Ventilation

haydenm

Morning all,

Relatively new to the indoor training thing. Turbo/tv set up in a small room on the side of the house with the heating off (currently no fan but one on the way). I am slightly disappointed with my ftp, it started drastically underreading watts but it seems to have fixed itself to the point where I don't think I can blame the kit anymore (Novo Smart/Zwift). Happy to concede that I am just less fit than I'd hoped but my only other thought might be ventilation. Is it remotely possible that it being such a small room with closed windows I might be running a bit low on fresh air/oxygen? The windows steam up and it definitely feels like the air isn't doing it's job but then I am unfit and trying to do hill sprints for two hours...

Just a thought, wondered if anyone else had had similar issues. I know everyone will have had issues with sweat but any actual performance issues? I'll open the window next time and see if it makes a difference

LWLondon

HaydenM wrote:

Morning all,

Relatively new to the indoor training thing. Turbo/tv set up in a small room on the side of the house with the heating off (currently no fan but one on the way). I am slightly disappointed with my ftp, it started drastically underreading watts but it seems to have fixed itself to the point where I don't think I can blame the kit anymore (Novo Smart/Zwift). Happy to concede that I am just less fit than I'd hoped but my only other thought might be ventilation. Is it remotely possible that it being such a small room with closed windows I might be running a bit low on fresh air/oxygen? The windows steam up and it definitely feels like the air isn't doing it's job but then I am unfit and trying to do hill sprints for two hours...

Just a thought, wondered if anyone else had had similar issues. I know everyone will have had issues with sweat but any actual performance issues? I'll open the window next time and see if it makes a difference

Without a fan you'll be significantly overheating. You need that flow of air over your skin to keep you cool to allow you to operate properly. I would imagine you'll see your performance improve when you get a fan in place

slowbike

Open the window and put the fan just in front of it - blow cold air towards you ...
We do this and still get hot....

fenix

Hill sprints for two hours sounds ridiculously tough. Surely you'd be well fatigued under an hour ?

You're not running out of oxygen - you're just overheated. Why wouldn't you open the window ?

I do my turbo sessions in a garage and I have 3 fans and sweat still pours off me. Doing it inside is unthinkable for me.

psittacosis

Get a fan . It's essential. Even if you are in a cold environment you want the sweat to evaporate.

bigmitch41

Fan and... open a window.

burnthesheep

Ventilation or in hvac terms "turnover" in a room is just as important as having a fan blowing over your body. A good fan blowing air over your body exchanges your body heat to the room. But, if the room doesn't turnover air itself very often (shed, garage, rooms in a home without vents) then that's not great either.

If indoors, I'd suggest even if the heat or cooling isn't running to turn on just the circulation fan for the system while you workout.

Without it circulating you'll raise the temperature in a room several degrees during a workout.

Also, hill sprints and 2 hours sounds like a contradiction.

molteni_man

I’ve been cycling in my garage over the winter with the side door open to catch some breeze coming in. Even at v low temperatures I’ve heated up big time. I purchased a floor fan which has really helped keep me cooler and work at a more optimum temperature for best performance.

Bordersroadie

I train in an unheated brick outhouse. Even when just above freezing I am still hot with a massive fan blowing right in my face.

Open the window and get the biggest fan you can afford. Sealey are top quality industrial fans but other brands are available.

Seriously though, overheating is a serious limitation, I doubt that you're actually depleting the oxygen!

Good luck!

haydenm

Fenix wrote:

You're not running out of oxygen - you're just overheated. Why wouldn't you open the window ?

Embarrassingly our house doesn't have central heating and it's been in the minus numbers for weeks so we try to keep all the heat we can get, obviously having some lardarse sweating out in there should keep the temp up reasonably well

Fan being delivered tomorrow so no worries, I sweat a lot but I hadn't realised it significantly would affect my performance. I just drink a lot of water!

On the hill sprint thing, I was just doing some of the zwift hill training interval workouts, obviously not doing 2 hour long intervals because that would be a contradiction...

Enjoying it so far though, thanks for the advice

haydenm

I also suspect I have unrealistic ideas of FTP, being only 62kg I doubt I will ever be seeing really big numbers for any amount of time. Never trained with any sort of power meter before so it's all new to me

The reason for the panic is that I'm off to Tenerife in a month or so with a mate who can do a 10 hour Ironman, I'm certainly going to die, happens every time I ride with him :shock:

bigmitch41

HaydenM wrote:

I also suspect I have unrealistic ideas of FTP, being only 62kg I doubt I will ever be seeing really big numbers for any amount of time. Never trained with any sort of power meter before so it's all new to me

The reason for the panic is that I'm off to Tenerife in a month or so with a mate who can do a 10 hour Ironman, I'm certainly going to die, happens every time I ride with him :shock:

