Biking at the Gym SUCKS!

9202 said:

So, what do all you folks use during winters and rainy days?

A water resistant jacket, wool socks, booties & lights front+back 🙄

Dave

On the cold and rainy days, I used to commute to work. The cold, stiff winds during the winter will definitely give you some force training. And because you have to get to work, that's some pretty good motivation to ride when the weather is foul (or you simply don't feel like riding). By the way, my commute was 50 miles, round trip. If yours is shorter, you could always take a longer route, but it's a lot easier to cheat that way! 😄

I have also ridden the trainer during the winter. The trainer is best for focused interval work. In my opinion, if one gets bored, they probably aren't riding hard enough. Really, when I'm suffering through short or even long intervals on the trainer, the last thing I can think about is what's playing through an iPOD.

By the way, if you are going to use a trainer, make sure you have a serious fan for cooling, like one of the industrial metal ones. I haven't seen gyms with them, which is why I think cycling at the gym is a tough matter.

I often do my training on a fluid trainer after work (I finish at midnight) and if it's an easy recovery spin then I put on a DVD and enjoy while I spin easy for an hour. But if it's intervals or SST, I put on some cycle race DVDs and enjoy chasing Boonen et al along the roads of Flanders.

I do find that if the going gets tough I don't really concentrate on the TV, I concentrate on the numbers on my PowerTap and grit my teeth.

As mentioned above, a fan is vital, as is a plentiful supply of tissues and I find wearing mitts stops my palms getting slick all over the bar tape.

You'd think that starting at 3.30pm would permit me to ride outside all the time, but having two little fellas running around makes hopping on the turbo an easy option. It even seems enjoyable sometimes.

Weather isn't really an issue - I live in Australia and we're back in drought. 🙁

I have a Kurt Kinetic fluid trainer with the power computer that I use for most of my interval training year round. The exception is sprint training which I do outside. I use a big industrial fan, and usually watch TV, DVDs, or listen to music. I've found classical music helps relax when doing hard L5+ intervals.
I'm planning on getting a bike with a Powertap, but even when I get one I will probably still do most of my training indoors. I think the area I live in is just too dangerous to put in a lot of miles on the road. It's easier to get in a good interval session without having to deal with pot holes, gravel, hillbillys, cell phone talkin yuppies, hills, wind, dogs, etc.
I have used gym bikes in the past with no fan. Torture. One of the most impressive aspects of the "it's killing me" thread is that Tyson did most of the work on a gym bike.

strader said:

I have a Kurt Kinetic fluid trainer with the power computer that I use for most of my interval training year round. The exception is sprint training which I do outside. I use a big industrial fan, and usually watch TV, DVDs, or listen to music. I've found classical music helps relax when doing hard L5+ intervals.
I'm planning on getting a bike with a Powertap, but even when I get one I will probably still do most of my training indoors. I think the area I live in is just too dangerous to put in a lot of miles on the road. It's easier to get in a good interval session without having to deal with pot holes, gravel, hillbillys, cell phone talkin yuppies, hills, wind, dogs, etc.
I have used gym bikes in the past with no fan. Torture. One of the most impressive aspects of the "it's killing me" thread is that Tyson did most of the work on a gym bike.

I used it in the past, and I like it so much

9202 said:

This weekend the weather was pretty wet here in S. Florida. Went to the gym and spend the better part of an hour on one of the stationary bikes. Talking about torture, I don't ever want to see a gym again!

It just goes to show two things,

1) You bludge too much while riding on the road.
2) Stationary bike is a very efficient training tool.

:p

strader said:

I have a Kurt Kinetic fluid trainer with the power computer that I use for most of my interval training year round. The exception is sprint training which I do outside. I use a big industrial fan, and usually watch TV, DVDs, or listen to music. I've found classical music helps relax when doing hard L5+ intervals.
I'm planning on getting a bike with a Powertap, but even when I get one I will probably still do most of my training indoors. I think the area I live in is just too dangerous to put in a lot of miles on the road. It's easier to get in a good interval session without having to deal with pot holes, gravel, hillbillys, cell phone talkin yuppies, hills, wind, dogs, etc.
I have used gym bikes in the past with no fan. Torture. One of the most impressive aspects of the "it's killing me" thread is that Tyson did most of the work on a gym bike.

