Wogster

This is open to those of us who are stuck riding indoors this time of year and have not yet built a Velodrome in the back yard. You need a bicycle on a trainer and a bike computer with cadence on it, to participate. You need about a 10 minute warmup before starting.

Speed daemon - turn the pedals as fast as you can, see if you can set a person record. My personal best, hit 139RPM....

Speed drills or Indoor Intervals, holding a minimum of 80RPM overall, cycle through 1 minute at >100RPM, then back down to 80 for 2-3 minutes, repeat 3 or 4 times.

Hill climb, turn the resistance way up, pick a medium gear, and slog away for 3 minutes.

You can combine these into any kind of workout you like, you need a good cooldown after though. Takes a lot of the boredom out of it, because your varying the workout.

Opinions or additions?

thestoutdog

This sounds a lot like the way I ride my trainer. I start slow (60 rpm), then work up to 80 for 5 minutes, then 95 for 10 minutes, then back to 60 for another 5 and repeat. In the last 10 minutes of my ride I push as hard and fast as I can for five minutes (I don't usually look at the computer at this time due to sweat in my eyes), then slow back down for the last 5 minutes in 10 rpm increments until the last five minutes are up. Thanks for bringing this up Wogsterca, I have been slacking on my trainer time. Renewed motivation.

Haff

I picked up one of these.... one of the best purchases I ever made. https://www.sweatgutr.com/home.html

ChrisO

I'll take your challenge! Gonna have to get a new computer though, mine doesn't have cadence.

Seve

Thanks for the trainer workout suggestions.

After reading this a while back I now have tried this out a few times now and I find it pretty good for me as I have to keep an eye on my heart rate range.

I've yet to try the Speed daemon drill, but I plan on giving it a whirl soon.

Rhodabike

One-legged pedalling. Take one foot out and rest it on a box, the downtube, anywhere out of the way. Shift down to a lower gear and pedal with just one leg, concentrating on going around in a continuous circle and taking the dead spots out of the stroke. Do about 20 revolutions, then switch legs. You really feel the auxillary muscles around the hip joint coming into play with this drill. It gives you a really smooth efficient spin come spring.

CliftonGK1

I've got a Velodrome in my backyard (Marymoor is just 8 miles away), but it's outdoors and below 20 degrees the past few days so I'll stick with my rollers in the nice warm gym at my apartment building.

I ride a fixed gear on the rollers, so I don't have any option for varying my resistance levels, so it's all about intervals for me.
I start out with some stretching, then move into the first set of calesthenics: 30 situps, 20 push ups, 10 burpees, whatever number of pull ups I can manage (sadly, it's less than 5).
Then I go for a 15 minute warm up around 80 - 85rpm to loosen up the legs. Afterwards, hop off for round 2 of calesthenics, same as the first round.
Back to the bike for 5 interval reps: 1 minute sprint (23-ish mph on a 44/18 is around 120rpm, which gets tricky on rollers), then back off to 85 or 90rpm for 2 minutes recovery. 5 reps of this gets me my 2nd 15 minutes and it's back to the floor for round 3 of calesthenics. Then I hop on the bike again for 10 minutes around 90rpm and 5 minutes of cool down around 65rpm to finish the routine.

CliftonGK1

Especially good on rollers. You really have to concentrate on being smooth since there's nothing bracing the bike upright. I can do one-leg for either side and keep it pretty smooth, and I can take either hand off the bar to wipe my brow or adjust my earphones, but I'm not smooth enough yet to reach the Grail of roller-riding: No Hands.

Seattle Forrest

I do this a lot on the trainer. ( My trainer is a set of rollers with a ... thing that grabs the front of the bike so you can't fall. ) High cadence drills are a lot of work, so you're burning calories, working your heart, and getting great exercise. But then when you take the bike off the trainer and go for a ride, I think it helps a lot. You can be on your way in a hurry if you can spin yourself up to speed without having to shift.

Seve

I'm going to add this to my routine as well, thanks.

Wogster

Another option, distance workout, basically the same as going by time, but go by distance instead, it varies the time of the workout rather then the distance.....

Neil_B

I thought of you guys when reading this.....

https://www.theonion.com/articles/thi...nighter,18607/

Wogster

Yeah, well, it beats getting fat and old.....

Fat I can handle, more exercise, less food, working on this, signed up for my plate, they tell me for sedentary lifestyle and to lose 1kg a week, I need 1500 calories per day, so far I am 1400 short on the week, if I keep this up, I'll get my 1kg and some more.

thestoutdog

Great idea, on my wishlist.

Brando_T.

I've been doing two modes of training

The first is an aerobic 50-60 minutes where I will stay below my anaerobic threshold - about 145-150 bpm. I'll cycle between 5-10-15 minutes at that HR and then will spin to get a HR down below 130, then repeat. I like this workout because, while boring, it doesn't eat me up and lets me repeat it next day.

The second is anaerobic training using Sufferfest videos, which I highly recommend. Two that I have done repeatedly is the Downward Spiral and Revolver, and these will chew me up. If I do it on a Saturday morning, i'll need a nap in the afternoon.

My goal is 3x1 hour aerobic workouts (to build a base) and 1 x 1 hour anaerobic per week. Of course the reality isn't matching the goal, but i'm doing OK.

The two Sufferfest vids have interesting formats that you may want to try

Downward Spiral: 8 minutes warmup. then a cycle of 2 minutes sprint/2 minutes spin/1:45 sprint/1:45 spin/1:30 sprint/1:30 spin down to :15 sprint. After that cycle, a 10 minute recovery period, then repeat. I have yet to get through the entire video without stopping early or skipping one of the sprint intervals.

Revolver: 8 minutes warmup. Then 1 minute sprint/1 minute rest x 20 times. a 10 minute recovery - then repeat the 20 intervals.

Brando_T.

Tonight will be a hour long aerobic workout while watching Canada win gold at the U23.