Trainers harder than the road?

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cyberknight

As long as I breathe, I attack.
We have to remember on the road you are not giving it the full beans all the time due to tail winds , changes of incline etc etc .

I have been doing 1/2 hour sessions indoors this week as i cant get out for a ride and i certainly work harder than i do on my rides of a similar distance because i can control my workout more rather than relying on the variable factors of terrain and weather .
 

Globalti

Legendary Member
I bought an entry level turbo before Christmas out of desperation. Some things I have learned:

1 - That using a turbo after graduating to road riding is much easier; as a mountain biker I used to hate it and found even 30 minutes difficult. As a roadie I find it easier, I spin more smoothly, it's almost enjoyable and I find I have the mental discipline to do it for an hour.

2 - That un-clamping from the trainer after an hour and going for a quick pootle up the road feels weird and that the hill I must climb from my house is easier with warmed up muscles and that my "standard" turbo HR of 140 is the same HR as when I'm climbing the hill, i.e. a comfortable working HR.
 

TheSandwichMonster

Junior Senior
Location
Devon, UK
I found the same, but turbo'ing is (generally speaking) constant and relentless. You don't freewheel, you don't shift position nearly so much and the point of a turbo (other than training) is to make you glad when you CAN get out on the roads. I found that a turbo is a very good way of showing you where your bike setup needs attention - any little niggles (the angle of my saddle in my case) quickly make themselves felt.
 

Garz

Squat Member
Location
Down

I think it was more to do with the question being answerable to a number of reasons however your reply was chiefly aimed at pointing to power which if you check out Alex's blog lists a number of factors. It does make sense from a physics point of view, I personally wouldn't worry about turbo stats and continue to measure on the road efforts comparing them directly to indicate performance.
 
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