I took the plunge and started using a smart trainer. Predominantly I use the turbo for sprint efforts, the huge jumps in power output don't work too well with a smart trainer so I've been using a Lemond Revolution. It's great but it sounds like a jet engine and you can barely hear anything whilst you're doing an effort. The benefits though are that its great for race warmups as it doesn't need power and it feels more realistic than any smart trainer out there.
After some research I narrowed down my search to a Wahoo Kickr or a Tacx Neo 2 air. The Tacx was more expensive and can power itself without an external power supply but came in a lot more expensive. The latest Wahoo seems to be more accurate than previous models and doesn't require a spindown, although I would do that anyway before each ride just incase. In the end I went for a Wahoo Kickr direct drive. After using a Lemond for the past 3 years it was a revelation being able to hear things whilst doing a session! I've signed back up to Zwift, the distraction of that and whatever I want to watch on my phone have been a real help getting some solid training in over the winter period.
Sprint efforts are still an issue so I will switch back to the lemond for anything that is a maximal effort. When I say an issue I am still able to sprint on the kickr but it kicks back and doesn't feel as natural as the Lemond. It's also visible in the numbers that back up that feeling, I can't get to my top end because the trainer is trying to be too smart, who in their right mind would go from 0 to 1700-1800 watts anyway so I can see why it has an issue with it.
One of the reasons for the Wahoo investment was as we entered in to December I decided I would reclaim back my commute. My commute totals about an hour a day but gives me a pretty solid base fitness. Since woking from home i've been missing out on this extra training so I set out to do an hour a day minimum to get that aerobic base back up. I've been super consistent with it and can see my fitness level rising steeper than the coronavirus numbers! My commute was a good base but an hour on the turbo is so much more concentrated without the stop start of London traffic, the benefits are greatly pronounced.
I aim to sit at zone 2 for an hour, I warm up in to it and when I get to roughly my zone 2 I sit at that power for an hour. If I've done an interval session i'll also add in some zone 2 at the end. I can really feel my ability to recover from hard efforts has increased and the sustained hard efforts are yielding higher power numbers.
In summary the Wahoo Kickr is a great tool and I would highly recommend if you can get hold of one!
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