Getting serious - my first turbo

t5nel

Just managed to get a bit of a 'deal' (or so I hope) on a Cycleops JetFluid Pro from wiggle for £202.50 (on sale at the moment and used a 10% code)

I know it seems like an odd decision at this time of year (maybe why on sale) but with the crappy weather over the bank holiday and my lack of discipline at focussed training I am hoping this is a smart move.

I am quite new to the whole POWER training concept and I cannot justify or afford a power meter really (never say never though) but I have decided that I am going to try and increase my power (FTP )through the use of a turbo based training program (been looking at trainerroad.com). I am doing the Etape Acte 1 this year and I also think the turbo will be useful for simulating the long grinds up the mountains

Anyone got any recommendations on decent turbo based plans - specifically any experience of trainerroad golden cheetah etc. trainerroad seems well suited as I already have garmin speed/cadence sensor and ANT+ so it keeps the outlay down.

Tim

twotyred

my lack of discipline at focussed training

I don't quite see how a turbo is going to help that.

Don't forget 1 hr efforts at threshold on flat roads are pretty good at simulating the effort you'll need on a long alpine climb. Better for you at this time of year than long turbo sessions.

whojanicanackerov

Sufferfest.com may help with turbo work have a butchers and see.

t5nel

twotyred wrote:

my lack of discipline at focussed training

I don't quite see how a turbo is going to help that.

Don't forget 1 hr efforts at threshold on flat roads are pretty good at simulating the effort you'll need on a long alpine climb. Better for you at this time of year than long turbo sessions.

What I meant by focussed training is hitting a target and staying there. Where I live there are many distractions that can make it awkward to do 1 1 hr flat threshold ride (traffic lights, junctions etc.) Also looking forward to some feedback not influenced by weather etc.

t5nel

whojanicanackerov wrote:

Sufferfest.com may help with turbo work have a butchers and see.

Looks good and is also integrated into trainerroad software

bmwoner

I am interested in this one too.

In terms of motivation, despite best efforts if ou don't get in from work until 8-9pm, then early starts etc then sometimes a turbo is a good option, as can get on it later, etc etc, when pouring with rain etc. I would rather get on a turbo than a bank holiday monday rush hour traffic battle in pouring rain.

Suffertest is an option, but expensive.

Any other options?

symo

bmwoner wrote:

I am interested in this one too.

In terms of motivation, despite best efforts if ou don't get in from work until 8-9pm, then early starts etc then sometimes a turbo is a good option, as can get on it later, etc etc, when pouring with rain etc. I would rather get on a turbo than a bank holiday monday rush hour traffic battle in pouring rain.

Suffertest is an option, but expensive.

Any other options?

Sufferfest is not expensive compared to most DVD's you would have to buy.
You can sit there for hours, if you have a Garmin that can upload workouts from Garmin Connect you design workouts with targets to hit, then sit there doing them to your favourite tunes.
Personally buy the Downward Spiral from Sufferfest, you won't regret it. I have most of them for variety, occasionally I do a session for an hour at 75% mhr listening to DnB, which just makes the sweat fall.

sungod

downward spiral, mmm

it's good one, cruel, but good

it's worth getting a *big* fan to go with the turbo, even at <10 celcius i'm baking if there's no fan, at higher temperatures it's just horrible

to the op - cyclops publish the power curves for their turbos, so as you have a bike computer with speed sensor for the rear wheel you can convert 'speed' to power, it's not precise, but once things have warmed up it is repeatable, which is the main thing if you want to assess progress over time

http://www.cycleops.cz/files/trainers.pdf

if you search on the internet you'll find more about power curves, you might find a ready made table for your turbo, if not you can draw up your own from the curve using a ruler and a bit of maths

RoadMeridaBen

I use a tacx fortius with vr and all that crapola,the only function I use on it is the catalyst. Theres nothing thats going to make the turbo enjoyable so you know what to prepare yourself for. The only thing that keeps me going on the turbo is that I love riding my TT bike.

I had a bottom of the line cycleops turbo and it was horrible to ride on, other turbo cost 750 quid or something though lol.

Anyway, prepare yourself for the boredom.

cyco2

Really quite simple...You'll need cadence, fan, entertainment, sweat band. Optional mph, speed, watts, hrm, etc.. After a warm up at highish cadence increase the resistance or gear until you are simulating the grinding up a hill, say 75 rpm. When you have settled at that rate try an increase of 5 rpm. If you can you'll need to get the same feeling in your quads as on an 'in the saddle' climb. As you get used to it you may find you'll be able to increase the cadence or resistance. Surprisingly it doesn't take many sessions for you to feel the difference on a climb when out on a ride because of the hours spent grinding on a turbo is far higher than you can get on the hills in England. So, may the weather stay wet for you a bit longer.

t5nel

Thanks guys for the useful feedback.

Set it all up last night and installed the trainerroad software (trying the 30 day free trial).

It is very easy to use and the basic idea is that it derives power (from knowing the cycelops power curve and the speed at the trainer). I tried the 8 minute FTP test (two flat out 8 min intervals in an hour) and it was hard. It s great to get some on screen feedback from trainerroad and to keep all the data so you know how well you did/didn't nail the intervals and stick to the training plan.

I am a bit puzzled though as I calculated (using Strava on a couple of back to back 8 minute hill climb efforts up box hill) to have an FTP of ~ 240W. Trainerroad makes it 151W (which is the FTP of a mouse!!!). I know they are both guesses (especially strava) but I cant believe they are SO far out - was hoping for nearer 200W.

For watt (intended) it's worth the trainerroad power figures seem low compared to the published cycleops curve so maybe that is part of it.

The sufferfest vids seem good value

t5nel

RoadMeridaBen wrote:

I use a tacx fortius with vr and all that crapola,the only function I use on it is the catalyst. Theres nothing thats going to make the turbo enjoyable so you know what to prepare yourself for. The only thing that keeps me going on the turbo is that I love riding my TT bike.

I had a bottom of the line cycleops turbo and it was horrible to ride on, other turbo cost 750 quid or something though lol.

Anyway, prepare yourself for the boredom.

I have not tried a fortius but have been on a tacx flow vr and I honestly prefer the feel at the pedal on the cycleops...Horses for courses I guess.

Let the suffering continue

sungod

t5nel wrote:

<snip>
I am a bit puzzled though as I calculated (using Strava on a couple of back to back 8 minute hill climb efforts up box hill) to have an FTP of ~ 240W. Trainerroad makes it 151W (which is the FTP of a mouse!!!). I know they are both guesses (especially strava) but I cant believe they are SO far out - was hoping for nearer 200W.
<snip>

by definition ftp is the power you can sustain for 1 hour

the shorter the period used to estimate ftp, and the less controlled/reliable the conditions and/or measurement method, the less likely the estimate is to be correct, i would just ignore figures from strava, especially from such short efforts

the 20 minute test is a good one to use on a turbo (see links below), but the result is still not correct for everyone, 20 minutes is not an hour

if you've not been training for sustained power output, your ftp may not be that high, but you can always improve

more here...

http://home.trainingpeaks.com/articles/ ... power.aspx
http://www.flammerouge.je/content/3_fac ... thresh.htm
http://cyclingcommentary.typepad.com/cy ... mance.html