Think it is time for me to put forward my home-trainer experience. “Karstenhorn’s” set-up is what I would call a “full-blown home-trainer set-up” and if you have the money and the space to have it installed permanently it is difficult to say anything bad about it. I wish I had the space for a such a permanent installation.
However, for many people, the price and/or the space for such an installation is the limiting factor. My home-trainer set-up is in the opposite end of the scale, it is a very basic ELITE novo and I think that to some extent, this is more what “SportingGoods” is after.
Let me explain how I use it, so you can get a feeling for it and judge if this is the way you should go. The trainer itself is the ELITE Novo, it is just a very basic trainer where you strap in your bike and it apply a “resistance-roller” to your tire. It has 8 levels of “resistance” and that’s it. No electronic, no power -meter ext. nothing beside the resistance to your tire.
I typically strap in my racer or my Tri-bike, never tried with my MTB. A short side remark. A home-trainer, regardless if you have a small or big set-up, is perfect to learn to be in the aerobars of a tri-bike. It takes a couple of month, but then you got it and it is much safer than going on the road.
How do I train, when I am on the home-trainer. Basically, after my pulse. I have a Garmin Fenix-3 (not the HR, but the strap version). Typically, I make a training session in Garmin Connect, load it up to the Fenix-3 and I am ready to go. I then just adjust the resistance and the gear, so I am at the right pulse-level/zone and a good cadence.
I do have both cadence and speed measurement on the bikes going to the Fenix-3, but I don’t really use them while on the home-trainer; For cadence, you typically know if you are in a good flow and the speed measurement don’t really make sense unless you compared to the same resistance-level ext.
A typical training session last between one and two hours. It can be interval, long rides at specific pulse-zone (typically on the tri-bike) or whatever you fancy. I typically listen to music. In the beginning, I also watched television, but I somehow became unforced on the training, so I stopped that.
I sweat a lot when I do exercise (yes, my fitness level is OK), but when I am on the home-trainer, I sweat like a pig, very much like when you are in a spinning class (you don’t have the cooling effect of the “speed wind”), so if you intent to do your home-trainer indoor, remember to get a BIG fan.
I prefer the home-trainer on the covered balcony, then the fan is only needed in the hottest times. Sometimes I do it in the basement and the fan is a must and you need fresh air in the room afterwards. Putting it up in the living room is basically a no-go, at least for me, due to the sweat and to some extent the noise.
Going more than a couple of hours on a home-trainer is a mental challenge, and even with a full scale set-up I think it is the same. My record is about 3:20 and that was REALLY mentally hard.
What I like about this set-up and the home-trainer is that it is extremely efficient. Beside the bike itself, I only need the trainer and a sleeping pad to go under the set-up. No electronic, no tv, no calibration ext. The Fenix-3 I have for all training session anyway.
The only data you get is your pulse, cadence and “speed”.
You could even use the most basic pulse-watch and just write down your training session and follow that.
No, I don’t know what power I am at, nor can I claim that I did mount Ventoux in 45 min, but does it improve my fitness level: YES.
Having a home-trainer, regardless of scale is very efficient, you don’t have to find out where you want to go, drive to all the traffic light in the city before you can really start ext. and most important, you family can still get in contact with you while you are on the trainer. Quite important if you have smallish children.
BR
Thomas
