3:2 Minute Interval Turbo Trainer Workout

It’s always good to mix things up a little on the Turbo Trainer. Also, I had coffee with Jon the other day, my friend who did the various tests on me at the Sports & Exercise Department at Aberystwyth University. Whilst chatting about training he said that the session to do out of the ones he’d given me were the 3:2 minute intervals. I hadn’t tried these before so I though I’d give them a go yesterday.

The idea is that after a warm up you do up to 7 repetitions of 3 minutes at a pre-determine, hard workload and then have 2 minutes rest. John had set me a target of 275 Watts for the hard 3 minutes. I can only set the power output in increments of 10 Watts on my Tacx Flow Turbo Trainer so decided to give it a go at 270 Watts. My workout therefore was:

Warm Up:

• 5 minutes @ 140 Watts
• 4 minutes @ 200 Watts
• 1 minute @ 100 Watts

Main Set

• 3 minutes @ 270 Watts, 2 minutes @ 100 Watts
• 3 minutes @ 270 Watts, 2 minutes @ 100 Watts
• 3 minutes @ 270 Watts, 2 minutes @ 100 Watts
• 3 minutes @ 270 Watts, 2 minutes @ 100 Watts
• 3 minutes @ 270 Watts, 2 minutes @ 100 Watts
• 3 minutes @ 270 Watts, 2 minutes @ 100 Watts
• 3 minutes @ 280 Watts, 2 minutes @ 100 Watts

Cool Down:

• 4 minutes @ 180 Watts
• 3 minutes @ 140 Watts
• 3 minutes @ 100 Watts

Here is my heart rate trace during the workout, peaking at 164bpm (90.6% of my maximum)

As you can see although it was quite hard, I still felt OK on then final repetition and actually did it at 280 Watts rather than 270 Watts. Next time I shall have to try it at 280 Watts throughout. In fact, talking to Jon last week, he was saying that if I can do all 7 repetitions of any of these interval sessions then the idea is to up the wattage immediately as they should really be so hard that you can’t quite complete them. That sounds like torture to me but I shall start increasing the wattage until I can no longer complete the whole set.

I did enjoy this set of intervals though as they seem to be working a little on endurance as well as power. 3 minutes can actually seem like quite a long time!

I’m quite enjoying my little turbo trainer sessions at the moment. I know that’s not right, they are supposed to be boring, horrible and painful, but I’ve been doing them at lunch time and feel so much better for it afterwards.

The secret is to mix it up, doing different sessions all the time so that you don’t get bored. I also do some multi-tasking, listening to podcasts whilst I’m doing it and watching the birds on the feeders in the garden.

I’ve been doing a variety of different workouts. The tough interval sessions from Jon following my tests at the Sports and Exercise Science department at the university, some of my own making and some from the Tacx website.

Those by Jon which have been individually tailored for me are supposed to be really tough so I’m only going to do one of those a week for now. The ones I make up are usually quite tough too. The ones from Tacx seem to be about right for me as well. They have various different types, aerobic endurance workouts, interval workouts, sprint workouts and more.

Todays session was session 2 from their aerobic endurance workouts sheet:

I followed it to the letter and it all felt fairly easy. There is  mistake in the Time column; on line 11 the time should be 4 minutes no 1 minute, which also means that the cumulative time column is incorrect and should have an extra 3 minutes added to each value from there on in which gave me something to think about. In fact, as things are constantly changing, the workout seems to fly by. A couple of minutes of one thing and then its time to change the settings, change your cadence etc. so the time flys by and before you know it you’ve been on the turbo trainer for 45 minutes.

Not a bad workout though, nothing too difficult but then an aerobic endurance workout shouldn’t be too taxing. Here’s my heart rate trace during the workout.

I got around to buying a turbo trainer and my new Tacx T1680 Flow Turbo Trainer arrived the other day. A nice quick delivery as usual but I was out riding in the real world so didn’t get to play with it until about 10pm. Just enough time to set it up which only took about ten minutes. Just a couple of screws and a bolt to attach the motor to the frame. It comes with a ‘Skyliner’ support for the front wheel which helps put the bike in a better position and all the fixings you need to attach the computer display, cadence sensor etc.

Yesterday I got my old road bike out of the shed and put it on the turbo trainer. I didn’t have time for a proper workout on it as it was windy so I was off for a windsurf session in the sunshine, but I did have time to calibrate it and give it a quick test.

Setting up the computer is easy, first you enter your weight and your preferred units for the readout. For me that was miles rather than kilometres, Watts for power output and Kcal. It then goes into calibration mode where you simply pedal until you reach a certain speed and then stop pedaling. It then measures the braking effect on the rear wheel as it comes to a halt and calibrates the machine for you.

