One of the sites I visited made mention of another (yes, yet one more) site for cycling enthusiasts. http://trainerroad.com is for indoor cyclists on rollers or trainers. Obviously indoor training is not really all that necessary for someone like me that lives in Southern California but on this lazy Sunday morning I decided to give it a whirl.
I'm not a big fan of indoor riding because it takes a tremendous amount of concentration and because I get bored in no time at all. Of course, living in SoCal where we almost never have to use a trainer doesn't help since even on a lousy, rainy day there are still usually a few hours you can get to ride. It's not often I'm forced indoors, in fact it's more time pressure than weather circumstances that make me drag out the Kurt Kinetic Road Machine.
I've tried a few different programs in an effort to keep me doing what I should be doing to no avail. I've even tried watching action movies on one monitor and watching my workout on the other monitor. I almost completed a one hour workout but felt like I suffered ADD as I scolded myself for not being able to concentrate on one simple task for an hour.
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| http://www.trainerroad.com/cycling/rides/8672 is the link to the above screen shot. |
All that said, the application that http://trainerroad.com designed seems to be the ticket. For once I can easily see my data on the screen along with the target data based on the workout I choose. The screenshot above shows the one hour workout, it automatically creates interval markers based on the goal and records my HR, speed, cadence and most importantly power (or in my case, the lack thereof). If you don't have a power meter the program will estimate the power based on the model trainer or rollers you have. Pretty cool stuff!
I have a wireless connection to my PC that picks up the signals, however you don't have to do it this way. You can simply hit play on the exercise and follow along however you want. These exercises can be power based or heart rate based.
Interestingly, you can drop videos such as http://sufferfest.com videos onto the trainer window and you can actually "chase" the pros. I haven't tackled this part yet, but I will; I just can't help myself when it comes to the latest technology challenges. I guess you could drop some porn in there... just kidding! It will be interesting to see if I can get some of the Tour de France recordings to play.
