I haven’t been on my bike much lately. The frame on my Commencal Meta 5.5 is cracked so I can’t ride that and I’ve yet to buy a new road bike. Also, it’s been pretty windy so I’ve been out windsurfing and haven’t had much time. I have been on the Turbo Trainer a few times but only easy recovery rides after hard days windsurfing.
Yesterday though I decded to have some quality rather than quantity time on the turbo trainer. Time for a quick half an hour session with some 1 min intervals. As usual this is a 10 minute warm up followed by 7 reps of 1 minute hard and 1 minute recovery. Last time I did these I did the first 3 reps at 410 Watts and the next 4 at 420 Watts so yesterday I increased that and started at 420 Watts. I was doing fine at that intensity so did the seventh at 430 Watts I’m obviously improving somehow.
- 10 minute warm up – ramp from 120 Watts to 200 Watts
- 1 min @ 420 Watts : 1 min @120 Watts
- 1 min @ 420 Watts : 1 min @120 Watts
- 1 min @ 420 Watts : 1 min @120 Watts
- 1 min @ 420 Watts : 1 min @120 Watts
- 1 min @ 420 Watts : 1 min @120 Watts
- 1 min @ 420 Watts : 1 min @120 Watts
- 1 min @ 430 Watts : 1 min @120 Watts
- 6 minutes @ 220 Watts
- 5 minutes Cool Down
Turbo Training may not be the most exciting thing to do and you don’t get to paint red lines all over Google Earth as you do in the real world, but having a set workout to do and pushing yourself makes it a little more interesting – and you get to draw red lines with your heart rate traces instead.
Heart Rate Cadence and Speed trace
I’ve Just finished a fairly enjoyable interval session on my turbo trainer – Well, as enjoyable as such torture can be.
I’m still doing the same interval sessions as I’ve been doing fairly regularly, this time it was the 3:2 minute interval workout. As I’ve said before these are supposed to be really hard and the idea is that you do them at an intensity that means that you can’t do 7 repetitions. You should work at an intensity that means you can just do 5-6 of them and when you do manage to complete 7 reps you immediately increase the wattage.
Now this is fine except that I have it in my mind that I want to do 7 reps, so anything less than that feels to a certain extent like a failure. I know that isn’t the point as it is the intensity that counts, but for my psychological well-being it helps if I can complete a session. I’ve therefore been doing them at an intensity that means I can complete 7 reps, but I’m continually increasing the wattage.
A few weeks ago I was doing 7 reps at 340 Watts. My Tacx Flow Turbo Trainer only allows me to increase the wattage in 10 watt increments (it does measure to a resolution of 1 watt however). Jumping from 340 Watts to 350 Watts for 7 reps would be difficult, so last time I did the session I did 5 reps at 340 Watts and 2 at 350 Watts.
Today I increased that further with 3 reps at 340 Watts and 4 at 350 Watts. I may try all 7 at 350 next time.
I know I’m not doing them at a high enough intensity as I was not only able to complete all 7 reps but I was also able to do some 1 minute intervals afterwards. I’m sure increasing the wattage will provide better results but I also like to feel good about my sessions and completing them is the first step. At least that way I’m more likely to come back for more.
Here’s the pretty graph from todays workout.
Todays Turbo Trainer Workout
I bought myself a new gadget the other day, a Garmin Speed / Cadence Sensor for my Forerunner 305. I didn’t really NEED one but new toys are always a good motivator.
When out on my bike in the real world the GPS on the Forerunner obviously tracks my speed and distance and works flawlessly. When on the Tacx Flow Turbo Trainer however I’m not actually going anywhere so the GPS doesn’t record my speed and distance. The computer on the Turbo Trainer does record both my speed and distance and also my cadence and power output, so I was able to see these things. The problem, if you can call it a problem, was that the Tacx Flow doesn’t interface with my computer. So, when I upload my turbo training sessions to Garmin Connect or any other fitness training software I get the data from my Forerunner but have to manually enter the distance, average speed, max speed, and power output data and don’t get to see anything about my cadence.
