As a former frequent traveler (a transcontinental US and/or transatlantic at least once a month), I never check a bag when on business trips and rarely even on family trips (my wife flies a heckuva lot more than I used to and abhors checking & we’ve trained, er, taught, the kids to do the same even for transatlantic family trips). So a question for those taking pedal wrenches: do the airport screeners let them through?
And a tip, though I figure this thread of travelers already knows this or has a better suggestion: I always take a large ‘freezer’ ziplock baggie, or two, with a couple of dryer sheets and with loads of little desiccant squares (the anti-moisture things in food bags/jugs, pet snacks, etc) from wherever I could get them. Wet run (or cycle) kit after rinsing/hand washing and drying for as long as time allows (overnight or while showering before checking out), gets folded up and placed in the baggie w/ the desiccant ‘thingies’ interspersed and as much air as can be squeezed out as possible. The combination of the desiccants and the dryer sheets keeps the kit from getting moldy and/or foul before you get home, even if that’s a day or more. I’m talking ±10 packets at any time and I toss them when they’re wet when I dump everything out when home.
If you have a choice of hotel, you can call and ask if they have Peloton bikes. With Peloton’s funding they seem to be expanding into lots of hotels. I know many/most US Westins have them.
The good things are: bike seats that don’t feel like couch cushions; relatively adjustable position; shows watts and easyish to adjust; allows HR sync via BT; will upload to strava (and then down to TR); have a “just ride” feature if you don’t want to watch/take a class (or feel free to take a class).
The not so good things: Wattage varies bike to bike, so use RPE and HR as indicators. I have found “hard” bikes (HR/RPE way high for wattage), “Easy bikes” (I wish my real power #s looked liked this), and just right bikes (feels just about right); They are popular, so sometimes need to get there early before they are taken; As Nate said, cooling is a massive issue - no fans, usually too hot room temp and can’t strip. Even on endurance rides I am a sweaty mess after 30 min or so.
I generally keep to 1 hour or less for heat, imperfect fit, and opportunity to do some other workouts to round out my usual cycling routine. I like adding in some strength, mobility, etc.
If they don’t have peloton bikes, sometimes they have some other watt/spin bike that at a min has a decent saddle/fit.
Well, I have one of those hipster fixie pedal wrenches because it is just below the 7" tool length limit. But it doesn’t give me tons of leverage for the rusted on pedals. On the upside, it has a bottle opener!
I often train on a gym bike that has a “power meter” built in. Well, it displays power, but together with cadence, it seems quite consistent. And yes, you can train on it. A few things though: you should avoid things like sprints, these bikes aren’t built for that. Switching between resistance levels takes a while, so you should also avoid anything that requires you to switch quickly (e. g. 15 seconds on, 30 seconds off). Lastly, like Nate said, ventilation usually sucks, so don’t do efforts that are too long.
The advantage of running is the chance of being able to get in a good run while traveling is greater than the chance of getting a good workout on a hotel bike. It’s not always a sure thing depending on safety considerations, but the likelihood of a quality workout is greater and it’s a great way to explore cities, especially if you’re otherwise trapped in meetings. The Garmin Fenix ‘back to start’ feature helps too. Make it an early morning run, before/through dawn, and it’s generally safer. Take a GoPro which hides in your hand, or a phone tucked away, and take pics. And it’s fun to see who, if anyone else, is out and running (or walking). Moscow, Tblisi, Skopje, Split, Shanghai, Beijing, Ankara, Yangon, Kuala Lampur, Independence (MO), Madison (SD)… all places where riding outside wasn’t an option for whatever reason but running was. Just saying that there are options to keeping fit while off the saddle especially if the alternative is a terrible hotel bike, outdoor safety, inability to bring your bike, or time suck of renting a bike.
Running is great and easier to access. But people who don’t normally run may be at greater risk of injury. Just play it safe to keep the duration and intensity low enough.
I’m lucky that there’s a gym a couple of mins from my in-laws which has a bunch of stages spin bikes. I use the same one when I go there and calibrate it every time. i think it might overread a little but I have no way of really telling, but it’s close enough. Even if it’s a nicer spin bike it’s no where near as good as my own bike
If no bike machine, or it truly sucks, I’ll walk fast on the treadmill at 4+mph (14-15 minutes per mile) and that puts my heart rate around 125bpm or roughly 70% HRmax which makes it a good aerobic endurance session just above my first ventilatory threshold.
Cool idea. What I do is wash my shorts/T-shirts in the sink with the hotel shampoo. Wring them out by hand. Then lay out a towel flat. Lay the garments on the towel. Roll up the towel with the garments inside. Kneel on the towel roll and twist the roll with your hands, as hard as you can. You can also then walk on the roll to further soak up the moisture. Unroll and repeat on the more dry side of the towel. That will go a long way to accelerate the drying time. Hang items over night and pack in hotel laundry bag if still damp.
I bought a PowerCal and have an ant+ dongle connected to my phone (for some reason BT didn’t work). It is honestly junky, unusable without 9 second power averaging, and brutally/clearly not accurate… but it allowed me to feel like I pushed myself and that I was accomplishing something. It also gave me the feeling that I wasn’t completely abandoning my TR training plan. I stuck with a 30min Denali-2 workout & felt pretty awesome afterwards.
Good for my training? Not sure. Good for my ethos? Good enough.
What kind of setup / calibration is required? Do they ask you to input your FTP, and then pedal at different intensities for different durations to initially set this up?
start learning how to ride by feel. Understand what the different zones feel like. You could also bring a HR monitor which isn’t ideal, but would work for sustained efforts.
Change it up, do some tempo, or tempo bursts, a sprint day, just whatever mixture will keep it fresh and not horrible for you.
There’s no calibration. I contacted powertap about this & they told me that they didn’t find a calibration procedure to yield significantly better better results. Definitely don’t expect fantastic results out of this thing.
