Buzzatronic

I'm hoping to get my fiance to ride a double century with me next July and I want to get her as ready as possible. Her job schedule makes it hard for her to really train a lot during the week so I'm thinking of getting her an indoor bike to ride at night. I've put her bike on a trainer in the garage and she's ridden that a few times but she doesn't really like it (which means she won't do it much), so I'm thinking of getting her a recumbent stationary bike just to build up some endurance for her legs while she watches TV, knits or does whatever else she likes to do.

Is this a viable training option or is the difference between a normal and recumbent bike so different that training endurance on the recumbent will not help much (or worse yet, hurt her fitness for the normal bike)?

no1mad 

I've seen quite a few comments in the Recumbent forum here that claims that there is a difference in the way the leg muscles are worked.

That being said, how does she feel about the idea of doing that double century? Is this something that you want her to do for you or is it something she wants to do for herself?

Buzzatronic

Doing it was her idea. I did it with a friend last year and she picked us up in Portland and saw how much fun we had even though it was a massive effort.

What I want to avoid is her having a bad time due to lack of training which may sour her on this type of stuff in the future.

Carbonfiberboy 

Big difference in how the leg muscles are worked and when the nerves fire. Bad idea. Fine for general public aerobic training, though I see most people reading on them!

You have to ride out there with her! She's not going to do it by herself. You need a serious loud and fun playlist. Make every ride different: a different workout each day of the week or each time you ride trainers together. Make up a progressive training plan. Make all the rides 1 hour or less. Do some high cadence, some steady zone 2, some zone 3 intervals, some low cadence high effort intervals, etc., etc.

You might also get gym memberships and go to the gym a couple times a week during the winter. More leg strength will come in handy in the spring. They might have something like a StepMill that's decent aerobic work, or just work ellipticals. Almost every gym has those. I always do some aerobic at the gym, then weights.

You might also think about getting her rollers. Most people find rollers much less objectionable than a trainer. More interesting, less boring. With resistance, you can do the same workouts you can do on a trainer. You ride the trainer!

I ride with Eastside groups that focus on STP and RAMROD training as well as with groups that do brevets. PM me if you're interested.