Turbo Sessions

bustlungs1970

Hello Folks,

Just bought my first turbo trainer and am looking for some good, varied sessions, which will offer me a calorie zapping workout while I watch the football on TV.

Any suggestions?

JasonB

My fav, and it may be easy by peoples standards, but kills me, is 10mins warm up, 2 mins top gear and top setting on turbo trainer, then 2 mins easy. Do this five times then 10 mins warm down.

Free Willy

Hi



I normally use the spinervals dvds as these are pretty good, but if I want to watch something else I do a session as follows

Note: I used to have a mag trainer which refused to adjust the resistance so it was set to v hard and therefore the whole session is done in small chain ring, before the resistance control became unuseable I would use the big chain ring somewhere in the middle and adjust increase/decrease the resistance on each time change



Try to keep a cadence between 90 and 100 - gets tough in the middle!

If it is too easy change to harder gear but keep the time intervals



8 mins (2 cogs down from largest)

6 mins change up

4 change up

2 mins change up

1 min change up

30 secs change down - flat out!

1 min change down

2 mins change down

4 change down

6 mins change down

8 mins



I am fortunate to also have an elliptical machine next to my trainer so after the cycling I would hop on to the elliptical

and do a 40 minute hill session then back on to the trainer and do a repeat session but half the amount of time, then back on the elliptical for 20 minutes.



Now to put it in perspective I only do the the double session every 2 to 3 weeks as it hurts!, the single session is done once or

twice a week if bad weather (if good I ride), along with a group ride on a Saturday and hopefully a recovery ride as well.



Now I have recently got a fluid trainer and I am having to revise the above session to go between the big and small chain ring,

I have not cracked the right mix yet as the fluid trainer works in completely different way to the mag trainer so I am using spinervals a lot, especially as it is winter here and it is not great weather for getting out.



I monitor heart rate as I go to check I am still alive!



Make sure you have plenty of sports drink and towels as it can get a bit wet!



Also look at raising the riser block (add a small paving block or something similar) and then go into a big gear to simulate hills, do 30 secs to a minute on 'big ones' and then change to an easy gear and spin for 2-3 minutes then do it again, and again....

To simulate small hills/rises use an easier gear and go between 5-8 minutes 'up hill' then spin for 3-4 minutes and repeat



Now the aim of your question was to find out some sessions to allow you to watch football, all I know is at the end of the sessions I do I have no idea what is on the screen all I want to do is get off the damn thing!



This sort of session works for me but may not be for you or anyone else on the planet.



Cheers

FW

bustlungs1970

Ha! Brillliant responses guys, thanks very much. Not sure whether I am going to enjoy the match while punishing myself but let's give it a go. Thanks for the advice

treefrog

I used to do the fancy intervals but this year I changed to a 60kM session as fast as I could, and indoing so I watched my average speed go up and up. I think that at the end of the day you need to be able to do your distance as fast as possible and the turbo is an excellent tool to get you going at a fast steady pace - no hills, no wind, no traffic etc. This session is boring and long and hard but that's the price for good performance.

Having said that I am about to turn that fast as you can 60 kM into a 60kM of intervals as my average has plateaued, and I think a series of intervals will get me to the next level and sharpen me up for racing. Good luck