WattBike

Cork24

Winter is Coming,

And with it comes the bad weather, in my local gym they have 2 Watt Bikes in the corner,

and was wondering does any one use them and know how to use them to get the best out of them

at the moment, i have the watt bike at Level 1 Gear 1, Cycling between 90 - 110 RPM for 60 Mins,

What Level and Gear would i need the Watt Bike to be at and what RPM are we looking at to get the most out of winter Training in the Wattbike.

On top of that i be looking at Spinning Classes 3 times a week, and a long Sunday Spin if Weather is good.

Lumen

Isn't the whole point of a WattBike that your target effort is in watts?

Cork24

i normally went by RPMs, that's why i would like some more info

i cant follow the training guides on their site.

Beasty

Have you checked out the training plans?

Also there's a Ranking page where you can see how you compare against others over certain set distances/times

As lumen says this is all about measuring your power output, and I would suggest you download the Wattbike Expert software which will help analyse your rides and provide a pedal stroke analysis - you basically need to plug your computer into the Wattbike to download your data

Airbrake 1 Magnetic brake 1 is the lowest gear - basically what you should be using to start your warm-up or if you are working on increasing your cadance

There is a chart which sets out the equivalent gearing to a road bike here

Do you know if they are the standard Wattbikes, or the Wattbike Pro (which has higher gearing and is more suited to racing cyclists)?

Cork24

How do you tell if its the pro or standard,

It can go up to Level 10, and i think up to gear 7 if that helps ?

i had a look at the 16 week Triathlete plan before but cant really understand the layout.

this below for an example,
Phase 1





2 90’ ZONE 1 - ZONE 2 45’ ZONE 1-ZONE 2 Technique Session 2 x 20’ ZONE 2-ZONE 3 45’ ZONE 1-ZONE 2 90’ ZONE 1 - ZONE 2

Lumen

@Cork24, don't get distracted by unnecessary detail.

Unless you're planning on doing insane 4 hour Wattbike sessions, you should be doing either:

- long but hard steady-state efforts (e.g. 1 hour straight or 3x20 minutes with a couple of minutes break in between), or

- short intervals, e.g. 5 x 5 minutes with 3 minutes recovery in between each.

For wattages, just pick numbers that you can sustain throughout the session, and that makes the session hard but not impossible, leaving you feeling that you could have done just a little bit more.

If the above is too complicated, just pedal away until you want to get off.

Cork24

Its not that its to complicated, i dont understand what they mean 90 mins 1 Zone 2

is that 90's in either Zone 1 or 2.

giving the there site a well going over. and found the training Zones.

http://wattbike.com/uk/guide/getting_started/heart_rate_and_power_training_zones

I might give the 16 week Training program a going over for the winter along with Spinning classes 3 times a week i should be ready for the new season to follow.

but cant seem to figure out where should the Level be at Level 1 or what along with the gears as they dont really say this on the Training programs

Lumen

Forget gears, forget cadence. It's all about the watts.

2 Wheels Good

Lumen wrote: »

Forget gears, forget cadence. It's all about the watts.

And your pedal stroke. Focus on getting it more like a sausage (That's what they call it!) than a figure of 8. Think I'm in the same gym, I use them from time to time. Have a look at their training plans and get working on the watts.

Cork24

2 Wheels Good wrote: »

And your pedal stroke. Focus on getting it more like a sausage (That's what they call it!) than a figure of 8. Think I'm in the same gym, I use them from time to time. Have a look at their training plans and get working on the watts.

NRG ?


I had a look at the 16 week Tri Training plan, so i coming to give that a going over, just back from Hols, so i will start next week.

2 Wheels Good

Cork24 wrote: »

NRG ?


I had a look at the 16 week Tri Training plan, so i coming to give that a going over, just back from Hols, so i will start next week.

Yep, NRG. Have been away a fair bit of the summer but will be using them over the winter. Even without doing too much planning a target wattage and focusing on the pedal stroke is a good workout.

josealdo

2 Wheels Good wrote: »

Yep, NRG. Have been away a fair bit of the summer but will be using them over the winter. Even without doing too much planning a target wattage and focusing on the pedal stroke is a good workout.

hi guys .

just to reopen this thread . my gym got six wattbikes . WATT is the most effective workout/ program to prepare me for paris / roubaix sportif next april ?

cheers

boege

An intro to training zones
http://www.bikeradar.com/gear/article/heart-rate-monitor-training-for-cyclists-28838/

Once you have your zones you can look up training plans that incorporate training in the various zones. Using power to train in my opinion requires considerable knowledge of how to train. For most, heart rate monitoring is a simpler and more accessible approach.

For most people long steady rides over a period of weeks to months will show most improvement. The problem is it's quite boring.

However, to prove the point my son was tested at UL last year and they did a full blood lactate threshold test from which they calculated all his training zones. He had been racing A3 for two years with little success. Based on the shape of his graph they suggested he still needed to improve his base and this required lots of long slow miles at relatively low heart rates (Zone 2, I think). He did two months of this (10-15 hours per week) and only in month 3 started to train in the other zones. Despite taking a 2 month break in mid season he came back and got promoted to A2 and is clearly a stronger rider now.

There's lots of training theories and advice out there but the above was provided by the high performance coaching centre at UL. The plan is to get him tested again to see what training plan he should follow for next winter.

nak

figs666 wrote: »

hi guys .

just to reopen this thread . my gym got six wattbikes . WATT is the most effective workout/ program to prepare me for paris / roubaix sportif next april ?

cheers

Get out on the road and do some longer steady spins over the winter. Find some cobbles

josealdo

boege wrote: »

An intro to training zones
http://www.bikeradar.com/gear/article/heart-rate-monitor-training-for-cyclists-28838/

Once you have your zones you can look up training plans that incorporate training in the various zones. Using power to train in my opinion requires considerable knowledge of how to train. For most, heart rate monitoring is a simpler and more accessible approach.

For most people long steady rides over a period of weeks to months will show most improvement. The problem is it's quite boring.

However, to prove the point my son was tested at UL last year and they did a full blood lactate threshold test from which they calculated all his training zones. He had been racing A3 for two years with little success. Based on the shape of his graph they suggested he still needed to improve his base and this required lots of long slow miles at relatively low heart rates (Zone 2, I think). He did two months of this (10-15 hours per week) and only in month 3 started to train in the other zones. Despite taking a 2 month break in mid season he came back and got promoted to A2 and is clearly a stronger rider now.

There's lots of training theories and advice out there but the above was provided by the high performance coaching centre at UL. The plan is to get him tested again to see what training plan he should follow for next winter.

i read that power is a better pacer than HR . HR can be effected by caffine and fatigue .

the beauty of the watt bike . it allows me to practice good pedalling technique