[Closed] Road Vs Turbo

turbo more intense- no downhills, coasting, tailwinds etc to break up the pain?

Calorie calculations are utter crap, just ignore them.

Because calorie calculators are a gimmick, and even if accurate total energy burnt is only loosely related to how shattered you feel.

Based on HRM are a bit rubbish. Need to be using power for any useful comparison.

If you're interested read up on things like power, TSS, IF, NP, your FTP, etc.

24.5 miles/1432 calories according to my HRM

I would believe the stats from your HRM, I'd be very surprised if you were really burning c.1000 calories per hour. That's very high intensity and you'd be unlikely to manage that on the road.

You will theoretically use less calories on the turbo (for the same perceived effort) as you aren't engaging as many muscle groups as you dont need to engage your core and upper body for balance as you would need to on a 'proper' ride. Having said that there isn't any freeweeling time on the turbo unlike riding in the real world, so turbo can feel tougher, there aren't many scenarios on the road or MTB where you can pedal completely uninterrupted for the 50mins that you did.

I wouldn't dwell on the supposed calories from the HRM, I find that I'm far more tired overall from a proper MTB ride compared to a road ride. My average HR on the road might be higher and thus the HRM thinks I burned more calories, but I'm sure the extra whole body workout that MTB gives means that I've actually done more work.

I don't have a power meter & no intention/need for one as I'm only cycling for myself. Just interested in how much more energy-intense a turbo session is compared to a road ride.
For what its worth, yesterday was horrible, i have a lingering cough and i didn't know whether i was going to shit/puke/have a coronary at the top of the first climb.

Today i averaged 154bpm and a max heart rate of 191, i use the HRM as a way of ensuring i stay in the correct 'zone' when on the turbo, for me it takes a bit of effort to stay above 155+bpm without having the reminder.

Today i averaged 154bpm and a max heart rate of 191, i use the HRM as a way of ensuring i stay in the correct 'zone' when on the turbo, for me it takes a bit of effort to stay above 155+bpm without having the reminder

Use HR as a guide, but it is only a basic guide, there are a lot of things that can impact on your HR on a day to day basis and even throughout a session (e.g. cardiac drift).
Ignore the calorie counter.

I'm not really bothered about the calory counter, i was using it as an illustrative device to show i apparently did more on the road yet the turbo felt much, much harder for apparently less energy.

I just did 1:15 with 9 x 2min sprint intervals in the middle. I felt sick twice, and had wobbly legs after.

I can ride 100m in 5.30 and feel tired but not that ^^ bad on the right day. I wouldn't try 18m minutes of all out Cav style sprinting in the middle of it though. 😀

Its all about intensity.

Even what feels like a constant hard ride on the road has lots of micro breaks allowing for very short amounts of recovery. HR is extremely variable and therefore a very poor judge of energy expended, even at the best of times. You can sit still with a HR of 150bpm and the HRM will calculate you as burning the same calories as working hard on the bike at 150bpm. As others have said power is the only way to really understand energy used. Riding the turbo will also feel hard due to thermal differences which is where a big ass fan comes in handy

Interesting, I've been wondering about calories burnt recently as I'm generally terrible at eating enough. Using a power meter on the road and have noticed Garmin and Strava come up with different figures, usually about 200-300 calories apart for a longer ride, not a huge amount but if you're under after every workout it'll have an effect over time especially for a skinny ****er like myself!

I use Endomondo for tracking my rides, it has an estimated calorie function but as its not connected to a HRM i take little notice of it though.
My HRM is set up to my weight and height/age etc so should be somewhat more accurate - it does give a consistently higher figure as well.
I'm not a racer or club rider and I've no intention of doing so, just interested as to how a short turbo session can be more draining than a road ride that allegedly uses twice the energy.

EDIT: 5'2" and 9.5 stone, eat too much as well 😳

If you ride exactly the same on the turbo and on the road you'll use the same energy. Riding indoors might feel more tiring as it is generally more boring and hotter. Besides that the difference is not being able to ride the same indoors as out and having very poor imeasurement tools to gauge energy used without access to power. As you haven't ridden as hard on the road as indoors you've also probably fatigued the muscles more so it's not just a question of energy used