This is where the Speed / Cadence Sensor comes to the rescue. The gadget consists of a wireless sensor that fits to your chainstay and two magnets – one for the crank arm to measure cadence and one for the wheel to measure speed and distance. Fitting was a simple affair, just pop the sensor on the chainstay and fix with two zip ties, screw the wheel magnet onto a spoke making sure it aligns with the sensor and attach the crank magnet to the crank arm with the provided sticky pad and a zip tie, again making sure it aligns with the sensor.
As I was using this on my Turbo Trainer I already had the cadence sensor from the turbo trainer attached to the bike but the Garmin one is fairly adjustable so it was easy enough to get everything aligned. To make it even easier, the Garmin sensor has a little LED that flashes each time it picks up a passing magnet. It flashes red for the cadence sensor and green for the speed sensor so making sure everything was working before tightening the zip ties was a doddle. The magnets are just magnets so it would probably have been possible to use the existing crank arm magnet from the Tacx Flow for both the Turbo Trainer Sensor and the Garmin sensor but in the end I used a separate magnet for each.
Of course, once it was all attached I just had to give it a go so I jumped on and did a relatively easy workout. As usual I could see my various readouts on the Tacx Flow computer but now could also see corresponding values on my Garmin Forerunner.
The Tacx Flow computer only shows 2 values at any one time (plus the overall time) and I usually have these set to show speed and cadence. Reassuringly the speed and cadence on the turbo trainer readout matched those on the Garmin. I therefore soon changed the display on the turbo trainer to show Power and Cadence, whilst my Garmin (which can show up to 4 parameters at any one time ) was set to display Distance, Speed, and Heart Rate.
Everything worked beautifully and the figures all matched up. Best of all, once I’d finished I was able to connect my Garmin Foreunner to my computer as usual and upload the workout to both Ascent and Garmin Connect. All of the usual data was there (normally just time and heart rate data) but now it also had speed, distance and cadence data.
Here’s the graph of my workout from Ascent showing:
Red – Heart Rate
Purple – Cadence
Green – Speed
Brown – Power (It isn’t recording this but Ascent makes a best guess – which wasn’t too far out! Although it doesn’t know what resistance / slope settings I’m using so it isn’t that accurate. )
Read outs from Garmin Speed / Cadence Sensor
I’ve just completed an interval session on my Turbo Trainer. The session today was a 3:2 min interval session, so after a 10 minute warm up I did 7 repetitions of:
- 3 minutes @ 340 Watts
- 2 minutes @ 120 Watts
followed of course by a 10 minute cool down.
It was fairly hard, but I managed all 7 reps and felt pretty good by the end of it. I’ve also got a new fan that I bought yesterday that made things a little more comfortable.
My heart rate trace from the session looks pretty too. (Click for larger image)
Heart rate from intervals Session
Recently my turbo trainer sessions seem to have been getting easier. I keep increasing the wattage on set workouts and still manage to finish them. I did notice the other day though that the tyre pressure in my rear tyre was a little low so pumped it up a bit and that seems to have made things a little more difficult!
I probably should calibrate the Tacx Flow Turbo Trainer a little more often and also check the tyre pressure at least once a week.
Today’s session was a 1:1 minute interval session with the hard efforts at 400 Watts and the ‘rests’ at 12o Watts. Quite a hard workout but I feel better for it.
Heart Rate from today's Turbo Trainer Session
As usual, Tuesday seems to be my day of fitness training. I’ve just done a turbo trainer session and will be off to circuit training and then swimfit this evening.
The Turbo Trainer sessions are going well. Last night I did a 3:2 minute interval session where I did 7 repetitions of 3 minutes @ 320 Watts and 2 minutes @ 120 Watts, the highest I’ve ever done that workout at and it was OK.
Heart Rate from 3:2 minute Interval Session
My maximum heart rate was only 150bpm so I obviously need to work a bit harder on these.
Today I did a 1:1 minute interval session, so after a warm up did 7 repetitions of 1 minute @ 400 Watts and 1 minute recovery @ 120 Watts. Again, 400 Watts is the most I’ve ever done this at and although it did get quite tough and my heart rate peaked at 166 bpm I did finish all 7 reps. The heart rate trace is pretty though!
