Thy 10 Commandments of Turbo Training!

Todays blog post is from our British Cycling Level 3 Cycling Coach Chris Tasker,  who's talking about turbo training sessions and why you should learn to love them! 

Turbo trainers, love them or loathe them, there's no denying that they are a great tool to use to bring about some big improvements in power and efficiency during the darker months.  No-one will deny that they can be terminally boring to sit on for prolonged periods but when used with a little forethought and planning (or under the direction of a good coach) they will could put you ahead of the competition when the racing season begins.

 Here are my 10 Commandments of Turbo Training to get you thinking.

1. It's about the effort not the expense - You don't need the most expensive turbo available, just something sturdy and stable.  The expensive smart trainer will allow you to join online communities (Zwift, Trainer Road etc) which might help pass the time but if used for focussed sessions a manual turbo will do just fine.
2.  Get a fan, the bigger the better, even in the depths of winter once you start putting some hard training on the turbo you'll soon overheat which will elevate your heart rate and make comparison of data less accurate.   I like to put the fan on the floor and point it upwards rather than riding into a headwind all the time, it helps cool your torso as well as your face.
3. You will sweat - Put down a rubber mat or an old towel to catch the sweat, believe me you'll soon have a puddle under the bike if you are working hard.  An old towel over the bars will help prevent sweat going into the stem cap, headset bearings and front brake assembly.
4. Care for your bike - Wipe down your bike after every session and wash it occasionally to keep any stray sweat from eating your precious investment.
5. Train in your race position - If you are a triathlete or tester (timetriallist) then use your race bike or a frame that allows you to get into an identical position on the turbo, developing power in your race position is crucial, road bike and TT bike positions are very different and recruit different muscles, train those muscle you'll use in racing.
6. Distraction - If you are going to compete in long distance events or Ironman there's a good likelihood you'll be putting in some long steady rides on the turbo.  Put a laptop or TV right in front of you, at a similar height that you would look down the road in a race.  You'll find that the distraction of whatever film you choose will help you develop muscles to allow you to stay in the aero position for longer periods.
7. Use a mirror in front of you (or the laptop/TV screen) to look at your body position when in the aero position (or in the drops if you are a roadie).  The smaller your frontal area the less wind resistance you will create and the fast you will go for a given power output.  Think about rolling your shoulders forward, narrowing your forearms and tucking your head low and between your rolled shoulders, it's often referred to as turtle-ing for obvious reasons.
8. Be consistent with your tyre pressure, I ensure that my tyre is inflated to 100psi for every session (certainly for any benchmark session where I am monitoring my training progress). Keeping the tyre at 100psi will keep the same amount of pressure on the roller and the resistance common across all the sessions.
9. Perform a run-down test before each session ideally but certainly every time you are checking performance gains (5, 20 or 60min test for instance).  It's simple, check tyre pressure, get on the bike and increase your speed up to a predetermined value (20mph or 30kph is fine) and then stop pedalling and time how long it takes for your wheel to come to a stop. Stack a piece of tape on the leg of your turbo and record that time, in doing this you can guarantee that the resistance is constant between tests, if the wheel rolls for longer than previous tests increase the roller tension if it takes less time then back off the tension a touch.  There's no need to have lots of tension on the rear tyre, as long as the tyre isn't slipping that's perfect, increasing the pressure will only wear the bearings faster and kill your turbo.
10. Power - While power meters aren't a critical item for cyclists or triathletes, they do take many of the variables out of turbo (and outdoor) training.  Training with power will remove the need to worry about heart rate drift (through overheating or dehydration), roll down tests and tyre pressure as much and is probably the best investment (other than a good coach) in your sporting development.

I hope these tips will give you some ideas in how to make the most use of your time on the turbo, there are certainly plenty more areas I could discuss but maybe we'll save that for another time?  If you have any comments or additional hints for indoor training then fire away, I'd love to hear them.