A bit of newbie turbo adice

chris_bass

Hi

Got my first turbo trainer yesterday and its all set up but not really had chance to test it out yet!

i have acouple of questions:
firstly about the resistance, is the easiest setting supposed to mimic flat cycling and then the more you increase it its like going up steeper hills or is the easiest easier than flat on a road?

how do i know what my max heart rate would be? never really done much based on heart rate before and heard it mentioned a lot when it comes to turbos

how does it compare to road cycling, i cycle for exercise so if i spend an hour out on the road is this the same as an hour on the turbo? given that i try and maintain the same kind of pace?

any other hints and tips always welcome

Mr Dog

Chris, set your resistance to a setting your can manage without your eyeballs popping out, around 4 is good, then use your gears to regulate. The first thing you'll notice is the applied resistance is constant so you will get hot ... very hot. Check out Sufferest videos and get yourself a means of measuring cadence. Finally read the turbo thread started by Nap D, its all you'll need.

Herbsman

viewtopic.php?f=40020&t=12661884

bahzob

Resistance will vary according to the make of turbo you have. It is also sensitive to setup so its worth having a reliable routine for this from the start. Also get a good fan, you will get very hot.

As a general rule an hour on a turbo is harder than an hour on the road since you don't freewheel, but of ofc that depends very much on how you ride on road/turbo.

HR is ok to be used for turbo work but it really isn't the best thing to use by itself. It's best to fit a rear wheel speed sensor and use that (with HR as well if you like.)

I would recommend doing the workout I posted here http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=40011&t=12888793

The first section is a steady ramp up to your "threshold" effort. This is far more useful to know than max HR. Once you get a sense of where it is and how turbo speed relates to effort/HR you will be able to plan and do more exercises. You can also use it to set an early PB in terms of distance covered per hour which will serve as a useful benchmark/incentive for later work.

chris_bass

thanks for the replies, all very useful stuff as i really have no idea when it comes to turbo trainers!

i'll invest in a fan this weekend, hopefully they will be cheap at this time of year

bahzob

btw the graph on my post shows why HR is not so useful. My max HR is around 179-184 depending on how rested I am and the conditions under which I will be pushed to the limit.

You can see I don't get anywhere near that nor would expect to most times. You can also see how the HR lags the actual power/speed and can be affected by external factors (like how it dips each time I drink).

What HR can be useful for is to help gauge overall fitness and progress. As you get fitter you should be able to go faster for the same HR and you will find it goes up more slowly given the same load, but comes down quicker when you ease up.