Systemic Gym bike work on the road.

[ticou]

I did my first 5 hour ride this summer today, and was keen to see if any benefits had accrued from my Level 16/17 gym bike work. I went on the Olympic road race route, and noticed i wasn't feeling the Box Hill gradient so much, could go up it in comfort on a higher sprocket, and in the big up and down about 1.5 miles after the top, found I was bombing up the other side much further on the 50/11 than before, and halved the time I was in the 34 before reaching the crest.

It was a very hot day and I only did 2 instead of 3 loops, so gym bikes do not affect endurance, and the final test will be tomorrow; if I can gently bimble instead of grinding to a halt every 400 yards to get my breath back, then it will have proved it's worth.

So it affects climbing ability slightly, but not endurance, and it does help you to lose weight.

[BobSantini]

"bimble" what's that?

Gym bikes = Spin classes I guess. Glad to hear it's working for you. They can be used to train for any aspect of your racing except bike handling. You can vary resistance, pace and duration so as long as the routine is designed correctly you can address specifics including endurance. However that could be really boring.
There's a crowd that flogs training videos with movies from the POV of a racer to keep you in the moment. I don't know what they're called.

[HarryS]

Sufferfest?

[ticou]

A bimble is a gentle bike ride. I'm off to the 'tains soon so need all the sufferfest I can get!

[ticou]

Well, it worked, I took a 2 mile bimble to the supermarket and I didn't grind to a halt either there or back. My gym is a small affair and while the olympics were on it wasn't boring, I'm now making do with cruddy pop music.