Lol. And I do so more than ever now (report coming next week in the "Killing me" thread)
As far as the gym goes, I'm like a child who can't wait for Xmas morning to open their presents. The day before the gym I'm counting the hours til I can get on the trainer in the gym. Why? Because I know it is the only sure-fire way of sticking to the wattage I decide upon - no free wheeling, no easing off, no traffic lights, pedestrians etc. etc.
With the trainers in my gym, you wind the watts up by pressing on the display and within 20 seconds it's at 300watts and from then on in, the only way to reduce the stress on the quads is to press the watts selector button to alleviate the pressure (which I've never done).Totally and utterly merciless!
I will say one thing though, if I didn't have my MP3 player blasting out only fast tracks, I don't think I could do it, or at least not with the same commitment.
The only negative aspect as I've said many times, is the stifling heat designed to keep all the old farts warm. God knows what I could do in a cool room with a fan blowing. I've tried to order a KK trainer from a shop in Hawaii, but there's a problem with shipping. So if anyone is thinking of coming to Japan via Hawaii, and can bring me a KK, there's free accommodtion for a few days awaiting you.
This week is my tapering week or rather withdrawal week.🙁 Can't wait to start serious intervals in the gym again next week. Sorry OP THE GYM ROCKS 😄 TYSON

I agree with you that the trainers are merciless as you state but they are inaccurate also. I have a computrainer at home and fnd it perfect on those really bad days and much more accurate.

I only do the gym when I am suppose to do a recovery ride as it is very hard to keep to such a low wattage in the park and I also like to do some stretching and they have some very good equipment in the gym for it.

I feel though if given choice I would always opt for the outdoors as you learn bike handling skills which are just as crucial. Trust me I can generate watts but if I can not corner at that speed or take on the descent properly it is all useless. Not talk about the pack skills...

-Js

Sillyoldtwit said:

Lol. And I do so more than ever now (report coming next week in the "Killing me" thread)
As far as the gym goes, I'm like a child who can't wait for Xmas morning to open their presents. The day before the gym I'm counting the hours til I can get on the trainer in the gym. Why? Because I know it is the only sure-fire way of sticking to the wattage I decide upon - no free wheeling, no easing off, no traffic lights, pedestrians etc. etc.
With the trainers in my gym, you wind the watts up by pressing on the display and within 20 seconds it's at 300watts and from then on in, the only way to reduce the stress on the quads is to press the watts selector button to alleviate the pressure (which I've never done).Totally and utterly merciless!
I will say one thing though, if I didn't have my MP3 player blasting out only fast tracks, I don't think I could do it, or at least not with the same commitment.
The only negative aspect as I've said many times, is the stifling heat designed to keep all the old farts warm. God knows what I could do in a cool room with a fan blowing. I've tried to order a KK trainer from a shop in Hawaii, but there's a problem with shipping. So if anyone is thinking of coming to Japan via Hawaii, and can bring me a KK, there's free accommodtion for a few days awaiting you.
This week is my tapering week or rather withdrawal week.🙁 Can't wait to start serious intervals in the gym again next week. Sorry OP THE GYM ROCKS 😄 TYSON

I am on a spin bike or trainer 5 days of the week and yes it is no where as fun as being outdoors, but for me with career coming first that is all that I can do during the work week so I have to make the best of it. I have excelled quite well for a newbie with the spinning indoors. (Its great when one is a newbie. Just about anything works well for the moment. 🙂 )

If career and providing income for the household wasn't as important I would be outside cycling just about everyday. I'm sure many here would confess the same.

Hey guy...all I can say is amen brother to the household and time issue.

I am lucky as CP is about 10 minutes away but I have to be up and outside on my bike at 530am so I can get back in time to take my daughter to school at 745am.

It is tough and luckily the workout does not require me everyday on the bike outside and I do recovery rides in the gym at that time also but man you are tired by about 4pm, it hits me like a ton of bricks.

The only advantage is the instanity that these races start at sunrise here in NYC. BTW, no reprieve on the weekends as to get in my 3 hours I still have to wake up at the late hour of 7am and be on the bike by 730am so I can be back in time to do the house and family time...

-Js

Felt_Rider said:

I am on a spin bike or trainer 5 days of the week and yes it is no where as fun as being outdoors, but for me with career coming first that is all that I can do during the work week so I have to make the best of it. I have excelled quite well for a newbie with the spinning indoors. (Its great when one is a newbie. Just about anything works well for the moment. 🙂 )

If career and providing income for the household wasn't as important I would be outside cycling just about everyday. I'm sure many here would confess the same.

jsirabella said:

Hey guy...all I can say is amen brother to the household and time issue.

