You can ride relatively hard on rollers. My handling skills aren't good enough to do an all-out sprint on them (which I never do anyway). I could do all my workouts on them without spinning out (2.25 Kreitler rollers).

If you get smaller drums you'll have more resistance. However, I use them for easier workouts because it makes me concentrate so I don't fall off and I can try to ride with no handed and silly stuff like that. For my harder workouts I use a trainer just because I can go into the red knowing I am not going to face-plant.

Are you sure it's the CT and not some other aspect of your winter training? They may be correlated but how do you know CT is the cause?

I had on and off again issues with my soleus over the past 3 years or so. I started doing VERY slow eccentric calf raises daily, slow going up and down. Has done wonders for me FWIW.

I'm 99% sure its from riding the CT. My training hasn't varied at all in terms of weekly volume or intensity. It's happened in the past with some calf heart attacks and where the soleus goes under gastroc. It always seems to happen when I start back riding the CT. I haven't ridden my CT in two years because I thought that whats caused it in the past. For some reason I thought I could try again and bingo, 6 miles into my run the day after riding the CT and my soleus knots up almost instantly to where I'm walking home. A little PT (dry needling) and I'm usually good to go in a few days.

I rode the CT real easy the first day for 40 min and then again on Sat for an hr, never going over 170 watts and breaking it up so it wasn't one hour at constant resistance. Frustrating every time it happens.

do you find that the soleus flares up if you've done a lot of climbing? Esp. long mountain style without much gradient.

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Anne Barnes
ABBikefit, Ltd
FIST/SICI/FIST DOWN DEEP
X/Y Coordinator
abbikefit@gmail.com

No I live in CO and have done lots of climbing outside and never had a problem. With the CT I just use the watts and try and keep the RPM high.

Are you doing slope or erg mode? I find that erg mode is a bit more fatiguing to my calves. My theory is that it creates more uniform resistance through the whole pedal stroke which eats up precious little momentum that exists. I also find that my cadence is naturally lower on the trainer (for whatever reason) and this strains my calves a bit. I don't run unless chased by something so I don't know if it affects me other than feeling a bit punky on the trainer the first week or two.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^ if you are riding in ERG mode.

I love erg mode but it really puts a different load on the legs due to the CT's ability to micro adjust the load so rapidly throughout the pedal cycle.

Hugh

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Genetics load the gun, lifestyle pulls the trigger.

This is what I was sort of thinking. My bum cycling knee feels it on indoor training rides quicker than outdoors even when the indoor intensity is really dialed down. This is one key area where my Kickr has excelled by quite a bit over my Fuid 2's and because of this I'll eventually build a heavier Fuid 2 flywheel.

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Nanoo Nanoo

I totally agree.....erg mode is actually different from riding outside. Slope mode or courses are the same as riding outside in that the watts are determined by how hard your crank torque for a given "slope" at a given wheel speed...whereas, erg mode micro adjusts the load on the wheel too fast within the pedal stroke. I find when I work in erg mode I need the wheel speed to be fairly high (like 22-25 mph) at high wattage (well, high wattage for me is 250-350W) for it to be closer to slope mode.

If the OP is having calf issues, I would put it on slope mode and I bet the loading issues changes at the front of his pedal stoke that is causing the calf issue. I find in ERG mode from 12 O'Clock to 3 O'Clock I have to apply more force than outside and from 3-6 O'Clock, less force than outside for the same wattage. I can sustain much higher wattages on courses or slope mode than erg mode.

Thanks, that's an interesting theory. I've typically use just the ERG manual mode, set the watts, ride for time, do some 5-10 min type pick ups, and then back to a constant watt.

I sent an email to CT asking if they can explain the difference in the force over one pedal rotation of the ERG mode versus riding a course/slope.

It's going to be a running and swimming winter and a few cold rides on the weekend if I can't figure out why the CT screws my calfs up.

Hey what's wrong with your knee? I have a chronic left knee problem and I am always interested to hear other athlete's stories who also have knee problems.

Tim T.

I basically used up the better part of my knees' life before I even graduated from high school and mostly stopped doing anything athletic other than lifting weights. I tried cycling for fitness as a young adult but my left knee was never happy regardless of stationary bike or road bike. I noticed that I was double flexing my left foot and this seemed to be torquing my knee and I couldn't stop from doing it so I stopped cycling. No matter, over the years I found other ways to continue the destruction like heavy squatting to the point that each squat day was followed with a night of right knee pain so bad it felt like it was going to explode. Yeah, I don't squat anymore.

In my youth, I never liked running anything longer than 200m but longer distance running has always been in the back of my mind, and I like Forrest Gump, suddenly started running a few years ago and I absolutely love it. My durability has gotten worse and worse to the point that I either have to cross train or stop so I incorporated elliptical workouts earlier this year then biking. To solve the knee issue, I would place my heels on the center of the pedals so I couldn't flex my feet. I've come to realize that my bum knee might be due to other things. It still gets sore but is liveable as it's usually fine for 1-2 hours for outdoor rides but nowhere remotely close to that on my Fluid2 and not too bad on my new Kickr.

Funny thing, my other knee is my bum running knee.

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Nanoo Nanoo

This is a really interesting point on Erg vs Slope mode. My hip is aching the last couple days after some hard workouts using the Erg mode on my Kickr. Am going to rest for a couple days, but I might be more cautious and use a different mode for the high power sessions

Probably the best way to describe the difference is that ERG mode is like riding up a hill with a strong wind. You essentially need to provide full force through the entire pedal stroke. Personally I have found that I can sustain around 5-10% less power in ERG mode vs Slope mode (i.e. my FTP tests are in slope mode and what I ride at in slope mode for 20 minutes or an hour I can't do in ERG mode).

Computrainer responded back as to regards to a question I asked about the the mechanical difference in Erg mode versus wind-load/slope. Below is their response:


"In Erg mode (due to the biomechanical design of a bike and the way your legs can drive the pedals) when you have your normal dead spots you are now increasing torque during these dead spots and lessening them on the power stroke. This is 180 degree reversed of wind-load and reversed muscle recruitment as well. If you were to hold your cadence and speed as steady as you need to to make ERG mode hold a constant torque (to maintain a constant wattage), you would have far better muscle recruitment in this mode. Otherwise, as RPM drops, or you fatigue, muscle recruitment become totally unnatural. In wind-load as RPM’s drop you’d gain a recovery-state for the muscles.

The wattage in Erg mode may be a constant, but it is done so by modulating torque – 100 times a second as well. Inertia in this mode is used the same way – to remove the “stall” you would feel at bottom or top-dead-center.

So, bottom-line, there is no “true constant” in either case, erg mode or wind-load, because a human isn’t constant. A bike doesn’t allow for it either. In either case there are fluctuations. But the fluctuations seen in wind-load match those seen while riding outside, whereas Erg-based fluctuations are totally reversed and unnatural relative to cycling outside. "

Bottom Line, I believe the torque throughout the pedal stroke in Erg mode is causing my soleus to tighten versus riding the bike outside. This tightness then effects my running and jacks ups my calf and soleus.

Is it possible your wattage in ERG mode is too high? I've had that problem with my ankles, feet and calf muscles getting really tight and SORE while riding my old Computrainer (since sold) in ERG mode. I wonder if SOME training in ERG mode has value? In other words, when you heal, you might cut the wattage by 20-30% and give it a go for a short while.

-Robert

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"How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world." ~Anne Frank