Heart Rate Trace from 1 minute Interval Session
Time for some food now and plenty of water to get me ready for tonight’s activities.
Tuesdays seem to be my day of training at the moment, although I’m not sure that 3 session in a day is necessarily good thing.
I’ve just done a Turbo Trainer session that felt OK. Either I’m getting better or the calibration is a little out as I keep increasing the wattage for each session but still manage to complete them. I did my 1:1 minute intervals today which I haven’t done for about a month. Last time I did them I did the hard efforts at 360 Watts which had me working at 89% of my maximum (162bpm) and said I’d have to try them at 370 Watts next time.
So, this time I started at 370 Watts but that felt too easy so I increased the wattage with each rep until I was at 400 Watts which felt sufficiently difficult. So after a 15 minute warm up I did
- 1 minute @ 370 Watts, 1 minute @ 120 Watts
- 1 minute @ 380 Watts, 1 minute @ 120 Watts
- 1 minute @ 390 Watts, 1 minute @ 120 Watts
- 1 minute @ 400 Watts, 1 minute @ 120 Watts
- 1 minute @ 400 Watts, 1 minute @ 120 Watts
- 1 minute @ 400 Watts, 1 minute @ 120 Watts
- 1 minute @ 400 Watts, 1 minute @ 120 Watts
Followed by a warm down.
The 400 Watt intervals were pretty hard, getting my heart rate up to a maximum of 166bpm on the last one (92%), but I can’t believe I’ve really improved that much in one month. I’m not complaining if I have, and I guess I’ll have to try all 7 reps at 400 Watts next time.
I’m not sure how my legs will feel at circuit training followed by swimfit tonight though.
Heart Rate from todays Turbo Trainer Interval Session
I didn’t think I’d be able to do that!
Yesterday, despite still having a bit of a cold, I did my 3:2 minute intervals workout on the turbo trainer. Last time I did this workout on Feb 1st I did the hard efforts at 280 Watts and wrote:
My legs were feeling it come the end, but it does seem as though I’m improving. Just in time for some races throughout the summer. It does mean I will have to increase the wattage to 290 Watts next time, which I sure will start to hurt!
So, true to my word, I increased the wattage to 290 Watts yesterday and thought I would struggle. Once again though I completed all seven repetitions and it wasn’t too bad. you know what that means… 300 Watts next time.
My heart rate did peak a little higher than last time (158 bpm rather than 155 bpm), but that is nowhere near my maximum, so hopefully I’ll at least get close to completing it at 300 Watts. Maybe I am improving for real.
Turbo Trainer Workout
I’ve had a bit of a cold lately, it’s nothing too bad just a sore throat, headache and bunged up a bit, but considering what happened last time I exercised whilst ill I’ve been taking it easy.
Last time I ended up getting pericarditis and spending several days on the cardiac ward at Bronglais Hospital. A good enough incentive not to do the same again but doing nothing is next to impossible. I haven’t been swimming or to circuits and I’ve missed out on a night MTB ride, but I mist admit to having done a couple of fairly easy Turbo Trainer sessions. I’m sure the odd recovery style session on the Turbo Trainer can’t do me too much harm. I hope not anyway.
Hopefully the cold will clear up soon so that I can get back into some training ready for the Mawddach Goldrush. Otherwise I’m going to be struggling to get round.
I’m enjoying this and seem to be getting better.
I did the same workout as last week, 3:2 minute intervals on the turbo trainer. Last week I did them at 270 Watts with the final one at 280 Watts and my heart rate hit 164bpm on the last one. This week I increased the wattage to 280 Watts and expected to struggle. The first repetition did feel quite hard and I still thought I might struggle come the end, but as I got into it they seemed to stay relatively easy. So much so that I increased the wattage to 290 Watts on the last one. Despite that my heart rate only peaked at 155 Watts.
My legs were feeling it come the end, but it does seem as though I’m improving. Just in time for some races throughout the summer. It does mean I will have to increase the wattage to 290 Watts next time, which I sure will start to hurt!
Nice steady interval workout
