Legs, or lack of them.

[bigjim]

I wish I could do all those miles on rollers or trainers. I just can't get into the zone. In the gym or in my garage. 5 mins and I'm bored out of my skull. I have to be passing scenery or people or something. I,ve tried mp3 etc but even get bored with the music.
How do you do it? ideas please.

[Ayesha]

I wish I could do all those miles on rollers or trainers. I just can't get into the zone. In the gym or in my garage. 5 mins and I'm bored out of my skull. I have to be passing scenery or people or something. I,ve tried mp3 etc but even get bored with the music.
How do you do it? ideas please.

Wireless internet, laptop, YouTube.

[oldmanonabike]

Buy training dvd's and watch them on a laptop loads available a google will show them all

[Mick F]

Yes, boring, but rollers make you concentrate ............ or you fall off!

I can only cope with five miles at a time. Five miles at a little over 20mph takes me about 15mins. I stop for a while to cool off, then do another five miles etc. It's a bit noisy and I'm set up in the hallway, so the radio and any DVD would be out of range of sight and sound. I just gaze out of the window, but it's only 15mins at a time.

Total time was 45mins to do the 15miles, but the duration from start to finish was just over 2hrs.

Get into a sweat and get the HR up, relax and repeat. It's the only way I could contemplate the boring-ness of indoor riding. Better than nothing of course, but certainly not ideal.

Red is HR
Green is speed
Pink is cadence

I had a frantic burst or two at the end - got up above 30mph!
Also, tried riding No Hands once or twice, but got into a speed wobble - hence the downward spikes in speed.

The elevation changed despite my Garmin having GPS turned off. The barometric pressure assessment of the elevation still works, so you can see the air pressure was dropping coz I was "climbing" 143ft in 15miles despite not moving an inch!

[NATURAL ANKLING]

Hi,
On indoor training I normally listen to my favorite music, and at same time imagine I am on a ride somewhere.
I do not watch the mph or clocks apart from ocasional look to see when I finish. Otherwise time drags.
If you cant imagine then hard work concentrating.
I use a turbo type trainer, which I believe is not as good as rollers?
And I now from previous experience that turbo fixed type does not exercise the lower leg muscles as much.
When I jumped on my bike and cycled 100 miles straight off after just indoor training for three months
Lower leg pain like I never knew just from cycling.
I do 2 % and 5 % for one hour each, standing periodicly every mile,(you need considerable resistance to be able to stand like hills) tho I was doing also like some, keeping HR low then building up to more out put to simulate road work.
Going from aerobic thru to anerobic periodicly and repeating thru the training is probably best. Like Mic F's graph.
I tend to repeat every 10 mins for say an hour. If your commuting then great.
Snow on the way

[Mick F]

I use a turbo type trainer, which I believe is not as good as rollers?

Dunno, it's open to debate.

I used a "cycling machine" for a month or two when at sea in preparation for my JOGLE in 1994. I did an hour or so every evening. Boring in the extreme, so when I wanted to buy some sort of training device, I went for rollers.

Very difficult to master, but eventually you get the knack. I've found different bikes make it easier to balance - or not. The Raleigh Chopper was very difficult, but Mrs Mick F's bike is easy. I tried an MTB, it was easy to balance, but there was a lot of resistance with the knobbly tyres. My bike is great, but quite difficult to balance so concentration is paramount.

By varying the cadence and gear ratios, the resistance - and effort required - can be varied. Biggest problem is keeping cool.

[Michael R]

I wish I could do all those miles on rollers or trainers. I just can't get into the zone. In the gym or in my garage. 5 mins and I'm bored out of my skull. I have to be passing scenery or people or something. I,ve tried mp3 etc but even get bored with the music.
How do you do it? ideas please.

5 minutes! That is awesome! I can't even do ONE minute

[NATURAL ANKLING]

Biggest problem is keeping cool.

Thats easy, a couple of cheap large size floor fans / ceiling fans type.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/MY-BRAND-Floo ... 3a777342e9

[Mick F]

I've thought of them before, but the problem is, I'd need them remote controlled from a handlebar switch.

I get on the rollers in a chilly hallway, not wearing much and take a while to warm up. If the fans were running from the beginning, I'd possibly not warm up at all. Therefore, I should wear a warm top, but I'd have to stop to take it off! I may as well stop, and switch the fans on instead. Either way, it's not simple. Hence doing 5miles at a time.

Today, OTOH, the weather is fine!
Off for a REAL ride soon.

[Brucey]

a suggestion; if you don't want to wire up a remote switch ( I find an extension cord with a 5A rating and a remote switch is dead handy for all kinds of things BTW) why not have a time switch (preferably a digital one) you can set the fans to come on after five or ten minutes.

The boredom problem is significant. I used to use 'over the ear' headphones but I found that if they were connected to ground, I'd get 'zapped' in the ears as I charged up; my rollers worked like a pedal-powered Van Derr Graaf generator.

cheers

[Mark1978]

Or; get one of these http://www.belkin.com/uk/c/WSWH so you can control a plug socket from your phone!

[Mark1978]

The boredom problem is significant.

I haven't tried rollers or trainers, but I think this would be an issue for me too, or at least enough to suspect spending ~£200 on a trainer might be a waste of money if I don't use it.

[MikeF]

My view is that too much of the same exercise is not necessarily beneficial. Cycling is regarded as aerobic non weight bearing exercise. That's why I always walk and maybe jog for a short distances on days when I don't cycle. And there's not so much icy blast in the winter!!

[Mick F]

I agree really.
The major exercise I take is cycling, but I do lead an active lifestyle. However, I don't jog, I don't go to the gym, and I've not swum a stroke for 20years.

My ride today - 30miles - was a circuit I've done many times over the years, and today was the slowest I've done it in. I felt tired even before I was climbing out of the valley, and seemed to be tired all the way - my legs started fading at about 20miles and I had to take my time for the last 10miles.

I'm going to have a day off riding anything tomorrow and see if I get re-charged. Maybe I overdid it yesterday on the rollers.

BTW, the timer switch idea sounds good, and I'm aware you can buy remotely controlled power sockets. Lidl sold them IIRC.

[Ayesha]

Rollers or turbo trainers only become tedious if you do not have a fixed agenda of some kind. It may be to win your club’s TT cup, or simply ride up the steep slope on the summer Audax without making an A-hole of yourself.
One can ‘vary it up’ by making small adustments to the saddle position between 20 minute sessions.

Another trick to overcome boredom is think of what you'd like to say to the person you hate. This might be your boss at work or an Audi driver. Hey, it might be both at once…
When things get tough and you feel like packing, swear a little, or a lot depending on how big the boss’s Audi is.