Happy 2014 everyone!
I’m trying to make the best of my time pre-surgery, and exercise when I can. My tri coach has a sweet deal worked out with Seattle Multisport that allows our team to go use their Computrainer facility at a reduced cost periodically. I took advantage of the opportunity to work out with the team on Sunday. I was impressed!
The way the Computrainer works is that you strap your bike into a trainer, which looks just like the Kurt Kinetic I have at home. This one also has some thingamajig (technical term) that adds resistance to your wheel. For our Sunday ride, the owner set us up on the Ironman Canada course, and we all did the first 30 miles together. Evidently Computrainer has several courses to choose from, which I think is pretty cool. The portion of the course I did was mostly flat, with a hill in the middle. My grades ranged from -5.9% to 3.9%, but my understanding is that it can go to 20%. One thing I didn’t like, which I understand is due to the group setting, is that we didn’t have a view of the course, i.e., how you would see it if you were actually on your bike on the course. We just had all 8 of us ranked between us (I wasn’t last, hooray!!!!). From what I’ve seen in my research, if you were doing this at home, you’d actually be looking at the course. Per the marketing materials, you become so engrossed in the course you forget you’re even on a trainer and become immersed in the course, so much that you can almost smell the trees (ya, right).
In summary, I though this was a pretty cool contraption. After driving the IM Lake Stevens course on Saturday, I would really value the opportunity to Computrainer ride it a few times (not sure I’d want to ride those roads outside of an event, no shoulder, 2 lanes, yikes). I also like the idea that I could “group ride” with a pal and not worry about pace differences. But the price tag, yowza! From my research, these appear to start at about $1,100, and can go up to $5,000. Pretty hard for me to justify. I think I’m going to do a couple more rides with the team, and then decide if this is where a portion of my training funds should go.
I welcome any comments from any lucky Computrainer (or Tacx) riders out there. The reviews online are mixed.
Lake Stevens is one of my favorite courses. I’ve done it twice since 2011. You’ll have a blast! As far as Computrainer, I don’t see it is a worthy investment compared to a bike, race wheels, etc, because I don’t have 3 grand to drop on a “bike computer” but my training friends who use it either love it or hate it. Good luck!
That bike course is SCARY! Lots of blind drops. I’m used to Vegas flats.