hhnngg1

I've hopped back on my rollers a few more times as of late, mainly because my TT bike (which lives on my trainer) is in the shop.

Was surprised at how ugly I was on the rollers for the first 5 mins, but everything came back quickly after that.

I have a pretty regular roller set I do, goes something along these lines:
- 10 mins warmup, on the hoods
- 5 min two hands on the bars
- 5 min two hands on the drops
- 2-3 min one-handed on the bars, each hand
- 2-3 min one-handed on the hoods, each hand
- 2-3 min one-handed on the drops, each hand
- 10-30 seconds at a time of riding looking back (to check for cars)
- 5 mins of standing in the drops two-hands
- Short 10-20 sec bursts of standing with one-hand in the drops
- Mix in high-cadence (110+) intervals wherever I can

I sporadically do one-legged drills but it's not part of the regular routine, and no-hands I only do when I'm really sharp on the rollers (which is not now).

Anyone else doing a routine on their rollers?

saratoga

I like the rollers for 2X20's and high cadence. One-legged stuff I leave for the trainer because it seems like I'm concentrating too much on staying steady and upright instead of focusing on good technique.

climber7

i don't really do structured drills, but i do practice some of that stuff. i have to stand every 10 minutes or so to avoid getting numb. every once in a while i throw in a little high-cadence "sprint," and i occasionally turn my head to practice looking backward. i don't really count riding one-handed as a drill; i do no hands occasionally to sit up and stretch my back. i do some single-leg pedaling at the end of the workout right before i get off...couple of sets with each leg.

also, i find no hands to be significantly easier than one leg and both hands on the bars. maybe it's just because my pedaling isn't very smooth (which is why i do the drill), but i think it's interesting that you seem to consider no hands harder.

HokuLoa

yeah, no. I'm riding an older set of PVC that are just "irregular" enough to discourage such drills. I know, "time for a new set" but they serve the purpose for the time being. I also don't ride rollers enough to be really confident like that. Take yesterday as an example. I forgot to turn the fan on high and the sweat started rolling down and tickling my temples. I lightly bent my head over to wipe off on my shoulder and just about flopped over. Nothing like rollers to make a confident rider feel like a rank amateur!

On the wish list is a solid set of aluminum drum roller that do not not develop their own harmonic "chatter."

curiouskid55

Have somebody stand behind you and whack and poke you on the shoulders, elbows, and hips with a broom. Line up three sets and do the same with two teamates.

duckracer

I just alternate 10 mins at a cadence of 90 and 10 mins at a cadence of 100+. I am always moving my hands around the bars. Oh and no hands?!!!! Tried that this weekend and next thing I knew I was unclipping in the air as I rode off the rollers!!!!!!!!!...Doh!!!!

bsektzer

Really?? Man, you're far better than I am! Last time I tried getting out of the saddle on rollers, well, it wasn't pretty

brian416

All kinds of intervals. Mostly all FTP work.

datlas 

I do try the 'look behind you' drill.

The harder stuff is beyond me. I am happy to just stay upright!

hhnngg1

Interestingly, once you can do the look behind you move for about 4 seconds (pretty long if you're not good at it - count to 4 slowly!) you can hold it for much, much longer than that. Unlike the road, where you really need to see what's coming up ahead, on rollers, you have unlimited forward road, and rollers amplify any lateral drift so much that you'll be holding essentially a dead straight line. And you can sense where you are on the rollers by how near the walls are. Once I'm going, I can ride near continuously looking back on the rollers, which is a bit weird at first since you never do that on the road.

Again, despite being able to do all this stuff, I think the technical effect on my cycling is marginal at best. Roller technique is SOOOO over-rated. It's artificially hard, and mastering it doesn't yield a lot for real-world riding.

I would trade ALL my roller skills instantly for another 25 watts to my FTP. Now that's something truly useful. I find the rollers fun, but I try to limit my use of them just to getting my skills back to where they were with the one-handed riding, which is already overkill. My time is MUCH better spent kick rear on the fixed trainer, on which I go so hard that I haven't even watched the video of the last 20 minutes of any of my 10+ spinervals and sufferfest videos because my I'm in so much pain that I can't even see.

jasandalb

my rollers are so old that I wouldnt try one handed stuff....maybe that's a hint i need new ones (but want the floating roller system...$700)
Anyway. I dont really have much of a set time routine....
I set my phone up to Pandora...turn on the "Offspring" channel and warm up with a nice smooth ride for 2 songs.
Then I stop, switch to the "Lincoln Park" channel and do one song at a higher pace. Then the next 3 songs, everytime the chorus of the song comes on I shift all the way to the highest gear and hammer it for the entire chorus, fell on balls to the wall, last sprint of the stage going for the win sprint...then back down a few gears to maintain a higher cadence then the first.
After the 4 songs in the "Lincoln Park" channel.. I stop and change to the "Blue October" channel... there, I cool down with 2 songs.
After that, I hop off and do 2 sets of 30 push ups, and 50 sit ups, and stretch

All in all, its about 45 mins from start to finish.

Tunnelrat81

We have a group of 10-25 folks who meet for a spin class in our garage every Tue. and Thurs. night through the winter months. Most everyone is on KK road machines, but I've been lucky enough to be able to borrow a set of resistance rollers. I've been using them since the end of last winter and have really enjoyed the pairing of technique and strength training. And of course, our classes are led by a fellow cyclist who directs us to do all sorts of terrible intervals.

I'm always confused by the arguments that rollers are only good for technique, and with limited benefit after the first few times. I agree that basic rollers don't offer much 'real world feel' in regards to resistance, in the same way trainers don't offer much 'real world feel' either, just isolated strength training.

