About a year ago I started cycling to lose a bit of weight and get a bit of exercise after 20 years of smoking. I was doing about 100 miles a week (not a lot by most of your standards), until I fell off a couple of months ago, (I broke one arm and badly sprained the other hand).
My question is how do I keep up the mileage during the shortened days of winter? Do I spend good money on a turbo trainer, or do I save the money to put towards a new bike when the good weather returns. I don't know if I've got the self control to just keep pedaling in the garage. I'm not too keen on cycling in the dark, the enjoyment seems to drop when I'm wondering if every car driver can see you, or whether the small puddle you can't avoid is hiding a large pot hole.
----------- LeeG -----------
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Lee Garnett <[email hidden]> wrote: : I don't know if I've got the self control to just keep pedaling in the : garage.
The trick with turbos is to keep it very short (40 mins is fine) and intense.
Vary stuff like this:
10 mins easy, 20 mins hard, 10 mins easy 10 mins easy, then 2 mins very hard, 2 mins easy repeat x 5, 5 mins easy 2 mins very hard, 2 mins easy repeat x 5, 10 mins easy
etc.
Just make sure you spend no more than 45 mins on it or you'll go mad! Music is a big help as well.
Arthur
-- Arthur Clune PGP/GPG Key: http://www.clune.org/pubkey.txt "Blogs are neither necessary nor sufficient for evil to triumph. They're just what we call an enabling technology" - Danny O'Brien
The trick with turbos is to keep it very short (40 mins is fine) and intense.
Vary stuff like this:
10 mins easy, 20 mins hard, 10 mins easy 10 mins easy, then 2 mins very hard, 2 mins easy repeat x 5, 5 mins easy 2 mins very hard, 2 mins easy repeat x 5, 10 mins easy
etc.
Just make sure you spend no more than 45 mins on it or you'll go mad! Music is a big help as well.
The above works for Nathan. If the weather is awful, he'll happily spend 45mins - 1 hour on the turbo, doing a mixed session pretty much as described and he has a CD playing, which he listens to through headphones which help the time go by. His favourites are various kinds of rock music.
I quite like the Foo Fighters...
Cheers, helen s
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I was doing about 100 miles a week (not a lot by most of your standards)
I would think that's actually more than a lot of us do. Certainly more than I do.
Quoted message said:
My question is how do I keep up the mileage during the shortened days of winter? Do I spend good money on a turbo trainer, or do I save the money to put towards a new bike when the good weather returns.
The sort of money you'd spend on a tasty bike is far more than a usable turbo will cost you, so I don't see it as a one or the other sort of choice.
Quoted message said:
I'm not too keen on cycling in the dark, the enjoyment seems to drop when I'm wondering if every car driver can see you, or whether the small puddle you can't avoid is hiding a large pot hole.
Get some good lamps and reflectives and learn to bunnyhop small puddles (it's actually very easy to hop potholes if you've got clipless pedals). This option is not one which prevents you using a turbo as well, of course.
Pete. -- Peter Clinch Medical Physics IT Officer Tel 44 1382 660111 ext. 33637 Univ. of Dundee, Ninewells Hospital Fax 44 1382 640177 Dundee DD1 9SY Scotland UK net [email hidden] http://www.dundee.ac.uk/~pjclinch/
About a year ago I started cycling to lose a bit of weight and get a bit of exercise after 20 years of smoking. I was doing about 100 miles a week (not a lot by most of your standards), until I fell off a couple of months ago, (I broke one arm and badly sprained the other hand).
My question is how do I keep up the mileage during the shortened days of winter? Do I spend good money on a turbo trainer, or do I save the money to put towards a new bike when the good weather returns.
My advice would be to buy good lights and keep cycling on the roads, or find some local off-road paths. I know a lot of very keen people who have turbo-trainers, but I have to confess it looks deadly tedious to me.
[email hidden] (dirtylitterboxofferingstospammers) wrote in message news:<[email hidden]>...
