Step 1.

Training set-up.  Nothing happens before this step is done. This is a step you can’t skip.

Trainer:  It needs to hold the bike and offer resistance - simple enough.  The resistance range should be reached by a combination of gearing on the bike and settings on the trainer - still pretty simple.  The range of resistance will be determined by the workout, but the range of resistance for the combination of trainer and gearing should be from zero to more than you can turn.  The resistance must be easily controllable during a workout.  This is where it gets complicated. There are dumb trainers which use resistance units, the two common types are magnetic and fan/fluid. Magnetic units use a metal plate that rotates between rows of magnets, they have linear resistance and produce little noise.  Fan or fluid trainers move oil or air to produce resistance. The argument for this type of trainer is that it has the same exponential resistance as riding on the road. For my training program, this type of trainer is working against us as it is changing the resistance based on other parameters. My program often requires high resistance at low cadence which wind/fluid trainers can’t produce.  This leaves us with smart trainers which use apps to control the resistance…

There are too many smart trainers and too many apps for me to go over how to use them. The rule still applies - the resistance must be easily controllable during a workout. I can’t stress that enough, I’ve been teaching pedal stroke classes for years and the single failure point has been the trainer.  If you use a smart trainer, you need to learn how to use it. That part is not my responsibility.

Magnetic trainers should be ideal for my class, but there’s a problem. They are the least expensive offering in the trainer world, so they tend to be cheap crap with insufficient resistance.  I use the Blackburn Magneto Pro trainer, it was part of their pro series of trainers so it’s well built and the resistance unit is huge and durable, offering a good range of resistance. I now have 3 smart trainers which I don’t use because every 90 minute workout is 45 minutes of trying to get the trainer to work. By my math, the mag trainer is 50% better…

Feedback:   You are learning a motor skill. There are three steps to doing this. There is the cognitive stage - what I teach in class.  There is the associative stage, what you start doing in class and what you continue to do in practice. During class I watch my students and make corrections as needed. When I’m not there, you need both the understanding of what must happen, and a system of feedback to keep the practice working correctly. The third stage is the autonomous stage which you can’t get to without the first two stages working - we’re not there yet.

You need three things for this to work.  1) you must understand what has to happen. It should all make sense to you - Newton’s laws apply.  2) you must be able to see yourself. 3) you must be critical of what you’re doing.  Practice only works if you do it right.