Clifton CC

I bought a turbo, Elite Volare for 40 quid second hand. But I've got no fan, do I really need a fan? I'm not sure how well using this trainer will go down with the people above, but I'll give it my first go tomorrow.

I'm still trying to think of what sort of training I'm going to do, I was thinking of doing a steady 4 or 5 hour session on it whilst I do some college work, or possibly some intervals of 10 seconds at 150%, apparently these can really knock you out and make you feel sick but apparently bring on some good increase in fitness. I really think this turbo will make my fitness fly, as long as my legs keep working ok.

Dr Dave wrote:http://www.turbotraining.co.uk/

Thanks, quick and eays on that site to find plans to what I want to do

"I was thinking of doing a steady 4 or 5 hour session on it"

Will, I'm a major turbo user - and occasionally do 2hr+ sessions - but this would be utter, utter torture.

The site Dave's suggested is loaded with ideas but you still need to work out what aspect of your training you want to use it for - turbos are pretty rubbish as "long-steady-ride-substitutes". They are really, really good for specific stuff - high-intensity intervals especially. Stuff where the more controlled conditions on the turbo let you do specific levels of effort and measure the results. But, again, think about what you want to measure - 150% of what?

You'll need a fan - you'll sweat like there's no tomorrow and you'll boil your head if you don't have some cooling. If you're only doing sessions of around an hour the whirring noise shouldn't wind up the neighbours too much - I'm sure they're used to worse..

Is everyone like me at first? I'm actually looking forward to getting some turbo miles in, I can imagine hapilly sitting on the turbo watching a film or something.

Well I want to just improve my speed, so I'm not sure what area, maybe TT's?

The website Dr Dave linked to made me think I want to do some intervals, and what I said earlier, I want to try that tabata.

Hopefully I can get away with saying it's the washing machine, I'm on the ground floor and the guy above does not mind me playing music, and I usually play loud bassy dub and drumb and bass music and it does not bother them, only about an hour every other day though.

I quite like sessions on the turbo, but then I'm pretty odd. It's unlikely to offend anyone upstairs, but anyone below you (if you're not on the ground floor) will cop the noise more.

Suggested sessions:-

20mins at TT pace, 5mins recovery, repeat
30mins around TT pace; vary pace from about 5bpm above to 5bpm below with about a minute between each "high" and "low"
5x4's - five intervals each at above TT pace - basically as hard as you can maintain as a steady pace for 4mins, with 4mins recovery (gentle pedalling) between.

All the above are good for "threshold" ability - especially TT's.

10mins - 30mins in a big gear at 65-75rpm. Breathing/HR should be just below TT level. Good for leg strength but will knacker your knees if you do too much too soon.

40mins - 60mins leg-speed intervals; fast as you can pedal for 15sec, recover for 15sec. Do a couple of sessions then switch to 30 sec recovery periods and use one gear higher. Likewise repeat at 45sec recovery another gear higher. etc. You'll need to work out what gearing works but you want same effort/rpm for last intervals as you got for the first.

With all of the above warm up steadily for ten minutes first to get your muscles supple.

Sessions like the Tabata intervals will push up your aerobic threshold but are very taxing if done properly - usually recommended for tail-end of training period leading into race season. Go easy or you'll overtrain - if you have a habit of doing too much rather than too little then go easy!

Thanks, that's some great stuff above , I'll give those sessions a go, just randomly doing them for a week or so, then when I'm used to it I'll try to contruct then into a plan.

Regarding tyres, I was thinking of just putting my CAAD9 on it, but would I end up ruining the rear tyre? I was thinking of using my old Open pro but it's on 9 speed, my commuter is 9 speed but has SPD pedals with worn cleats on my shoes. So I'd use the Open Pro, switch the 10speed cassette over from my R550 to my Open Pro's, I figured that would be quicker than changing the tyre. Or would my Krylions be ok?

This turbo will keep me ticking over, allthough it's rather easy, 50/12 and resistance on full it's too easy, but oh well, I'll have to pedal faster.

Will - if it's too easy in top gear, top resistance, check that the turbo is pressing hard enough against the tyre. You want it to be stiff enough to have no slippage, but not too tight. It takes a bit of practice to get it right.

