Did my first couple of tri races this year and a marathon a few weeks ago. Hoping to do another middle distance or two (possibly maybe but prob not an ironman) and as I know my time is going to be really limited I had thought about getting a turbo trainer to maximise the rewards from training. However having had a turbo in the past I know how miserable it can be bashing out long rides and if I were to get one it would be 1 hour sessions max and intervals with sufferfest vids. So was wondering if it’s worth having over the winter? I’m going to struggle getting time to get long base rides in (although I will do when I get the chance) so is having a turbo and doing intervals good to build for the better weather or just going to be the right thing at the wrong time?

Like you say, they’re best for intervals. I enjoy my Turbos, but I’d never do any base stuff on them.
Don’t know what these sufferfest videos are, but how the hell you can watch a vid during hard intervals is beyond me.

I’m not also sure if intervals are of any use way out of your racing season? I really don’t know.

Doing intervals on a turbo in winter is much better than doing nothing at all, however creating a “base” they do not make.

I spent most of last winter on them after 3 months of snow over here.

This year I plan to use rollers for technique/base and the turbo for intervals when the snow hits.

search sufferfest oldgit, all will become clear

yeah they’re def not going to be ideal for base but better than nothing a guess plus back to rugby training and going to try get along to a couple of cross races and they’re both intervally anyway. Hmm will need to think bit more bout this

always thought that anything below threshold was base,so yes you can do base on a turbo in an hour

I do base on mine if needs must. Possibly the most boring thing ever though.

i know you can do long dull as hell base rides on a turbo, i dont want to. The question is does interval training on a turbo help contribute to base or is it too specific? and secondly if it’s better than nothing is it still quite useful for maintaining fitness?

I did all of my base last year on rollers 1hr max at a time (on the advice from the guy that coaches Oli beckingsale)

tricky what sort of sessions were you doing? Mind if I email you some questions?

yea.. Go for it