I’m wanting to race some Enduro’s (starting with the Llandegla mini enduro in a few weeks).

New baby at home and demanding Job, so struggling to get out more than twice a week to ride properly (sometimes once in this weather), so have borrowed a cheap road bike and turbo trainer off a friend for extra training…

Should I buy some sort of cheap heart/cadence monitor to make sure this training is effective (does such a thing exist). I was planning on doing it every other day (either real ride, or TT).

I’ve been doing 2min 30 steady (still a bit of a sweat on) pedalling, followed by 30 second all out in full resistance/high gear using an interval timer app so far. doing 30 mins , which seems ok, certainly gets the blood pumping!

I’m starting to think I should lose my affliction to road biking, as it means I’d get more miles/training for the fun stuff in, but I’m still a decent/downhill lover at heart! One thing is for sure, I enjoy my ‘proper riding’ more when I’m fit, so I need to find a way of sorting it!

I’ve been doing 2min 30 steady (still a bit of a sweat on) pedalling, followed by 30 second all out

Presently you’re training on RPE (rate of perceived exertion). It’s cheap and easy but not very precise.

An HRM would enable you to train in specific HR zones. You could find an HRM training program on t’internet. You’d see improvements pretty quickly I reckon.

Sounds Ok. Key is to mix it up a bit

Sufferfest videos are good and will provide more of a structured session.

You can do things like 1 min flat out, 1 min recovery x 15
2 mins flat out, 2 mins recovery, 1.45 flat out, 1 45 recovery……down to 15 secs
Or longer threshold intervals etc etc

/bookmarks thread/

Can’t add any advice, other than I thought I was relatively bike fit until I jumped back on my road bike/turbo a couple of weeks ago…oooft, the pain! 😆

Will watch with interest…

Speedometer on the rear wheel, small XL table of power vs. speed (it’s pretty linear and available to download from many sources) taped to the stem. Train to power.

You don’t need sophistication, you just need something to measure effort. Trainer Road does just this.

Train to power.

Sir, you have my attention 🙂 Tell me more. How do you do it without a power meter?

As Tired says trainer road is exactly what you’re looking for. I’m a convert this winter. Trainerroad.com

It can all start getting a bit expensive!

Cheapest way IMO is a cheap cadence sensor on your turbo bike and Sufferfest. (less than £40) Will get you riding indoors without it being the most horrible thing ever, but a bit hit and miss in terms of quality.

The best is an Ant + cadence and speed sensor on the bike, plus an Ant + stick in a lap top to receive the data, and then Trainer Road.

At that point you may as well get the full Heart Rate sensor setup too. So your in to probably at least £200 + on equipment.

However it does work, is quite geeky fun and takes the tedium out of turbo work a bit. and you will see measurable results.

Forgot to mention. You need as big a fan as you can get in front of you to blow cold air on you.

I couldn’t face 30 mins on the turbo at one time, discovering Sufferfest and TrainerRoad helped as did having an event to train for.

Well worth the outlay if you’re serious about it, few quid a months subs but you can suspend the account anytime you want (over summer for instance).

If you’ve got a laptop & iPhone, etc then:

Wahoo fitness app: free
Bluetooth HRM : £20
Bluetooth speed/cadence : £40
Netflix sub : £6 a month
Countless turbo plans : free on the web or a few quid on kindle

Find out your max heart rate and go from there.

Sufferfest and base it on RPE, job jobbed if you are only doing this for fun and dont want to spend much. I found doing it on RPE I worked too hard to start with, when I swapped to HR I found I was working less but still knackered at the end of it but at least let me get to the end of the vids, some of them on RPE I wasn’t able to keep up lol. HR will be better if you fancy spending a little money but as its delayed, it doesnt always match up with what you think you are doing. Power meter is of course the best way, but then into mega bucks.

Forget HR, power etc. not needed until you get to a decent level of fitness and competitiveness just get yourself to a decent level of fitness first. RPE is fine to use I’ve coached someone just using RPE and they won a national series so HR and power really not necessary. Just make sure you warm up for 10 minutes and cool down for the same try and make your sessions at least 40-60 minutes.

Here’s mine (Tacx Sartori)

just pick a few speed/power levels you like for resistance. I’m not a masher, so anything over about 5 on the dial feels too hard!

My FTE is 300 Watts, so that’s level 4 and ride at 42.5 km/hr. Simples (except the riding bit 😉 )

It can all start getting a bit expensive

Not really. All you need is a very cheap wireless Cateye computer on the rear wheel calibrated to km/hr. Or, if you are geeky, like me, you can set the wheel diameter manually so that on level 4, it reads power instead of speed. The ratio is 7.0588, so multiply the wheel circumference by this. (Or if your computer won’t take such a large diameter, use 0.70588 and read the decimal point as the last unit digit; 30.0 km/hr = 300 Watts.

This is linear arithmetic, after all.

I do road for distance, turbo intervals (and bad weather training), gym strength and swim for relaxing and easing off good cardio and rest.

Turbo intervals and hill work is good for power
Long road cardio and distance
Pool relaxing and easing off
Gym back arm strength
Dont discount the value of rest and recovery
add some skills days on the MTB
Diet, eat sensibly

being fitter overall will improve your speed and endurance

Common myth is that you must kill your self each session, wrong, training is progressive intensity with repetition.

Build a good base you can maintain, measure it KM, time etc then improve on that with goals.

HR is not really a great indicator of effort on the turbo. Firstly, there’s a lag between effort and HR, and so particularly for short intervals, by the time your heart rate has caught up most of the interval is over and you may or may not have been in the required zone. Secondly, the HR tends to drift higher as you get hotter. So for example, you may spend 10 minutes warming up, and start the 1st interval with a HR of 130bpm. At the end of the 1st interval your HR may be 160bpm. You then recover but the HR may only drop to 140bpm. You then do the second interval, and put out the same effort/power, but your HR now hits 165bpm. And finally, HR can be elevated or depressed depending on environmental and physiological conditions – how hot it is, or how tired you are for example.

Ideally you should use power to judge your effort, but if you don’t have £500+ to spend on a power meter or a power enabled turbo, then the next best thing is to get a speed sensor that’ll work with the rear wheel, as all else being equal speed equates to power.

By all means measure your HR and keep note of it as well as your RPE in your training log. Sometimes looking back on these numbers can be revealing.

How is the TacX Sartori as a trainer then?

Lovely I just bought me a mag trainer.

I must admit I’m just guessing, and trying to match the efforts I make on the trainer to those I make on a ride – 5-10 minute warm up spinning, 10 minutes at medium resistance, five minutes easy, five minutes high resistance, five easy, 10 at medium, warm down.

I suppose I’m trying to replicate longish grinds up climbs.