Trainers harder than the road?
- Thread starter Mrbez
- Start date
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YahudaMoon
Über Member
16-18 miles in a hour on the road climbing a hill ?
amaferanga
Veteran
- Location
- Bolton
Why would you assume that speed/distance on a turbo should be equivalent to that on the road?
endoman
Senior Member
- Location
- Chesterfield
I did a one hour coached turbo session with the club on Thurs night, coach said it was the equivalent of 2 1/2 hours on the road,
We didn't look at speed, merely cadence and effort levels, doing pyramids and longer hard efforts. Was surprisingly good fun.
We didn't look at speed, merely cadence and effort levels, doing pyramids and longer hard efforts. Was surprisingly good fun.
How exactly do you do that.....start with harder effort level and reduce or vice versa?
endoman
Senior Member
- Location
- Chesterfield
the pyramids were 15 secs, 30 secs at max effort in hardest gear 15 secs and 30 secs rest accordingly, then 1 minute, 2 minute and 3 minutes at pretty hard effort levels with 1 2 3 minute rest, then back down, so 2 minutes, 1 minute, 30 secs 15 secs etc. I was merely following the coaches instructions!
Pyramids can be both time and/or resistance changes.
Something I do to break up the turbo monotony is watch something that has a clock in the corner (I watch UFC fights). When it strikes the minute I say spend the next minute out of saddle and whack the resistance up to simulate a good hill. This stops you getting perineum pains and to mix it up you can go flat out sprinting in a hard gear for two minutes (or whatever you can manage before you start feeling sick or pass out).
I have sufferfest vids to watch when I get some more base conditioning done.
HLaB
Marie Attoinette Fan
The difficulty depends on what you are doing the turbo can be harder if the resistance is set high because it can offer a more prolonged period of resistance, although there is no air resistance, etc (I can sprint 50mph + on a turbo, I couldn't even do that down hill on the road) On the other hand there's not the cooling factor (or less of) on the turbo 
It's well documented that many people produce a lower power output on a turbo trainer than the road. I include myself in this.
Oh really? Expand on this please...
amaferanga
Veteran
- Location
- Bolton
This is true, but isn't the OP complaining about being SLOWER on the turbo as opposed to putting out fewer Watts (which he's not measuring anyway)?
Proper cooling with at least one BFO fan will make a huge difference to perceived effort on the turbo (and will narrow the gap between road and turbo Wattage).
The OP may have felt his perceived effort on the turbo was equivalent to what he usually puts in on the road and felt underwhelmed by the result. Hopefully he will realise by now that the comparison he was trying to make using distance covered in a set time between the road and a turbo is not a valid one.
Just trying to reassure OP that many people do objectively find that the trainer is harder than the road. And yes a big fan is essential!
