Trying to regain my fitness after a few months off with a torn calf

What’s a good average speed comparable to normal road riding?

Turning the pedals by hand feels like I’ve got the turbo set quite high but I’m in the big ring with only a few higher gears left which makes me think I’ve set it a bit easy.

Figured if I can aim for an average speed it’d give me a good indication

ignore the speed its futile –
If you dont have a power meter use cadence and HR to gauge effort and resistance

I don’t have a hr monitor or power meter

well guess how much effort your putting in and go by cadence

or if your all fixed up just get out on the road and then youll know what speed your doing 😀

FWIW I average around 23mph during an hours worth of turbo, which includes recovery periods hence why speed alone is probably not a great indicator.

Far better to scale your effort depending on your current fitness.

If your speed sensor is Ant+ you could always invest in a dongle and use TrainerRoad for virtual power.

If not then get hold of an Ant+ HRM (and dongle above) and train by heart rate, you’ll get much more out of it than by speed alone.

Different turbo trainers have different power/speed curves so you can’t compare speeds between them
There was a speedometer (via PlanetX) that you could programme in the stats for your turbo trainer and it would give an equivalent power output, but it must have had a margin of error, including tyre type and pressures, and likely difference even on the same make/model
You can only do speed/gearing for your bike on your turbo, unless you have some proper power meter
Perceived effort is the best measure, in which case it never feels easier, you just get stronger

+1 for ANT+ speed/cadence and a dongle and a subscription to trainer road.

Without it I was always thinking ‘this is easy’ and shifting up a gear, then after 5 minutes being completely dead and dropping right down the cassette. Actually having a line on the screen to follow makes the whole thing easier to do in a structured way.

It also distracts from the utter tedium that is turbo training on your own!

Thanks, I was just thinking there might be a basic rule of thumb that 20kph on the road is roughly equivalent to 30kph on the turbo. Therefore if I’m doing 40 for an hour its too low, if I’m doing 10 its too high.

I have it set up in the front room with a load of DVD box sets lined up, its not perfect but it’ll do. I would love to get out and do a proper ride but I have really limited free time at the moment so the turbo gives me more opportunity.

But speed is an irrelevance as you’re not going anywhere, even if there was a linear relationship, it means nothing.

if your using a turbo to sit at a constant speed for an hour your doing it all wrong anyway.