How to track indoor workouts

cheddarpaul

Hey all

I have an old school turbo trainer and just picked up a speed and cadence sensor. I will use an older laptop to watch something and, hopefully record my workout

I want to track my workouts, how hard I am working, "distance", time, etc...

Without purchasing a monthly subscription what is the best method to do this?

I dont necessarily want to train in an imaginary world, just put some time in, watching a film or TV and then record and monitor what I am doing, playing it back so I can see progress, etc

thanks in advance.

N0bodyOfTheGoat

Free Strava account with a heart rate monitor, that can connect to your smart mobile (or a bike computer if you have one) along with the speed/cadence sensor.

Zwift offers a 7-day free trial, if you fancy looking at the hype, I tried it a month ago and found riding virtual cat 2/3/4 hills on my turbo far more interactive... So I begrudgingly signed up (I expect until March), despite the price and how existing members were still getting the cheaper £8/mth deal until November 2018.

I've yet to try it, but I have downloaded and installed Onelap, which offers a turbo experience similar to Zwift but for free. No idea which turbos it is limited to http://www.onelap.cn/

daddy0

Probably the "best" method would be to buy a power meter as that is the only real way to see how hard you are working on a stationary trainer (and the road too I spose).

If you want to train on the cheap however, then just a HR monitor will do. At the moment I am just training using a HR monitor and cadence sensor, which is just enough to get an effective training session. My speed sensor is broken, on the road I use GPS, and speed on a stationary trainer doesn't translate so a bit meaningless, hence no biggie. I record using my old Garmin 500 and upload to Strava. Without the speed/distance being recorded it doesn't display very much on the mobile app, but analysing on the PC is fine. All I'm really interested in is HR for the moment. I use HR and perceived effort to judge my workouts. I've done a few lab sessions in the past, and do have a power meter (but no compatible bike to put it on at the moment). I've thought about signing up to Zwift when I get my power meter working again, but I don't think I will. I already know a few training sessions, and you can always find new ones (GCN on YouTube might work for you). When I'm working hard I don't want to look at a computer screen. I'm happy listening to music and staring at my HR or power. My concentration is mainly on staying conscious and breathing. If you have spare capacity to look at a 3D virtual world you're not trying hard enough IMO :-P

cougie

Forget miles as you aren't going anywhere.
Strava and record it as indoor cycling to track your time.
Watching TV and films might mean you're not watching what you're doing or putting the efforts in.
Will you be working to heart rate ?

kingstongraham

Daddy0 wrote:

I've thought about signing up to Zwift when I get my power meter working again, but I don't think I will. I already know a few training sessions, and you can always find new ones (GCN on YouTube might work for you). When I'm working hard I don't want to look at a computer screen. I'm happy listening to music and staring at my HR or power. My concentration is mainly on staying conscious and breathing. If you have spare capacity to look at a 3D virtual world you're not trying hard enough IMO :-P

If you use zwift in erg mode to control your resistance according to power targets, you have to think about even less.

Not to mention racing on there.

psittacosis

Get a power meter then you can use it on the road. I started with a smart turbo but switched to only using PM data. The readings from the turbo aren't consistent

antfly

You could open a training peaks account and do a British Cycling training plan. Then import or create the workouts in Golden Cheetah where you can do the workouts or just use GC for tracking your progress. You really need a heart rate monitor at least, though.

jameshulsk

+1 for a free Strava or Training Peaks account. They're both great options for tracking your riding (indoors or outdoors). Having said that, training with a powermeter would be a great option, especially if you want to train to metrics and transfer this to your riding outdoors - best of both worlds.

cheddarpaul

Thanks for the reply and I should have made it clear that I have both a heart rate watch (Forerunner 235) and / or a heart rate strap with a Garmin Edge 500

I had a look at Golden Cheetah, it wont install after several attempts :-(

davebradswmb

I use a dumb trainer with Trainerroad that uses "virtual power" which it calculates from the wheel speed as provided by the speed sensor. In truth although the power figure is a mile out, it doesn't really matter because Trainerroad seems to calculate how hard you should should be working as a percentage of your FTP which you have to provide by completing an FTP test in your first session. Although I haven't used a power meter, I wouldn't expect the experience is that much different from using virtual power. The downside of doing it this way is that if you are a serious athlete is that you can't transfer this to road sessions, but as I am just a recreational cyclist it doesn't matter to me very much, at least not enough to justify purchasing a power meter.

I find Trainerroad an excellent motivator and saves me the trouble of thinking up my own sessions, and therefore I think it is worth the £10 a month I am paying, but if that is too much for you you could simply work off wheel speed. My Wahoo Elemnt Bolt records this along with cadence and heart rate so if I wanted I could review my sessions in the app and measure progress that way, I am sure that other bike computers will do the same.

antfly

cheddarpaul wrote:

Thanks for the reply and I should have made it clear that I have both a heart rate watch (Forerunner 235) and / or a heart rate strap with a Garmin Edge 500

I had a look at Golden Cheetah, it wont install after several attempts :-(

That's strange, maybe you have the wrong version for your PC. They have several versions plus a load of old versions.