My wife scored me a new computrainer 3D for X-mas. As I get it set-up for use, I’m wondering if you existing users have any advice and/or tips that I might find useful moving as I begin to learn the new tool. Thanks.
_dave
Download and get intimate with “Training with Power”. Use it to design your workouts. Work hard with the Spinscan feature. With a little work you should find yourself easily able to ride for hours in the mid-upper 80s range. As with any indoor trainer, towels and a good fan (I like the Vortex model) are the order of the day.
“you should find yourself easily able to ride for hours in the mid-upper 80s range” Crikey! I’m lucky to pull 70 going uphill, and my efficiency goes straight to Hell when I am on descents. I have been adjusting the seat and bar positions to find a comfortable and efficient postion, and after going way too far forward and up, I have started going down and back. I am typically in the low to mid 60’s now, which is better than the 50’s, where I started. I have also gotten my cadence into the upper 80’s.
So my improvements have been slightly improved efficiency and higher cadence. I want to improve my power and efficiency, and I think that power is starting to come around(I’m just starting Base2 now) but I really need to improve my efficiency.
I have sat there, spinning for entire sessions while watching the SpinScan and only gotten up to 80% once on a tough hill at very low cadence. I have noticed that my efficiency seems inversely proportional to cadence. I can push hard and slow(<75 rpm) at moderate efficiency(high 60’s) or go easy and fast (90+ rpm) at low efficiency(50’s), but I haven’t been able to get efficiency and speed to come together. What is your secret? Do you have any thoughts or advice you can offer?
Sorry to digress, Dave. I’ve had my CT since October. The only advice I can offer is to echo what TriBriGuy says, and: get familiar with the courses so that you can select the right ones for your workouts; lube your bike a lot, or everything that can rust will rust due to your sweating all over the place; and buy a rubber mat to put everything on so your don’t ruin the floor. I love the CT.
While I like the spinscan and find it fairly useful, I don’t take it’s results as the gospel. It uses too many assumptions in making up for the limited force data available to it. I think it works best combined with how it feels - when you are pedaling efficiently what was 15-20 watts over your head a second ago will feel manageable. If you don’t pay attention to the perceived effort you could wind up getting a higher number in a very inefficient way and think you are making progress.
Download and get intimate with “Training with Power”. Use it to design your workouts. Work hard with the Spinscan feature. With a little work you should find yourself easily able to ride for hours in the mid-upper 80s range. As with any indoor trainer, towels and a good fan (I like the Vortex model) are the order of the day.
TriBriGuy,
Do you know where I can get “Training with Power?” I’ve looked with no luck.
Thanks,
bosco
Try the Graber/PowerTap webpage. I think that is where I originally found it. It might be on Ultrafit as well, since it is a Friel creation. I’ll check when I have a few more minutes to surf.
This may be obvious to all other CT users but I only learned of it recently. If you’re going to ride a preprogrammed course, the best way to calibrate is simply start riding the course - after 10 minutes unplug the cable going into the Ext PC port on the main unit, calibrate, plug the cable back in and then keep riding.