The first
thing that people have trouble with is getting over the fear of falling off.
Yes it is a fairly daunting task, having only 2 feet of room to play with, as you
are balancing on two wheels. They key is to stay relaxed. The best way to start
is by setting up the rollers in a door way so that you have something solid to
hold onto until you are up to speed. The door way also gives you something to
grab onto if you feel you are falling off. Once you have gotten going it is all
about not over correcting, if you start drifting to one side do not freak out
and over correct. All you need is a little touch to the handlebars or to lean
the direction you want to go, and you will float over to that side.
Once you
have the skill it really does not leave you. I got on the rollers for the first
time in about three years and probably only the fifth time I have ever ridden
them. It was just second nature. It also is not that scary when you fall off.
If you are in the doorway you will just grab the frame and burn some rubber off
your tires. I fell off twice when I started to use then for the first time this
year, you just ketch yourself then reset.
As a
training tool I think it is useful because it keeps you very engaged threw the
whole ride. It also makes the hard effort that much more realistic and taxing,
because you have to stay focused on your balance as well as pushing a big gear.
I personally have a set of rollers that do not have any extra resistance. So
the resistance is built around your gearing and how fast your legs can go.
Personally I
have found that once you get around 450watts on the roller or short 30 sec
efforts they are not as effective. The very short and intense efforts takes so
much out of you, so they are better done on the trainer where you can focus
just on the effort. My rollers also start to vibrate when I get around 450w. So
that is a little freaky. For all the effort that are around 300-350watts or
lower the rollers are amazing they just add another level of reality and
engagement that the trainer does not have.
It also
takes a little bit of time to get confident riding the rollers in the TT
position but again it really comes down to staying relaxed and not over
compensating any movements. I am now playing around a little bit with standing
on the rollers too.
I would
recommend rollers to any one who is looking to add more to there winter
training.
I am going
to try to start posting every week. Some of these posts will be about training
and some about my experiences as an athlete.
Royal Containers
Thanks for sharing such a useful post.
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