Originally Posted by TShame .
Wow, I didn't realize this thread would irritate anyone.
Funny how none of them were actual responses.
If you want to challenge yourself, then welcome aboard.
It sounds like a few people I've beaten.
"Oh, uh, I could of beat you...but I, uh, (insert lame excuse here)"
I don't care if you can do 200 or 300 watts. Just so you improve.
I may not get my LT to 400 or my WMax to 500.
But, I'm working harder than Lance without his sweet stuff.
TShame, forgive the skepticism, but those of us who've been around the forum for a few years have seen people brag about results obtained on home trainers. I've got a couple of those, an old Blackburn Wind Trainer (with the squirrel-cage fan), and a newer mag-trainer from Performance with the adjustment lever on the side.
The wind trainer is actually a good load unit, since it doesn't heat up and has a realistic power curve, but of course it's noisy. And the issue of roller tension and tire slippage is always there. I used it a lot over winters in the 90's, but just looked at my rear wheel speed and HR, never tried to figure wattage output from it. Still, got some good quality training on it; that's all that matters in the end.
Now I use the Cybex trainers at the YMCA. Those are quality units, with magnetic loads generated on heavy iron flywheels. The calibration seems perfect across the 3 units they have, ie, can't tell which one I'm riding as the watts read all the same. They had Lifecycle units before these. I remember being disappointed when my output suddenly dropped about 20 "watts" on the new machines. Either the old Lifecycles were optimistic, the Cybex reads low, or a little of both. If the machines are calibrated to within 5% of true "watts", eg, +/_ 10 watts, that's probably about as close as it gets until you get into lab-quality calibrated machines.
I'll put up my numbers today from my training session at the Y. According to the Cybex display, I rode @ 165-175 watts for a 20 minute interval. Was using load level #10, at a cadence of ~88 rpm. The display indicated 20 mph, more or less, and my HR leveled out at 90% of max, or 162 bpm. Was a good training effort for me, no leg pain, but could feel my breathing during the last 5 minutes.
Not sure what all that data tells anyone about me. Since you likely have a lot more power than I do, regardless of the inaccuracies of your home trainer, your data isn't particularly motivating to me. It's not really important what the numbers readout on our machines, as long as we're improving.
