wkndwarrior

I'm getting married in the fall and plan on moving to a new place then. Looking ahead, there will be kids and with that, less time to go out and ride. I still want to ride, so I was thinking that I should buy a trainer to put in some workouts if I don't have time to go out and ride.

My thinking is that it takes a surprising amount of time for me to pack my bike gear, haul my bike to the car, drive out to the starting point of a group ride or a park, take the bike out, pump the tires, put my shoes and helmet on, etc etc etc. Then after the ride, it takes time for me to pack the gear and drive back home.

I usually need at least an extra 1-1.5 hours to drive myself to the ride and then back home, plus all the preparation. So, for a 2 hour ride, it usually takes me a total of 3.5 hours from the time I change out of my work clothes at home to the time changing out of my sweaty cycling clothes after a ride.

With marriage and kids, I don't see how that's going to work if I want to be on the road 4 times a week. With a trainer, I can be out on the road 1-2 times a week, and then when I want to do my 2 other workouts, I'll only need 1 hour instead of 3.5 hours. All I have to do is throw on my cycling shorts, plop my bike on the trainer and crank out a good sweat and then I'm done. Is this naive, or is using a trainer a good strategy to save time?

Bioluminescence

Good grief, that's a lot of preparation time.

I spend less than 15 minutes. Change into cycling clothes, fill water bottles, tie shoes, reset bike comp, quick inspection of bike, and then I ride.

10 Wheels

Move somewhere that you can ride from your home.
Trainers are so boring.

wkndwarrior

Toss in the driving time, and it really adds up.

10Wheels, it would be nice to move to a place where I can ride from my home, but there are lots of other considerations in selecting a place to live... and the place may end up being in a bike-unfriendly neighborhood. I'm prepared to just hold my nose, bite the bullet, and crank it out on a trainer 2x a week.

Bioluminescence

True. I don't really need to drive anywhere to ride, since there are so many different bike paths and bike friendly roads where I live. I suppose I should be thankful for that.

flaco

Most serious riders have a trainer, but only use it as a last resort. If I only have an hour and it's raining, yeah, I'll put on a Sufferfest video and ride the trainer. Bleah. It works though.

caloso

Can you commute?

wkndwarrior

From the suburb that I'm moving to, probably won't be a feasible option. Houston isn't very bike friendly, and even if I could commute, it will probably take up even more time than if I commuted by car or bus to work. I'd still have to shower at the office and change into work clothes, and then change back into cycling clothes to ride home and then change back into regular clothes when I got home. Don't get me wrong, I'd LOVE to commute by bike, but the time and logistical constraints makes it unfeasible from where I sit.

EDIT: I've actually tried commuting by bike from my current place of residence, only a few miles from work, but that took even more time than if I just took the bus.

caloso

Yes, it probably will take longer than driving or riding the bus, but you're spending that time riding a bike, remember? Don't forget to factor that in too. And, there's no law against taking a less than direct route between home and work. Just something to think about.

hhnngg1

Forgot all the 'I hate trainer' talk for improvement. Trainers are legitimate, excellent tools for real improvement. If you're interested in improving, trainers will make you stronger.

Keep in mind the obvious - by being on a trainer, you will give up the 'outdoors' and the other aspects of outdoor riding that for some, is crucial to continuing riding. If that's the case, well, don't buy a trainer.

However, if you're like me, and you're very busy but are willing to suffer a bit to keep up your fitness and speed, trainers are awesome. When time crunched, which is 90%+ of my time, I'm on the trainer, even if it's really nice out - no coasting, no cruising = very time efficient workout.

