Indoor Training Acclimation

Steve_B

I guess it depends upon what you are looking for.

If you want a fun, outdoor, cardio-vascular workout that works some muscles that don't get used riding a bike and perhaps works some riding muscles differently at a time when the roads are coated in snow and it's well below freezing outside... then it's fine and good TSS "fill", IMO. It's not riding a bike though. I wouldn't do it to prepare for a bike race in next month. When racing is 3-4 months away though...

Steve_B

One thing to add is that given that I am finding the visual stimulation of a DVD like this to really make a difference for me as to whether I can ride in L4 for more than a few minutes at a time indoors during that early winter adjustment period, it's just one more bit of evidence that my adaptation is mostly mental.

Maybe I should get a CT.

rmur17

yes ;-)

actually I find the #1 best thing I can do to tolerate indoor training is to hide every vestige of time I can. This year (perhaps being my 6th!) I'm finding I can't even look at the distance display on the CT as I'm always calculating how much time has elapsed (as I know I avg. ~40kph). Maybe I need to turn off distance on the display as well as time!! Hmmm ... in fact i think I'll try that this weekend as i have a 100k course that takes 3:10-3:15 (long climbs) that I really ought to ride.

But I suppose starting full-bore in October as I normally do and not getting in much more than a weekly ride hopefully (two max) outdoors until April tends to compress one's tolerance over the years.

I have my TV and VCR time both 'deprogrammed' and stay away from news type channels with the time onscreen. I also have my stack of old and not so old TdF mountain, TT and prologue stages some going back to the early 90's. Hey Indurain could climb for a big guy and could *certainly* time trial.
What's DVD stand for BTW?

Even though I can't climb well, I tend to like the mountain stages best.

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rmur

doctorSpoc

advice... never use videos like those on rollers.

you'd be surprised how engrained your instinct is to turn around corners is.. i've been watching TdF mountain stages and ridden right off my rollers trying to follow the pack around some of those curvy decents.. and i just couldn't stop my self from doing either... ended up having to look away every time a curve came up.

Squint

Interesting. I'm just the opposite. I just stare at the CS screen's timer the whole time. I used to watch a little TV but now I just stare at the screen or let my mind wander. I usually do the same 2 hour 40 min workout everyday.

I actually find it more tolerable than riding rollers which requires more concentration. The addition of erg mode lets me tune out further as I don't have to worry about pacing either.