Should Turbo miles for your years final total?

[CXRAndy]

There have been weeks when it’s not been possible to get outside on the bike and I’ve recorded 100+ miles at over 20mph average.

A bit vague, what turbo?

Ive done 100mile group rides at nearly 25 mph on a flat courss, but its no walk in the park with an average for me 240 W for 4 hours. Compare that wattage riding solo the speed is around 20-21mph.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

The peoples referendum has been held. The people spoke and we must respect their decision that turbo miles do not count. We will now enter a two year period as we invoke article 50 to withdraw from the turbo world.

 

[berty bassett]

oops - i was so uninterested in what people think to my miles i forgot to vote !

 

[berty bassett]

?

 

[Ming the Merciless]

oops - i was so uninterested in what people think to my miles i forgot to vote !

Sound like that other vote!

 

[Strathlubnaig]

I track the turbo / spin / rollers km but do not include in my annual cycling totals, same with running and dreadmills. Each to their own though.

 

[Zofo]

Riding the turbo is better than not riding at all, but in my opinion and experience turbo riding doesn’t make you “Match Fit” You can spend the winter months churning away on the turbo only to find a soon as you ride out in the real world the fitness and endurance you thought you had just isn’t there.

 

[huwsparky]

Riding the turbo is better than not riding at all, but in my opinion and experience turbo riding doesn’t make you “Match Fit” You can spend the winter months churning away on the turbo only to find a soon as you ride out in the real world the fitness and endurance you thought you had just isn’t there.

I agree totally. You notice a lot of people put a lot of effort getting their 20min power good as this gives the bragging rights for w/kg-ftp but it's only a part of the story. Was looking at someone's power curve somewhere on this forum recently and after 20min the drop off to the hour was massive. What should be around 5% was about 25%. Obviously depends on what your goals are but having a good endurance base is gonna be pretty important for the majority of people who want to ride a bike quickly. Time is obviously an issue for most but there's no escaping the benefits of having a good base.

 

[CXRAndy]

Riding the turbo is better than not riding at all, but in my opinion and experience turbo riding doesn’t make you “Match Fit” You can spend the winter months churning away on the turbo only to find a soon as you ride out in the real world the fitness and endurance you thought you had just isn’t there.

I disagree, the level of fitness can be very high and only a smidge off peak if not peak. Depends on your preferred discipline, short, long events or TT to racing.

There have been some remarkable results from Pro riders who have used a turbo to recover from injury to go and win titles off the back of major turbo training- Steve Cummings comes to mind.

If you have a comprehensive setup with a high end turbo, rocker board, multiple hour sessions are easily achieved indoors

 

[Zofo]

I disagree, the level of fitness can be very high and only a smidge off peak if not peak. Depends on your preferred discipline, short, long events or TT to racing.

There have been some remarkable results from Pro riders who have used a turbo to recover from injury to go and win titles off the back of major turbo training- Steve Cummings comes to mind.

If you have a comprehensive setup with a high end turbo, rocker board, multiple hour sessions are easily achieved indoors

Yeah, I was talking from the perspective of a typical weekend warrior MAMIL, so possibly different for those at the top end-marginal gains and what have you .....

 

[CXRAndy]

My fitness in spring is very high for me, where I dont need one or two months to build any further. Going outside then just adds a cherry on top. I ride indoors from September to March/April. I have for the last 3 years had winter trips to Tenerife with organised tour company. Great fun, extra sun, warm weather, lots of mountain climbing, breaks up the turbo sessions

 

[huwsparky]

Yeah, I was talking from the perspective of a typical weekend warrior MAMIL, so possibly different for those at the top end-marginal gains and what have you .....

Absolutely right. Comparing a typical mamil to a top end pro is totally pointless. The biggest strength of a pro is the biggest weakness of a weekend warrior.

 

[CXRAndy]

Absolutely right. Comparing a typical mamil to a top end pro is totally pointless. The biggest strength of a pro is the biggest weakness of a weekend warrior.

No its not, if anyone puts the time and effort into turbo sessions, they will arrive at spring very fit. On the few occasions Ive gone on club runs earlier in the new year, my fitness has usually been much better than my club mates who ride outdoors all winter.

 

[huwsparky]

No its not, if anyone puts the time and effort into turbo sessions, they will arrive at spring very fit. On the few occasions Ive gone on club runs earlier in the new year, my fitness has usually been much better than my club mates who ride outdoors all winter.

To me that says more about what your mates are doing with their time than it does about you. Obviously, crap training is crap training no matter how you dress it up. And let's be honest, if your mates don't do any indoor training then they probably don't ride all that much anyway in winter.

BTW I do a fair bit of riding indoors, but I couldn't go through the boredom of 4+ hours weekly ride that i know i need to do be where I need to be for when i start the season. If you can block out the boredom and get those rides done indoors then I don't for one minute think they are more effective being done outdoors BTW.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

To me that says more about what your mates are doing with their time than it does about you. Obviously, crap training is crap training no matter how you dress it up. And let's be honest, if your mates don't do any indoor training then they probably don't ride all that much anyway in winter.

BTW I do a fair bit of riding indoors, but I couldn't go through the boredom of 4+ hours weekly ride that i know i need to do be where I need to be for when i start the season. If you can block out the boredom and get those rides done indoors then I don't for one minute think they are more effective being done outdoors BTW.

Plenty enough riders do a reasonable amount of miles outdoors in the winter (with none indoors) . Maybe his mates are covering more than 200 miles a week during the winter. What do you call not very many miles when referring to @CXRAndy's mates?