Well I notice on the highest resistance and in 50/12 if I suddenly push loads of power then the wheel skids.

Anyway, I got my HR to 193 on it last night, turbo trainers are so odd, I could sit with my HR at almost 190 on that turbo trainer for quite a while, yet on the road if I was sitting at say 185 I'd be really going for it on the flat and it would be tough, but on the trainer it is not.

So I did 4 min intervals with 4min resting, I did 10 of these, each 4 mins my HR was around 185 and never went below about 70% in the resting intervals.

I was on for a total of 1 hour 25mins, and it was indeed torture!!!!!, I thought watching TV would make time go as fast as when you normally watch TV, but no, I looked down at my GPS to see only 20 seconds had passed O_o.

I'll have to do some reading as I want to get the best sessions in that will help me improve that are under 1 hour long, any more than 1 hour and it's hard to stay on the trainer.

In my experience HR tends to be higher on the turbo for a given rate of effort - I've always put it down to excess heat - your heart is busy trying to deal with the rise in temperature.

If you want to keep sessions short then you need them to serve a specific purpose. All of the sessions I suggested can be done as 60mins max, but you need to be clear about what you want out of them. 20mins at threshold is useful, but 5x4mins at threshold with 4mins recovery takes twice as long and serves no real purpose. However, 5x4mins at well above threshold is useful... etc. As you suggest, do some reading.

It's an interesting fact that the higher your heartrate, the slower time passes....

I've been reading and it seems like I want to be doing something like 2x 20min as it seems this will improve TT performance, I'd have thought if it improved TT performance it would improve race performance in a way?

I wanted to try to find my max HR today on the turbo, I guess It was a quick thinking thing and I got up, put my shorts on and got on the turbo, about 5mins warming up then I started speeding up, only managed to get up to 180ish, maybe I should check what it is on a session where I do 2x20, but I do the max HR check at the end of the last 20min session.

From what I've read for these 2x20min sessions I need to be finding my HR that I can maintain evenly for the 20mins, then again, inbetween the 20min sessions I'll have a 5min break, from what I did last night, I think that the HR I can keep is about 181 for the 20mins.

I really don't like using the turbo trainer much now, it's more boring than I could ever have imagined before trying it, I only want to use it for sessions that are worthwhile and will help me improve.

Don't know how many times a week I should do these 2x 20's when combining with outdoor riding which of course I'd do the most.

2x20's at threshold are indeed good for TT performance, both in terms of the physical changes they bring about and the mental focus needed. It's also certainly useful for road racing; you need to train other abilities too but raising your threshold (the "fastest pace at which you can cruise") is good.

I wouldn't worry about finding your maxHR, it's of little interest whereas your threshold HR (you'll see it called Lactate Threshold Heart Rate or LTHR) is more useful. Your threshold HR will be a bit above the average for that 20mins. 2x20 sessions don't do too much damage so you can do a couple a week if you can face it. Don't expect to see your LTHR change - but the speed/power you will be putting out at that HR should go up with training.

If I don't go out on my bike tomorrow I'm going to attempt this 2x20min sessions, allthough I think at the start of the 20mins I should gradually get my HR up, I usually put the power down and quickly start getting it up but I'm sure it ends up lowering my performance through the whole ride.

Ok, I've being thinking.

Turbo training is so mind numbingly boring and depressing I hate it so much.

Is Tabata pushes up my aerobic threshold, I guess this would help for TT's? Would there be any point of doing 1 or 2 sessions of this a week and using the turbo exclusively for tabata? I can then leave intervals to the road.

Will, that's the shortest love affair in the history of man and machine!

Tabata intervals will push up your threshold, but then so will all of the 1hr interval sessions I suggested a few posts back. Some of them will also help with other skills such as focus and pacing. If you just do Tabata intervals two or three times a week then (a) you'll end up hating Tabata intervals and (b) you'll either wind up knackered, as they're very draining, or you'll not do them at maximum intensity and they'll not serve much purpose.

One of the useful things about being old is that I've done lots of very boring things in my time. I had a holiday job once chopping up and bagging terminal blocks in a factory workshop; thirty thousand in one day. That makes 5x4's seem like a penalty shoot-out in comparison.

As far as I know there's no magic painless path to race fitness, although if anyone knows different then post on here!