Turbo trainers/Zwift/Peleton

[J4CKO]

Ares said:

J4CKO said:

I was down a couple today, like you say, not that bothered, been fairly careful today so far and not eaten loads, basically a bacon butty and a mince pie (made by me)

Revamped my Zwift setup a bit this afternoon, had one 24 inch monitor and have added a second 19 to the left of it so I can sort the music out whilst riding without having to minimize Zwift, also put them a bit higher so at eye level when riding.

It's a false science to weight yourself every day. Bodies fluctuate, mostly due to food in your system.

I range between 60kg and 63kg and can often go up/down 1kg or more within 24hrs.

Without wishing to be crude, a good sh*t in the morning can make that much difference, as can a very light protein rich meal last thing at night.

Yeah, am aware of that, there is a trend, your actual weight that's sort of masked in the short term by the normal fluctuations. Didnt bother this morning, but its 2 seconds to jump on, and for me its a good reminder to not slack off if I know I have to get on the scales.

This week hasnt been great for it, but knew that was going to happen.

[J4CKO]

Not been on for over a week now, put three pounds back on over Christmas, so back on tonight for an hour.

Too bloody cold in the garage and it was amess as the kids have been digging out remote control cars and mini motorbikes and taking them to bits in there, so was an utter mess.

Back to it now, so easy to get out of the habit but need to see it for what it is, a complete godsend at the moment.

[J4CKO]

lufbramatt said:

J4CKO said:

Too bloody cold in the garage.

Is that a thing? -1 in my garage last night at 8pm, started off with a hoody on over my bike kit, by 15 mins in I had my jersey unzipped and the fan on

I find the worst bit is when I stop and I'm drenched in sweat, I get really cold very quickly. Get back indoors and my wife want's to tell me the last 60-90 mins of gossip as soon as I walk through the door and I'm stood there shivering

Yeah that was my excuse, it/I will obviously warm up but just couldnt be arsed moving all the stuff deposited in there either, going to go on in a bit.

When its like that and you just have a jersey and are anticipating getting warm, but arent yet and you put that fan on, not nice !

I hate it when the missus or one of the kids comes in, kids usually to raid my fridge, or the wife to tell me something that apparently cant wait an hour or so, same if out on the bike and you get a phone call "Do you want chips or Alphabites for tea" or something, the other day she found a damp spot on the ceiling over out bed, I said well its not me, I am 50 those days are long gone but not it was her doing her Private Fraser thing about the roof needing replacing and its going to cost 15 grand, concentration broken, train of thought gone, cost £70 to get the local roof expert out to put the tile back.

[J4CKO]

cerb4.5lee said:

I'm 10 rides into our new Peloton bike and I'm enjoying it(mostly) to be fair. I used to go running 2 to 3 times a week so the Peloton is a quick and easy thing to just jump on...versus getting all togged up in my running gear at this time of year. I'm finding it strangely addictive to be fair.

Not sure if its been posted before, but is this you ?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jns9NHhzGeM

Eased myself back in with a half hour workout before, was freezing for about 5 min.

Edited by J4CKO on Tuesday 5th January 21:08

[J4CKO]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

Have you tried the workouts ? just ambling round aimlessly is tedious and its easy to get into just cruising and burning daylight, no wonder you are bored of it.

I nipped on for half an hour earlier and did "Emilys Short Mix", 30 mins done and dusted but it got my HR up to 170 (Theoretical max at fifty) and felt like I had done something. It keeps it interesting and breaks it into chunks and holds your output at the correct level, try the Wringer (At your correct FTP) and then tell me you were bored

2 hours of just pedalling looking at that screen in soul destroying, I added a second monitor and just whack some YT videos on and it passes the time a bit better, on the harder bits its difficult to concentrate but it makes the lower watt sections more bearable rather than looking at a fairly lame computer game.

Also, I find if I make it so I feel like I need to make a massive effort and do two hours, it doesnt fit in as well, its alright if out on the road but sat in the garage, not really. I think 30 mins is poss a bit short but it says I burnt 351 calories, got my heart rate up and its probably more than 90 percent of the population does, 40 min walk in a bit. Will do an hour on it tomorrow or may go out for a bit.

[J4CKO]

defblade said:

J4CKO said:

Also, I find if I make it so I feel like I need to make a massive effort and do two hours, it doesnt fit in as well, its alright if out on the road but sat in the garage, not really. I think 30 mins is poss a bit short but it says I burnt 351 calories, got my heart rate up and its probably more than 90 percent of the population does, 40 min walk in a bit. Will do an hour on it tomorrow or may go out for a bit.

Remember time on the turbo is worth double compared to on the road, as you never stop pedalling.



(I don't entirely agree with that, although I think smart trainers bring it closer to true, but I find it's good to think of when your willpower starts to droop)

Turbo for me, exercise wise, doing a workout is similar to when I clock another cyclist coming up behind me on the road

[J4CKO]

ED209 said:

I managed to do Alpe du Zwift in under the hour today 58mins 21 secs at an average of 256w which is 3.32 W/Kim for me.

Thing is it’s over a minute better than the wife’s best effort, I bet she will be on this week trying to destroy me.. she probably will as well

Good going !

Is it level ten that opens up ?