The only advantage is the instanity that these races start at sunrise here in NYC. BTW, no reprieve on the weekends as to get in my 3 hours I still have to wake up at the late hour of 7am and be on the bike by 730am so I can be back in time to do the house and family time...

-Js

I hope you have a supportive wife like I have. I say that just to give her appreciations because when I am trying to hang tough with career and training I see her in the hallway lugging a load of sweaty bike gear down to do another load of wash. Our laundry room has at any given time several pair of shorts and jerseys air drying while there are clean gear waiting for use. I would like to give applause to my wife for being supportive without her I couldn't keep this schedule going 🙂

Anyone else need to give a quick appreciation shout out to the wifey?

I had a wise old coach tell me: "never confuse exercise with recreation." Exercise training should be brief and hard and there is almost no better enviroment than a gym or, in my case, my power tap equipped bike on the trainer. It is tough to duplicate the near laboratory conditions outside with traffic and distractions; impossible to be as efficent in terms of time.

During the week, sessions are brief (60-90 minutes) and brutal. During the weekend, it is a group ride, race, or favorite loop with a few buddies. The work week is exercise, the weekend is for recreation. In short, exercise is supposed to SUCK, it's hard. The reward is being faster, and the fact that your recreation rides are so much more fun because you are not just hanging on for dear life. Personally, I think it is important to have some rides that are just plain fun and weather can deprive you of that outlet. But a few weeks stuck in the gym is a great opportunity to exercise and make those gains. Make sure that you are making time for recreation, perhaps in other ways other than on your bike if the weather really sucks that bad

Good luck.

I know that the trainer and the gym can produce some very hard workouts but I disagree that it is better than outdoors.

I am sorry but you need to duplicate the conditions in which you are going to race unless you have no intention of racing and doing it for fitness and pleasure. Producing more watts makes you faster but does it make you a better rider?

No trainer is going to emulate what it is like to race in the rain, twenty bikes around you battling for position and approaching a sharp decending corner. I do not care how many watts you generate, you will not be in the pack unless you have the other skills.

I also find no reason why riding outdoors has to be easier than riding a trainer in the gym. You can make as hard or as easy as you want it to be, in or outdoors. i.e. I am still not comfortable with descents, not many watts there to generate, but I can not descend as fast as the others and get passed. But while on the hills and flats I pass these same people.

-Js

kopride said:

I had a wise old coach tell me: "never confuse exercise with recreation." Exercise training should be brief and hard and there is almost no better enviroment than a gym or, in my case, my power tap equipped bike on the trainer. It is tough to duplicate the near laboratory conditions outside with traffic and distractions; impossible to be as efficent in terms of time.

During the week, sessions are brief (60-90 minutes) and brutal. During the weekend, it is a group ride, race, or favorite loop with a few buddies. The work week is exercise, the weekend is for recreation. In short, exercise is supposed to SUCK, it's hard. The reward is being faster, and the fact that your recreation rides are so much more fun because you are not just hanging on for dear life. Personally, I think it is important to have some rides that are just plain fun and weather can deprive you of that outlet. But a few weeks stuck in the gym is a great opportunity to exercise and make those gains. Make sure that you are making time for recreation, perhaps in other ways other than on your bike if the weather really sucks that bad

Good luck.

jsirabella said:

Producing more watts makes you faster but does it make you a better rider?

Generally, yes. All things being equal, the rider producing more watts will go faster, which is how most people define "better." When hills come into play, watts per kilo becomes more important. If Nicky Hayden and Floyd Landis raced bicycles, I would bet on Floyd. If they were racing motorcycles, my money would be on Hayden.

No trainer is going to emulate what it is like to race in the rain, twenty bikes around you battling for position and approaching a sharp decending corner. I do not care how many watts you generate, you will not be in the pack unless you have the other skills.

True. You need to ride outside in a group occasionally to develop those skills. Generally, once you have those skills you have them. They are not as vulnerable as fitness. I would question the wisdom of doing a lot of "practice" riding in the rain once traffic is involved. The cars can't see you and the risk of injury probably outweighs any relative increase you gain in rain skills. But far be it from me to question your regieme if it includes rain intervals.

I also find no reason why riding outdoors has to be easier than riding a trainer in the gym.

True. But you also have to contend with traffic and other obstacles which can interfere with your plan for the day.

I am still not comfortable with descents, not many watts there to generate, but I can not descend as fast as the others and get passed. But while on the hills and flats I pass these same people.

Descending is a skill. It is not exercise. You do need to practice skills, so ride outdoors occassionally and practice skills, just don't confuse it with exercise.

