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trainer resistance or gears?
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 2006-03-26 11:52 PM |
Veteran  201 |  Subject: trainer resistance or gears?When doing a trainer set, do I want to increase the resistance on my trainer or just use harder gears? |
| 2006-03-27 6:39 AM in reply to: #380065 |
Master 1597    Colorado | Subject: RE: trainer resistance or gears? It depends on the type of trainer you have. Some will naturally increase the resistance as you go up in gears, some you have to make the adjustment manually. Which trainer do you have? |
| 2006-03-27 6:50 AM in reply to: #380115 |
Cycling Guru 15134 Fulton, MD | Subject: RE: trainer resistance or gears? Wind or fluid trainer the resistence increases as your speed increases. For a mag. trainer the resistence is consistant unless there is a setting to increase it (most mag. trainers have at least three settings). Regardless, you should be changing gears to vary your workout and stretch out the legs. I personally always have my mag. trainer on the hardest resistence as it makes it that much easier to transition back to the road once it warms up enough to get out there. :-P |
| 2006-03-27 7:46 AM in reply to: #380117 |
Veteran 201 | Subject: RE: trainer resistance or gears? |
| 2006-03-27 8:23 AM in reply to: #380157 |
Elite 3650 Laurium, MI | Subject: RE: trainer resistance or gears? with a mag trainer, resistance will increase as your wheel spins faster, so assuming you hold constant pedal RPM's, shifting will alter your resistance. A mag trainer has a linear resistance profile, so if you drew a graph of speed vs resistance, it would be a straight line. This means going from 10 mph to 15 mph will give the same increase in resistance as 15 mph to 20 mph. When you adjust the resistance, you adjust the steepness of that line. So on an easy setting, increasing 5mph may signify a 5 watt increase in power (to turn the trainer), but on a hard setting that 5 mph increase may now requre 10 watts, or 20 watts. So in essence, what the resistance setting is doing is determining how much more resistance shifting a gear will add or remove. I usually keep the resistance on a fixed level and change gears to increase resistance. If I play with the resistance it's because the workout is getting too easy and I need to increase the challenge. fluid trainers have a exponential profile (it curves) so at slower speeds you get less added resistance from shifting, while at faster speeds you get a lot more. |
| 2006-03-27 11:17 PM in reply to: #380192 |
Coach 9167 Stairway to Seven | Subject: RE: trainer resistance or gears? vortmax - 2006-03-27 9:23 AM with a mag trainer, resistance will increase as your wheel spins faster, so assuming you hold constant pedal RPM's, shifting will alter your resistance. A mag trainer has a linear resistance profile, so if you drew a graph of speed vs resistance, it would be a straight line. This means going from 10 mph to 15 mph will give the same increase in resistance as 15 mph to 20 mph. When you adjust the resistance, you adjust the steepness of that line. So on an easy setting, increasing 5mph may signify a 5 watt increase in power (to turn the trainer), but on a hard setting that 5 mph increase may now requre 10 watts, or 20 watts. So in essence, what the resistance setting is doing is determining how much more resistance shifting a gear will add or remove. I usually keep the resistance on a fixed level and change gears to increase resistance. If I play with the resistance it's because the workout is getting too easy and I need to increase the challenge. fluid trainers have a exponential profile (it curves) so at slower speeds you get less added resistance from shifting, while at faster speeds you get a lot more. Wow, that was a great explanation. i totally get it now. Seriously. Thanks! |
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