Cycle trainers

_Gissa_

Hi,

After 19 years of cycling to and from work I was hit by a car that pulled out on me on a roundabout, badly breaking my arm. After much thought (and to my family's relief) I have decided to drive by car. I am 46 years old and I want to keep up the fitness I had as a cyclist by using my current bike on a cycle trainer at home. I would very much appreciate members thoughts on what type of trainer to buy and more importantly how much time/milage I would need to do on a daily basis to match the 14 miles a day that I was previously cycling.

wiredued

Sorry to hear that I just came home in a snow shower at night on my MTB with studded snows ....quite an experience. I would guess that you are from England (roundabout=rotary) which makes the Kurt Kinetic Road Machine trainer hard to come by (I'd like to know how BG got one though) but IMHO they give you the most bang for the buck. If I couldn't get a KKR I would get a trainer that has a predictable speed to power relationship and use the RDO speed method (92% of max speed for a given duration usually 20 minutes). Doing 3x20s 3 times a week at this intensity improved my hour power (FTP) by more than 50 watts last year. My 6 hour pace also improved I went from 12.9mph average speed to 15.6mph on a 90 mile ride. That's not all My sprint went from 639watts to over 1200watts. So I am convinced that a large dose of sweet spot training really works and has improved me better than long endurance rides ever did....BTW I think you can get a Spinervals 4.5 Superfluid (KKR minus 1.75lbs on the flywheel) trainer in the UK. I've tried this trainer and it is basically the same thing.

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DJA

Almost all my training is done on a trainer. Two 1hr 40min sessions a week and a race on the weekends which may include and extra 1hr to warm up and recover. and this has given me steady improvments of the years enough to now be riding A grade Vets started C grade 4yrs ago but I have raced on and off for 15 years.

The most imprtant thing with a trainer is work out what works for you best ( tv and tour dvds to do my own intervals with and a spinerval 13.0 tough love works for me).
To just get on and ride you may find a bit boring but if you have to follow a routine it breaks up the time for you. good luck

PS get the best trainer you can and make shore its quite for everyone else around you. I have a cateye cs1000 (mag) but I hear the fluid tainers are alot quieter.

rwinthenorth

I think you are asking a basic fitness question. All the trainers I have tried are pretty quiet. Fluid seems to be the trend on this forum. I use progressive resistance: Cycleops Magneto. It works fine for fitness. I do 3 1 hr. sessions a week. 2 are defined workouts I create from my Garmin 305 edge. The 3rd is usually just keeping a pace in my HR zone 2-3, which gives me the maximum aerobic workout. This will also burn a lot of calories and keep the spare tire from growing around the middle. Depending on the type of workouts you choose, you can accomplish most fitness goals in these time frames. 14 miles is not a lot to make up for. Enjoy !