Last point - I would NOT just buy the trainer and that's it. If you don't have a place where it's convenient and easy to set up your trainer as well as a DVD/video setup, you will likely not ride it, ever. I consider my setup (in garage, with old laptop as DVD player, Garmin 305, and 12ft long headphone extension cord) as all essential for riding my trainer - I can't do it for more than an hour if I'm just riding along.

palesaint

^^ What hhnngg1 said. If you can see the bigger picture, trainers are not that bad. It's pretty much all mental. It would be ideal to set up a temporary station and borrow a trainer (or rollers, which I think are more fun) and try it out.

wkndwarrior

Cool. What does the Garmin 305 do for you on the trainer? Does it display how much power you're putting on it? I can imagine that without having something to monitor how much power or "speed" I am putting on the trainer, I'd be less motivated to use it.

crhilton

No kidding. If you have to drive to ride your bike either:
* You're a wuss.
* Where you live sucks, it just straight up sucks.


Trainers are no substitute for the joy of riding. They'll work, sort of, as a workout tool to keep you in shape. To some extent they're even good for training. But they don't, at all, make up for the joy of it.

terrain

Detest riding my trainer. If I am pressed for time I will often jump on the treadmill or eliptical for some cardio. Agreed with most that having a trainer is a good fallback.

Seattle Forrest

Then you have motivation to sprint until you get into a better neighborhood. Unless you live directly on the freeway, and most people don't, you can bike from home. Being on a trainer is much more unpleasant than biking on streets that aren't meant for bikes. Seriously - don't do it.

If you won't take my advice, I can sell you a trainer. It hasn't seen much use.

It isn't just the mind-numbing boringness that trainers impose on you; they really don't do all that much for you, either. Nobody ever got better at cornering by riding their bike in their living room.

hhnngg1

Actually, any bike computer with rear-wheel speed sensor will work - I just happen to use my Garmin 305 (not the GPS portion, obviously) for the HRM + speed + cadence data.

The speed & distance data is very helpful for comparing trainer workouts. Don't ask a question how it compares to 'real world road speed' around here, because you'll get flamed to death by roadies screaming 'you can't compare!', but in reality, you can compare to some degree if you have a KK or CycleOps2 and are looking at your flat-road performance sans wind. The power curves of these two trainers are graphed to speed, and have been tested by quite a few PowerTap users as being extremely accurate and reproducible- to the point some of them have lamented even bothering spending money on a PT when the speed data has been within 1% accuracy of the power estimate on the curve. (You can find it online somewhere.)

Regardless, I'd consider the bike computer for speed/distance indispensable for trainer riding. Nothing more maddening than feeling like you're going hard, and having no friggin' clue how you're doing - particularly since on a trainer, your actual effort is the only factor you focus on since there's no outdoor distractions. You can get some amazingly quality workouts by pushing into your red zone and focusing on it at all costs on the trainer - this would be dangerous to do outdoors often.

My trainer is my (not-so) secret weapon. With a new baby < 1yr old and a wife working full time as a doctor, as well as working myself in a 50hr per week full time job, riding time was scarce. I got onto the road less than 6 times in the past 5 months, despite favorable riding weather here year-round. Still, I've had minimal bike speed dropoff thanks to trainer sessions. In fact, my top-end sprint speed has improved. (The long-distance riding suffered though - I rarely ride over 2 hrs on the trainer.)

withsriracha

The trainer obviously isn't optimal, but it definitely does help me get workouts in when I'm time-crunched, and I would heartily recommend it on that basis. My immediate area is very ridable in the morning hours, but later in the afternoon, it's all stop-and-go due to car and tourist traffic, and it takes me ~30 min of riding just to get to an area where I can hit a decent stride. Obviously the ideal is to head out for a 4hr ride at 8am on a Saturday, but life intervenes and sometimes all I can do is an hour or two at 4pm (or once or twice, at 3am!)...I wouldn't argue that it's the same as riding, but I've found it to be a great way to keep my fitness up when my schedule doesn't permit the riding I'd prefer.

I have a CycleOps Fluid 2 and would recommend it -- very quiet. Also have a rear-wheel speed/cadence sensor.

jrobe

Get a trainer and some Spinervals and CTS training DVD's and you can improve your fitness dramatically with much less training time than you are spending now.

