Newbie with a turbo trainer. Any advice?

[bearman68]

OK, I'm officially getting old, and I can't enjoy the winter to run, and play hockey, and ice climb and hill walk, and ski, and things, like I've done for 35 years. And I hate it.

So I thought I'd get a cheap Chinese Ebay non smart turbo trainer. How wrong can you go for £50?

I'm pretty sure I can get it set up in my dry, and light shed. It's a decent sized shed in the garden, maybe 15ft long, and about 10 ft wide. (I digress).
Now, 100 yards from the neighbours (so noise is not a problem), how do I use the next few weeks to get the best from both my time and the turbo trainer without beating my brains out in boredom, or (more likely) over doing it.

You'll notice the list above does not include cycling - though I have done a bit (including LEJOG).

Witty and entertaining answers will be very well received.

[defblade]

Sorry, not very witty or entertaining...

With a dumb trainer, I used youtube videos to ride along to. GCN do some good workout ones; there's an Australian CC that do chain gang run vids of various lengths which I enjoyed; there are various random rides through nice countryside (I was chatting to a friend in America, while "riding through" a small town it turned out he'd been on holiday in the year before!)... many of these tell you when to make things harder or easier and are 1000% better than just staring at the wall counting time and trying to motivate yourself.

Then, Planet Rock over the top of those.


And get a big fan. No, a bigger one. A REALLY big fan. Floor fans are best (though mine is now mounted on the wall above/in front of me due to lay-out restrictions). And a towel handy. You are going to sweat!

Sooner rather then later, realise you really want to have a proper go at Zwift, and buy a smart trainer

[Dannbodge]

There are various videos on youtube that allow you to follow a workout using your gears and the resistance adjustment of the turbo
They should keep you fairly entertained.

If I have a long low intensity session then I catch up on my youtube subs and netflix etc.

I have been known to sit in work conference calls during those sessions too.

Ultimately, until you try different things you won't know what stops you being bored. I love zwift but struggle with anything over 90mins on there.

[Barchettaman]

I work, but as an opera singer it’s just a case of setting up the study tape of the role playing through noise-cancelling headphones, getting the score on a music stand and going for it.

I appreciate my needs and experience may be a little different to most indoor riders.

[Tabs]

A few daft bits of advice in no particular order.
To level the bike, raise the front wheel. I use a house brick with a hollow in it.
You'll then need a step to get onto the bike if you're an old git like me! I use a a kitchen cupboard step. Light enough to push away from your pedals, and pull back one footed.
Have a chair or similar on the other side, high enough to reach to hold drinks, towel, remote TV controls etc.
You shouldn't need a special rear tyre, but keep an eye on it for wear and temperature.
Put another towel where your hands grip. You'll sweat buckets!
Give yourself a bit of a work out by doing intervals. Two minutes hard, two minutes tick over etc.
If it's a decent bike, wipe sweat drips off when finished.
And as mentioned, good ventilation

[bigandclever]

Throw it in the bin and buy rollers instead

[bearman68]

Thanks for the comments and advice.

The trainer is in the outside shed - no heating, just basically undercover and not much more. I'm hoping wifi will reach. Will I still need a really big fan? I'll find out I guess.

I'm going to take a little time to set it up over the weekend, and give it a decent bashing in the evenings next week. I reckon an hour on the bike, followed by an hour of Pilates will be quite a decent session. We'll see.

[defblade]

bearman68 said:

Thanks for the comments and advice.

The trainer is in the outside shed - no heating, just basically undercover and not much more. I'm hoping wifi will reach. Will I still need a really big fan? I'll find out I guess.

I'm going to take a little time to set it up over the weekend, and give it a decent bashing in the evenings next week. I reckon an hour on the bike, followed by an hour of Pilates will be quite a decent session. We'll see.

I ride in an unheated garage. In winter, I'll start with a hoodie on over a t-shirt, but ten minutes in and the hoodie's coming off. Then a bit later, the fan goes on. If it's really cold, I may turn the fan off and on for a few minutes at a time... but I am a hot'n'sweaty type at the best of times

I'd say an hour is quite a long time to aim for from the start, even if you have some long-distance riding experience. Turbo training tends to keep you very fixed in position, and is relentless in effort (no downhill bits!), and so is much harder on your body and especially the undercarriage. 20-30 mins to start, and see how you go might be a better plan - easier to build up fairly quickly than overdo it from the start and need time off to recover from sores etc.

Having said that, I have chopped up a camping mat and put 6 layers under my trainer and each of it's legs - gives it a bit of wobble which makes longer sessions far more bearable (and also raised the front to keep it all level). Fancy trainer platforms are available for £££, but the mat was £6.99 from SportsDirect and works ok for me

[esuuv]

Buy a cheap cadence and speed sensor and setup a Zwift account - seriously - turbos are beyond mind numbing if you're just spinning the pedals.

Also Netflix, YouTube, amazon etc etc etc