Turbo Trainer Vs Road

Deep Thought

Hi

Just wondering is there any correlation between time on the Trainer and Road Time

Eg. - Is 1 hour one the trainer the same as 1 hr road...it seems tougher on the trainer..

Am recovering from back injury and trying to get back into it.

Thanks

DT

smacl

Doing a bit of both myself at the moment and the easiest way to correlate the two in terms of effort is a heart rate monitor. I guess a power meter would be better still if you had one, though that's effective output rather than effort. Using a TacX VR system myself, the speed, power and distance travelled figures are not valid comparisons to the road unless you regularly re-calibrate, and even then don't account for interference factors such as wind. Where they're useful is for relative comparison of effort between turbo sessions. Cadence on the turbo is very useful, especially if like me you tend to push too hard a gear at low cadence at times.

FWIW, I also find the turbo harder, and work that bit harder on it too. Main reason at a guess is lack of downhills after a big climb which the turbo doesn't simulate too well.

Beasty

No freewheeling, stopping at junctions etc on the turbo. I tend to work on the basis 40 mins on the turbo (or Wattbike) is similar to an hour+ on the road

I pretty much trained for the WW200 back in 2009 on the turbo following knee surgery and was doing 3+ hour sessions on occasions. The past 3 winters I've done the vast majority off my training indoors due to various injuries but nowadays rarely go an hour but certainly don't feel it too much if I then go for a 2+ hour road spin

Whenever we've had a thread on the subject the consensus tends to be you do work harder indoors (except perhaps when racing)

dahat

Turbo trainer work has improved my cadence massively as you need to keep spinning due to intensity as you need recovery.

I have done 90% of my Winter work indoors and will continue for the foreseeable future as I'm alot fitter now than any point last year.

transylman

If you have strava, look at the 25w power distribution for any outdoor ride. Around 20% of any ride you do will be spent freewheeling due to going down declines or micro breaks. On a turbo ride you will spend pretty much zero time in this zone. Result is an hour on the turbo is roughly equivalent to around 1 hour 20 outside.

Only negative from turbo is that you may struggle to maintain same effort due to overheating, but that can be compensated for with some large fans.

Macy0161

TrainerRoad say to extend outdoor swaps by 1.3 - 1.7 times the turbo duration.

I'd definitely recommend TrainerRoad or Zwift anyway. I use TrainerRoad, and it's really turned the turbo into something that I don't mind doing now having a bit of structure. Others find the racing aspect of zwift more motivating.

clod71

Love Zwift and unlocking new wheels and new bikes...
The road is the best gym though.
Ride on

godtabh

I did 40km on Zwift yesterday. Just under an hour 20. Similar profile on the road would take at least an hour 35.

I'd also be a lot more wrecked than the road version

Techo

Forced indoors after an off three weeks ago (car moved in front of me in slow moving traffic and had to take avoidance action and ended up landing on elbow), and cracked a bone in my elbow. Training for the WW200 and happy to have the turbo, only basic but does the job in conjunction with speed & cadence sensors and heart rate monitor. I always hated the turbo and would never have spent no more than half an hour on it, but since then I have done several one hour sessions and a two hour session (not recommended!). I was told by lads in the LBS that half hour on turbo was like an hour on the road.I find it great to keep training and not worry about cars, weather, etc, plus I've gotten to see several DVDs that have been gathering dust for a few years!

Derrydingle

When working on zones on the turbo does anyone else find it harder to rise your HR on the turbo then the road

Deep Thought

Techo wrote: »

speed & cadence sensors

Thanks for all the replies, would you have any recommendations for speed and cadence sensors ?

clod71

Deep Thought wrote: »

Thanks for all the replies, would you have any recommendations for speed and cadence sensors ?

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/ie/en/garmin-speed-cadence-sensor/rp-prod134821

PowerToWait

Derrydingle wrote: »

When working on zones on the turbo does anyone else find it harder to rise your HR on the turbo then the road

It's definitely an issue for me anyway. Even with a 16'' fan blowing in my face. But that's where power comes in.

Also if you're doing a lot of turbo it's easier to overreach I think, so there's a chance you could be overdoing it.

Beasty

Typically you are getting no respite on the turbo so the HR progresses upwards. Even a fan does not replicate the typical cooling you will get on the road

On the road the HR will recover either due to freewheeling or benefitting from drafting and the like.

The only time my HR reacts on the road in a similar fashion to on the turbo is when I'm doing a TT/pursuit effort