Polar will work great with their Bluetooth. The Peloton one stinks - I bought it and it was giving me crazy numbers that would have panicked me if I hadn’t also been wearing an Apple Watch with steadier HR numbers. Got a Polar from @marklemcd and never looked back. It’s really good and of course you can use it off the bike as well.
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I really jumped up in power when I started adding several 60+ min rides in per week last winter. Haven’t done one since, but I’ll be back on that train when golf season ends.
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I’m with @greebs that the Peloton monitor stinks. I stopped wearing it because it was always messing up.
As far as getting involved, there’s a spreadsheet somewhere around here. You can add your peloton handle and add a few rides for us to do on the weekly. Just make sure you add #NLURefuge to your peloton handle so you show up on the leaderboard.
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lol…
well ya sure…work out for 60min a few times per week rather than 30min a few times per week, effectively doubling your workload and I’m sure that will make a difference. I try to do one 45min every week and can’t imagine staying on for twice as long.
I ride a lot outside, and do it for some kind of performance (basically time trialing).
PZ is a great way to supplement outdoor riding, but I don’t think its sufficient if you want to ride for outdoor performance. First on the good side, it’s structured in the most common way cycling is structured…the 7 zone based Coggan model. Base everything off theoretical 1 hour power and do everything at a % of that power. Done consistently that will lead almost everyone to be a more powerful rider.
The reason why I don’t think it’s sufficient if you want to perform outside is that 1) You need long rides and you can really only do those outside (I’m talking true multiple hour rides). If you want to ride well for 4 hours you need to do rides at and longer than 4 hours. 2) The zone work is great in general but it’s a bit short oftentimes in the actual zones. 2 x 20min in Z4 is a very common training ride, and you won’t really find it in PZ rides because not many Peloton riders want to do that. And a true performance plan will get you working up to 1 x 60 minutes at z4. 3) The bike fits different, so its working muscles differently. Not bad per se, just that to ride long outdoors you need to have the muscles worked like they do outdoors.
So, that said, I just finished a power zone endurance ride. I use the PZ rides to train. In the winter I’ll do the vast majority of my riding on the peloton (I live in CA and I could ride outdoors year round except for the weekday pre work darkness) and it sets me up well for the spring and summer where almost all my riding is outdoors.
Oh, the PZ rides will enable you to keep PRing at the traditional rides too.
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@greebs @EZmiss Thanks for the info! Ordered the Polar. I’ll check out the spreadsheet when I get the bike set up.
Any new owner tips? It’s been a few years since I consistently took spin classes and I’m not too familiar with bike terms (tabata, pz, etc.). Looking for classes to ease back into riding.
if you’ve taken classes before, you probably don’t need to go through the beginner program that is typically rec’d here.
some instructors are typically harder than others.
from easiest to hardest of the ones I’ve taken a number of rides with;
Cody
Leanne
Ben
Ally
Olivia
Alex
Emma
i’d start your week with a 20min Ben Aldis, see how you feel, then maybe follow up with a 30min. take a day off, or maybe a day of low impact or recovery before you start up again. I’d max at 4 or 5 rides the first week.
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Here’s the aforementioned spreadsheet to add your handle and some rides too. Welcome!
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Hard to go too wrong, I was a newbie in March with no spin experience and I basically started with a few low impact rides just to get use to the bike and then would pick rides mostly based off the playlist. I liked this because you generally get a mix of HIIT/Climbs/Tabata in those rides and then can narrow your focus for future rides. Try out a bunch of instructors, not everyone will be for you but you’ll definitely find ones you like (but if you don’t stan Emma then we may have some issues).
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Rule number one of Refuge Peloton: Must stan Emma
Rule number two of Refuge Peloton: Must stan Leanne
Rule number three to infinity of Refuge Peloton: See rules one and two
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I am old so bear with me. WTF does stan mean?
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Courtesy of our friends at Merriam-Webster. Although, in this context I would quibble with the disparaging descriptor
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Also dates, me, but comes from Eminem’s song, Stan from 2000.
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Real ones will know that Jess King is our one true Queen. It is up to you to decide if you’re a real one or not.
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Also appears that a noun was used as a verb?
As an Elder Millenial this is now beyond my area of expertise.
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ELI5: a “stan” is a big fan of something.
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This is the banter I was looking for in this thread. @marklemcd Thank you for asking the hard questions, I had no idea what “stan” meant either. I’ll report back after a few rides on where I stand.
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I am cool looking like a square.
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@NestEgg One more Peloton rule to live by that I feel the need to tell everyone: Everyone else, but you of course, is cheating. If someone is ahead of you on the leaderboard, they are:
- Not following the instructions
- Have a super loose bike (bikes get “looser” as they age making it easier to go faster on higher resistances)
- Definitely didn’t do the cool down minute and cheated.
- All of the above.
Last two rides I’ve had someone absolutely dust me in the first 2 minutes. I am talking 65 output to my 18. Ends up like 300 KJs ahead at the end. I’ve decided this individual is not Lance Armstrong and is using a cheating bike.
Thank you for coming to my TED Talk
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