to the ergometer people

smallyke said:

....How do you guys train on them?..

I only do SST, L4 and L5 work on gym ergs. Lower levels aren't very good in terms of the time I'd have to sit on the erg and higher levels don't work very well since most gym ergs aren't built well for out of the saddle jumps with their lousy pedals.

Quoted post said:

..Super high rpm 130 rpm for a long time with low wattage

Nope, I wouldn't do that indoors or outdoors I don't see what you're targeting with that workout. I suppose it's leg speed, but I'd still make sure I was in a specific work range like high L3, L4 or L5 and don't see the benefit to doing these at low power levels.

Quoted post said:

...Normal? rpm 80 - 100 at race wattages.

Yep, that's a typical erg workout if you define race wattages as L4 or max one hour pace.

Quoted post said:

I mean if your wmax is 300 will you just cruise at 120 - 150 watt at 130 rpm

No, there is no training benefit to working at less than 50% of my FTP. Of course I don't know what you mean by wmax, is that power at FTP (one hour power) or MAP or your absolute peak power like in a sprint. I use Coggan's schema where things are relative to max one hour power (FTP) so if you're talking about some other system then we might be talking about the same levels. Either way, anything less than 50% of your FTP isn't worth the time of being on the erg unless it's a pure recovery spin.

Quoted post said:

If i bike outside it seems like those normal ergo values of 100 rpm seem a bit slow. It feels quite different.

I'm not sure I follow you here. One thing to be careful with is that most gym ergs fall off in terms of power at very high cadences. They also feel different and easier since the power is steady regardless of cadence. So it feels backwards compared to the road in the sense that it gets easier at faster cadences and easier since it takes no mental effort to put out a steady power so you can turn your brain off while you ride the erg. The ergs at my local gym start feeling ridiculously easy at cadences above 120 rpm so I try to stay in a more typical 80-100 rpm range.
-Dave

I use two erg’s actually one in the gym if i don’t feel like erging home and i got a kettler fx - 1 at home. That’s one expensive piece of machinery for an ergo coasted me (a youngster) about 500 bucks. The plus is it is quality. You can do out of the saddle sprints on it or what you have to understand under that. Also it works in steps of 5 watt. And unlike some erg’s it’s a fixed watt. So whether you push 40 rpm or 200 rpm 300 watt remains 300 watt. Also I’ve got some space as it should function well at its max. of 400 watt.

The ones in the gym (techno gym) are even more professional. They are old(10 yers at lest) but robust and they go all the way to 500 watt. You can chose fixed or watts depending on rpm.

About the getting easier at high rpm's i don’t experience that yet. Maybe im just not trained hard enough yet. Oh by wmax i meant 5 minute power output
🙄 . I still have a long way to optimal fitness in cycling. But im working on it. BtW i also plan to gain some weight 10 - 22 pounds in the coming six months. So I’ll probably get some extra muscle in the legs to to push myself harder.

Cycling is now that I do it more and more becoming a true love. Even the stationary one. It starts to come close to my love for swimming and recently also lifting weights. The lather has ballooned up my 10 inch arms(oww i was skinny) already to a still skinny 12.2 inches. But im on the way. They should all help each other i guess. Cycling good to increase my oxygen uptake which I’ll need in swimming although not specific i can see the helpif i swim enough. Just like weights will help cycling and swimmingand getting more attention from girls. 😎

Any tips on stationary cycling further are welcome.

Oh btw a small sidenote. When iw as looking the internet for sports i found a forum letsrun or something where they have a post with weekly training. Wouldnt it be cool to start such a thing here.And above that commetn on eachother(something they didnt seem to do there). That forum was quite good made me remember my old runnign times again. But thats over.Running and muscles dont mix.