Turbo v road rides
Discussion
A quick question on turbos, I know they will never match being on the road but I am doing okay on the trainer & breathless on the road. I am riding to lose lard & gain fitness (usual PH director build), time is tight so mainly on my Tacxs gorping at a video on screen. Sticking with 1 route on the trainer so I can see some improvement (hopefully)
On this ride https://www.strava.com/activities/330850404 my legs start suffering but I am not out of breath (and can do the 20k route easily enough), but doing a local loop I am blowing out my arse well before my legs feel it https://www.strava.com/activities/331856482 The TT calibrated itself, but do I need to wind the resistance over the 100% setting? Or do I need to find a route on my turbo with more hills on it?
ta
On this ride https://www.strava.com/activities/330850404 my legs start suffering but I am not out of breath (and can do the 20k route easily enough), but doing a local loop I am blowing out my arse well before my legs feel it https://www.strava.com/activities/331856482 The TT calibrated itself, but do I need to wind the resistance over the 100% setting? Or do I need to find a route on my turbo with more hills on it?
ta
There is more climbing on your local loop than your turbo session so that will contributing factor. Another factor will be the wind - if it's even slightly windy you will feel it outdoors which you can't really replicate on a static bike. In terms of time/efficiency your outdoor session was clearly better; both were about 20 minutes but burned about 50% more calories in the outdoor one.
You could try doing a 20k flat local loop and see how that compares to a 20k flat session on the trainer. That rules out the hills aspect but I imagine you will still find it harder than on a trainer.
Once you know whether it's the hills or the distance or something else that is causing the disparity you can work on that.
There is something to be said for just getting out and riding though. Turbo is probably great for cardio but I imagine that unless you train on it a in a specific way it won't help you on real hills. That's a topic covered more than once on here but in general the consensus (not that there is one :P) is that riding on real hills will make you better at riding on real hills, and a turbo can make you better on real hills but not necessarily.
You could try doing a 20k flat local loop and see how that compares to a 20k flat session on the trainer. That rules out the hills aspect but I imagine you will still find it harder than on a trainer.
Once you know whether it's the hills or the distance or something else that is causing the disparity you can work on that.
There is something to be said for just getting out and riding though. Turbo is probably great for cardio but I imagine that unless you train on it a in a specific way it won't help you on real hills. That's a topic covered more than once on here but in general the consensus (not that there is one :P) is that riding on real hills will make you better at riding on real hills, and a turbo can make you better on real hills but not necessarily.
Road has it all, gradient, wind, bike skills/balance and cardio.
Turbo can give you cardio and simulated gradient if you turn the resistance up.
Rollers go some way to simulate balance, core muscles and refine your pedal stroke.
The road is always the hardest IMO (Unless you have a pro-team spec cycle treadmill at home :-)
Whether road riding is better for burning lard than the turbo is debatable though- depends which philosophy of fat burning you subscribe too.
Just don't be like the boss in the factory next door- goes to spin class 3 times a week and comes back via McD's with a family size bag :-)
Turbo can give you cardio and simulated gradient if you turn the resistance up.
Rollers go some way to simulate balance, core muscles and refine your pedal stroke.
The road is always the hardest IMO (Unless you have a pro-team spec cycle treadmill at home :-)
Whether road riding is better for burning lard than the turbo is debatable though- depends which philosophy of fat burning you subscribe too.
Just don't be like the boss in the factory next door- goes to spin class 3 times a week and comes back via McD's with a family size bag :-)
I used to slate turbos, but they are pretty good for setting specific training programmes, you can maximise your time and do it 24/7 regardless of the weather
But as you have found OP they are synthetic and IMO not too great for beginners, in they don't replicate actual bike skills and other variables such as road surface and weather.
If you want to lose weight, I'd just get out there as much as you can , perfect few weeks recently with very little rain
But as you have found OP they are synthetic and IMO not too great for beginners, in they don't replicate actual bike skills and other variables such as road surface and weather.
If you want to lose weight, I'd just get out there as much as you can , perfect few weeks recently with very little rain
scrwright said:
Work gets in the way, 4.5 hours/190 miles commuting each day, and its easy to do 30mins on a TT at 9.30 when the kids are in bed, get out as much as I can
If your 'other half' is home, there's no real reason why you couldn't blag half an hour to an hour of "real" riding at that time of night. Especially at the moment, with the longer 'days'. You'll need some lights, more for being seen than seeing with, and lighter coloured clothing (or even, whisper it, hi-vis), but the roads are quieter, it's cooler, and riding at that time of the day is really rather enjoyable (at least I think so). Turbo trainers have just never appealed to me, though. scrwright said:
but doing a local loop I am blowing out my arse well before my legs feel it https://www.strava.com/activities/331856482
If you are blowing out of your arse on a 4.5m 13mph route but feeling OK on a turbo averaging 18.7mph then you need to look at the settings on your turbo including the tyre pressures and how hard the roller is pressing the tyre.I find it hard to perfectly replicate road conditions and speeds on my turbo. An expensive and accurate way to measure both is a power meter. A cheaper one is a heart rate monitor.
When you've found the right setting for roller pressure spin up to 20mph then freewheel and time how long until it comes to a halt. Then use this as the base for setting up your turbo next time.
Tacx turbo software does the setup for pressure on the wheel, setup is okay. Resistance in set to 100%, wondering if I need to increase the resistance. I can only go uphill from my house at a start of a ride, wondering if that has an effect, I do have a tacxs session that starts uphill, may try that to see if I get breathless, back on it again after a weekend of beer n Goodwood
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