Indoor Trainer - Triathlon Week

ColoCycle · 01-06-2003, 11:05 PM

I just bought an indoor trainer to be able to ride indoors during the cold/wet/dark days...

Except for the noise, It's a great thing... The only downside is that it gets boring quickly. I don't have my trainer set up in the same room as my tv and listening to the radio is not cutting it for me.

I also need to figure out some good workouts on it. I tend to just go at the same speed and try to pick it up every now and then.

Any ideas on how to spice the workout up?

brettbastian · 01-10-2003, 06:10 AM

Buy a cheap TV/VCR combo TV and use that for motivation. I watch spinerval tapes and old tour de france footage. I really enjoy watching the tour time trials. Try to avoid more than 2 hrs on your indoor trainer at a time. I usually ride 3 days per week for 1 hr. Try cross training to work different muscle groups.

ColoCycle · 01-10-2003, 10:42 PM

Brett,

Any particular spinnerval tapes that you would recommend?

brettbastian · 01-11-2003, 07:18 AM

I have 5 of them: the uphill grind, have mercy, recovery and technique, time trial specialist, and sufferoramma. They are all great. Try to avoid using the difficult ones more than 1-2X per week. They take every ounce of energy and you need adequate recovery. They have a web site: coachtroy.com or spinervals.com.
Hope that helps. Remember, your training should consist of aerobic endurance training in addition to intervals and recovery rides.

Harrow · 07-20-2003, 06:20 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by ColoCycle
I just bought an indoor trainer to be able to ride indoors during the cold/wet/dark days...

Except for the noise, It's a great thing... The only downside is that it gets boring quickly. I don't have my trainer set up in the same room as my tv and listening to the radio is not cutting it for me.

I also need to figure out some good workouts on it. I tend to just go at the same speed and try to pick it up every now and then.

Any ideas on how to spice the workout up?

One thing I do is change position at different times. For instance, spend three minutes upright, then two minutes in aero position. I know it doesn't sound to exciting, but it actually helps the time pass as you are focusing on short time periods instead of the total training time.

Also, I find quiz shows seem to be a much better distraction than movies.

Regards,
Harrow.