New with trainer
 

Hi there,

I've recently been given a stationary trainer.
Magnetic resistance, adjustable on bars, pretty quiet compared to what I've heard. Nothing real fancy,... but hey,... was a club mate's who's quitting cycling (I don't believe him.... he'll be back in a year or two :P).

Anyway. I am very new to this whole indoor riding. So looking for advice. From a hardware standopint, I don't have any kind of power meter, just a cadence meter, speed and HRM (linked with my Garmin device so I can use all these together, obviously). Oh, and I have my road bike too :P

Still, what can I do that would be productive/useful for training? my goal is to ride in my low-level amateur races in France (~70km ridden at 35-42 km/h avg. to give you an idea)? (knowing that I have no power meter...).

Are these devices (trainers) only meant to ride short (~half-hour) very specific workouts (intervals, or other...) or can it be used to perform longer (~60-90 min.) less specific workouts?
My point is: is it useful, in addition to the specific workouts to ride absent-mindedly in front on the TV for about an hour on days when you would do nothing otherwise?

Can it be used as an easy ride tool for recovery for "the day after"?

Thanks!

You can do ANY type of workout on the trainer.

They are especially good for intervals. You can go by HR, no need to worry about speed or power.

You could also use them for recovery as you mentioned.

Main problem is not workout options, they are limitless. Main problem is BOREDOM.

You can do an entire training programme with them. Base building, threshold, anaerobic. If you aren't using a power meter or hrm, if you are honest with yourself, you can use perceived effort to gauge training loads. There's lots of literature out there that can get you started.

I'd go for something like a 40/20 interval- 40 seconds MAX and 20 seconds rest. You don't necessarily need a power meter for something like that and it provides great benefits.

And yes, you can do longer rides on the trainer if you want. Most people keep it short because it's so boring.

trainerroad.com is a great setup, esp. with sufferfest videos (even training plans if you want).

As mentioned, Trainer Road is great. Check their website to see if Virtual Power is supported with your make/model trainer. If so, sign up for the $10/month subscription and get a USB ANT+ dongle for the computer (if you don't have one already).

I have been using a lot of GCN YouTube training videos while I ride.

Bike Radar has some in partnership with Cycleops too I've got playlists saved for. Once I started looking on Youtube I found quite a few to get me going with my new indoor trainer. Some of the outdoor virtual type and some are just indoor 'spin class' videos. I just finally got setup last night and ran through my first one. I'm enthused it will help keep me from getting too out of shape through the winter.

+1

I done few already and keeping in shape riding my new bike. I hope I get better before I tackle few local climbs and with my local group rides.

I get plenty of hard work out on the road, so I use my rollers almost exclusively for base: 60-90 minutes of z2 at a time. Really nice to be able to lay down totally uninterrupted steady endurance pedaling hours. Almost impossible on the road. So that's what I do: stuff I can't do on the road. Besides the steady z2 work, I do long, up to 45' high cadence drills, one legged pedaling, long low cadence drills at like 50 cadence, that sort of thing. The trainer is nobody's favorite thing to do but if you've got the strength of mind to use it, it'll do the job.

I know some people that use them for only recovery rides.

I don't have any monitoring system, no speed/cadence/power/heart. I do a 5-10min warm-up, hit the pedals for 15 min at a rate that challenges me. Take a 5 min cool down/rest and then do 15min hard again and rest again. I go for 10 min medium paced, them sprint for 2 mins in my 50x11 gear at 90-110 rpm. This pushes me to my limits, and helps my riding, only takes an hour.

Personally I use the trainer for every type of workout that I would do on the road when outdoor riding is a no go. I have a few Spinnerval workouts that I do. I try to match the effort that I would expend on the road with heart rate, power and cadence. Boredom isn't not too much of an issue for me as long as I'm doing a structured workout. Don't get me wrong the trainer is a distant second to real world riding but it beats not riding. I max out around three hours or 50 pseudo miles. It's also good when coming back from an illness or injury and you want to see what you've got before you take it outside.
In case you don't already know it the trainer will eat up your tire in short order and you should replace the skewer in the rear wheel with one dedicated for the trainer. The stress of holding the bike on the trainer can damage the skewer so most trainers come with a steel skewer for that purpose. I have a dedicated wheel that I swap out for that purpose with the same cassette as my road wheel and an indoor trainer tire. Makes the set up quick and simple. I don't want to give myself any excuses to skip the workout.;)

I do 2hr zone 2 a few times per week. And an hour of intervals.

Both of these are hard to do uninterrupted on the street.

How do you people go 2 hours on the trainer in zone 2 without your head esploding from boredom?
After an hour and a half with mixed intervals I'm ready for the loony bin.
I also do single leg drills, high speed cadence work, and total failure efforts on the trainer, as it is safer than on the road. No worries about what's going on around you, or terrain changes that mess with effort.
I like the GCN workouts, and CTX has a few good ones too.

If you have at least ANT+ combined speed/cadence sensor you can use software from http://veloreality.com and enjoy all nice European rides. Structural training part is rather primitive but it is free ;)
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Disclaimer: I work for Veloreality

I just listen to music while pedaling along -- am ready for the looney bin, BTW. Eventually it's my ass that gives out.

Right now this is the only way I can accumulate the miles I want to keep aerobic base fitness increasing. Currently, I can ride in zone 2 at just under 20mph on the Kurt road machine, which is less boring that 17mph.