Quoted message said:
- 1 hour on the turbo, doing a mixed session pretty much as described and he has a CD playing, which he listens to through headphones which help the time go by. His favourites are various kinds of rock music.
A cautionary tale for indoor trainer fans using headphones; avoid listening to your CDs on a player incorporating a radio of the newer sort which 'scans' for stations rather than the old 'twiddle the dial' variety. I speak from experience, as indoor trainers make surprisingly good van de Graaff generators - the resultant static travels down the headphone cable and then ruins the receiver's tuning circuits. Result; a trip back to the dealer for repairs - fortunately it was still under warranty! For similar reasons, I don't recommend using training rollers in the kitchen and trying to steady yourself on a stainless steel sink unit when tired out - been there, done that....
"Lee Garnett" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:[email hidden]...
Quoted message said:
My question is how do I keep up the mileage during the shortened days of winter?
I borrowed a turbo and hated it so instead kitted a bike up specifically for winter/darkness riding.
I appreciate you don't fancy riding in the dark but I got around it by cycling in the morning before work when the roads are quiet. OK, a little earlier to bed, but so what, and a little earlier getting up (the hard bit) then out in the fresh air for 45-60 mins and back for a shower, on arrival at work feeling fresh and alert. A really good set of rechargable lights for pot-hole spotting will cost about the same (or less if you get cheaper sealed lead acid batteries) as a turbo trainer.
Unfortunately to avoid getting caught in the morning un-rush hour I got our starting time made earlier which then made an early morning ride more difficult and an early morning swim impossible but maybe this winter I'll take my own advice because I can remember it as being pleasurable.
My question is how do I keep up the mileage during the shortened days of winter? Do I spend good money on a turbo trainer, or do I save the money to put towards a new bike when the good weather returns. I don't know if I've got the self control to just keep pedaling in the garage. I'm not too keen on cycling in the dark, the enjoyment seems to drop when I'm wondering if every car driver can see you, or whether the small puddle you can't avoid is hiding a large pot hole.
My indoor rowing machine gets used a lot more in the winter, as cycling in the dark is pretty miserable, and using different muscles can't do any harm.
I don't know if I've got the self control to just keep pedaling in the garage. I'm not too keen on cycling in the dark, the enjoyment seems to drop when I'm wondering if every car driver can see you, or whether the small puddle you can't avoid is hiding a large pot hole.
1. 100 miles is a lot more than I manage, you set quite a target.
2. Do a bit of both. A second hand turbo should be quite cheap and for 25 minutes or so they are bearable if the night weather is really horrible.
Get some good lights and go out on decent nights. If you use just one or two routes you will know where the potholes are - thus you can avoid them. If possible get a few friends to go with you. On Wednesday nights somewhere between 2 and 6 of us usually follow a 21 mile route around the local lanes.
I bought some decent lights recently. Electron double beam things, at 33 ukp from cyclebasket.com. Who are really Nelson's cycles near Abergavenny. (I have experimented with lots of different lights over the last few years, there are plenty of threads/sites that deal with lights).
Peter Clinch <[email hidden]> wrote in news:[email hidden]:
Quoted message said:
Lee Garnett said:
I was doing about 100 miles a week (not a lot by most of your standards)
I would think that's actually more than a lot of us do. Certainly more than I do.
But almost exactly the same as I do.
<snip>
Quoted message said:
Quoted message said:
I'm not too keen on cycling in the dark, the enjoyment seems to drop when I'm wondering if every car driver can see you, or whether the small puddle you can't avoid is hiding a large pot hole.
Get some good lamps and reflectives and learn to bunnyhop small puddles (it's actually very easy to hop potholes if you've got clipless pedals). This option is not one which prevents you using a turbo as well, of course.
Not too easy to bunny hop potholes when you have overstuffed panniers on the back of your bike...
I admit I'm not too sure how much use bunny hopping would be on a turbo though.
Ditto. The turbo is presently in rotting mode in the corner of the shed. Turbos are for machines not people and definitely not real cyclists.
