go to a lower gear but its often the maximum resistance thats limiting on most average priced turbos.

+1 but I would also get the 'Downward Spiral' as a great starting point for beginners on the turbo; I use it after I have been off work to get back into shape. I would run ajMitchell test once a month to check progress, pick one gear start the timer and go for 20 minutes. It will give you a real time controlled indication of progress.

birdy247

Its my own creation, but currently has 999 turbo training plans which have been added by other users. Pretty straight forward!

http://www.turbotraining.co.uk

Herbsman

birdy247 wrote:

Its my own creation, but currently has 999 turbo training plans which have been added by other users. Pretty straight forward!

http://www.turbotraining.co.uk

I use this all the time when I'm in the front room. Works really well.

Otherwise I use Interval Training Timer for Android by halmi.sk

ajmitchell

I agree a sufferfest vid or similar is great but if you don't have this try some suitable music. After some experimentation I made two itunes compilations with high BPM. In one the track changes every 5mins so you know roughly where you are in the ride. I play them through the hifi when riding as headphones get unfomfortable/sweaty.

m00nd0g

and when you get bored buy some rollers:)