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All rides on the trainer, how long are your weekend rides?

UnknownUnknown
in General Training Discussions

 Anyone do all their rides inside?  What do you do for your weekend rides?  Ride the entire duration / time?  Or do the work and a percentage of the remaining time?  I'd love to see an example of your inside translation for a typical Ironman Saturday and or Sunday ride.  Does a four hour ride outside equal a three hour trainer ride?

Im thinking of giving this a try next year.  Too many cyclist / car accidents.  Will do a few organized century rides and my race rehearsals outside, everything else on the computrainer.

Comments

  • novaavantnovaavant
    I don't always get a chance to ride outside because of family stuff and when that happens I will do my rides on the trainer. I know there are formulas for outside time versus indoor time but I just to a one-for-one match, so 4 hours is 4 hours in or out. Not always ideal to be indoors and I prefer at least one day a week outside but I'm over the hump of being able to tolerate long hours indoors. I also feel your pain with the safety thing. Where I live in South Jersey is not ideal riding or safe many times so I also choose the trainer for those reasons sometimes.

    To give you an example here is my last weekend both days on trainer.
    Saturday 4hrs
    http://www.trainerroad.com/cycling/rides/85378
    Sunday 3 hrs
    http://www.trainerroad.com/cycling/rides/85595
  • UnknownUnknown
    Those are some serious trainer rides, nice work!

    Thoughts about the following - Would a shoter ride with more intensity but the same TSS have simlar benefits? Or do I need to just suck it up and do the time?
  • Joseph LombardiJoseph Lombardi

     Ditto...great workouts Attila....

    in the OS...I do as the workout proscribes....rarely add extensive time when indoors...will try to do outside longish rides for as much as possible in the OS (Nov-Mar) ...but not afraid to do long rides occassionally inside..."for the fun of it"....

  • Peter GreaggPeter Greagg
    FWIW, I find riding the Computrainer harder than an outside ride with similar metrics.
    Apart from the mental aspect, ouside your pressure on the pedals can vary a lot which I find makes the ride easier than riding the CT.
  • coop6coop6
    I did most of my training indoors for IMSG 2011. You'll still need some outdoor riding before you do your RR. Whether you realize it or not, you will likely relax your neck and position and give yourself more breaks than you would be able to if you were riding outside. Get in at least a few 3-4 hour outdoor rides if you can, or at least be very diligent about not looking at the floor.
    I agree with Peter, the computrainer does feel harder than an outdoor ride at the same wattage.
  • CarlCarl
    I did 85% of my training for St George this year on the trainer to include 4 six hour rides and numerous 4 hours all on trainer. Truly for me it made me physically and mentally ready!!! When I got outside in late Feb cause of the short winter it was nice to see all that hard work pay off!!!

    Agree with Sara about the neck and looking at the floor.

    Also my indoor trainer watt are always 15-20 watts lower then outside.

  • tim cronktim cronk
    Having recently upped the time spent on my trainer as it gets colder , I will X2 all the comments about inside on a trainer being harder.

    How much harder and to answer your question??? I gotta believe time wise you can subtract at least 10% , and intensity at least 5% and call it equivalent.

  • Joseph LombardiJoseph Lombardi

     So while we are asking this question...I'd like to throw in a second...all the OS indoor work...do your ride your RoadBike onthe Trainer or your Tri Bike?

  • Nate ParadyNate Parady
    I just did a long training ride this past weekend and found it, well, different. Holding steady zone 2 or 3 for 3.5 hours gets to be pretty tough. so much easier for me to hold steady watts indoors. I never get big spikes like I do when i'm outside and I also rarely ever see my watts drop down either.

    the other thing I noticed was I took close to 42 ounces an hour and didn't pee once for my 3.5 hour ride trainer ride. I was a wet mess in my basement. Outdoors I would be having to pee a lot. So the impact to my system was a little harder because i was sweating so much.

    Ryan, I can tell you I got off the trainer after 3.5 hours with zero guilt about not hitting 4 hours. Leg stress was telling me I was good.

    good on you Attila for going back the next day and doing another 3 hours. I only made it to 1.5 hours and went for a run afterwards...
  • Tom GlynnTom Glynn
    I do a lot of my winter training indoors and I find 3 hour rides more than good enough. No stopping / starting / no admin time - just go hard.

    I'll typically use my road bike until 12 weeks out from my IM, then it gets hung in the garage until after the race.
  • CarlCarl

     I have rode my Tri bike the past two years but am happy to report I have purchased my first rode bike and will be riding it for the entire OS.  After this years events I will be ready for a Tri bike break-I think.

    I did my VO/FTP wko this week on the road bike cause the Tri bike is under going major surgery.  Poor thing herniated and well we are fixing it.  I felt pain in my hamstring, lots in the Glutes, and some lower back.

     

  • Joe MatchetteJoe Matchette
    Posted By Joseph Lombardi on 10 Oct 2012 08:47 AM

     So while we are asking this question...I'd like to throw in a second...all the OS indoor work...do your ride your RoadBike onthe Trainer or your Tri Bike?



    Tri bike for all the OS work.

     

    To protect against the sweat, I use a number of towels on the handlebars, and this: http://www.amazon.com/Blackburn-Bic...+Sweat+Net

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