Beginner to road biking advice on many areas, please!

mathrees

Hi there!

This is my first post so I apologise for any mistakes etc...

I have bought myself a second hand Defy 1 and also a fluid turbo trainer. The reasons for this are as follows. I have an old Hybrid and after many years of a sedentary lifestyle was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes. I also have had an ACL operation on my left knee which still plays me up slightly, but not too bad. I am a large chap 6''1 and 255 lbs. Anyway, enough of my ailments!

I have been going out on the hybrid and doing rides of 25 -30 miles at around 10-12 mph average and enjoying it immensely, although the thighs are still a sore a couple of days after! My reasons for buying the road bike and trainer is that I feel it will help me shift some timber and also eventually be able to go faster and further.

I have a few queries;

Are there any turbo training schedules, regimes, programs out there which will be of use to help with the weight loss and also increase stamina in the old thighs? Any hints or tips with this would be very welcome!

I very much enjoy the competitiveness of Strava and Mapmyride, and am currently using my Iphone to track these and then checking out when I get home, obviously this has drainage of battery implications. Is there a bike computer or GPS system you can recommend which will also double up to check cadence and distance on the turbo trainer?

I hope these questions aren't too dull or stupid and you can help. Thanks in advance!

johnpercival80

i haven't a turbo myself, but one of my friends uses trainerroad and it has plans etc on it, think you have o pay though trainerroad.com

Bobbinogs

Turbos are great for many reasons, such as controlled recovery rides, high intensity training and fettling. There are some good training programmes out there, such as Sufferfest and Trainerroad, but they are HIT and should only be used sparingly. Distance is meaningless on a turbo, that is what the roads are for.

Get the biggest fan you can find, machinemart is good for some options, as you will be amazed how much sweat can be produced if you are training properly.

When it comes to computers, I find it hard to look past Garmin but you will need to decide what you want to spend and wgat you want from the device, for instance, the 500 is great at tracking, hr and cadence but rubbish at route guiding...

opus25

I bought a Forerunner 410 mainly to track my running but ended up using it for cycling and still do now. If you don't need mapping, it does HRM, GPS, cadence, speed, average speed, calories, etc which is enough for me. I just start it and the tap to cycle through screens if needs be (it shows 3 bit of info per screen - usually I stick on HRM, cadence and speed). It does really basic guidance: set a GPS position and it gives a N/E/S/W arrow and distance but I've never needed it.

I'm sure you could spend more and get more depending on your needs. Second the fan idea as the amount you can sweat without the wind can be significant.

Not sure how you track distance on a turbo - maybe a wiser forum met can help.

Bobbinogs

opus25 wrote:

Not sure how you track distance on a turbo - maybe a wiser forum met can help.

You track distance by turning off GPS tracking and then using a speed sensor fitted to the back wheel. Many sensors are marked as cadence/speed which implies both but NOT at the same time in most cases (so you might need 2 sensors if you want to track both or shop wisely).

As said though, tracking distance/speed on a turbo are missing the point; a training session on the turbo should be about effort (power if you monitor it, hr or effort if not), time and possibly cadence (if you monitor it, not essential though by any means).

kajjal

If you are able to go out on actual roads more this will tend to improve your fitness faster and drop the weight quicker. The reason is you move around on the bike more and make a lot of minor adjustments all the time you are riding. Also on road you can't stop until you get home

Good luck !

mathrees

Thanks for the replies all.

Did a short (15min) session on the turbo trainer last night, sweating like mad. Will aim to build on that in terms of time and cadence.

Also went for a 10 mile spin on the new bike tonight on flat ground. Really pleased as my average speed was 2mph on average quicker. Stopped along the route to tinker with the setup of the bike, put saddle up by 10mm, and also tilted the bars, made a difference to the comfort.

Most "pain" I had was on the bottom of the palms of my hands, I guess as the position on the bike is different from the hybrid in that I am "leaning forward more. Is this normal?

On the plus side, no pain from the saddle and my back isn't hurting as much as I'd expected. All good.

As an aside I've also been doing the "plank challenge" and managed to get up to 101 seconds after 15 days (I started on 31 seconds)

Small steps........

opus25

Would recommend a proper fit from your LBS. Or at least watch some videos on YouTube (search for 'proper bike fit') as it'll give you a good basic guide about leg angle, knee aligned to pedal centre, cleat positioning, etc which you can do yourself.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VrZBjOloChg and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAl_5e7bIHk are a good start.

Be careful though as you might solve a pain from one place only to make somewhere else ache, hence the LBS being the preferred option.

pete8uk

+1 on proper fit at LBS.

I didn't get one until I'd be riding a road bike for over 2 years. Some slight adjustments to handle bars, sliding saddle forward, and even cleat position have made a huge difference to my comfort on the bike (and later that day).

Also, do you wear gloves when you ride? I'd suggest considering some gel padded ones (in addition to the bike fit)

supermurph09

When you say you did a short 15 minutes spin on the turbo..... 15 minutes would be considered a good warm up time which is what you should do before building up the effort. You probably went off too quick, next time do 10 minutes soft pedalling with a few efforts of around 5-10 seconds and then try to maintain a solid effort for 20 minutes and soft pedal for another 10 minutes to warm down.

However if you are using the turbo, imo, you need to know why you are on it, try to ditch junk miles/time and do something that will bring about an improvement.

Bobbinogs

^^ excellent advice.

mathrees

Thanks for the advice.

So here's what I did,

Devised a plan for the turbo trainer. It's as follows;

3 min warm up
30 secs fast pedal, 30 secs recovery x2
1 min max intensity, 1 min recovery x5
3 min recover
1 min max intensity, 1 min recovery x5
cool down 2 mins

30 mins workout. Completed and was sweating like a pig and very out of breath. Please bear in mind when you read this I am severely out of shape!!

My intention is to build this up over time so I am doing an hours work out, which is obviously double the times above. As well as this I will be out doing 25-30 mile rides, hopefully twice weekly.

Any thoughts?

opus25

I'd recommend more warm up and warm down time (at least 10 mins each), possibly with some stretches before getting on and after getting off. Lack of a decent warm up and stopping too suddenly only increases your chance of injury, especially if you're out of shape.

Small steps, marathon not a sprint,etc.

mrfpb

The guidance I follow on HIIT is rest for three times the intense interval eg 20s top effort then 60s low effort. Three HIIT sessions a week should be enough.

Remember that on the road more than half your energy is used overcoming air resistance. For top TT riders, it's around 80% of their energy expenditure. You won't replicate that on a turbo. Turbo should be good for HIIT but you will enjoy road riding much more.

supermurph09

Just download some sufferfest videos. Don't worry if you can't complete it at first, if anything it will help you pace the effort and know what 9/10 or 5/10 means to you.

team47b

Check that your blood glucose is ok and going up before your turbo sessions, anything over thirty minutes can give you a hypo, assuming your are on medication. Alternatively only exercise after a normal meal/snack, not within half an hour before eating.