Turbo Trainers

[Fleeter]

Get a singlespeed bike as well, forces you to pedal at different cadences. Respect to people who turbo train, can't do it, it bores me rigid

same i have a terrible attention span

[david]

Respect to people who turbo train, can't do it, it bores me rigid

I tried it years ago (in the days before the trendy term Turbo Trainer was invented) when I was injured and I have never been so bored in my life.

[jimbob]

I have several of the Spinervals DVD's, mainly big gear stuff and time trial. Got them cheap from ebay.

[stevefoster]

I tried it years ago (in the days before the trendy term Turbo Trainer was invented) when I was injured and I have never been so bored in my life.

Only time i tried it was when i broke my foot and ended up in pot. Found i could still pedal with it on so borrowed a mate's trainer. Soon as pot came off, back on the road, can understand serious athletes using them though

[AndyA]

Druncken Duck I'm not a 'numpty' as that idiot suggests.

Put it into top gear(you don't even need to warm up, if you haven't got time) and go flat out for 20 minutes.It'll build all components of fitness on a bike, in a reasonable time better than anything else.

Hmmm; still sounds like a ill-informed suggestion. Warm up is vital to avoid joint and back problems and 'flat out' is just too vague; what gears, what resistance?

Think i'll stick with 'numpty' (and i dont think i'm alone!!)

[dominion]

Think I've read in the past that 3 miles cycling = 1 mile running. In which case 20 minutes cycling is worth about 7 minutes running. If your goal is to use cycling as a cross training exercise for running then the equivilent of 7 minutes running simply isn't worth the bother.

On the few occasions when I've done sessions on a turbo I've pretty much copied what I'd do in track sessions. 12 x 1/4 mile with 1 min recovery, 6 x 1/2 mile etc. Basically 5k of efforts with a good 20min warm up & warm down. I've found sessions such as above more enjoyable due to the variety, than just cranking out miles.

[AllanT]

It actually depends on a lot of things Dom - for example riding on a turbo trainer means you can get away with a lot less than on the roads - there's no coasting. Plus the quality of the work out is greater - it's much harder and you can aim for target heartrates (so if you can maintain an equivalent heartrate as you can running, then the benefits would be the same). Also if you get out of the saddle then it is exactly identical to running as you're supporting your own bodyweight, and doing no coasting, etc.

David said about a fixed - think that would be like perpetual motion on a turbo trainer!!!

[nikalas]

some good and not so good advice given... "flat out for 20 minutes without a warm-up" is very suspect. I believe there was an excellent guide to Turbo Training, including 4 key sessions, in the last issue of Cycling Plus written by a very talented up and coming young(ish) writer...

Beating boredom is the key thing... Ipod great either music of get some inspirational pod casts www.ironmantalk.com and www.enduranceplanet.com are both good . Also BBC i-player is an absolute godsend. Managed, with a combination of the above to beat my turbo trainer record and last 2 1/2 hours the other night... blowing a gale so didn't fancy the roads.

Also, totally agree about the fixed. I love riding mine. Nothing better for building cadence (should be 90+ ideally getting towards 100rpm), efficient pedal stroke and strength.. did 2 hours on the fixed yesterday... legs feel nicely worked today.

[CL]

Think I've read in the past that 3 miles cycling = 1 mile running. In which case 20 minutes cycling is worth about 7 minutes running. If your goal is to use cycling as a cross training exercise for running then the equivilent of 7 minutes running simply isn't worth the bother.

On the few occasions when I've done sessions on a turbo I've pretty much copied what I'd do in track sessions. 12 x 1/4 mile with 1 min recovery, 6 x 1/2 mile etc. Basically 5k of efforts with a good 20min warm up & warm down. I've found sessions such as above more enjoyable due to the variety, than just cranking out miles.

Don't believe everything your read!20 minutes hard cycling is not the same as 7 minutes hard running.In terms of energy expenditure they're almost the same.

The other point is if 7 minutes of hard running isn't worth the bother, why do the first 6-7 400s of your session of 12x400s?

[NotOnUrHelly]

Im having a day running and a day turbo until Im confident my knee is 100% to start upping the running miles.

Nothing too technical for me dont know anything about cadnece, heart rate etc.

Just put 8 songs on my Ipod and rode,

Jamie