The computer readout is clear and the buttons easy to use. There is also plenty of information on the screen so I will be able to train using a variety of parameters. The computer does display your heart rate as well, but the machine doesn;t come with a heart rate monitor chest strap, you have to have your own already or buy one separately. I think it is compatible with the Polar chest straps. I have a Garmin chest strap and it isn’t compatible with that so for now it looks as though I shall have to wear my Garm HRM whilst on the turbo trainer in order to record my heart rate. This is actually better for me anyway because the software I use on my Mac for recording training sessions syncs really nicely with my Garmin Forerunner. [Click here for a Review of Mac Training Software].

This will obviously only give me my heart rate data over time and not distance, speed, power output etc, but I can enter the distance in manually and that will have to do for now as the Tacx Flow computer doesn’t have the ability to connect to a PC to download a training session, and it certainly doesn’t have an interface with a Mac! I might get a speed and cadence sensor for my Garmin Forerunner at some point so that I can add that data to Ascent.

The other thing I tried to do was to compare it to the figures I had from Jon following my Sports and Exercise Science lab tests over the past few weeks. These figures were my Gas Exchange Threshold (GET) and my Critical Power (CP). I had these in Watts,  but I had also had a go on the bikes at the Sports and Exercise Science department to try to convert these in approximate Heart Rates.

GET = 120 Watts (or 100bpm)

CP = 251 Watts (or 140bpm)

So, in order to try to see how accurate the Tacx Flow was I decided to set it first to 120 Watts and pedal for a few minutes and see what my heart rate was and then set it to 251 Watts and see how it went. It wasn’t the best conditions to try this as it was very hot but i thought it would be good to compare. It was easy to do as the Tacx Flow has an ‘ergo’ feature that allows you to set a predetermined power rate in Watts and it will automatically adjust the resistance to keep you at that power output whatever your cadence. This feature seems to work really well. It seems to hold the power pretty well, OK, it isn’t as good as the ones at Sports and Exercise Science, but those are 50 times the price! It doesn’t hold the power output perfectly simply because it can’t adjust the resistance quite as quickly as it needs to but once you’re into a rhythm it holds at the set power well allowing you to work at that rate. Any increase or decrease in cadence in quickly compensated for, the power output may increase or decrease for a second or so but the resistance is soon adjusted and the power output goes back to the correct setting.

As far as testing the outputs with the machines at SES goes, at the lower 120 Watts it was pretty much spot on. After 5-6 minutes at that level my heart rate was steady at 105 bpm. Slightly higher than at SES but it was pretty hot. However once I increased the power output to 250 Watts (it is adjustable in steps of 10 Watts), things were a little different. At this level it was actually pretty hard work and my heart rate was soon up around 160bpm and I didn’t really fancy sticking at that level for too long. I think I need to play around with the calibration settings a little.

However, how well it matches other machines (especially those costing 50 times the price) doesn’t really matter, what is important is that it remains consistent with itself so that workouts and intensities are repeatable.

Overall it’s a great piece of kit for the money. Quiet and stable which are two of the most important things, easy to set up and it has enough functions and information on the computer to keep me happy for a while. It’ll take a while to work out what settings I need to work at and some suitable interval sessions but hopefully it will prove to be a good training device and help me improve my speed an endurance out in the real world.

I’ve decided it could be a good idea to get a turbo trainer to help keep me fit. I’ve been out Mountain Biking quite a bit and watching the Tour de France on the TV has motivated me even more to try to get a little fitter and faster so a Turbo trainer could be an ideal way of doing so.

They are great for interval training and some proper ‘formal’ training sessions rather than just bikes rides in the hills and following on from my lab tests at the Sports and Exercise Department I should soon be getting some results and some detailed training plans, so a turbo trainer should be a useful training tool It will also give me an excuse to get the road bikes out of the shed and at least use them a little even I don’t actually go anywhere on them!

There are just so many different choices though  and with prices starting from around £40 and going up to thousands decided which is best isn’t going to be easy. The main physical difference between the various types is the way in which the resistance is produced.

Air resistance – The original turbo trainers used a plastic fan to generate wind resistance.  They are very noisy and not really much good these days.

Friction from a large flywheel – Used on spinning bikes in the main and the size and weight can be limiting. Spinning bikes are quiet and solid but very expensive.

Fluid resistance – A a fan revolving in oil or gel. Valves allow you to adjust the resistance on some models. Quiet. Usually smooth, usually expensive too.

Magnetic resistance – These units use a metal plate spinning inside a magnetic field and you can adjust the level of resistance. Most of the sophisticated electronic trainers use magnetic resistance, However they aren’t always as smooth as fluid trainers.