-Js

I agree that you have to develop riding skills and that is why I ride outdoors regularly as well. (I also ride a motorcycle which is really great if you want to develop handling skills. Things happen much faster) I just ride outdoors in a group on the weekends when I have time to participate in a group ride or an actual race. And most group rides turn into hammer fests anyway. I still consider racing and group rides to be a form of recreation. It is not real productive exercise that leads to meaningful gains (unless you are riding a race just for training which some people do). Most better racers are training alone nowadays using power meters and fairly rigid training plans. And group rides tend to be dificult to incorporate in a plan because it is dificult to follow your own program in a group setting. A bunch of these coaches on the forum state it simply, the only time they ride in a group is during a race. (Are you going to get a whole group to move along at your L4 interval pace for prescribed intervals ?) That might work on a college or pro team which would probably be great.

And yes, you can train meaningfully outdoors, but it SUCKS outside too if you are doing it right. Intervals outside SUCK, no more or less than tough intervals in a gym. But what sucks more is when I have to repeat or restart an interval because I had to stop for traffic or because some roller blader veered in my path on a bike path. Or, if I have to ride 15 miles each way just to get to a remote area where I can do my intervals in peace and I only have 90 minutes to train.

FWIW I use a KK Road Machine and a big fan I don't lower my average intensity below 88% FTP or do more than 2 hours at a given intensity or do intervals longer than 20 minutes unless doing a 1hr TT to check FTP. I listen to music usually trance that matches my pace.

9202 said:

So, what do all you folks use during winters and rainy days?

Rollers, trainers, stationary bikes, etc?
Which are the best with respect to conquering boredom?

I'm gonna second that.
I used one of the stationarys at my university last week and it was sort of bland. The only thing I like about it was the ability to see my heart rate.

I kept instinctively wanting to go into an aero position as if there were drops but it was an upright thing and it wouldnt let me do that. That irritated me a bit.

It sort of ruined the experience, and doesn't even help me reach a goal of picking up some more riding skills as was aforementioned.

I think I'm gonna stick to going home on the weekends and riding on two wheels.

I would say that the gym bike has been good to me for what I use it for. It's a tool and I have found it to complement my road riding very well.

Given all the expertise on power training on this forum and for someone who hasn't got a power meter (yet), the stationary bike is a power meter and can be used to monitor one's progress as well as providing the platform for some solid interval sessions. As mentioned earlier, you can ride to a fixed power and cadence without worrying about traffic and road hazzards. So as far as I am concerned, it's the perfect platform for that interval and spin training. Presently I use it once a week during fair weather, more on rainy weeks. For the duration I've used this strategy, there's been a trackable improvement in my fitness and power output.

As for the boredom, an iPod and a TV helps. I typically ride 30mins per session to avoid mental fatigue from the stationary bike.

sgtpepper64 said:

I'm gonna second that.
I used one of the stationarys at my university last week and it was sort of bland. The only thing I like about it was the ability to see my heart rate.

I kept instinctively wanting to go into an aero position as if there were drops but it was an upright thing and it wouldnt let me do that. That irritated me a bit.

It sort of ruined the experience, and doesn't even help me reach a goal of picking up some more riding skills as was aforementioned.

I think I'm gonna stick to going home on the weekends and riding on two wheels.

Ah, therein lies the crux of the matter as far as I'm concerned. My gym has slowly replaced the trainers with adjustable handlebars with some huge monstrosities which bear slight resemblance to what one could call a bike. And what's more, they only go up to 200watts, which is fine for all the chit-chatting, Japanese fan waving, oooh my god I'm sweating [censored] who would be better off walking round the block rather than clogging up the gym with their oodles of fat bursting from their too tight training gear. Most of them have been coming to the gym for years, and I swear they haven't lost a pound of blubber. SPIT, BAH! 😠 And they still pedal away at 60watts - both young and old alike. 😕

This is why I'm desperately tryng to get a KK trainer, before they cart away the last 2 bikes with adjustable handlebars and a 350Watts limit.

Before someone chips in and says I'm intolerant, I do respect those who come to the gym, do some work albeit in some cases modest, and don't mind sweating in an effort to at least make some improvement both internally and externally. After all isn't that what the gym's for? Tyson

A 200W power limit does limit the value of a stationary bike for serious bikers. Maybe you should talk to the gym administrator about it. Lucky our gym bike has an upper limit of 320W and I still have a long way to go to get there for those longer interval sessions. 🙄