Originally Posted by
Carbonfiberboy
I use rollers, but the idea is the same. I do stuff on the rollers that would be difficult or impossible to do on the road in summer: long high cadence drills, one-legged pedaling drills (on the road is too easy and not as safe), long steady zone 2 rides, long zone 3 intervals, stuff like that. I never just ride them. I always have a specific workout with a specific goal. I periodize it, starting off easy and gradually working up to more time and or intensity, 3 weeks increase, a week easy. I don't do intervals above zone 3 at all. I save the intensity for my weekend road ride.
If I couldn't get out, i.e. snow, I would add some zone 4 sub-threshold work, probably a session with 2 X 15' or 2 X 20' each week. No sense in going over, really. For me this is the season to prepare, not to do. The high end stuff improves so quickly in the spring, why burn myself out in the winter?
OT, but after a roller session, I usually go to the gym and lift weights. Because I've done this for a long time, the aerobic work doesn't impact the weight work, in fact it makes it a more effective training tool:
http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread...ing-off-season
One thing I find with a trainer, there is no momentum, which means every ride is like going up a very long, but not that steep hill. Before I got my trainer, I found that I lost a lot in the off season, and it was often August before I caught up to the year before, so I gained very little each year. Using the trainer, I can keep most of the legs from the year before, so I could catch up to the year before in Late May or early June.