Electronically controlled – These are the latest breed of magnetic trainers and they offer the best control via an electro-magnet, but they come at a price.

Of course, once you get into the higher priced versions the determining factor becomes extra features such as computer readouts and on some of the top of the range models. Virtual Reality screens connected to computers so that you can ride virtual stages of the Tour de France etc. These are just too expensive for me, but I would like one that at least allows me to see my speed, power output, cadence and probably heart rate. It would be good if I could then download this data to my computer after a wokout but I have so far been unable to find one that will interface with an Apple Mac computer.

However, I do already have a Garmin Forerunner 305 which I could use as a heart rate monitor and with the GPS function switched off and a Speed/Cadence Sensor for it I should be able to record my speed, distance and heart rate and upload that info to my Mac Training Software.

As we get older staying fit gets more and more difficult to do, but I find that treating myself to new toys and new gadgets ever now and then helps keep me motivated and keeps the fitness training on course.

I haven’t quite decided which model of turbo trainer to get yet. I could get a basic one and not have the power output reading, but at the moment I’m tending to lean towards a Tacx T1680 Flow. This looks as though it has all of the basics of being fairly quiet, stable and adjustable resistance but with some added features such as a digital display showing speed, Heart Rate, Cadence and that all important power output. Hopefully these extra features will help me push just a little bit harder and keep my interest up whilst out there training on it. The training sessions will be a good opportunity to catch up with listening to some podcasts as well.

Or, should I save some money and get a more basic version and base my training on my Heart Rate from my Garmin Foreunner?… So many choices.

After taking Morgan and his friend for a little bike ride and to the playground in Aberystwyth and then sitting around watching the Grand Prix, I didn’t have much time to spare on Sunday. I wanted to go for a bike road though, so rather than drive 30 minutes up to the local trails, spend an hour or so on them and then drive 30 minutes back, followed by the obligatory hour cleaning the mud off my bike, I decided to go for a road bike session instead.

Now, we should bear in mind that my road bike hasn’t been out of the shed for 18 years so it was a bit of a shock to the system for it. I gave it a quick check over, pumped up the tyres and all seemed OK so off I went. From our house I headed off inland towards Tre-Ddol. All felt OK if a little precarious. At the level crossing a train was coming so I had to stop and let it go. At this point I discovered that my clipless pedals wouldn’t release properly. Thankfully they did release if I turned my heels inwards rather than out so there wasn’t any embarrassment as the train went past.

I continued along the flat towards Tre-Ddol and at the little rise in the road realised that my front derailleur wouldn’t change back down from the larger chain-ring to the little one, so it was off again to change it manually. Not too worry though I’ll just stick to the little chain-ring from now on.

In Tre-Ddol I turned right onto the main rain and headed off towards Talybont. Not much of a hill, but I’m sure it didn’t used to be this difficult. Why aren’t there any easier gears? How did I used to manage to get up proper hills? What’s going on! I made it through to Talybont where the heavens opened and I got drenched. Is this supposed to be fun? I was now at least beginning to feel a little more comfortable on the bike, but it still felt a bit precarious. The bars are narrow, the tyres thin and the aero bars just looked far too dangerous. However, this WAS my race bike so everything was set up for use mainly on the aero bars. The gear levers are on the end of them, the saddle is positioned for use in the aero position so it wasn’t as comfortable as it could have been.

At Bow Street I turned right towards Borth, only to be pulled out on by a car. OK, not only is this uncomfortable and harder work than it used to be but it is now downright dangerous! At least it was mainly downhill from here, things should get easier right? Well, not really. With 120psi in the tyres you feel every single bump on the road and this road certainly isn’t the smoothest. By the time I got to Borth my hands were killing me.

Just a few miles along the flat to Ynylas though, into the wind of course! I’d made it, my 20 year old tubs with perished rubber had survived too and although only 15 miles and a terrible time of 50 minutes I’d got around in one piece and felt as though I’d had quite a workout.

I’m not sure if I’ll be doing it again mind you. The road bike is back in the shed and may well stay there for another 18 years, but I can see how a ride like that (or a little longer) each week would help my fitness and improve my speed on my Mountain Bike. Maybe a slightly more comfortable road bike, with indexed gears and normal tyres rather than tubs would be a good idea? Time for some shopping??

The sun was shining once again here in West Wales so Ivor was in full force in the estuary this morning and I had a nice windsurf session first thing and then we went out for a family bike ride along part of the Ystwyth Trail.

The idea was to get Morgan out on his new bike and to get Anna out for a ride too. I think they both enjoyed themselves and Morgan is getting better all the time, and managed four miles in complete control. Not bad seeing as he only got on a bike for the first time last weekend.

Anna had fun as well. I’ll have them on some proper MTB trails before they know it!