Is it possible to train without technology?

willhub
willhub Posts: 821
edited April 2012 in Training, fitness and health
As above, I'm getting sick of it, my GPS has died and I have no intention of replacing it.

Is it possible to train effectively with only the use of a stopwatch?


Thanks.

Comments

  • sungod
    sungod Posts: 17,349
    think of all the tdf winners who managed before the advent of hrm, gps etc., i'm sure they would still give the rest of us a kicking no matter how much instrumentation we were packing!

    following the right training plan is much more important than any monitoring tech
    my bike - faster than god's and twice as shiny
  • Tom Dean
    Tom Dean Posts: 1,723
    Does a stopwatch not count as technology?
  • rubertoe
    rubertoe Posts: 3,994
    Tom Dean wrote:
    Does a stopwatch not count as technology?

    How about a bike?

    Unless your running, bare foot, in the nude - its all tech of some description or another
    "If you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you've always got."

    PX Kaffenback 2 = Work Horse
    B-Twin Alur 700 = Sundays and Hills
  • amaferanga
    amaferanga Posts: 6,789
    Yes, but it probably requires a certain level of intelligence do do it as effectively.
    More problems but still living....
  • SBezza
    SBezza Posts: 2,173
    Yes it is, but is it the best way?

    It is quite easy to keep a track of the miles you have done with mapping software (if you know the roads you have ridden down), this doesn't help with average speed, HR, power or anything else though obviously. The downside of not having anything is that you can't really monitor progress, but that might not mean much to you, you might do things for the enjoyment rather than pure performance.
  • bigpikle
    bigpikle Posts: 1,690
    of course it is, and it will always be...

    Intervals of different lengths just need a stopwatch and skill/practice pacing yourself appropriately. A simple bike computer for <£5 from Aldi etc will give you distance, time and speed etc on general rides. If you know what you're doing then a HR monitor isnt that necessary really, although they can be had stupidly cheaply these days as well.

    The downside is lack of good data to analyse and track progress, make changes etc. but years ago it wasnt available int he same way as today anyway, and people seemed to cope! Horses for courses....
    Your Past is Not Your Potential...
  • jgsi
    jgsi Posts: 5,062
    washed it in the bath hey? :D
  • Tom Dean
    Tom Dean Posts: 1,723
    I suppose it depends what you have been using your GPS for and how useful that has been to your training. Personally I can't see how GPS data would be of use to me.
  • twotyred
    twotyred Posts: 822
    Of course its possible to train on perceived effort alone. As has been pointed out that's what the old pros used to do. However one of the reasons they raced so much is that it was the only way to guage whether their training was working or not as they had no HR or power numbers to use.
  • thiscocks
    thiscocks Posts: 549
    Yes. You don't need to know your HR/cadence ect to train well. Its all meaningless at the end of the day. If all that stuff motivates people then thats good but for me cycling is much more enjoyable without bloody electronics beeping at you!

    I remember hearing L.Armstrong chose to train for a tdf TT without any aides (traditional training I think he called it) and he performed just as well as normal.

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