Indoor trainer and training schedule - beginner

[Dobby]

I have foolishly accepted myyounger and fitter brother's "invitation" to ride in some sportive next year...something to do with dragons, hills and South Wales.

Given that my bike has been hanging up on the garage wall for 2 years, me thinks a little training is needed.

I have never ridden my road bike for more than about 50 miles in one day, so I am starting from a low base and I think that it would be sensible to get an indoor trainer.

A lot of people seem to like the fluid (as opposed to the magnetic) trainers, but these seem to be expensive.

Anyone any thoughts on good trainers?

I would also like people's thoughts on how much work I should be doing on the bike....

Cheers

Simon

 

[Shaun]

I'm interested in this too ... any thoughts anyone?

Cheers,
Shaun

 

[dan_bo]

I've got a mid range elite mag trainer and whilst not brilliant, it does the trick of getting me wildly out of breath in the evenings/ rainy sundays. It looks something a bit like this.

As for training, if it's a long session i'll crank the HR up to about 90-95% for a 2x20 minute session with a five min break inbetween, or i'll go for some 1 minute on/1 minute off interval sessions 'till I feel more than a little queasy.

 

[ventoux50]

A really good session for me is as follows:

first get some good music pumping out with a good cadence - and get a big clock with a second hand placed where you can see it.

warm up in a low gear for 5 minutes try to achieve a cadence between 90 and 110 rpm
for the next minute drop the chain onto the next sprocket, maintain the same cadence,
at the end of each minute drop to the next sprocket - - -

carry on until able to move the chainring onto the outer ring, adjusting the rear derailleur to match the previous gear ratio

once on the big ring again each minute drop the rear cog by 1.

Once in the highest (hardest) gear complete the minute (probably standing) and then knock up by 2 rear sprockets for a minute, then drop back down 1, then up 2, down 1 until you're back on the inner ring and the granny cog.

If done properly this is a pretty challenging workout !

 

[Hont]

Trainers aren't the best for endurance training - as it can be mind-numbingly tedious doing long rides and you're in more or less the same position for a long time so it's tough on the core/shoulders/wrists. IMHO they're best used alongside regular riding for gaining speed/strength.

I've just upgraded from a CycleOps trainer to a Tacx (for the VR functions which will hopefully help with the motivation) and can recommend the CycleOps one. Very easy to set up, robust and a reasonable feel of real road riding (the actual mechanical unit itself is better than the Tacx one). Will shortly be available to buy on Ebay :-)