TrainerRoad.com

Be ready for your inbox to be inundated with the same response!!

http://www.thesufferfest.com/

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Kat Hunter reports on the San Dimas Stage Race from inside the GC winning team
Aeroweenie.com -Compendium of Aero Data and Knowledge
Freelance sports & outdoors writer Kathryn Hunter

There is no good reason to do 3 hours on a trainer. Ever.

Agreed. Hard and short is the only way to go when on the trainer. (Insert joke here)

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Chris Harris

TrainerRoad +
(Netflix or Amazon Prime or Sufferfest) +
Roku =
Tolerable

Biking is all about suffering. I see the trainer as part of my training to tolerate mental anguish.

Movies, race videos, Sufferfest, music, etc can all help the boredom but its rare for someone to be able to regularly do long rides on the trainer. A PM is a good tool for training, but a little redundant when most of your riding is on a quality trainer. The good news is you can do a lot of quality workouts with 60-90 minutes.

May I suggest outdoor winter sports? XC skiing and speed skating are excellent cross training for cycling. Do some quality workouts on the trainer and get in volume outside. Unless you've got a long course race early in the year, you'll save yourself a lot of mental strain and still build plenty of fitness.

I've looked at both these mentioned videos and I'm sure both are good. At this time I don't have either power meter or ANT+ / Bluetooth devices (I've got a Sigma ROX 5.0). Looking at the sufferfest site I could do these plans based on HR which I do have with the sigma. I'm looking at doing an Oly next summer (possibly two) so I was thinking the intermediate triathlon plan? Or would I be better off getting the 17 cycle training videos now and then add that plan next spring?

You can do the sufferfest videos just fine with perceived exertion. It is just for fun.

Sometimes I just ignore the plans in the video and do my own workout while just watching the racing.

Most of the sufferfest workouts are high intensity road racing specific stuff. That might be good for once or twice a week for triathlon, but you might just make up your own workouts for the rest of the time, or for 3 hour rides.

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Kat Hunter reports on the San Dimas Stage Race from inside the GC winning team
Aeroweenie.com -Compendium of Aero Data and Knowledge
Freelance sports & outdoors writer Kathryn Hunter

As someone who rides a trainer 95% of the time year round, I highly recommend Trainerroad and Sufferfest. With Trainerroad its worth it to simply get an Ant+ stick and the cadence sensor required (about $70 total) if you don't have one. You can watch any video, Netflix, Amazon Prime, etc during your workout and they have ton of options for training plans including the HIM plans. On days you want to switch it up, throw a Sufferfest video on and hang on. If you want to keep to the Trainerroad plan but incorporate the Sufferfest videos, agg made this great conversion list that will allow you to figure out which Sufferfest video to do to simulate the planned Trainerroad workout for the day (http://forum.slowtwitch.com/...=sufferfest;#5216131).

No better bang for the buck than Trainerroad and no better entertainment and challenge on the trainer than Sufferfest. Put the two together = as good as it gets when your are pedaling nowhere.

Tour De France box sets aren't too bad. You can usually pick up older ones fairly cheap. I just bought 2 for $15 each, and both are around 15 hours of footage. It's not bad, and you can usually re-watch it every couple of years. That plus discount DVD's work for me.

Why in the world would you even consider 3+ hour trainer sessions? You should really give that some more thought.

This - 100x.

Never be bored on the trainer again. Be prepared to suffer greatly.

This.

It's a complete game-changer on the trainer. It sounds stupidly simple (it actually is), but it's a revelation to go from no-power training to virtualpower (and then realpower).

I put it off for a while, thinking I'd just use my wheel speed as a surrogate for power (virtualpower is calculated of wheelspeed, so it's essentially the same), but there's a world of difference when you start doing the workouts and hitting % of virtualpower.

FWIW, once I got a powermeter, the training was still the same quality, wasn't like virtualpower was any worse. (Just can't use the virtualpower numbers outdoors or comparing to a real powermeter.)

Netflix or other videos + Trainerroad is awesome.

I agree. Get yourself an expensive CX bike and get out there and ride/race. It's great cross training and a lot of fun. Live a little!

+1! I only have 3 videos plus the FTP test.... but I haven't gotten bored yet. Even in late Spring & early to mid summer I still ride about 30% of the miles indoors. I'm back to about 70% now with later sunrise and morning fog and high humidity making it miserable and yucky.

I'll throw in a video for tempo rides or for recovery rides, just watch the news.

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TrainingBible Coaching
http://www.trainingbible.com

Netflix streaming. For long rides, long movies are great, and you can binge-watch a tense series like Sopranos or Breaking Bad. I can watch triathlons or cycling videos for a 1-hour ride, but that gets repetitive on a 3-hour ride.

I think long rides on the are very useful if you're training for a flat-course HIM or IM. The trainer makes you keep your legs moving, and there's a real benefit to not being able to coast, ever, for a 3-4-5 hour training ride. This was an accidental benefit of my IMFL training strategy of using the trainer to avoid dying of heat stroke or lightening strikes as I trained through the summer in the tropics.

Related: if you train in hills, it's really hard to get used to putting out constant power. Hours-long rides on the trainer can help solve that problem. Even if you don't have a power meter, a constant cadence in a constant gear will equal a constant power output (assuming you've got a good-quality and warmed-up trainer).

Warning: do not watch all three of The Matrix movies on a 6-hour ride. They are not very good movies, and they get progressively worse, especially on a ride that long.

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<The Dew Abides>

I've been forced onto the trainer by a crash earlier this year, and subsequent SLAP surgery.

Right now ALL I can do is ride the trainer, and this is a recent development, so boredom isn't an issue.

Trainer road seems awesome and you can link the funny, brutal sufferfest videos to it.

Here's another +1

Look for a little workout called "ISLAGIATT". Do this one at least every two weeks during the winter. Come spring, all your friends will be behind you doing a lot of crying. Other sufferlandrians will know what I'm talking about.

PS. You can do the Sufferfest Videos with TrainerRoad without purchasing the videos, but it won't be as much fun.

Last time I did this one, I noticed my TSS was almost the same for that 1:56 trainer ride as I had in my last 2:48 HIM bike split

I know there are some trainer heroes who put in some long sessions, but I personally don't plan to do any 3 hours sessions. Some of my trainer sets are as short as 30 minutes, but they can leave me spent harder than a 2 hour fast group ride when done well. That is the beauty of the trainer. In the winter I sacrifice a bit of endurance to work on intensity. For me at least the endurance comes back quickly but top end speed requires disciplined effort to achieve.

And this is the key, at least for me. Keeping the trainer boredom at bay requires having a worthwhile goal. The videos and such are quite helpful but I think what really makes it work is having a carrot hanging in front of you. In this way having either a power meter or the virtual power measurement on trainer road does wonders. That is the secret sauce of trainer work in my book.

Ditto - I am captain 45 minutes here. I have a specific goal in mind - ie one legged drills followed by tempo for example or FTP work (2 x 20).

Otherwise, it is f'ing drudgery regardless of how you tart it up.

j

I must the only person who thinks Trainerroad is grossly overrated. Same for sufferfest.

I use a Wahoo Kickr and a Lemond, SRM, and the sounds of pain and misery for motivation.

Sounds like trainerroad with sufferfest is the way to go....So, looks like I'm in with the following.

Trainerroad = $100.00
Sufferfest Cycling Vids = $180.00
Garmin GSC10 = $60.00
Do I need a ANT+ HR device or anything else to start?

So far that's not to bad me thinks.