Aside from the inability to sprint on rollers, I've found that training on resistance rollers is a great balance between the two training aids. Afterall, pedaling technique developed under low resistance will quickly fly out of the window when the stress of the race is on and efforts reach real world racing levels. In the same way, strength training developed on the trainer isn't helping you to stay in control while pushing hard in a shoulder to shoulder field of riders.

I doubt I'd use standard (non resistance) rollers nearly as much as I use these, nor would I enjoy them as much. These ones have been amazing. Resistance is smooth and progressive (and able to be increased beyond my strength). Spin down (on the lower settings) is even adequate for me to switch back and forth between feet for the one legged drills that we do at the end of almost every class.

When I'm no longer able to borrow these, I'll be looking for a set of my own for sure.

-Jeremy

jasandalb

I can sprint on my "regular" rollers. I just cant stand up and sprint. maybe that makes things a bit tougher.

hhnngg1

My TravelTrac $140 Performance Bike rollers have more than enough resistance without any added resistance device. I can push north of 280 watts for an hour, and 300+ for 2x20 FTP tests.

It does, however, get a pretty loud 'hum' when I'm on the biggest gears cranking away. I'm pretty sure these standard rollers have enough resistance for the vast majority of riders, without any added resistance device. You just have the gear it up.

For the standing sprinting, you can learn to do it by starting with a much slower cadence and building up from there. I won't say I can sprint as hard as I can on the road where I can really throw the bike around, but for sprint technique, it's a good thing to be able to at least know how to do roller-straight standing sprints in the drops.

bsektzer

Hmmm, well maybe I ought to try working on it a bit more. I do have a narrow hall way where I could set up and pretty well limit the possibilities of doing much damage.

I've got the Kreitler 3" rollers, and while they certainly don't offer as much resistance as my trainer, I can get up above 300 W with no trouble (You're right about the HUMMMMMM). I'm not going to tell you how long I can hold that but yeah, I do think my roller work offers some strength benefits as well.

climber7

really? the folding ones? we have those in our bike room and when i use them, 50x11 at 90 rpm will get me to around 190 watts.

edit: this has never occurred to me, but maybe running less than 120 psi would help get the resistance up...

Tunnelrat81

Lowering pressure is a known method of increasing the resistance for sure. I haven't specifically tested it, but I would think going too low would cause you to get more bouncy since the contact patch is already much smaller on rollers. I run 100 psi front and rear on my resistance set, which is the same that I run on the road. When I'm working on cadence work, I use one setting of resistance, a setting that "barely" allows me to spin over 100 rpm in my highest gear, and will bump it up a click or two in order to do low cadence strength work. It's quite true that you can do some 'decent' out of the saddle riding on the rollers (especially with higher resistance) but all out sprinting out of the saddle is a no-go, at least for me. I typically will just stay seated, and push a 'sprinting' effort until I'm cross-eyed. Seems to be adequately demolishing my legs despite the fact that I'm not standing.

Oh, and with the resistance unit, you can utilize ALL gears on your bike for training, just as you would with a stand trainer. On the non-resistance rollers that I've ridden, I was only utilizing a small area at the very top of my gearing. On this one however, at the end of my intervals, I can't wait to drop to the small chain-ring and recover a bit.

-Jeremy

Tunnelrat81

I'm not arguing that regular rollers don't offer any strength training, but you'd be hard pressed to find anyone riding competitively who doesn't regularly incorporate efforts far above 300 watts. None of this matters if you're regularly riding both, but I do enjoy being able to develop my smooth riding technique during high effort sessions. Plus I can't get myself onto the trainer for spin class these days...simply because our 1 hour class seems to stretch on forever. On the rollers I'm much more engaged and paying attention to what I'm doing, and the time goes by much more quickly.

Edit: I should add. If you're on any kind of stationary training tool during the cold and dark winter months, you're doing just fine. Many people have argued that spinning circles and using more than just your quads is wasteful, and that most pros simply hammer at varying cadences (i.e. only pushing down). I have to admit that I'm not studied up in this as some are, but I can say that for me this last season I saw an improvement in my strength after finishing last winter's training on the rollers. I felt that I was able to keep my quad strength more 'in reserve' which made it much easier to respond to late attacks on tired legs.

-Jeremy

hhnngg1

I'm probably at 100+ rpm on a 53 x 12. So I'm also pushing a bigger big toothring.

bsektzer

What's the diameter of the roller cylinders? The smaller they are, the more resistance they offer. I think Kreitler claims their 3.0" rollers offer 40% more resistance than the 4.5" models.

bsektzer

Jeremy,

First off, I am not what you'd call a competitive by any stretch of the imagination. I am, however, working hard at getting strong enough to hold my own with the 'fast group' on our club rides. None the less, I agree it takes more (considerably more) than 300 W intervals to get there. While I can get above 400 W on the rollers and remain under control, I really do have to switch to my trainer for efforts greater than that. The problem is, as you noted, it takes a lot more discipline to stay on the trainer for a long enough to be effective workout. Ah, well, if it were easy, anybody could do it

hhnngg1

As I said before, I find trainer >>> rollers. I train until death on the trainer - I'd have fallen over long before that on rollers.

Rollers mainly for technique for me. I don't hammer it as hard as the trainer, but I do go pretty hard for the short intervals to practice maintaining technique when putting down a lot of wattage and at high rpms.

I would still be able to get ride of my rollers and not have a significant difference in my riding. If I got rid of my trainer, I'd immediately become a sweaker rider, as I routinely do most of my weekday rides on the trainer, with the exception of peak summer hours.

bianchi10

that would be awesome!!!!