CompuTrainer Athletes Excel in Ironman World Championship 200921-Oct-2009
On October 10th CompuTrainer users again excelled in Kona at
the 2009 Ford Ironman World Championship. 5 of the top 10 pro women
finishers train on and are sponsored by CompuTrainer. Interestingly,
all of the five athletes are from different countries indicating the worldwide
reputation that CompuTrainer has developed with professional triathletes. 2nd Place Mirinda Carfrae Australia 3rd Place Virginia Berasatagui Spain 6th Place Rachel Joyce England 7th Place Joanna Lawn New Zealand 9th Place Dede Griesbauer U.S.A.It is important to note that all of these athletes approached RacerMate
to ask to use CompuTrainer under sponsorhip ---RacerMate does not
approach athletes to promote sponsorship. (However, many pro triathletes
have become world champions AFTER changing to CompuTrainer!).

Inside the white box is a whole flotilla of parts, papers and instructions.

The key pieces here is the load generator (black round thing to the left of the blue piece), the console (yellow device), and the stand (blue metal frame). There’s also a HRM strap and then the wireless receiver for that. Everything else simply connects all the pieces together in just a minute or two.
Here’s a closer shot of the ‘control panel’, which allows you to stop/start the session, and controls resistance (load). Note that you have to do the pedaling, just like a stationary bike. Stop and start merely controls the timer aspects. It comes with little clips to hook onto your handlebars and/or aerobars (you can do it both ways).

Putting together all the hardware parts only takes a couple of minutes. In all honestly, the stacks upon stacks of paper actually make the situation worse and more complex than it needs to be. There’s numerous “Read me 1st” sheets. A ‘super-quick’ setup guide would be appreciated.
Next comes installing all the software pieces. If you weren’t confused before, you’ll be confused now. And I’m a software engineer. The best way to approach this task is to simply walk piece by piece through all of the papers. This whole process may take a long time. And if you do it right, you’ll finally be ready to go.

Running standalone mode
Before we get into the nifty CompuTrainer software that makes the whole thing worthwhile, I briefly want to cover the straight standalone mode.
In standalone mode, you don’t have it hooked up to a computer. You simply have the console on your handlebar and control the resistance that way. A timer keeps track of your workout, and it will also show you MPH, HR, RPM’s, and distance. The reason folks would use this is for cases where recording data wasn’t important. For example – during a bike fit, or if you have a secondary data capture device (like a Garmin).
Generally though, you’re not going to be using standalone mode too much.
Software Section:


(Note that in the above picture, I combined non-RacerMate software on the left, with RaceMate (official software) on the right).
There’s a number of pieces of software that are included within the CompuTrainer purchase. I’ll detail them all here, one by one. Here’s a link to a list from there web page as well.

CompuTrainer 3D
First up…is the man. Yes, the little silver man.

The man is what CT 3D is all about. He owns you. Or rather, in some cases – you own him. Essentially you race against the little dude on 3D courses you select. There are TONS – and I mean TONS - of courses available to ride. Virtually every major and minor triathlon and cycling race is available for download – for free. And if you can’t find the course you want, you can always make it yourself using any GPS file of a course or route (using this software). You can also download GPS files for basically every place on earth from Motion Based (for free).
The software automatically adjusts resistance depending on whether or not you’re going uphill or downhill. And it feels amazingly realistic. When you sail downhill it feels like you’re actually going downhill. And combined with the sorta-realistic graphics, it successfully tricks your mind into believing that. Regrettably, the same with going uphill. And just like being outside, you have to shift to attain the speeds/RPM’s that you would outdoors. And also just like outside, if you fail to shift correctly on a steep uphill section you’ll find yourself stopped and sorta stuck. The only difference being you didn’t fall off the bike (well…most of the time anyway…).
While the majority of my CompuTrainer time now is spent in the “Coaching Mode” application, I have spent considerable time chasing the little man. You can adjust the wattage of the little man. Meaning, you specify what wattage he is going to ride. The default is 200w. And then you try and beat him. You of course can ride alone as well. But beating him provides incentive. It’s incredibly addicting.
Like a game console racing game – you’re told how far ahead or behind the little man is. You can see the two lines of numbers along the button. The red line is my numbers, the white line is his numbers.
Even better is that after you’ve beaten him, you can race against yourself. Each time you use the CT, it saves your performance files – so you can keep trying to beat yourself each time. Or a friends file if they send it to ya. The little man then represents your last time riding it exactly as your rode it.

Finally, you can also edit and create your own courses if you want to – using this graphical based editor that comes with CT 3D.
Coaching Software
The CompuTrainer Coaching Software (CS) is the bane of my existence. It’s where I spend hours each week. My coach specifies workouts using wattages and heart-rates and then I complete them in CS. This is of course the most boring way to use the CT – but for my situation it’s the most effective.


When using CS mode, it’s not terribly different than a normal trainer – except that resistance and data collection is fully automatic.
You can load in any of the courses from the 3D mode (such as a download of any route or ride), but you just don’t see the 3D portion. Instead you see a continually moving line graph. You can graph all sorts of things, and it will show you current/avg/max as well for that ride. At the end you can save your performance files. In my case I save them and then upload them to Training Peaks where my coach tells me what I did right or wrong. You can also import them straight into Sports Tracks using a little plugin available (for free).

