Dogtrousers
Kilometre nibbler
I have access to a Wattbike in my gym which I use occasionally. Normally I just do an hour of interval-style riding - go easy for 5 min to warm up, then ride for an hour hard-ish, interspersed with four or five 5-minute very hard sections. Nothing at all scientific. I try to keep my input as smooth as I can throughtout the pedal cycle. Heart rate tends to be pretty high all the way through, and pushing up to max in the hard bits.
The wattbike is a very realistic feeling bike (much more so than most gym machines) and gives loads of interesting feedback - like watts (natch) and power input from each leg throughtout each pedal cycle. It's also a super scientific bit of kit that can do all kinds of things like ramp tests that are a bit beyond me.
Anyway, can anyone suggest a workout that might be a bit more effective than my ad-hoc high intensity fartlek type approach of blast-away-until-knackered. Or, as it's just an hour or two a week does it not really matter? It doesn't have to be Wattbike specific. Could be a turbo-based routine. Or even a real cycling workout.
But what do you want to acheive? I hear you ask. Well, I'm just a weekend rider, completely non-competitive. At the weekends I go out for rides of between 30 and 100 miles. (Nearer to 30 in the winter) I almost never push myself hard on the road unless a hill forces me to. I'd like to use the Wattbike to maybe improve my ability on the hills, or other short efforts. Or ... I dunno ... what else can it do for me?
(And please, I know lots of you will want to reply that I should just stop going to the gym and go out and ride, but I like going to the gym, I go anyway, and it's waaay more convenient during the week than riding).
The wattbike is a very realistic feeling bike (much more so than most gym machines) and gives loads of interesting feedback - like watts (natch) and power input from each leg throughtout each pedal cycle. It's also a super scientific bit of kit that can do all kinds of things like ramp tests that are a bit beyond me.
Anyway, can anyone suggest a workout that might be a bit more effective than my ad-hoc high intensity fartlek type approach of blast-away-until-knackered. Or, as it's just an hour or two a week does it not really matter? It doesn't have to be Wattbike specific. Could be a turbo-based routine. Or even a real cycling workout.
But what do you want to acheive? I hear you ask. Well, I'm just a weekend rider, completely non-competitive. At the weekends I go out for rides of between 30 and 100 miles. (Nearer to 30 in the winter) I almost never push myself hard on the road unless a hill forces me to. I'd like to use the Wattbike to maybe improve my ability on the hills, or other short efforts. Or ... I dunno ... what else can it do for me?
(And please, I know lots of you will want to reply that I should just stop going to the gym and go out and ride, but I like going to the gym, I go anyway, and it's waaay more convenient during the week than riding).
