Turbo Torture

Posted by: Coach Carter in Untagged  on Jan 6, 2010

The current weather in the UK is proving to be VERY testing for all the PBscience athletes. Its not only the environmental challenge of keeping warm that puts people off going outside on their bikes: predominantly, its the safety of the road. Only today its been reported that top Ironman athlete Chrissie Wellington has come a cropper whilst training.

In the call time I have shared with my athletes this week so far, the conversation has been dominated by how hard it has been to train: everyone is being forced inside to use the turbo trainer: what some liken to being Chinese water torture! Some are more mentally geared for it than others - some just see it as a job that needs doing. They have goals they want to hit this year, and to achieve them, they need to get the hours in. If you can't go out, you just have to grind it out. I don't think there are athletes who actually LIKE turbo training, but there are those that just see it as necessary, don't question it, and just do it.

OK, maybe I did LIKE turbo training when I was competing. It never took much of a turn in the weather, and I was set up in the lounge in front of the TV (or now, its iPlayer, what an invention?!). For me, turbo training gave me ultimate control - I knew that once I had made a decision a session was going to be done on the turbo, it felt like the job was done - nothing could stop me from achieving the session goal. Going out on the road always came with an element of uncertainty that my mathematical brain couldn't (didn't) want to contend with. Also,  I had a session aim (a power output, a heart rate, a time) and doing a session on the turbo would bring me back 'full marks'. Out on the road, there was always a chance things would not go to plan - and I think at times I couldn't deal with that stress alongside the training stress: what if I puncture, what if the weather gets worse, what road will I use to ensure a good training effort etc (an interesting aside here, but I remember arrving in Toulon for a warm weather winter training week and being SO stressed by the week ahead - because I didn't know the roads and I was just entering in my view, a critical training block).

Many athetes I coach have a structured plan to follow. And even the most committed are now finding it harder to look ahead at maybe 4 turbo sessions in a row - I have one athlete who has had to train exclusively inside on the turbo for the last 2 weeks. Whilst structured training plans are a functional tool of a training athlete, at times like this they can become a pressure. The thought of doing your prescribed training to the letter, and the hours required at this time of year to establish an endurance base can be overbearing. So, how can an athlete cope with the turbo experience? Here are some tips:

• Acceptance - don't lose energy to thinking about it; it is a training session in your plan, and its there to be done. Don't put it off, don't get into a debate with yourself about how unfair it is, how hard it is. Instead, focus on getting the job done.
• Realisation - that there are a lot of people in exactly the same position as you, but YOU have decided to make the most of it. Its a bit like Daley Thompson's theory on training on Christmas Day - he knew it was giving him an advantage over his competition.
• Preparation - if you know there are a few days ahead where you are destined to be inside, find a place you can keep your bike set up. It adds to the impending doom if you have to go outside, get your bike, change the back wheel, set up the turbo, go get a fan etc etc.
• Consistency - if you can, allocate the session to a known starting time. This makes it a contract with yourself. Even tell other people so they can help you get on the bike on time. It helps even more if, for example, at a weekend, the starting time can be the same day.
• Reward - have something post session to keep your spirits high. Mark (the same athlete who last week was thankful the silly season was over and is now wishing this silly weather was over!) discussed with me that his treat will be coffee in Cafe Nero (my kind of reward system!).
• Sharing - there will be a lot of people in your position, so why not cash in on that and organise a "turbo party"? It sounds ridiculous, but having a friend with you really breaks the monotony. Its something I did a fair bit during my competitive days: my then training partner Julia and I would spend 4h at a time in the basement of the TriStore doing base miles - we started at 6am, finished by 10am, in Costa Coffee for breakfast by 10:30am :-) My SIS team mates were also great training partners - one 'camp' in Guernsey with Annie was SO windy, we were inside for 3 days. Coffee was again our reward, but actually, the laughs we had during the session made it too. We also took it in turns to suggest the next 'drill'

Those are some tips to get your frame of mind right, and get you onto the turbo to start the session. You might also like to consider these points, as they will help fuel your motivation once you are going, and also help you get the most from the session:

