Training & Nutrition - Old single speed road bike on trainer?

Hi all. I'd like to do HIIT every day for fitness in the morning. But the problem is, I live in an urban area. And to get to a place where I could do my intervals safely would take me 30 minutes of riding. Which really cramps me for time in the morning, and a lot of what interests me with HIIT is that it only takes 20 minutes to do it.

So I am thinking of getting a trainer. Now I have an old 80s road bike converted to single speed (not fixed). I've never used a trainer before and don't know a lot about how they work. Here's the one that I'm looking at: http://midtownbikeco.com/page.cfm?PageID=37&action=details&sku=WT3325 . It says it has 5 resistance settings, but it doesn't say how wide they are. I'd like some variability in resistance, which I worry about since my bike is single speed. I'd also like to do the spinerval DVDs, can I even do those on a single speed bike?

Also will I have any problems with 27" non-quick release wheels?


If I got a cheap geared road bike from walmart (which would never leave the trainer :) ) would that work better?

Or should I just get an exercise bike?

well, the way that the bike hooks up to the trainer is a special quick release skewer that goes throught the back wheel and then the trainer tightens onto that skewer. Intervals may be hard with a trainer where you have a singlespeed. So how you can do the gear shifting effect would be to find a trainer that has a remote switch to change the resistance, and it hooks to your handlebars usually, so you can just put more resistance when you go into the hard efforts with intervals.

Rollers are another option...but dont usually have resistance settings that you can switch while riding. Rollers WOULD be good though because they dont require and special hookup with a skewer, you just put the bike on top and ride.

[QUOTE=ponds]Hi all. I'd like to do HIIT every day for fitness in the morning. But the problem is, I live in an urban area. And to get to a place where I could do my intervals safely would take me 30 minutes of riding. Which really cramps me for time in the morning, and a lot of what interests me with HIIT is that it only takes 20 minutes to do it.
QUOTE]

What are your goals?

Interval training is a useful tool, but it's not a substitute for base endurance training. If you do intervals right, you're doing them at a perceived exertion of 9 or 10. Doing that every day isn't a good plan - the intervals provide training stress (good), but if you want to benefit from that stress, you need to give your body time to recover.

Or, to put it another way, it's not the interval that makes you good, it's the recovery the day after the interval.

For a trainer, ideally you want either a wind or fluid based one so the resistance increases as you ride faster.

If you don't give your body time to recover, you risk getting injured or sick, and even if you don't, you will likely find it hard to remain motivated and truly working out at a high level.

If you really want to do them, try starting with twice a week, and do some lower effort work on the other days.