For those of you who have trained on the CompuTrainer and have completed the course on the CompuTrainer as well as the same course as part of a race:
How does the time compare for the courses included on the CompuTrainer to your actual achieved results?
For example:
When you complete a course on the CompuTrainer (at target race effort) how does this time compare to your actual time in the race (assuming that you ride at the same perceived effort, and uncontrollable factors are excluded (weather, etc) if this is possible)?
Specifically, I am curious about the IMLP course time comparison.
I have both the real course for Arizona, as well as Wisconsin.
Having ridden both courses, I can definitely state (objectively) that both my average power, normalized power, max power, HR and RPE is substantially higher on the CT. There are many factors to HR, RPE, however, I am quite certain that the CT is more difficult.
I made a CT course of the California Death Ride via the Delorme TopoUSA sofware to train for that ride. I’m sure there was some play in the course-making etc. Also, I never rode the course straight through on the CT (a) because it’s too long and (b) the 6-10% downhills don’t work well on the CT. However, I did ride each of the course’s 5 climbs on the CT, sometimes two back to back, and I found the CT climbs to be more difficult/required more effort, HR, watts, etc. than the actual climbs themselves.
This is sort of second hand. I have been training for Timberman 70.3 and was wondering the same and a friend who has done the course several times and uses the CT course told me it was (the CT version) much harder.
That being said, there is also the difference in the road feel, bumps, corners and turns etc… You can crank away on a downhill section on the CT and it is regardless of the curves where as a real course you will be braking in some sections etc.
I purchased and started training on the CompuTrainer this past November, and while I can confidently say that I feel really good about where I am at in terms of bike fitness in comparison to previous years (quality and quantity are both way up), I have not been able to “match” the results of races I have competed at in the past.
My YTD performances on the CompuTrainer IMLP course has been very frustrating. In the end I feel that this is a good thing, as it compels me to spend more time in the saddle.
It’s definitely not just you, I have the IMWI, Kona and IM Canada RCVs. WI is the only one I’ve ridden in real life but the RCV version is tangibly harder.
I bought my CT a couple years ago with the idea that I’d ride the course for IMWI as preparation for the race.
here were my perceptions…
First almost all trainer riding is more difficult than riding outdoors. On the CT there is no coasting. There are no breaks. There is no scenery. There is you, a computer, and a sore ass. And frankly the IMWI course is pretty tough to begin with. So unless you’re pretty good you’re looking at a 6 hour ride. On a CT that’s a lot. I did one century ride on the CT in prep for IMWI…really just to prove to myself that I could.
Anyway, after a bit of that I gave up on the courses and now do sets. Manual Erg mode is great too. I guess from this point on I would never expect a CT course time to match an outdoor course time.
I did Oceanside many, many times on the computrainer prior to my race and I ended up racing the course 30 minutes faster than my fastest CT time on the course. And the hills felt so much easier on race day than on the computrainer. If you can survive the computrainer course (and the boredom), you should be able to tear up the real course.
-Whatever course you do CT is always harder (no coasting)
-Most of the time riding a course on the CT is just a waste of time because anything over %8 you start slipping the rear tire and building excessive heat long climb and downhills are completely different.
-CT is a great tool for interval and power based training in a controlled and safe environment but IMHO useless for riding a course.
Disclaimer:I had a CT since 2005.
Totally unscientific observation on my part, the CT feels way harder on 7-8%+ grades than on a real road. It feels like you maintain less speed. For the same ~3mi climb I have to stand up 39x23 on the CT when I can switch off spinning between 39x23 and 39x19 on the real course.
Most of the stock CT courses that try to mimic real coures that are hilly are basically a waste of time (in my book).
Over 7% and unless you are putting out more than 5-6W per kg (impossible for most of us), the wheel is slipping. The downhills are an utter waste of time training time as you are spinning at low wattage doing nothing. At least in real life, on downhills where you are getting no training benefit, you can work on your tuck and your technical descending…you don’t get that on a trainer.
To combat these problems I have written a series of courses that top out at 5-7% depending on course and donwhills are minus 1-2%. So all my courses are net uphill, but they are very effective from a training perspective. On the uphills, as long as I stay in the 3.5-5W per kg, wheel speed stays at 20 kph, which means that the wheel is not slipping AND the CT self cools with its internal fan units…if the wheel speed is low at high wattage for a long time, you can kill your motor.
To answer the OP’s question, all courses outdoors will generally be faster than CT courses that try to mimic real life courses, unless the course is dead flat.