Judging 'Progress' on a trainer/stationary bike

Welcome.

My two cents worth.
I am "a real cyclist" who raced in his younger days and is now confined to touring and coaching at the local cycling club.

We all use numbers whether we're outdoor cyclists or indoor/stationary cyclists.
Whether it is measuring the time taken to complete a specific distance or whether it is trying to increase thresholds in terms of cadence/intensity - numbers are a measurement of improvement.

Using a stationary bike is fine to use to try to regain/maintain fitness.
I'd suggest that you have to decide a base from which to measure progress from.
That base can be measured in terms of heart rate at a given cadence, attempting to cover a distance within a given time period,
trying to maintain a cadence for a given time period.
Using whatever measurement you decide as a starting point, formulate your training to try to improve on that measurement.

Thanks for the comments, Lim.

What I don't know how to account for is resistance which is a major variable which is 'unknown'.

The only answers that I can think of are:

1) Assume that (for example) 3 full twists from no resistance is a fixed amount of resistance day to day. Then occasionally do 'a time trial' at that load level using average cadence as your measure of 'distance'.

2) Similar to #1 above, but use static friction (how much force is required to move the pedal from a rest position) to establish some known level of friction.

3) Use some kind of thermometer or thermocouple on the resistance pad, assume that the temperature rise (over ambient) is directly proportional to power input on average (would NOT be able to measure anything close to instantaneous power input, but over time should correlate with average power input)..

All I can think of.

dave

Good luck to you! I am also 61 yrs old but am quite competitive with the young bucks so don't let that be an issue, although it doesn't sound like you do.

As for your spin bike, you are kind of limited as to a day to day comparison of your performance. But it doesn't really matter all that much. The gold standard is the 20 minute interval and as long as your trainer can supply a constant load for that 20 minutes you have a great tool there. You will just have to use perceived exertion (PE) to gauge your effort. Crank the knob to a resistance where you can go for 20 minutes but at the end you REALLY want to be done. Take a short break and repeat. You should be pretty toasted by the end. That will provide huge benefits for you. There is a ton of info around on these (2x20's). The measure of your improvement will show up when you are on the real bike.

Good comments here. We have both "Spinning" bikes and Cybex trainers at our local Y. The adjustability and "real" positioning available on the Spinning bikes is great, but to me the lack of a precise load/power setting is a major drawback vs the Cybex trainers. The Cybex bikes also have a handy HR measurement via the handgrips, so no need to wear the HRM strap/watch.
RPE certainly works fine as a guide to training, but without the precise load setting and being able to see the watts output I'm generating, the workout on the Spinner doesn't do it for me.

Actually the Y did a trial of a "Keiser" brand bike that I thought had it all....easy, repeatable load setting and power monitoring as well as the fully-adjustable fit of the Spinning bikes. They seemed to be well-built, expensive units, with a big stainless steel rotor in back for the electrical load. This was some months ago; apparently they decided to buy more spinners instead......despite my glowing review of the Keiser bike.

Thanks for all the comments. FWIW I picked up the bike today and 'took it out for a spin' (pun intended). Keep in mind that I have not pushed a pedal in over 10 years.

I have a 'plan' (based on some stuff by Friel) but right now it is just a matter of getting my conditioning up to the point that I can actually do some work AND (this is not a minor thing) I need to get my butt saddle trained again.

So I just did a variety of spinning for 40 minutes at various levels of effort and it will be interesting to see how I feel tomorrow. But a couple of interesting observations from my perspective.

-This spin bike (Lemond Revmaster) is smooth, totally quiet, and certainly does have a reasonable bike like feeI.
- I am a pretty normal sized guy so setup works for me.
- I suspect that the lack of a drop bar would be an issue for more serious bikers
- It doesn't take you long to learn this, but you CAN'T just stand up (still) on the pedals to 'give your butt a 5 second break'. Even slow learners will catch on quickly here :-)
- When you are in crummy shape a single fan in a cool room (plus ceiling fan) is enough to avoid slinging sweat all over the place - out of shape has its advantages [IMG]/img/vbsmilies/smilies/duck.gif[/IMG]

dave