2nd Ride: January 28, 2004
I have been using an old bike on my trainer and rollers which has 8 speed and 28mm tires, so it was a pleasure to put the new 2004 Trek 5200 (on which I had the Rotorcranks installed) out for a workout. I was curious to see if some of the impression of smoothness would be evident on the rollers. It was. I felt little to no rocking front to back as I usually do in smaller gears. As my rollers have no resistance unit, I quickly found myself in the 53X13 pedaling along at 85-95 rpm. If I pushed the cadence into the 100’s, I could get my HR to around 137. Considering I was supposed to do an hour and a half of tempo (HR 147-157) at 70-90 RPM, I realized I would have to switch to the trainer. After 30 min of rollers, I did so.
For the next 25 min, I did Tempo on my Cycleops fluid trainer. The resistance unit is brand-new, and can give some major resistance in the big chainring. I settled into an 80-RPM rhythm for 20 minutes at 53x17, sometimes 53x16. I was able to get into the late 140’s, early 150’s. It felt somehow easier to push these gears, if I gave into the desire to mash, since it was no longer necessary to try and pull over the top. I decided at 25 minutes to try a low-cadence (60-65 RPM), high resistance bit for 5 minutes. The gear I found to work was 53x14/13. Again, the HR was not as high as it might have been (I estimate it to be 5 beats or so lower). As my program allows me to treat this workout as optional, I decided to go back to the rollers since my legs were still tired from the low cadence stuff yesterday.
I got right back on the rollers and again into a high gear, and spun away for 30 minutes.
Now, for some impressions:
1. I THINK I like them. The Masher in me loves the idea of not having to do many technique drills.
2. So far, they seem to like me (i.e., no knee, Achilles or hip pain.)
3. My feeling is that they will be good for time-trials. As I have the RC’s set up in the range for MTB and TT’s, this is a good sign.
4. I will have to try other settings for Road Racing to see if they have a different or better effect.
I realize that my analysis is very subjective, and I do not try to present it otherwise. I will leave it up to the sales representatives to quote studies. What interests me is more power and speed, period. If it makes me faster, I will put up with the extra weight and the ridicule of traditionalists. I’m faster than most of the traditionalists in my category anyway…
Next workout on Thursday….
David R. Albert, CSCS
wpt@videotron.ca
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I have been using an old bike on my trainer and rollers which has 8 speed and 28mm tires, so it was a pleasure to put the new 2004 Trek 5200 (on which I had the Rotorcranks installed) out for a workout. I was curious to see if some of the impression of smoothness would be evident on the rollers. It was. I felt little to no rocking front to back as I usually do in smaller gears. As my rollers have no resistance unit, I quickly found myself in the 53X13 pedaling along at 85-95 rpm. If I pushed the cadence into the 100’s, I could get my HR to around 137. Considering I was supposed to do an hour and a half of tempo (HR 147-157) at 70-90 RPM, I realized I would have to switch to the trainer. After 30 min of rollers, I did so.
For the next 25 min, I did Tempo on my Cycleops fluid trainer. The resistance unit is brand-new, and can give some major resistance in the big chainring. I settled into an 80-RPM rhythm for 20 minutes at 53x17, sometimes 53x16. I was able to get into the late 140’s, early 150’s. It felt somehow easier to push these gears, if I gave into the desire to mash, since it was no longer necessary to try and pull over the top. I decided at 25 minutes to try a low-cadence (60-65 RPM), high resistance bit for 5 minutes. The gear I found to work was 53x14/13. Again, the HR was not as high as it might have been (I estimate it to be 5 beats or so lower). As my program allows me to treat this workout as optional, I decided to go back to the rollers since my legs were still tired from the low cadence stuff yesterday.
I got right back on the rollers and again into a high gear, and spun away for 30 minutes.
Now, for some impressions:
1. I THINK I like them. The Masher in me loves the idea of not having to do many technique drills.
2. So far, they seem to like me (i.e., no knee, Achilles or hip pain.)
3. My feeling is that they will be good for time-trials. As I have the RC’s set up in the range for MTB and TT’s, this is a good sign.
4. I will have to try other settings for Road Racing to see if they have a different or better effect.
I realize that my analysis is very subjective, and I do not try to present it otherwise. I will leave it up to the sales representatives to quote studies. What interests me is more power and speed, period. If it makes me faster, I will put up with the extra weight and the ridicule of traditionalists. I’m faster than most of the traditionalists in my category anyway…
Next workout on Thursday….
David R. Albert, CSCS
wpt@videotron.ca
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