Today we had very high winds (30-40 mph gusts). I went outside to do an interval session and it was almost impossible to hold any consistent power output either into or with the wind. It was a fairly worthless and frustrating effort. It would have been far more productive to have just stayed inside on my Kurt Kinetic trainer and done an interval session with no wasted time or effort. It takes some self discipline but with the training DVD's, I find it quite enjoyable.

One of my DVD's is the Spinervals Time Saver DVD. It includes two 30 min hard interval sessions. If you follow directions and do them right, you can hardly get off the trainer at the end. There is no quicker and more effective 30 min workout available. It is very difficult to replicate this outside with stoplights, traffic, wind, etc.. I probably use my trainer 100 days per year (Wisconsin). The trainer was one of my best cycling purchases for improving my power output and fitness level.

Terror_in_pink

+1

Beaker

It ends up being about time management, some days I'll head out and ride at 5:30am and getting 1.5hrs in before getting ready for work. Definitely superior to the trainer IMO, although the trainer does have its place I rarely convince myself that I'd rather spend that hour in my garage.

BarryJo

that's an understatement.

Where are you planning on living?
I spent a lot of time working in the northwest section of sprawl (just north of Willowbrook off 249) and there were some nice places to ride just north of there. That was 10 years ago, but I doubt buch has changed since.
But then again, it seemed to be a fairly nice section of the city and might not be in your budget.
Not to mention it can take an hour to get from Willowbrook to Hobby if your commute takes you to the other side of the city.

Regardless, if you're planning on riding an indoor trainer down there, I hope you have good a/c and fans, you'll need them. I've never been to such a miserable climate.

wkndwarrior

There. You get it. My riding time will definitely be much scarcer once I'm hitched and kids are in the picture (although my fiance is very supportive of my cycling).

I don't dispute the fact that I may hate the trainer, but outside of spending $ on a gym membership that I'll abandon after 2 months (always do), I don't have much choice. Go for a run? Nope - bad knees.

I might try riding from home every now and then (as Beaker does), but I'll have to experiment with that and it'll take some trial and error to get a good cycling routine while I'm short on time. Right now, I have no idea how it'll work because I don't know exactly where I'm going to live yet. Once I figure that part out, the other details will become clearer.

BarryJo, I'll be moving to Sugar Land and I work downtown.

hamsey

Look at Tacx trainers. www.tacx.com They might be coming out with some new ones later in the year. I have the bushido and a couple of the real life videos and do not lose interest like I did on the KKRnR. Feels just like your are riding outdoors except for the cars and exhaust. I got a great deal at www.velomine.com I am not connected with this company at all.

Good luck!

caloso

Word.

ancker

The trainer is an excellent time saver. I much prefer riding outside but sometimes I just don't have the time and since I live in Central IL, the weather doesn't cooperate. (Yes, I'm a wuss. I won't ride in anything other than mild drizzle. But it's mostly because I can't afford to buy all of the necessary gear to be comfortable/safe in inclement weather. Not to mention spend forever cleaning my bike after each ride.)

I have the same problems you do. I could easily commute to work for more miles but there aren't any available showers which I definitely need on those 95F/80% humidity days.
My Saturday group ride is the only one close enough that I can ride to the start. The others are within riding distance but given the start times I just don't have the time to get home from work, get ready, and ride across town to the start. (I do, however, pack up before work so when I get home all I have to do is change clothes and drive across town to the start.) When something happens that make me miss that I'll go on my own ride from home or hop on the trainer.

My wife appreciates the trainer because I can wait to hop on there until after dinner to ride. If I want to ride outside (in actual daylight) I have to leave pretty quickly after I get home from work. Which means dinner gets pushed until I'm back and cleaned up. I usually make group rides on Tue/Wed/Sat. The other days I ride the trainer or get in a quick ride outside. I'm toying with the idea of getting up at 5:30 and riding outside before work to get in some extra outside miles instead of using the trainer.

So long story short, yes the trainer is an excellent savior of time. But don't use it as a replacement for road riding. Make it a supplement. Your wife will likely be much happier with you blowing only 1 or 2 evenings a week on the road, and only spending an hour riding on the trainer each of the other days. Mine sure does.