My trainer broke. I am quite unhappy as it <2y old and under warranty . However, I have to ship it back at my expense to Saris. Oh how I wish I had never done business with them right now.
End of the day I am with no trainer for 3-4 more weeks (already without a trainer for 1.5 waiting on a new power supply that did not help). This week is my plans recovery week so translating rides to outdoors will be easy. However, after that I need help.
- I don’t think I can manually create every interval on my Garmin. Any way I can help test a new move a workout to your bike computer feature?
- How do I safely do intervals in the rain and in the dark? I live in Seattle and at this point in the year most of when I can ride is close to sunrise/set and it is raining more often than not, and when it is not raining the road is wet.
I really want to keep my plan going. I had a nasal surgery this summer which went well and am just finally getting back what I lost from the surgery down time and starting to make gains.
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I used to have a Saris (Cyclops) trainer and was always impressed with their CS. In fact, when I had an unsolvable issue, they offered me a refund and all I had to do was take the unit back to the LBS.
Sorry to hear of your troubles.
I hope you can get sorted and back to training sooner than later. Stay safe and good luck!
May be rather than stress over missed training, think of it as an opportunity to get a mini break from training before hitting it hard again?
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@TTDragon the problem is I just came off a larger than mini break as a result of surgery. As a result both physically and mentally I am not ready for a break.
Take a look at the strength sessions for when it’s just too nasty out. Also contact the minions. They used to have workouts in training peaks, not sure if they still do. Those could be downloaded to your head unit.
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Strength and Yoga are a big part of my plan already. Right now looks like all I have for a long time.
I will look at training peaks. However, last I checked those were stale and I have in my plan quite a few pro rides and newer workouts scheduled. Super depressing as I finally got back on track and am likely to slide backwards again.
Another possibility is picking up a used trainer for a while. Those tend to have a fairly stable value, so you could sell it afterwards.
I second Sir Brian, used non-smart trainers are normally relatively cheap around me. I actually bought a cheap one when mine broke several years ago and I keep it around just in case I need it again.
Another option, you may have a friend with an extra trainer laying around. Ask around. One of my friends has collected several extras over the years and he lends them out to friends when needed.
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Along with @Sir_Brian_M and @bfrostie Check with the LBS to see if they don’t have a used trainer they can lend to you while you get the situation with Saris sorted out. My LBS has two trainers they use for fittings and one is exactly the trainer I use daily. I know they would charge me rental fees, but I’m good with that. Keeps you honest and gets their equipment back as fast as possible.
@MichaelG
I second the recommendation to borrow or find another trainer to use while you get yours sorted out. But if you do need to ride outdoors, for starters, make sure you have good lights and reflective gear- safety first of course! Second, if you do have/use TrainingPeaks (and I think it’s still free for a basic account) you can build any workout in their workout builder and sync it with your head unit in order to take a workout outdoors. The Pro Rides in SYSTM are not feasible to copy over, but many of the other workouts you could build the basic version of in TP to run outside. I would take the basic workout and don’t worry about most of the short spikes/surges. For example, Angels is 3 x 8 minute climbs, so you could either build a workout to have a 10-15 min warmup period, and don’t make it specific- just ride however you feel you will warmup the best. Then the main set could be something like 8 mins @ 90% of FTP, second set 95% of FTP and the third 90-105% maybe over-under style or just repeat surges and then settle in. Take about 3-4 mins of recovery in between.
Basically, take the main idea of the workout, translate it the best you can and improvise or get creative if/when necessary.
If you want a Pro Ride style workout, get a friend or two to ride with you and dedicate a specific amount of time or distance and ride like it’s a race. Attack each other at random, go for town line sprints, draft, etc and have fun with it.
I understand that you want to train well and stick to your plan to regain your fitness, but don’t let it stress you out TOO much, and try to get creative with what you can do!
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Thanks. I found a cheap pair of rollers. Not ideal. However, my training plan has a good bit of sustained effort work the next two weeks so I think it will keep me in the ballpark while I wait to get my trainer back from repair.
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