My first turbo session

Went down to Cambridge Triathlon Club's first turbo session of the year there tonight. For those of you that don't know what a turbo is, they are what treadmills are to running. You clamp the rear wheel of your bike into a frame (looks like an upside-down V) and the back wheel rests on a roller. The roller provides resistance which normally increases as you spin faster. Here's a link to a similar turbo to mine, which should give you a better idea of how it works.

There were about 15-20 people there, most of them kitted out to the max. Some seriously nice bikes there and obviously a few serious athletes there. I was also suprised by the amount of "kids" there...must have been at least 4-5 teenagers there. Despite the obvious fitness differences it was a very social and quite laid back.

Overall, it was an easy enough session, which was mainly down to it being the first session of the winter. The coach was taking time to explain the theory and concepts behind what we were doing as well, which was good and it also gave us an insight of what was to come over the upcoming weeks.

We mainly focused on technique tonight, which was relatively handy although the one-legged peddling was pretty tough I found. Need to get the cleats sorted out on my bike. There was also a bit of endurance work, going through the different levels of intensity, which meant the sweat was absolutely pouring of me by the end of the session.

All in all, its was a very good session and I'd definitely go back. For one thing its something to do on a Wednesday night, but also because there seems to be quite a few knowledgeable people there to learn how to approach the sport from. Its only a fiver for a session (2hrs) and in the 1h 10m I was going tonight, I burned about 750kcal! Magic.