[J4CKO]

JungTheForeman said:

Piginapoke said:

J4CKO said:

ED209 said:

I managed to do Alpe du Zwift in under the hour today 58mins 21 secs at an average of 256w which is 3.32 W/Kim for me.

Thing is it’s over a minute better than the wife’s best effort, I bet she will be on this week trying to destroy me.. she probably will as well

Good going !

Is it level ten that opens up ?

12

Not any more.. it's level 6 (Watopia > Road to the Sky)

Oh st, means I have to do it again !

Am almost on 10, might save that for a special treat at the weekend....

[J4CKO]

Funk said:

Piginapoke said:

ukbabz said:

I'd never considered the max weight side of things. Wahoo seem to say it's to limit the stress on the bike frame but can't really advise there sadly.

Wahoo say this: https://support.wahoofitness.com/hc/en-us/articles...

Hmm, that doesn't look encouraging. Thinking about it the rear of the bike will experience more torsional load than it would on-road as normally it'd be free to lean left/right as you load the crank with torque but on the trainer it's locked in place - I can see how that might put more strain on the welds by the bottom bracket and/or seatpost...

I don't doubt the Kickr would probably be fine but...it might break the bike!

I am 104 ish, seems fine, suspect the worst combo would be high weight and a lot of Watts as well, if you arent going hell for leather and getting out of the saddle at 2000 watts it should be fine, depending on the bike of course, the Kickr is built like a tank itself.

Anyone noticed that it can be slow to adjust, was doing a second at 695 Watts that goes down to 174 and it takes a few seconds to adjust the resistance in ERG mode ?

[J4CKO]

Doing the 4wk FTP builder at the moment, worth a go as if nothing else you arent having to think what to do.

My Apple watch has been tracking the calories of the Kickr a lot better, to the point today that Zwift said it was 630 and the watch was under 600, but generally it has got a lot more consistent.

So glad I bought one as would be difficult with the weather of late, dont mind night riding but not when they roads are all sparkly, much better to get in the garage and pedal away whilst watching some YT vids, which get paused on the harder efforts, but seem to pass the long tedious bits much better.

[J4CKO]

Its easy to think that doing the training doesnt make that much difference, went for a distanced ride with a mate today and he was puffing and blowing a bit. Typically he is fitter than I am and I give away maybe 40 pounds to him but he was struggling, we arent competitive but its more to illustrate that it does provide a lot of benefit that you might not otherwise notice.

[J4CKO]

Been slacking this week as the heating is broken and my Zwift area is full of heating system parts and the plumbers tools, new one nearly done today so back to normal.

Any upheaval just screws stuff up, did the only decent thing and drank beer instead.

Going to move my Zwift area but its not ready, found an old laptop am going to use and looked on eBay for bits, they go for £300/400, a Dell XPS L702 from 2011, how on earth is that still worth decent money ?

[J4CKO]

Am setting up a new Zwift set up, was considering monitor options and really not into spending decent money on this, was going to scrounge one from work
but have ordered a cheapy projector so will put Zwift on that and use the laptop screen for controlling music or whatever.

This is the one, gets decent reviews for sixty quid,

https://www.amazon.co.uk/ELEPHAS-Projector-Portabl...

[J4CKO]

I had the Tickr and struggled with it for weeks, got a Polar one and its been rock sold, suspect the Tickr is ok and I had a ropey one.

[J4CKO]

I kept picking up a horrendous smell, long story short was my HRM strap

It now gets washed every week, not much fun cycling with what smells like a ripe Camembert under your nose !

[J4CKO]

okgo said:

Weird, I've 'never' washed mine (albeit it is a new band, so prob about 9 months old) and never noticed a smell. How do you notice it with a giant fan blasting air at you?!

The fan isnt as blasty as it could be and there are times when putting it on or taking it off.

It was grim,

Am in the process of moving the whole shebang from my little garage/workshop at the front of the house to the more spacious garden summerhouse thing, part of the reason is to get a bigger fan in rather than the poxy desk one

Spent a happy evening setting up the computer and mounting the projector, made a mount from a bit of old multigym and some threaded bar.



Works pretty well considering it was sixty quid, screen on its way as knotty pine with ridges in isnt ideal and need to get all the stuff set up and try it with the bike to set positions, then wire everything in properly.

Will mean I dont have to move it when I am done or work around it all.

[J4CKO]

Gave up on the projector idea and just went with making a sort of desk, did a bit of testing and based on learnings from how it was before arrived at this.






Will add a second screen, one for Zwift and one for Music/Youtube.


Total spend was £31.88 for the wood/MDF, had everything else around. Need to paint the surface otherwise I know I will spill water on it and ruin it, just not sure what to use, any suggestions ?

Still need a new fan as well.

Edited by J4CKO on Saturday 27th February 16:24

[J4CKO]

I dont take any notice of what anyone else is doing on Zwift.

Set a workout off on it, and on the other screen kick off a Youtube video, pause it when things get harder.

Dont worry as a lot that go past will be cheating anyway, only competition is yourself.

I failed on a workout the other day, felt utterly crap all week and just not bothered with it, feel drained and no idea why.

[J4CKO]

Not been on mine for over a week, feel crap and cant face it.

[J4CKO]

Have abandoned Zwift now the weather is better and the nights lighter, can you suspend it ?

Might use it when my new bike arrives if its rainy, cant be bothered moving the bike and taking the wheel off.