As part of my training I do swim/cycle bricks on Tuesday and Thursday evenings. The route is always the same with varying efforts based on RPE, weather, etc. The ride is 40km on the dot, however due to traffic and other conditions outside of my control, my moving time is anywhere between 1:10:00 to 1:45:00.
I have never used a trainer before, and I just got one (a basic one). I don’t want to get a less quality ride than I do during the week already. Can you train on a trainer by ‘distance’?
Should I train by time?
Should I train by RPE or HR?
I will still be doing my long rides on the weekends on the road.
A trainer workout is only as good as you make it. You can make it any workout you want, from a constant grind to an easy-peasy Sunday afternoon ride. The trick is knowing what you want out of your workout before you get on the bike, and then adjusting accordingly.
That said, while you could technically train by distance (using a sensor), the distance won’t mean anything since wheels spinning indoors bares no relation to what’s going on outside. Training by time is far easier.
What do you want out of your time on the trainer? (Same question you’d ask on the bike, ideally)
A trainer workout is only as good as you make it. You can make it any workout you want, from a constant grind to an easy-peasy Sunday afternoon ride. The trick is knowing what you want out of your workout before you get on the bike, and then adjusting accordingly.
That said, while you could technically train by distance (using a sensor), the distance won’t mean anything since wheels spinning indoors bares no relation to what’s going on outside. Training by time is far easier.
What do you want out of your time on the trainer? (Same question you’d ask on the bike, ideally)
Thanks for the tips. I suppose this confirms what I was thinking. I know what my 40k TT time is so I suppose I should just aim for a bit longer then that time, which puts me around 60 minutes for training, and just wing it from there.
I guess I shouldn’t have said pros, I meant those who are more often than not, training indoors; as I know many ST’ers prefer that to outdoor riding.
Not to jump on the bandwagon…but I am. Best quality training you can find, and they are continuing to update the program. The ease of picking your workouts, or picking a training plan, or creating your own workout…endless.
Nothing wrong with outdoor rides, but this is significantly more focused.
Use time and RPE/heartrate on the trainer. Get a good fan. Most people find that their power is lower on the trainer… no physical reason it should be. So plan to harden up and get the work done at the same levels.
Also don’t buy into the crap that: trainer time * 1.25 = road time. Do your intervals, rest and warm/up cool down on the same time bases. You will find that the quality of the trainer is a lot better.
Invest in some sufferfest videos. My “favorites” are Hell Hath No Fury (2x20m) and A Very Dark Place (5x4m).
Have no doubt, if you go hard on the trainer your outdoor riding will improve.
Excellent. I went ahead and checked out the website and signed up already.
I don’t have a pain cave like you guys do, and I don’t have a fan. But I do have an open roof with a hose on it. And if that fails its a tropical country so, I guess I can cool myself and wash the bike at the same time.
I think i’ll start off with 1 hour rides Tuesdays and Thursdays to replace my 40km evening rides. I have no problem going straight into the suffer zone so I don’t doubt I’ll see some great gains since I don’t have to deal with road hazards, weather conditions, stop lights, blah blah. Not to mention I save a ton of time since I don’t need to change, throw the lights on, fill up the water bottle.
Poking around the website and stuff now. How does my PC receive my ANT+ speed/cadence/HR? Through the bluetooth interface?
You plug your ANT-stick into your computer, and then scan for your equipment in the trainerroad app. There is ways to make bluetooth work but then your eq has to send bluetooth ofc.
I highly recommend a fan. RPE is way too high without the cooling winds. I bought a very expensive ($150) vornado and seriously, it was a night and day difference from a regular tablefan.
Trainer training (haha) is awesome since it is always uphill, very easy to hit exact power targets, very easy to structure workouts and once you are into it, doing rides up to and even longer than 2h is no biggie.
And btw, join the slowtwitch team on Trainerroad! :]
you can use heartrate, it will stabilize after 5 mins, as others note it is important to use a fan, otherwise your power will decline at a steady or rising HR due to dehydration, so you deprive yourself.
There are interesting things you can do on the trainer, you need not restrict yourself to the same old workout every week once you stop improving.
You can measure speed or distance, but it is impacted a lot by tire pressure, so you have to be consistent in that
+3 for TrainerRoad. I did a cycling focus on the trainer one winter and came out with more speed and endurance than I’d gained over any other season.
I’m a little dense here, I think. I have a supported trainer, but no power meter. They say it still works with an ANT+ or Bluetooth Smart speed sensor. Can someone give me an example of one of these? Like a Garmin cadence sensor? And then it talks to your computer through Bluetooth?
+3 for TrainerRoad. I did a cycling focus on the trainer one winter and came out with more speed and endurance than I’d gained over any other season.
I’m a little dense here, I think. I have a supported trainer, but no power meter. They say it still works with an ANT+ or Bluetooth Smart speed sensor. Can someone give me an example of one of these? Like a Garmin cadence sensor? And then it talks to your computer through Bluetooth?
I ran into the same conundrum, actually you need to purchase a little USB stick that can receive ANT+. Garmin, Suunto, and I think a few others make these. They are rather cheap, $20-30 I think. Without this you can’t really use TR, though you might be able to do the HR based workouts.
