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I've just been given a Tacx Flow turbo trainer (non-smart), never used one in the past so what's the best way to use it?
Looking to improve stamina and strength as there's a lot of hills to climb around here and I'm not getting out as much as I'd like so,when I do, it's a struggle.
Thanks...
Get yourself signed up to one of the various on-line training programs - Sufferfest, Trainerroad, Zwift, etc. Without them I can manage 20mins on a turbo, with them I've done two hours. Which one you choose depends on what you want to do on the turbo and whether you tend towards the structured side of things (Trainerroad) or prefer games (Zwift).
Get yourself a decent fan - riding a turbo is hot work. There's a recent thread with suggestions.
Not used the Tacx but if it doesn't report power then you will need to set up virtual power which guestimates how hard you are working based on the settings. A HRM can be useful. Something to watch the training session on and also ANT+/bluetooth connectivity so that the program can communicate with the turbo and any devices.
If you've not done any training then pretty well any training program will give you results, it's only after the initial surge that the better programs shine.
I use Trainerroad, Zwift graphics do my head in!, but others find the plain screen boring. Quite a few follow the TR plans and workouts with Zwift or Sufferfest running to give some visual stimulus.
Most of the programs have free trials - I've got three TR intro months that I can hand out for example.
1) Download this video
If WiFi is patchy in your garage use a free program such as 4K video downloader to save it to your hard-drive.
2) Dig out your headphones and put some good upbeat/metronomic tunes on your stereo. I recommend 'Surrender' by the Chemical Brothers.
3) Set bike up facing laptop with a towel handy. You'll quickly start figuring out where's best, I use my garage with the door open and a fan blowing cool air across me
4) Buy a speed sensor as a minimum. Speed is a useful cheap way of tracking how much work you are doing. It is not as accurate as power, but if you keep your setup consistent (same resistance at turbo, same tyre pressure, same number of turns on the knob at the roller) then it gives you a consistent benchmark and is obviously 1/10th the cost of a power meter.
5) Experiment. The simplest way to do the above work-out is to find a pace that you can maintain for the whole workout, on my old Cycleops dumb trainer I think that worked out to be approx 32km/h. That said, I think I was going too hard for a 'sweetspot' workout as in theory sweetspot efforts should be repeatable the very next day and I never felt like two day's of turbo back-to-back! It might take you a few rides to figure out the best pace, but this is good, if you start low (e.g. 25km/h for the intervals) then at least your body and knees will get used to the turbo, rather than trying to smash out hard intervals and injuring yourself in a week! (ask me how I know...)
Enjoy! If you follow the video, have some good tunes and do the workouts right, it's really not too much of a chore, I'm still not allowed back on the turbo due to a back injury but genuinely miss my unbelieveably sweaty sessions with this or some of the other GCN vids.
Tacx flow is smart isn’t it? Mine is anyway.
Or is it an older version ?
Keep it simple to start.
Find the GCN vids on YouTube, start with the ones that are between 20 and 40 mins long.
Warm up for 5 mins then click play on the vid and use perceived effort as a measure.
If you’re not sweating buckets and shattered at the end then work harder next time.
Or is it an older version ?
Yep, the older one with the small computer on it.
Did a quick, 35 min session, yesterday once I'd got the bike set up.
20mph, cadence around 80-90 and about 240 watts.
Will have to use my phone to start with as don't have wifi in the shed or a working laptop 🙄
You can do TrainerRoad workouts on your phone and don’t need WiFi as it downloads all the workouts to your phone. If you have a speed sensor it will use virtual power. I have a one month free trial of you want to give it a go. PM me.
I agree with all of the above but if you're just wanting to jump on to test it out I'd just smash out 3 x 10mins at an effort of 7 or 8 out of ten with 5mins rest inbetween each effort and a 10min warm-up at the start.
Edit to say, music of your choice blasted out loud in your ears is obligatory
and about 240 watts.
Is it the non smart version that still measures watts (the i flow i think its called)? Or do you have some other power measuring device?
If it's the former then just be warned that the power reading is miles off being correct..I had one.
If you have another power measuring device on the bike then get on to zwift as you'll be able to take power readings from that