Hi guys (and gals)

Am doing some winter sessions on my rollers and am just trying to work out how to get a great workout on them.
I tend to get pretty bored once I have done more than 30 minutes and the longest I tend to be on them is 40 minutes.

Even pushing the hardest gear this does not get my heart rate super high unless I attempt to keep my cadence above 100 for a number of minutes. Peddling this fast when a bit tired can lead to the wobbles when not concentrating.

Any suggestions?

I also just tried using ankle weights to make it harder. Is this wasting my time. It did feel alot harder but is it doing me any good in terms of fitness?

Howard.

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If less is more, just think how much more must be!!!!

Fold up a towel and put it under the back two rollers.

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CAAD9 - 6.32kg

So the towel acts as a brake on the rollers?

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If less is more, just think how much more must be!!!!

Tighten your rear break a little, or consider rollers with some sort of resistance. I got just got off my rollers with magnetic resistance, owned them for at least 15 years now and always get way more workout than I can tolerate at this time of year and they are still performing well (kind of noisy though).

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Its a joke! (the Avatar)

I went through the same process... my conclusion was that rollers are good for warmup/cooldown or light recovery, nothing more. Burning brake pads and wearing your rim down certainly is not a good idea in the long run. The towel trick does improve things, but 1 you will burn your towell, and 2 the resistance is not always smooth and consistent.

If you need a harder workout I think you need to resort to an indoor trainer. Plenty of cheap options out there with reasonable resistance.

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Canyon Ultimate SLX 2013 + DA9070 + Red Quarq + Corima Aero+ MCC (Ordered! 6.0kg)
Canyon AeroRoad + DA9000 + Lightning Power2Max + MCU's (6.5kg)
Cervelo P4 + G3 Powertap (7.78kg)
Cervelo SLC + SRAM Red 2013 + Red Quarq (6.8kg)

towel under rollers
lower air pressure
tyre liners in tyres
heavy wheels

my rollers will soak up many hundreds of watts - i can happily do 30/30s on it at 600 (i think - haven't done them since last season so i'm a little hazy). my bread and butter 5min intervals are at about 380-400 and that's because the engine is weak, not because the rollers are at their limits. i normally just swap out my front wheel for an old, heavy training wheel that has a heavy old tyre on it and a few tyre liners in it.

Thanks Guys but no-one has mentioned anything about whether the ankle weights will be doing anygood.

Surely they must?

HB.

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If less is more, just think how much more must be!!!!

Are you planning to ride outside with ankle weights on? If not it will probably be about productive as single legged intervals being done by folks with 2 functioning legs.

The ankle weights are an utter utter utter utter waste of time. They will do.nothing to improve your cycling.

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"Physiology is all just propaganda and lies... all waiting to be disproven by the next study."
"I'm not a real doctor; But I am a real worm; I am an actual worm." - TMBG

+1 for lower tyre pressure.

TruTrainers with the extra resistance unit. If that's not enough then you're on PEDs and should just take it easy until spring:)

google on Kreitler rollers

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"It's always your legs that count, but WW bikes make strong legs last longer!"