3LC Turbo Trainer DVD

For cyclists, the winter months are where the foundations for the season are put down and the long miles are logged – it’s arguably the most important part of the year. Despite this and our best efforts, it’s often hard to get these vital miles in: work, wind, driving rain, snow – the excuses are as wide ranging as they are easy to deploy.

This is where the turbo trainer comes in to play. Love them or hate them, turbos allow an easy and quick alternative to riding that help build aerobic and anaerobic fitness, as well as building muscular strength and endurance. But despite all these advantages, it’s often hard to motivate yourself or stick to a planned session on your own. Video trainer sessions are becoming increasingly popular and the number of sessions available grows on a weekly basis.

3LC Training Videos take a slightly different take on this great training tool. Our test video was their Time Trial offering. The session takes about 50 minutes, including warm up and cool down with the focus on some anaerobic threshold efforts, ideal for time trialling.

The session itself is not a revolution, but the video is arguably an evolutionary take in turbo sessions. 3LC’s is different because not only does the video allow you to train alongside others onscreen, but included in the group doing the session are Team Sky’s Peter Kennaugh and brother Tim, a member of the British Cycling academy program.

The session began with a warm up, I give 3LC 10 out of 10 for the regime. Like many cyclists I struggle warming up properly, and it usually takes me around 20 minutes of variable riding to settle down into a rhythm, their warm up got me into the zone in less than 10 minutes and I felt fantastic. The session then moved to three threshold efforts comprising 7, 6 and 5 minutes broken up by easy riding rest efforts. The aim of each interval is to ride an even pace at your threshold, the point at which aerobic respiration becomes anaerobic.

Unlike most other training systems 3LC don’t ask you to ride the efforts by heart rate or power but instead utilise cadence and perceived effort level. I loved this, no mucking about with adjusting heart rate zones or shelling out for expensive power systems; I didn’t even use a cadence sensor, counting pedal revolutions in 15 second bursts throughout the effort punctuated it well and helped maintain focus. The session features onscreen graphic, it shows the interval details (perceived effort level, cadence and time left)

From the beginning, I felt completely immersed in the session. It was easy to picture myself next to Kennaugh. The session was presented by two of 3LC’s coaches, they circulated through the group, chatting to everyone between the intervals and this gave a great insight into how other riders had found the intervals. As I used the session more and more, I became much better at judging my efforts and pacing myself, something which has translated well to the road.

Overall, I’ll give 3LC a solid 4.5/5. I loved that I didn’t need to use heart rate or power, and the sessions definitely improved my time trialling efforts and pacing. The included stretching videos are a great addition as well!

DVDs can be found here. Overall 4.5/5

Picture added from the Daily Cycle Flickr group – added by shitray