Roller training

[ttcycle]

just saturday as a rest day...

That is too much cycling.

If this is the first time you are cycling competitively, try and have three rest days interspersed and make sure on the weekend you get out on a long ride- you are doing way too much for the first year of racing and it's most likely that you will be toast by the time you get close to race season. Your Dad's friend is right-you're doing too much.

With just one days rest how are you giving your body, muscles capillaries etc any time to rest and then adapt to the new workload- over time you are just leeching out any gains you've made - factor in more rest. It will feel counter intuitive but will do you the world of good!

 

[lukesdad]

I m not going to pontificate my doctrine to training here as it is well known to Bill amongst others, but I would say that you need to know what you are training for and have some sort of a plan. Totally disagree with tt s last comment 3 rest days a week ? 3 Rest days a month more like it.

 

[Bill Gates]

Bill,

I'm sorry if i've came across as rude or anything. When I said I didn't find the information useful I simply meant it wasn't what I was looking for. I have found loads of useful information on this forum but the info I wanted this time was specifically for using rollers and what sort of training programmes people used with them.

Fair enough. I was a bit harsh with my response, which I regret. Sorry.

Re Roller training. IMO rollers and the turbo are very useful bits of kit. I've got both but neither is a total substitute for road miles; rather an enhancement to your training programme. The dilemma is that when the weather is so bad as to prevent you from going out for many days running, as is the case right now, then how should you use them.

Some riders will merrily sit on a turbo for an hour or more (sometimes over 2 hours!) replacing the turbo with what they would otherwise have done on the road. Nothing wrong with that if you can do it but it's not just a one off if the weather is consistently bad. To be effective you need to do it 3/4 times a week. I would prefer to stick pins in my eyes than do that.

On the other hand IMO it's too early in the training cycle to do VO2max intervals short very hard efforts. So what I do is to use the time and energy in hand to maximise gym work and do LT 2 x 20 on the turbo or 1 x 10, or 2 x 5 @ 85/90% MHR, depending on how you feel up for it and intersperse with days of easy pedalling @ <65% MHR 30 minutes. So I'm not on the turbo for longer than 1 hour max.

For me in order to do 2 x 20 properly I need to have a rest day and an easy pedalling day(2 days, no gym work) beforehand or I can't do them. So as ttcycle says you need rest days when you're doing this type of training. Other riders do different things, this is just my way. Cheers Mike

 

[montage]

Lets be honest, Turbos and rollers are good for one thing.

Practising wheelies

 

[aka0019]

No problem Bill

Thanks again for your tips/advice, i'm on a very steep learning curve and loving all of the info. I guess i'm going to have to try different things and see what is best. I am going to wait to buy a turbo though as for now will train using the rollers and road. I'll do more intense work nearer the season.

Lukesdad,

I would say that crits is going to be what I choose to do then. I just love how fast and exciting they look. Really on the edge if that makes sense! I would still like to try my hand at the odd road race or something though.