John B
Nathan would disagree. As it's been howling a gale here, when being out on the bike would not be pleasant, he did a turbo session instead - which he enjoyed. And he definitely is a real cyclist ;-)
Cheers, helen s
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Lee Garnett [email hidden] opined the following...
Quoted message said:
About a year ago I started cycling to lose a bit of weight and get a bit of exercise after 20 years of smoking. I was doing about 100 miles a week (not a lot by most of your standards), until I fell off a couple of months ago, (I broke one arm and badly sprained the other hand).
My question is how do I keep up the mileage during the shortened days of winter? Do I spend good money on a turbo trainer, or do I save the money to put towards a new bike when the good weather returns. I don't know if I've got the self control to just keep pedaling in the garage. I'm not too keen on cycling in the dark, the enjoyment seems to drop when I'm wondering if every car driver can see you, or whether the small puddle you can't avoid is hiding a large pot hole.
For the around the price of a "decent" turbo you can pick up some winter cycling gear and a set of very bright lights. Don't worry about the drivers, they're gonna hit you anyway regardless of day or night! ;-)
If you have the will-power to make good use of a turbo then best of luck to you. I enjoy cycling because of the experience of going places under my own steam. The thought of turning a nice racer into an exercise bike holds even less appeal than you'd imagine.
Nathan would disagree. As it's been howling a gale here, when being out on the bike would not be pleasant, he did a turbo session instead - which he enjoyed. And he definitely is a real cyclist ;-)
But cycling into a gale gives you a much better workout, and when you turn around you can scream along at around 30 which is much more fun. As long as there's a road pointing into it and it's not accompanied by rain gales make for a very good training opportunity.
Pete. -- Peter Clinch Medical Physics IT Officer Tel 44 1382 660111 ext. 33637 Univ. of Dundee, Ninewells Hospital Fax 44 1382 640177 Dundee DD1 9SY Scotland UK net [email hidden] http://www.dundee.ac.uk/~pjclinch/
In message <[email hidden]>, Jon Senior <jon_AT_restlesslemon_DOTco_DOT_uk@?.?.invalid> writes
Quoted message said:
Lee Garnett [email hidden] opined the following...
Quoted message said:
About a year ago I started cycling to lose a bit of weight and get a bit of exercise after 20 years of smoking. I was doing about 100 miles a week (not a lot by most of your standards), until I fell off a couple of months ago, (I broke one arm and badly sprained the other hand).
My question is how do I keep up the mileage during the shortened days of winter? Do I spend good money on a turbo trainer, or do I save the money to put towards a new bike when the good weather returns. I don't know if I've got the self control to just keep pedaling in the garage. I'm not too keen on cycling in the dark, the enjoyment seems to drop when I'm wondering if every car driver can see you, or whether the small puddle you can't avoid is hiding a large pot hole.
For the around the price of a "decent" turbo you can pick up some winter cycling gear and a set of very bright lights. Don't worry about the drivers, they're gonna hit you anyway regardless of day or night! ;-)
If you have the will-power to make good use of a turbo then best of luck to you. I enjoy cycling because of the experience of going places under my own steam. The thought of turning a nice racer into an exercise bike holds even less appeal than you'd imagine.
Going out in the dark and cold in winter for road ride just for the sake of it is just too masochistic for me (ok night off-roading is probably much different).
OP didn't mention when they did their cycling - they way I get myself out in less pleasurable weather is to have to do it - so utility rides or commuting - could you commute to work, or if too far, some sort of part commute by bike?
"Jon Senior" <jon_AT_restlesslemon_DOTco_DOT_uk> wrote in message news:[email hidden]...
Quoted message said:
For the around the price of a "decent" turbo you can pick up some winter cycling gear and a set of very bright lights. Don't worry about the drivers, they're gonna hit you anyway regardless of day or night! ;-)
I find at night I get rather better treatment from motorists. I suspect this is a combination of being relatively more visible (decent back light) and not much other traffic around.
