Road riding after lots of turbo time!

MarkAshton

I have been doing lots of turbo trainer sessions.

Today, I went out on the road on my bike I have been turbo training on to ride it hard. All in all, I felt like I just couldn't get the power out. It "felt the same" in terms of PE, but my power was way down on what I can do on the turbo.

Is it normal to expect a small bit of adaptation time after just focusing on the turbo? Or am I a bit abnormal in the fact I find it easier to put out bigger power on the turbo. For ref. this was all done in the TT position

Herbsman

Maybe you need some rest?

Alex_Simmons/RST

http://alex-cycle.blogspot.com.au/2009/ ... lysis.html

MarkAshton

Thanks Alex, hoping that a small adaptation period will be all thats needed to utilise my turbo power outdoors.

As an aside note, how would you expect saddle height to affect Pedal Forces.

I ask because I tried lowering my saddle 0.5cm on the 2nd time around a local loop. Looking at my pedal force, I notice it was slightly higher after the lower saddle. Wasnt sure if there was a relationship or not?

Alex_Simmons/RST

Saddle height is a pretty individual thing. Obviously too high or low and it's not a good thing. 5mm is quite a sizeable change IMO, so if experimenting, be careful to allow for some adaptation time.

There are a handful of study abstracts on Pubmed that inspect pedal forces and saddle heights (amongst other things), and in general if you are a bit too high, then I would imagine lowering saddle will help you improve pedal force and power - but the leg joints in pedalling chain is adaptive as we adopt different pedalling actions. I'm missing an ankle on one side so am pretty sensitive to saddle height changes as it is all managed at the knee joint alone.

cyco2

Other dimensions amongst others to work on are the position of the saddle in relationship to the bottom bracket the position of the cleats on the shoes. Its easier to develop power with higher cadence so developing a a position that favours this is what you need to aim for.

What cadence are you getting to on the turbo and what are you getting to on the road ?

What are you using to measure your power output ?

MarkAshton

cyco2 wrote:

Other dimensions amongst others to work on are the position of the saddle in relationship to the bottom bracket the position of the cleats on the shoes. Its easier to develop power with higher cadence so developing a a position that favours this is what you need to aim for.

What cadence are you getting to on the turbo and what are you getting to on the road ?

What are you using to measure your power output ?

Powertap, cadence 85-95 on turbo, same on road. I am wondering if its a handlebar heigh issue. Its a failry big handlebar drop and I dotn feel that "stable" when on the road, but maybe the turbo masks this because its fixed.

cyco2

What you're saying is even when the cadence on the turbo and road are the same the power reading is different ?

Not sure how powertap is engined to give power so can only speculate on the answer.

I would imagine that if you are applying the same pressure on the pedals for the turbo and road then because of say wind resistance the wheel is revolving less at the same cadence because you're in a different gear.

Wrath Rob

Mark, assuming you're in the UK, what's the biggest difference between indoors and outdoors, especially over the weekend just gone? And how much were you wearing to cater for that difference? Riding outdoors when its cold and wet is very different to riding on a nicely sheltered turbo set up. Your body is doing extra work to cope with the cold so you'll find it harder to put out the same power.

MarkAshton

cyco2 wrote:

What you're saying is even when the cadence on the turbo and road are the same the power reading is different ?

Not sure how powertap is engined to give power so can only speculate on the answer.

I have gears on my bike. Just because the cadence is the same, doesn't mean the power is the same. PE made it "feel" the same, but in reality, it couldn't have been because power was lower.

Wrath Rob wrote:

Mark, assuming you're in the UK, what's the biggest difference between indoors and outdoors, especially over the weekend just gone? And how much were you wearing to cater for that difference? Riding outdoors when its cold and wet is very different to riding on a nicely sheltered turbo set up. Your body is doing extra work to cope with the cold so you'll find it harder to put out the same power.

Biggest difference? In terms of term or power output? (the bit where you asked what was I wearing to cater the difference confused me).

Power was approx 30 watts down on what I would expect (some of this was almost certainly due to fatigue in my legs).

In terms of clothing, I had a base layer, mid layer and long sleeve jersey on, 2 pairs of gloves, tights and overshoes.