Rollers workouts

brendan · June 21, 2012, 10:08pm

there’s no guarantee that was the case for FOA user Sean the Man

HeavyMetalCyclist · June 21, 2012, 10:23pm

dude!

brendan · June 21, 2012, 10:25pm

what’s the problem? i saw dave on the way to work today. he’s looking fucking handsome as hell. and mckenny, well, we all know he’s a supermodel in waiting.

rolly · June 21, 2012, 10:36pm

FOA HQ

HeavyMetalCyclist · June 21, 2012, 10:37pm

you make a valid point.

anyway, i should probably retest by max as well. it’s been a year or two.

Sime · June 21, 2012, 10:41pm

thanks for the tips Brendan

brendan · June 21, 2012, 11:07pm

seems someone has just worked out how to use google images.

rolly · June 22, 2012, 2:00am

you kidding, I’ve known how to use that shit for WEEKS

whatever_really · June 22, 2012, 2:31am

Thanks Brendan I have a hr monitor with my 500 Garmin and have been looking for an excuse to use it.

Q’ do rollers screw your tyres like turbo’s?

brendan · June 22, 2012, 2:55am

not as quickly, but eventually, yeah.

beaker · July 22, 2012, 4:48pm

brendan:

ok, i’ll put my advice up here. but remember that i’m not a coach, have no qualifications whatsoever, and am only writing what i’ve gleaned from other coaches over the past four years.

yes rollers are best for aerobic fitness. i’m gonna assume that’s all everyone here is interested in - if you want to be a faster racer, get a wind / fluid / resistance trainer and a coach. my coach only costs me $60 a month - forgo two coffees a day and you’re sorted. BUT you should ride your road bike on the rollers, so you have the extra resistance gears can provide. it’s simply too easy to spin out on your track bike, which means that you’re not getting the full benefit.

the best thing you can use in conjunction with your rollers is a HR monitor. speed and cadence are totally arbitrary, and have no reflection on your fitness - though i occasionally do cadence based drills to get my leg speed up ahead of a big track carnival. find your resting HR by taking it first thing in the morning - strap on the monitor for two minutes as soon as you wake up, note the average. then find your max HR by doing a step test (google will help you with this), where you gradually raise the intensity until you can’t any more. do not simply take the highest max HR you’ve ever seen, as usually that involves a fair bit of adrenaline, which gives you an inaccurate gauge for training purposes. for example, my max HR is 189, but i regularly see HRs in the 190s while racing. once you have your max worked out, figure out the percentages.

don’t just jump in and smash yourself. you need first to build an endurance base - the stronger the foundations, the stronger you will be. start by doing two ten minute efforts at 60%, with ten minutes warm up / cool down, and ten minutes recovery in between. do that for a month or so - it takes about that long for your body to adapt to anything new. then next month build up to two 15 minute efforts at 70%. month after that, two 15 minute efforts at 90%. that should be fucking hard. sure, they aren’t the most exciting sessions, but this is how you build fitness. all that “sprint every time phil liggett says ‘suitcase of courage’” or some such bullshit is for shunters who value entertainment over improvement. put something good on TV while you do it.

after you’ve built your base, your efforts depend on what you want to work on. first i’d recommend a VO2 max booster, with 15 minutes warm up (in which you gradually build to about 90%), then 24 x 15 second absolute max efforts / 30 seconds recovery between each effort, the 15 minutes cooldown (cooldown is always recovery pace, ie less than 60%). do them for a month and all of a sudden those hills will be much easier, and your recovery after sprinting to catch that orange light will be much quicker.

once you’ve recovered, the cooldown is for your skills. practice riding no hands, reaching for things no hands, riding with one foot, closing your eyes, turning your head. all of these are good for your riding in general.

when you’ve done those four months of roller efforts, email me. i’ll give you some phone numbers, or some more programs.

Hey brendan, how often should one be doing these sessions (assuming the only other riding is a 15km commute to work each day)

brendan · July 22, 2012, 4:52pm

twice a week. and take it real easy on your way to and from work. get in a long ride on the weekend - and perhaps a race of some description if you have time - and you’ll find some form pretty quickly.

hotdoghorny · July 22, 2012, 4:56pm

i saw dave the other day too. on exhibitionj between collins and flinders lane.

beaker · July 22, 2012, 5:17pm

Fail.

Thanks mate. Thinking of doing three sessions a week, say Mon, Thurs, Sat. Just don’t have time for a long weekend ride at the moment, unfortunately.

I missed McKenny?! Damn.

EzyLee · July 22, 2012, 5:41pm

I have been doing a bit of training at home on my resistance trainer as I am unable to hit the trails at the moment as I tore some ligaments in my shoulder playing hockey. I have actually been enjoying it. What I have been using is Carmichael Training Systems videos, they go for about an hour which include a light warm up and cool down. The cardio one is really good - a range of longer big ring work at a slower cadence, then a bit of tempo + sprint work (ride tempo for a minute - sprint for 12 seconds - then back to tempo). The hardest part is the pyramid work right at the end of the training session (3 minutes max effort, 3 minutes recovery / 2 minutes max effort, 2 minutes recovery / 1 minute max effort, 1 minute recovery).

I am going to keep this up for 2 times a week and see how I go when I get back on the trails. Hopefully I see some sort of improvement.

beaker · September 1, 2012, 9:38pm

After two months of regular ergos I finally got around to doing this. Figured now that I’ve started the 90% efforts I should actually check where that 90% is.

Don’t think I did it exactly as I should have, but it bloody well hurt, so I must have been doing something right.

reezy_2.0 · September 2, 2012, 2:45am

I like to warm up and then watch Star Wars - A New Hope, and go flat out for 20 seconds every time C3PO says something negative. If you can make it to 20 minutes you will win the tour.