T.M.H.N.E.T
Rainbows aren't just for world champions
- Location
- Northern Ireland
For the uninitiated Trainer Road (which shall be referred to as TR from now onwards) is a Windows and Mac compatible software designed to make turbo trainer workouts a little more challenging. The software itself relies wholly upon ANT+ technology to provide the real-time feedback during a workout.
There are 3 ways in which to do and record a workout with TR
ANT+ Power meters: (Quarq , PowerTap , SRM , Power2Max, Garmin Vector, Zone, etc) or a CompuTrainer.
Heart Rate: ANT+ HR Strap (Garmin , Cycleops, Wahoo Fitness , etc)
Virtual Power: ANT+ Speed Sensor - Garmin GSC10, Wahoo Fitness Speed and Cadence Sensor
***All three methods require a USB ANT+ receiver stick. Garmin make one as do Suunto(Movestick mini)***
And a compatible Turbo Trainer: List here
Virtual Power(commonly used and is the cheapest option) takes the known power curve from a listed trainer and through your ANT+ speed sensor turns this into an approximate figure in watts. This figure is then used as you follow the onscreen instructions and prompts during a workout.
So once you have the hardware you chose fitted it's time to download TR and begin the very easy setup process. The first time you load the program is will take a few seconds to download workout files.
You can then go to this screen if you have your USB ANT+ stick plugged in and installed. I've already used TR so my sensors have been paired already but haven't been woken up.
A quick spin of my cranks (bike is on other side of room) wakes up the Wahoo speed/cadence sensor fitted. The HRM will pair itself once a heartbeat is detected.
Note: I have my trainer and resistance level selected in this same window.
With devices paired it's almost time to do a workout(theres plenty of them!) But some other minor stuff first.
Click on the "Profile" tab.
For most purposes you would want to be training with FTP, this by default is set to 200 which can be lower or higher for you. As you can see mine is currently 220
LTHR: Is a pretty random number as I was having problems with a known bug.
Power smoothing: This option stabilizes the figures as an average during a workout. You can have none, 3secs or 5secs.
The last important option is "Don't use cadence to play and pause workouts". This option ticked will start a workout once you hit the start button, if you use cadence(above 60rpm) starts the workout and 0 rpm pauses the workout. A handy feature if you break your bike like I did yesterday :P (this was not any fault of TR or the trainer
)
Workout screen: The gold stars are workouts that I have favourited,these will remain at the top of the window. I'm currently doing the intermediate base plan and Baxter is my next ride so it's there waiting. You can open and view a workout by clicking the graph or by using the Open button when you are viewing the details of the workout.
A sensible place to start is with the 20 minute test. This is 1 hour long with a 20 minute max effort segment. This segment is used to calculate your FTP (the maximum power you can sustain for 1hr) After you have done this, TR will give you a recommendation as to what it thinks your FTP should be set to. As you will see soon,this setting scales all workouts for you.
Here is the result: Although it suggested 201 I made it a little higher anyway.
Down to business:
I've taken the liberty of highlighting 6 fields to explain a little further so onto the 3 upper left of the window:
Power: This is the current power that is being calculated
Bold red line: When this bar is green you are in the sweet spot either side of the target.
Target power: This is the target for you to achieve during a particular segment. As a segment is either beginning or ending, loud bleeps and onscreen instructions tell you what to do. Watch for this target power figure changing as you go
Heart rate and cadence are a given. If you don't have an HRM paired this field won't show.
Across the middle of the workout is a thick white line. This is my FTP and the workout has scaled around that. The highest peak you see corresponds to 352watts for 30 seconds into a 5minute recovery period of 88watt target. This ramps up to the first 8minute segment @ 253watt target.
Bottom left: This option makes TR stay on top of anything else you are doing,handy for watching fullscreen dvd's, youtube, netflix and so on.
The up/down arrows: This option changes the intensity of your workout on the fly. 100% is your current FTP so if a workout is too easy, turn it up and likewise turn it down if it's too hard.
The other awesomeness in TR is compatibility with SufferFest. Currently I only have Hell Hath No Fury and here it is,fully integrated with TR.