After you get the stick, should be able to connect your ANT+ sensors to your computer and TR should recognize them.
However this is all theory and with basically everything in my life I really have no clue at all.
Since I am waiting for the arrival of this piece of gear, I started out with some 2x20 workouts and pretty much died, which was expected - but I turned it into a 60 minute workout. 20’ @ HardAsBalls RPE, then 20’ at a much more manageable pace, and then 20’ at the same effort. Is there any structure to a 2x20 workout or is this basically it?
As part of my training I do swim/cycle bricks on Tuesday and Thursday evenings. The route is always the same with varying efforts based on RPE, weather, etc. The ride is 40km on the dot, however due to traffic and other conditions outside of my control, my moving time is anywhere between 1:10:00 to 1:45:00.
I have never used a trainer before, and I just got one (a basic one). I don’t want to get a less quality ride than I do during the week already. Can you train on a trainer by ‘distance’?
Should I train by time?
Should I train by RPE or HR?
I will still be doing my long rides on the weekends on the road.
I don’t have a power meter.
1 - Get Trainerroad
2 - Get the Sufferfest
3 - Dig a hole and bury yourself!
BTW - DON’T get a fan - get a heater and embrace the suffering in true Sufferlandrian style!
+3 for TrainerRoad. I did a cycling focus on the trainer one winter and came out with more speed and endurance than I’d gained over any other season.
I’m a little dense here, I think. I have a supported trainer, but no power meter. They say it still works with an ANT+ or Bluetooth Smart speed sensor. Can someone give me an example of one of these? Like a Garmin cadence sensor? And then it talks to your computer through Bluetooth?
I ran into the same conundrum, actually you need to purchase a little USB stick that can receive ANT+. Garmin, Suunto, and I think a few others make these. They are rather cheap, $20-30 I think. Without this you can’t really use TR, though you might be able to do the HR based workouts.
After you get the stick, should be able to connect your ANT+ sensors to your computer and TR should recognize them.
However this is all theory and with basically everything in my life I really have no clue at all.
Since I am waiting for the arrival of this piece of gear, I started out with some 2x20 workouts and pretty much died, which was expected - but I turned it into a 60 minute workout. 20’ @ HardAsBalls RPE, then 20’ at a much more manageable pace, and then 20’ at the same effort. Is there any structure to a 2x20 workout or is this basically it?
That makes sense. Alright – I’m with you, I have no clue too. We’ll do this together …
It looks quite nice, but WOW, given the fact that power meters are very expensive, tack on an additional 100 bucks for a year and you’re adding a quite a bit of money to an already expensive endeavor.
Excellent. I went ahead and checked out the website and signed up already.
I don’t have a pain cave like you guys do, and I don’t have a fan. But I do have an open roof with a hose on it. And if that fails its a tropical country so, I guess I can cool myself and wash the bike at the same time.
I think i’ll start off with 1 hour rides Tuesdays and Thursdays to replace my 40km evening rides. I have no problem going straight into the suffer zone so I don’t doubt I’ll see some great gains since I don’t have to deal with road hazards, weather conditions, stop lights, blah blah. Not to mention I save a ton of time since I don’t need to change, throw the lights on, fill up the water bottle.
Poking around the website and stuff now. How does my PC receive my ANT+ speed/cadence/HR? Through the bluetooth interface?
Get a fan.
Do the TT test.
You will be humbled if you think you’re going to go and hammer those 40k/1hr type rides on trainerroad. If you’ve never really done it before, trying to ride at 100% threshold power for the full hour will destroy you on the trainer unless you slacked off on the FTP test. If anything, prepare to cry at how much of a pansy you are for choosing mainly subthreshold workouts on trainerroad and running in fear from anything with longer intervals of 100+%FTP until you train your way into tolerating them.
It looks quite nice, but WOW, given the fact that power meters are very expensive, tack on an additional 100 bucks for a year and you’re adding a quite a bit of money to an already expensive endeavor.
Looks quite comprehensive though.
It’s the cheapest highest bang for buck thing you can spend on triathlon improvement, actually. It’s not overpriced at all, and if you’re using virtualpower (no powermeter), it’s downright budget.
Powermeters though are indeed expensive.
It looks quite nice, but WOW, given the fact that power meters are very expensive, tack on an additional 100 bucks for a year and you’re adding a quite a bit of money to an already expensive endeavor.
Looks quite comprehensive though.
It’s the cheapest highest bang for buck thing you can spend on triathlon improvement, actually. It’s not overpriced at all, and if you’re using virtualpower (no powermeter), it’s downright budget.
Powermeters though are indeed expensive.
^^^^This
I’m quite poor by triathlon standards so I thought that $10/month seemed pretty cheap in comparison to 1000 bucks for a power meter. Maybe maplesyrup doesn’t realize you don’t need a power meter with trainer road?
And I made huge strides by using TR with sufferfest for a few months. Its really a huge bang for your buck compared to just pedaling away with a video or even a workout. TR keeps you from cheating yourself. Its amazing how much an RPE of 7 feels 5 minutes in compared to 45 minutes in. No way you’d hold the same power without that damn red bar reminding you how far away you are.