62KG! You may just kick his ar$e with all that climbing in Tenerife! 8)

joey54321

Google heat adaption training and keep the window closed :twisted:

Rather brutal but I found it effective for sweetspot/tempo work.

fenix

Dont think Lanza is gonna be that hot in April -not with those winds.

haydenm

BigMitch41 wrote:

HaydenM wrote:

I also suspect I have unrealistic ideas of FTP, being only 62kg I doubt I will ever be seeing really big numbers for any amount of time. Never trained with any sort of power meter before so it's all new to me

The reason for the panic is that I'm off to Tenerife in a month or so with a mate who can do a 10 hour Ironman, I'm certainly going to die, happens every time I ride with him :shock:

62KG! You may just kick his ar$e with all that climbing in Tenerife! 8)

Being 5'5" has one benefit, I've suffered years of sibling bullying for this!

It's definitely killing my legs whatever I'm doing so I don't really mind what the numbers are but it's encouraging to hear that it's likely me being an idiot and not using a fan that is affecting it rather than me being weak or having dreadful Vo2 max

Was only interesting in FTP numbers because he is good at sustained 4% gradient efforts, and I'm an mtb racer so sprints or steep short climbs are more my thing. I see FTP gains as the key to helping me keep up

N0bodyOfTheGoat

When I started indoor turbo training in my mancave in early January, the shock of the heat buildup made me under-perform up cat3/4 hills in Zwift, compared to outdoor hills. Didn't check a thermometer, but I'd expect it to be ~19C or higher in there, from past experience. Also I'd expect it to be relatively humid, from four fish tanks. Setting our ~18" floor fan on max helped.

After a few weeks, I moved my training to the kitchen, which typically sits at ~14C at this time of year in cold weather. To begin with, I still used the fan, but I found our Surface 4 Pro tablet worked much better while connected to the mains so I sacrificed the fan for the tablet.

I think my body is adapting to the heat and humidity, when I'm putting in a relatively decent effort for me, once the climb to the radio tower begins after that initial flatish few miles. Yes, I'm sweating cobs (so no top, big towel to hand and drinking ~750ml water over the ~30min climb), but I'm getting more comfortable with it.

Set new PBs up the climb the other day training without the fan, including ~28mins30secs for the cat2 "Mount Zwift (full reverse)" and a new estimated FTP of 266W in Zwift and 272W in Strava Premium (from 218W at start of Jan)... Onwards and upwards.

molteni_man

Scroll down for some recommendations for fans to keep you cool. I bought the Vornado at Christmas which offers up plenty of air to help with cooling!

davebradswmb

I'll set myself up outside if it isn't raining and the temperature is above a couple of degrees C.

Barry danger

I'm new to turbos and trainer road and thought bollocks to buying a fan , I'll be alreet just sweat a bit . Well after finishing sweet spot one comfortably I redid my ftp and it went up by 11 % . After two weeks I was almost passing out and not able to keep up with the power targets and and back pedalling etc and just thought my ftp must be massively wrong and I was unfit . My Mrs just bought me a 20 inch fan which I stick about 3 feet away . Oh my god , the difference it makes is ridiculous . I've started sweet spot 2 again and redid my ftp again and it's shot up even more and I'm flying through the sessions compared to how i was before . Get a fan ! Mines an Olympia about 40 quid off amazon .

haydenm

davebradswmb wrote:

I'll set myself up outside if it isn't raining and the temperature is above a couple of degrees C.

I'd probably just go out on my bike if the weather was good enough to use a turbo outside

I do have a 3 sided garage thing but I don't think the wifi will reach out there

Barry danger wrote:

I'm new to turbos and trainer road and thought **** to buying a fan , I'll be alreet just sweat a bit . Well after finishing sweet spot one comfortably I redid my ftp and it went up by 11 % . After two weeks I was almost passing out and not able to keep up with the power targets and and back pedalling etc and just thought my ftp must be massively wrong and I was unfit . My Mrs just bought me a 20 inch fan which I stick about 3 feet away . Oh my god , the difference it makes is ridiculous . I've started sweet spot 2 again and redid my ftp again and it's shot up even more and I'm flying through the sessions compared to how i was before . Get a fan ! Mines an Olympia about 40 quid off amazon .

I now have the same fan and have had a very similar experience. Fan arrived on the weekend, the last two sessions have been much much more comfortable, I've not dared to do another ftp test yet but I hope it'll be significantly better. Once we get the central heating fitted I'll have fewer qualms about keeping the window open

As a slight aside, does anyone know what a respectable w/kg might be? I know it's pointless to compare against others too much but I was interested in a ballpark figure to aim for