The workouts you do will then be listed under the "Career" tab within which you can share via Facebook,download and review the data.
There are 3 ways in which to do and record a workout with TR
ANT+ Power meters: (Quarq , PowerTap , SRM , Power2Max, Garmin Vector, Zone, etc) or a CompuTrainer.
Heart Rate: ANT+ HR Strap (Garmin , Cycleops, Wahoo Fitness , etc)
Virtual Power: ANT+ Speed Sensor - Garmin GSC10, Wahoo Fitness Speed and Cadence Sensor
***All three methods require a USB ANT+ receiver stick. Garmin make one as do Suunto(Movestick mini)***
And a compatible Turbo Trainer: List here
Virtual Power(commonly used and is the cheapest option) takes the known power curve from a listed trainer and through your ANT+ speed sensor turns this into an approximate figure in watts. This figure is then used as you follow the onscreen instructions and prompts during a workout.
So once you have the hardware you chose fitted it's time to download TR and begin the very easy setup process. The first time you load the program is will take a few seconds to download workout files.
You can then go to this screen if you have your USB ANT+ stick plugged in and installed. I've already used TR so my sensors have been paired already but haven't been woken up.
A quick spin of my cranks (bike is on other side of room) wakes up the Wahoo speed/cadence sensor fitted. The HRM will pair itself once a heartbeat is detected.
Note: I have my trainer and resistance level selected in this same window.
With devices paired it's almost time to do a workout(theres plenty of them!) But some other minor stuff first.
Click on the "Profile" tab.
For most purposes you would want to be training with FTP, this by default is set to 200 which can be lower or higher for you. As you can see mine is currently 220
LTHR: Is a pretty random number as I was having problems with a known bug.
Power smoothing: This option stabilizes the figures as an average during a workout. You can have none, 3secs or 5secs.
The last important option is "Don't use cadence to play and pause workouts". This option ticked will start a workout once you hit the start button, if you use cadence(above 60rpm) starts the workout and 0 rpm pauses the workout. A handy feature if you break your bike like I did yesterday :P (this was not any fault of TR or the trainer
)Workout screen: The gold stars are workouts that I have favourited,these will remain at the top of the window. I'm currently doing the intermediate base plan and Baxter is my next ride so it's there waiting. You can open and view a workout by clicking the graph or by using the Open button when you are viewing the details of the workout.
A sensible place to start is with the 20 minute test. This is 1 hour long with a 20 minute max effort segment. This segment is used to calculate your FTP (the maximum power you can sustain for 1hr) After you have done this, TR will give you a recommendation as to what it thinks your FTP should be set to. As you will see soon,this setting scales all workouts for you.
Here is the result: Although it suggested 201 I made it a little higher anyway.
Down to business:
I've taken the liberty of highlighting 6 fields to explain a little further so onto the 3 upper left of the window:
Power: This is the current power that is being calculated
Bold red line: When this bar is green you are in the sweet spot either side of the target.
Target power: This is the target for you to achieve during a particular segment. As a segment is either beginning or ending, loud bleeps and onscreen instructions tell you what to do. Watch for this target power figure changing as you go
Heart rate and cadence are a given. If you don't have an HRM paired this field won't show.
Across the middle of the workout is a thick white line. This is my FTP and the workout has scaled around that. The highest peak you see corresponds to 352watts for 30 seconds into a 5minute recovery period of 88watt target. This ramps up to the first 8minute segment @ 253watt target.
Bottom left: This option makes TR stay on top of anything else you are doing,handy for watching fullscreen dvd's, youtube, netflix and so on.
The up/down arrows: This option changes the intensity of your workout on the fly. 100% is your current FTP so if a workout is too easy, turn it up and likewise turn it down if it's too hard.
The other awesomeness in TR is compatibility with SufferFest. Currently I only have Hell Hath No Fury and here it is,fully integrated with TR.
The workouts you do will then be listed under the "Career" tab within which you can share via Facebook,download and review the data.
So the vids are quite good then? 