• Compromise - of course, you have a training session on your plan, but be prepared to adjust your expectations. Turbo training is very different to training on the road - there is no free wheeling, descents, junctions, drafting. Every pedal stroke is one of quality. I explain to my riders that you get about 10 to 15% more riding on the turbo rather than out on the road. So, if you have a 3h ride in the plan, know that 2.5h is enough time to equate to the road.
• Gain - in fact, I would go as far as to say that you get MORE from turbo training - even with taking some time off to equate duration, training on a turbo is more stressful to the body than being on the road. Even the best turbo trainers in the world cannot give you a fly wheel big enough to mimic the 'roll' of the road. With each pedal stroke on the turbo, you have to accelerate against the resistance - this makes the dead spot bigger. Its very common for athletes to comment to me about power loss (against a given heart rate / effort) when training on the turbo. Know this, and don't get too fraught - you aren't less fit, its the mechanics of system - you ARE still putting out the same power, but you lose it being captured on your cycle computer power reading.
• Repetition - with the repeated, similar pedalling action, it will be the same muscle fibres that get a hammering in turbo training: repeated contraction in the same position - its no wonder people often report getting off the bike and complaining of sore legs (more so than the equivalent session on the road). Get out of the saddle a little, change gear - just change things a little.
• Variation - because of the repetitive nature, its your chance to be inventive! Rather than that 3h zone 2 ride being about hitting your target power for 180 minutes, why not add in some variation within the session?
  • Cadence blocks: perform 5 to 10 minute blocks at low (50rpm), medium (80rpm), high (>100rpm) cadences
  • Cadence pyramids: move from low to high cadence by changing a gear each minute and then return down the pyramid too
  • Power pyramids: work in 5 minute blocks starting at the lower end of your training zone, and moving up by 10W until the upper border of that zone
• Deceptive - probably pretty obvious, but you do get hotter on the turbo: you are not travelling forward, so are not generating your own cooling wind. At this time of the year, heading out in to a garage in the morning can present you with sub zero temperatures (one of my duathletes, Stewart, documented it was -6 yesterday morning!), but you will get warm over the course of a 2h session. So dress in layers so that you can strip off during the session. Please don't assume you will be okay because you will soon warm up - its a fast track way to having problems. The body is very good at holding blood within the core of the body when it is cold - and this will impact not only on the quality of the session (muscles with no blood don't like producing power!) but also on your health (lacking blood at the extremities can lead to chilblains or worse). Richard, another experienced turbo user, was telling me this is the first time he has turbo trained wearing overshoes and gloves!
• Hydration - People often use (and benefit from) using a fan to keep them cool. However, this can disguise how much they are sweating. When training outside in normal conditions, you could assume taking on board ~1 litre of fluid per hour is enough to maintain hydration. Under conditions of a 'thermal challenge', you will need at least 1.5 litres per hour, if not more for perfuse sweaters. I would suggest you have your 'normal' drinks bottles for the ride time (with your carbohydrate solution in) and extra bottles of water to top that quota up. Even better is to switch your normal carbohydrate solution to one based on electrolytes (like Science in Sport's 'Go'). Electrolytes help maintain hydration better than pure water.
• Fuelling - alongside my point about turbo training being more stressful, we need to take this into consideration with fuelling too. We know that our body' carbohydrate store, the muscle glycogen' is bound with water. What will the body do when trying to liberate more water? That's right, release more  of that stored carbohydrate and burn it as a fuel. Like for like, a turbo session will probably take more energy from carbohydrates than an equal time on the road - so up your CHO solution a little. Remember, its better to preserve the session quality than to worry about the extra calorie intake.
• Recovery - again because of the stress, recovery is probably harder post turbo work: the dehydration, the changes in the body's core temperature, the extra stripping of the muscle glycogen stores - these will all leave you a little more vulnerable post session. Your immune system will have taken a hiding: so make sure you have a recovery drink already prepared, grab it on your way to the shower where your warm clothes are already waiting having prepared them BEFORE the session ;-) Give your body chance to return to normal before heading out for that post-ride reward, or meeting others.