rollers
I realize it may be somewhat gauche to talk about indoor training in the summer, but does anyone have any experience with doing intervals on rollers? Is it possible to ride on aero bars on them? Are there any that are better than others for this purpose? Thanks!
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Better to get a stationary trainer, like a fluid trainer. Cycleops, Elite, Tacx are the typical brands. Go 'modern technology' and you end up at the Wahoo Kickr which supposedly is the best there is right now.
It has 3 different settings for resistance and absolutely increases with the speed of your pedaling. Just for fun once, I tried to see how much power I could put out on them and I spun out around 850 Watts! So you will have no problem hitting your numbers on these things unless your FTP is well north of 800 Watts, and I'm guessing yours is a little below that. I also do a lot of my riding on the aerobars, but I'm not gonna lie, I do most of my VO2 sets and many of my FTP sets in the bullhorns. You really need to concentrate the whole time when you're on rollers, but it is much more comfortable in my opinion than being on a fixed stationary trainer. I also found that my Outdoor numbers and my Indoor numbers (on my rollers) are very similar, but my FTP on a stationary trainer would be much lower indoors. I do all of my mid-week rides on them (with TrainerRoad) in my basement, but do my outdoor rides on the weekends. Training for IMFL last yr, I even did several of my long rides on them, but never really went longer than 3 hours or so.
It will take a little while to get used to them and it's nice if they are located near a wall so you have something to hold onto while getting started, but after a few weeks, you will be an expert. I can ride one handed on them, do one-legged drills, get out of the saddle and grind at a low cadence, and even worked in sets of super-spins this winter where I would do like 125 rpms for a couple minutes at a time.
If it wasn't obvious from my post, I can't say enough about my rollers if you are forced to do any training indoors for any reason.
Thanks for the input Ben and John! I have a trainer already and was just thinking about rollers. From what I have seen the insideride ones might be the best solution for me, should I decide to splurge. If I was to invest that much coin in a set of rollers I would want the roller experience but not to the point where I am afraid of using them. On some internet forums there seems to be cohort of people who love the insideride rollers, and another opposite group who feel they dumb down the 'rollerness' of rollers too much, so you don't learn the smooth pedal stroke you are supposed too. Any comments?
To be clear, you will hate them for the first couple of weeks because it is just plain hard to get used to them. BUT, after a month or so, you will never want to go back to a trainer again (or at least I won't).
First...you CAN adjust the resistance, at least with the better rollers. It's like any "trainer"...the faster the wheels are moving, the more resistance. If you have Kreitlers, you can add either of two accessories: (a) a flywheel so it's more "road like", i.e., it coasts better and is harder to accelerate; (b) a wind resistance unit that connects by pulley. The wind can also be directed back at you if you like for cooling.
With the wind unit, they are noisy, just like any wind unit.
The Rollers that John has are more appropriate for people who aren't already very good cyclists. To really ride hard on traditional rollers is an art. Yes, people get good at it, but not without a lot of practice. Some of the roadies I know say they didn't learn to get a drink from a water bottle for two years. That might be a slight exaggeration, but not huge.
When I ride them, which isn't enough to really get good on them, it's an exercise in moderate intensity but intense focus on steering (i.e., staying on them). the InsideRide ones look a LOT more forgiving on that front with the front side-to-side bumper and the forward and backward motion of the whole unit. I have seen any number of people get good enough at riding traditional rollers to do high intensity intervals on them, but I am not yet one of them. :-) I hate to say it, but the mindlessness of not having to worry about balance at all on a trainer helps me be able to let go more and crank.
All that said...
In Iowa we actually have "roller races" during the winter, where the Kreitlers are hooked up to a computer and you ride for two miles for a race...sort of like you ran a treadmill for two miles, except the treadmill's pad is only human powered. :-) Pretty amazing to see how fast the best guys go. (of course, you can hook up your own power meter...and the race is biased to bigger guys with higher absolute power because the wind resistance is the same for everyone)
I took my kids to one of the roller races...It's ok for the kids to have someone hold the seat to ensure they don't fall off (or at least not too traumatically), but I've been too embarrassed to go and ride slow on them. :-)
One other thing if you do try them (e.g., borrow a set some time), they are notably easier on a road bike than a tri bike because of where the steering axis and your weight are. At the very least, sit up on your tri bike, and preferably start on a road bike.
Update: I ended up getting the Insideride e-motion rollers. Shipping was fast and relatively painless even to Canada (except the customary gouging by UPS for 'brokerage' fees). The company responded to email inquiries quickly- seem like a good operation.
The rollers are pretty cool; I am very happy with them so far- way more fun than my mag trainer which may get relegated to being a glorified bike stand. Training indoors when the weather is good may be anathema to some, but for me it completely reduces mental and temporal bandwidth and these rollers have already allowed me to get in workouts that I probably would have canned. I have ridden about 4hrs on them so far including an FTP workout yesterday. I can't stand on the pedals for more than 5 seconds, and I only (almost) fell off once or twice, but all is well otherwise. I have them setup in the pain cave where there is a spin bike on one side I can grab if things go awry. Getting my water bottle still poses a bit of a challenge however and we won't even talk about the TV remote - or trying to watch TV for that matter. I am using my road bike and can ride in the drops and on the hoods. I think I will wait until my final race is over before I risk myself or my TTbike by trying the aero bars....