- Morning, trainiacs.
Souping up the Zwift setup.
And I'm going to tell you about the five areas
of bike trainer setups that you need to address.
And you don't have to get hundreds and hundreds
and thousands of dollars in gear like I've got.
You can do it with a few hundred bucks
and be very comfortable.
(upbeat instrumental music)
Okay, so as you might be able to see,
I am Wahoo-ed up from the feet up,
and they sent me out this mat and this desk
to soup up my Zwift setup.
Now I'd say that there are like five key areas
that you need to address to get a decent trainer setup,
and it doesn't have to be with $200 mat,
$400 desk, and a $1,200 trainer.
For a couple hundred books, you can probably get
these five key areas dialed in
to make your trainer rides really enjoyable.
First thing you gotta deal with is the sweat.
That's where the mat comes in.
(upbeat instrumental music)
When you are on a bike trainer,
you are going to sweat like a pig.
You want to have something on the floor to catch that sweat.
It doesn't have to be this anti vibration Wahoo Kickr mat
that costs, I think $180 online.
For the last eight years, all I've used is a towel.
Now this has the added benefit,
whether it's this or the mat,
of any of the grease that comes off your chain,
or if you're using a trainer tire,
any of the rubber that comes off of that trainer tire,
will be caught by this, and not by your carpet,
allowing you to not get murdered by NTK, love you.
While we're also dealing with the sweat,
grab yourself a towel and put it on the headset like so
so that sweat doesn't come into the headset.
My bike shop guy, James, said that triathletes
are notorious for not caring for their bikes
and he has actually had to essentially throw away
a bike because there was so much sweat in the headset
and the handle bars couldn't turn.
I mean, we're triathletes.
We don't turn or brake, but it's a nice feature to have.
Next, gotta have somewhere to put your stuff
that's easily within reach.
We're talking your phone, we're talking all your nutrition,
we are talking about your iPad if you are using
an iPad on Zwift.
Now again, doesn't have to be this $400 Wahoo desk.
However, this is going to be pretty sweet
having everything right there.
You can get yourself just a $30 TV tray,
put it off on the side of your bike,
and then get one of those telescoping phone holders
that's all flexible, not one of the ones
that goes right on top of your handle bars.
You want to bring it out away from your handle bars
so that you can keep that towel on top of your headset
catching all the sweat.
Then the phone is within reach.
Put this in the bottle cage of your bike,
put all the remotes and everything off to the side.
Okay, I actually have to go and do this workout here
quickly, but the third thing you've gotta get done
is you have to get, in my opinion, Zwift on something
right in front of you.
Zwift is a total game changer.
It's made this year of indoor cycling season
not just enjoyable, but actually a lot of fun.
So while some people use an iPad
and put that in front of them,
I actually recommend an Apple TV.
It's cheaper than an iPad, 200 bucks
as opposed to five, six, $700.
Granted, you don't get an iPad on top of it,
but who uses an iPad anymore with phones
as huge as they are?
Apple TV, way to go.
You can get an old Apple TV for 50, 60 bucks.
Essentially this is all I use the Apple TV for.
Just Zwift it up.
I gotta do this workout right now.
We'll be back for numbers four and five
because I am on a time crunch.
NTK and I are meeting a potential tenant for our suite.
Oh, you didn't know we were landlords?
Yeah, we rent out our basement.
I'll show you in the next couple weeks.
Now Zwift.
(upbeat instrumental music)
Sweaty.
See what I mean, brutal.
(upbeat instrumental music)
Whoa.
Just over an hour, average of 180 watts.
Wasn't big watts, just hard low cadence.
Hence, only 25K.
Alright, let me go be a landlord.
We'll wrap this present up.
Okay, back in action.
Next thing that you need, trainiacs,
is something like that, or like this.
I have 10 foot ceilings here in the pain cave,
and while I am not in here overnight
and in the morning during the time
that I know that I'm going to be working out,
I keep the temperature down here
to about 17 degrees Celsius.
Okay Siri, what is 17 degrees Celsius in Fahrenheit?
- [Siri] 17 degrees Celsius is 62.6 degrees Fahrenheit.
- However, most people don't have an area in their house
that they can keep at 62 degrees Fahrenheit,
or they don't have a spot that they've got a fan
just literally two feet over where I used to do my cycling.
So what a lot of people do is they get a little fan
that's maybe six or eight inches wide
and they put it right here in front of them
or just kind of somewhere around.
Anything to keep that air movement going
because if you don't have that,
it's just going to be absolutely stale air.
Even people that are doing heat training
will still typically have a fan.
And then the last thing you need is you need some tunes.
So what I've ended up hooking up here
is the Poke Magnify One sound bar
and then there's a woofer down there.
When I was inside, I used to have the Bose QC35
noise canceling headphones
that I just got disgustingly sweaty.
Don't ever ask to borrow them.
But I find that if you get a really good playlist,
hint Spotify, Triathlon Taren training playlist,
combined with Zwift, combined with a setup
where everything is within reach,
you can really focus in on your body, on your technique.
You can focus on the process of what you're going through
and not have to put on a movie and tune out,
which has really negative consequences
because once you get into a race
and you don't have the mental fortitude to focus
for hours on end, you're really going to suffer.
But that combination of music getting you in the zone,
Zwift making you feel like you're making progression,
and everything being within arm's reach
allows you to just get the work done and get bad ass.
Alright, there we go.
Thank you, Wahoo, for all my new toys.
This place is really coming together nicely.
Hit the subscribe button below, trainiacs.
Or if you're already subscribed, like it, please.
Thanks, bye.