[edd23]

Hi, can anyone recommend any places to look for good turbo training plans to follow over the winter?

I am new to ‘indoor training’ and at present just think I am wasting my time when using the turbo as I am not doing anything constructive on it!

I am fit, cycling 10,000kms per year, but at 47 I want to get fitter/faster.

At 63kgs I am good in the hills, but lack power on the flat and want some sort of plan, which I would not object to paying for/subscribing, to help me get fitter/faster/better… :/

thanks…

Topic

[edd23]

Thanks 3000ST1, great
Thanks 3000ST1, great response and plenty of ideas there. I have been mixing up the turbo sessions, doing 30 to 35 mins at a time with some interval stuff and some easier steadier sessions. I plan just building up to 45 min sessions over time and adding some harder interval sessions. I will have a look at the Chris Carmichael and Joe Friel programmes…

[3000ST1]

First thing to set out is
First thing to set out is what your goal is (I know you’ve said you want to go faster) but it depends on whether you’re racing or not as to how strict a program you think you’ll need.

Best approach is not to complicate it, use the basic periodised training model and work from there. Don’t go balls out over winter since you wont make it past spring before you’re burned out.

Also write down a rough outline of your plan so you have a basic structure to work from, more often than not that’s where most people fall down – they veer off plan and end up making little progress for a lot of random physical effort. Don’t keep caning the intervals and hard-core sessions all the time – do them periodically to steadily build your threshold power (I see enough PT clients who are on their knees after a few months from trainers who have constantly thrashed them with high intensity training since it seems to be the in thing in the fitness industry at the moment).

I’ve adapted a few of the sections out of Chris Carmichael’s (Time crunched cyclist) and Joe Friel’s training programs. I don’t race, I just like to be quick enough to comfortably pedal a fast club run, do a decent 90-100mile sportive here and there and not get dropped on a 20+min climb. There are some longer steady state sessions which you can use for basic tempo/ build work as well. For a week or two every couple of months you can do some max power interval work (40s-20s, 30s-30s on/off etc). Just remember to listen to your body, when it says enough is enough then it’s time to give yourself a rest.

[CyclingLocations.com]

If everything else fails,
If everything else fails, consider moving to a country with warm winters and forget about the turbo trainer 😉

[edd23]

Thanks for all the comments,
Thanks for all the comments, plenty to think about here….

[Anonymous]

truffy

truffy wrote:

http://www.globalcyclingnetwork.com/category/videos/

Yeah, that’d do it 😀

[ianrobo]

I am in training now for the
I am in training now for the greatest physical challenge of my life. Next June I will be riding 6 Cols in three days (I struggle on normal hills) so a TT programme was key.

I use a combo of Trainer Road and Sufferfest however I decided to employ a coach as the key is building up correctly. It does cost, I make no bones about it but Trainer Road is very cheap if I presume you already have a supported TT and the right sensors.

Sufferfest is very good for those days you want to hurt 🙂 I do one every couple of weeks or so.

[Ghostie]

Gizmo_ wrote:Does anyone know

Gizmo_ wrote:

Does anyone know a catalogue of GCN videos? When I go on Youtube I can never find their stuff in any sort of order.

The whole GCN lot (I think)

20 min high intensity: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGGvKt8vWho
15 min hill training: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPrm_5u-9HM
30 min hill training: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQxo1lZ8H1Q
35 min hill training: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AiDD_aqdnK0
40 min hill intervals: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04-VoVzOiSg
45 min sprint training: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mv0H9iCz8Ms
40 min fat burning: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOpbiP3mkJ0
50 min fat burning: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9is0fZQ4V0
20 min spin class: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Hl1WAGKjMc
60 min spin class: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFbjsRvjF-A

[Shamblesuk]

Gizmo_ wrote:Does anyone know

Gizmo_ wrote:

Does anyone know a catalogue of GCN videos? When I go on Youtube I can never find their stuff in any sort of order.

Just do the 20 minute studio interval one. Repeat indefinitely.

[truffy]

http://www.globalcyclingnetwo
http://www.globalcyclingnetwork.com/category/videos/

[Anonymous]

Does anyone know a catalogue
Does anyone know a catalogue of GCN videos? When I go on Youtube I can never find their stuff in any sort of order.

[fukawitribe]

flobble wrote:The place to

flobble wrote:

The place to start is with a question: “fitter/faster/better for what specifically?” Unless you know where you want to go, there’s little chance you’ll find the best way to get there.

Agreed, but to be fair the OP did mention broadly what they want to achieve – OK on the hills, wants to develop more speed on the flats (presumably for a reasonable period of time). It’s not nailed down, true, but sounds like they have rough idea which direction to start in and what training plan goals might make sense for them.

[flobble]

The place to start is with a
The place to start is with a question: “fitter/faster/better for what specifically?” Unless you know where you want to go, there’s little chance you’ll find the best way to get there.

A plan that focuses on sprint power won’t be effective for endurance, and a plan that focuses on endurance won’t be an effective way to improve your sprint power.

I suggest you think first about the events/situations where you want to be better, work out what intensity/durations those situations demand, then look at what you’re getting from your existing training, and adjust/fill gaps with targeted turbo time accordingly.

Many of the above software/plan/website suggestions can do this (I use TrainerRoad, TrainingPeaks AND a coach), but first you need to know *why*, then progress to *what*, and then lastly *how*.

[vadido]

WattzAp.com has training
WattzAp.com has training programmes that can be used with the software and you can also create your own or create training programmes linked to videos such as sufferfest, gcn, ctcx etc

[fukawitribe]

David Arthur wrote:Plus, you

David Arthur wrote:

Plus, you can easily make up your own interval sessions, you don’t need an app or website. Depending on what you’re trying to achieve, 30secs on/30secs off are a good one, or you could do 1min on/30secs off, or 5mins on and 2mins off.

You can make up your own but, especially when starting out, I believe that using a subscription service like TrainerRoad is a better bet. Once you know what you’re doing a bit more, then maybe that’s the time to roll your own – but using TrainerRoad as an example, there are quite of number of training plans, some of which are targeted at what the OP is looking to do, which have already had the workouts and rest days mapped out and are all free once you have a subscription. At $10 / month that seems worth looking at at the very least (you can discontinue it at any time, your data and progress are saved and available if you decide to re-start it).

One thing to bear in mind with doing your own plan/intervals is that it only costs nothing if you don’t value your time. It is good to do some yourself IMO, i’ve done a few that reflect a very particular requirement, but i’m not convinced it’s necessarily worth it when you’re starting out.

David Arthur wrote:

Of course if you’re taking it seriously you probably want to speak to a coach and get a plan in place, based on the results of a ramp test

That’s nice but I think there’s a useful point between someone repeating a couple of Tabata drills over and over again when they think you should and hiring a coach 🙂 Something like TrainerRoad or one of the other paid/free online resources that use virtual power (or equivalent, assuming no power meter here) could be efficient and cost-effective in terms of time, monetary cost and (quite importantly) performance benefits.

[Nixster]

David Arthur wrote:Intervals

David Arthur wrote:

Intervals are your friend. ..

No, they’re not. They hurt, fry your brain and make you feel sick.

But they do work. 😀

[Author]

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