Training for 100 miler on indoor Life Fitness bike

[DJPetrolHead]

Hello all - I am just looking for some advice from those in the know and who have much more experience!!!

I'm a keen cyclist and knock out 40-50 mile rides at the weekend BUT I am away from home during the week and only have access to a Life Fitness upright bike. Now I use this to do 3 x 15 mile sessions on levels 12-16 hills or sports mode.

Weekend is as above a long ride (for me!!) of 30, 40 or 50 miles on my Wilier road bike.

So my question here for the knowledge bank out there ---> is there value in the work I am putting in on the bike in the gym and will this type of training schedule give me a good chance of my first 100 mile ride in mid may? Or is there a different training / sessions I should do on the indoor bike etc

Average speed on the indoor bike is around 16.5mph (based on 1 hour sports hi mode level 12 this evening!!)

Thanks all for any help !!! DJ

[CoolC]

FFS, typed out a long reply on my phone only for it to not submit

The gist of it was - can't see why not, go for it and enjoy the 100 miler.

[AndyDRZ]

DJPetrolHead said:

Hello all - I am just looking for some advice from those in the know and who have much more experience!!!

I'm a keen cyclist and knock out 40-50 mile rides at the weekend BUT I am away from home during the week and only have access to a Life Fitness upright bike. Now I use this to do 3 x 15 mile sessions on levels 12-16 hills or sports mode.

Weekend is as above a long ride (for me!!) of 30, 40 or 50 miles on my Wilier road bike.

So my question here for the knowledge bank out there ---> is there value in the work I am putting in on the bike in the gym and will this type of training schedule give me a good chance of my first 100 mile ride in mid may? Or is there a different training / sessions I should do on the indoor bike etc

Average speed on the indoor bike is around 16.5mph (based on 1 hour sports hi mode level 12 this evening!!)

Thanks all for any help !!! DJ

Just make sure that you don't get unrealistic expectations from the bike. I remember using one of those in the gym and it gave me an average speed of about 20mph but when I got on a real bike, I could only manage 12mph.

[crisisjez]

Use it to do intervals. Thats the best way to improve your speed and stamina.

[BalhamBadger]

I did 3 x 100mile+ days consecutively after using spinning classes to train midweek with one long ride on my road bike at the weekends, so yes you can definitely get benefit from the gym bike. Just make sure you're working at a high level.

[Fourmotion]

It's best to ignore the distance on the indoor bike, the Life Fitness machines don't adjust the distance / speed with the increase in effort. You would do the same distance in the same time on the easiest setting if your cadence was the same.

Train to power (average power). It's the only measureable parameter on the machine. I did a 96 miler having only really trained one last year, but that included a couple of 3 hour sessions.

[andyscole]

This worked wonders for me in only 4 weeks!!! Used on a real basic exercise bike

http://www.pponline.co.uk/encyc/how-red-hot-interv...