The coaching software is ideal for cases where you want to ride a given HR/wattage/etc and also want to watch a movie. Think of it much like a normal trainer ride – except the ability to control how much pain the trainer inflicts on you, while at the same time recording it all for posterity.
Challenge PC
I don’t have a lot of experience with Challenge PC – one of the applications that’s included in the suit. Essentially though Challenge PC allows you to race against yourself, a pacer – or another CompuTrainer user. So in the event you know someone else with a CompuTrainer and want to get together and have a trainer hammer-fest together on that cold wintery day – you can do so. But you have to be physically in the same place/room. Not across the internet (that’d be cool).
You can also adjust the pacers’ options by configuring what type of wattage the pacer will output.

Spin Scan
Spin Scan is a feature available in a few of the different CompuTrainer software applications. Spin Scan tracks how efficient your stroke (pedal stroke guys…) is. It’s mind-boggling how it works. But it’s also really fascinating to see how efficient (or not very efficient) one’s stroke is. And it analyzes in real time each leg. So you sit there and spin away (either just standalone, or while racing a course) and at the same time it shows you this blob-like graph that fluctuates depending on any dead spots in your pedal stroke.

You can also use a standard graph mode as well if ink-blobs aren’t your thing.
It’s really pretty cool to tweak your pedal stroke and watch your effective power shift. It helps me to see where all my dead spots are. Dead spots are places where you’re not driving the pedal on both sides, but instead letting one leg do the work (for example, on the upstroke).

Reports
One cool – but admittedly rarely used – feature of virtually all the CompuTrainer software pieces it the ability to spit out nifty printable reports showing you key stats from your workout. I’m guessing this feature is more useful for coaches or shared-use facilities where someone is going home with a printed report of their workout and/or progress. You can customize the logo’s, text and data shown. Here’s a sample from last year sometime, while racing the Wildflower Oly Course.

Real Course Video
I wrote-up a big ol’ thing on this piece last winter. So check that out! Of course, this is the one piece that EVERYONE is super-excited about, so I figure I’d at least mention it here. Real Course Videos are fairly new to CompuTrainer, only introduced about a year ago. They offer the ability to bike through actual video of a course – on raceday. They go out and record the the entire course in high quality video and then the CompuTrainer software synchronizes your speed to the video. So if you go faster, the video goes faster. They record it at speeds such that it looks natural though when you ride it (unless you fall off your bike or something). It’s very cool and makes time fly by.
Here’s a screenshot on the CDA course in town. I have both the CDA and Kona courses, but there’s many more courses. There’s a full list of all the courses available here.
Again, for more information and a detailed write-up on this – check out my earlier review.
My overall experiences with the CompuTrainer:
Since January 1st, 2008 (about a year ago) – I’ve put over 1,800 miles on my CompuTrainer covering slightly more than 100 hours. Thus I think I’ve ridden it enough to be able to write-up a pretty comprehensive review. So – did it help my cycling?
In a word: Absolutely.
Without doubt it is the most effective cycling training tool you can buy aside from a heart rate monitor. If used correctly, you can develop very focused and specific workouts to address cycling weaknesses. It ensures that I’m not just ‘spinning away mindlessly’ on my trainer – but rather getting a solid workout. The thing that makes trainers so effective is there are no breaks. The CT is the same way. If I do a multi-hour Zone 2 (Z2) heart rate session I don’t get a downhill break. I don’t get a stoplight break. A Z2 pace may not sound hard, but maintaining a perfect cadence without a single second of break for two hours is rather tiring.
With using it twice a week from May 1st to July 12th last year I took my half-iron bike time from 2:57 to 2:27. Or from 19 MPH to 22.8 MPH. Now, obviously some of that also comes from long painful mountain rides every weekend. But two hour tough trainer sessions made a big difference.
Pros/Cons & Summary
Finally, here’s a brief list of pro’s and con’s:
Pros:
· Keeps you engaged on the trainer – not just sitting and spinning
· Allows you to have incredibly effective and specific workouts
· Lets you pre-race your races via 3D mode
· For major races, also can pre-race using the Real Course Videos – very effective at making you familiar with the course
· Essentially gives you a power meter for your bike (while indoors obviously)
· Will make you a stronger cyclist
Cons:
· Damn expensive
· The software is fairly ‘old school’ and needs a serious revamping across the entire suite. The graphical user interface is very 1995-esque, and
· I experience occasional and very frustrating crashes with the software every once in a while (thus losing that workouts data)
· Did I mention it’s damn expensive?
In summary I’d highly recommend it if you’re looking at trainers in that category. Without a doubt its made my cycling faster and more efficient, and much faster than a pair of race wheels for the same price could do.
Hope this helps! As with all my reviews, if you have questions – feel free to post below or e-mail me. I generally will respond (and post here) any questions within about 24 hours. Thanks for reading!

Los beneficios de un CompuTrainer Eric Schwartz (duathlon) 26 de noviembre 2001Ver comentarios sobre este artículo!
Para la mayoría de la gente la única manera de conseguir en el entrenamiento de invierno en bicicleta es un entrenador indoor. Hay varias opciones disponibles, desde el entrenamiento básico a los que dar su opinión sobre vatios, cadencia, velocidad, etc En el extremo superior esta el CompuTrainer, que aporta información gráfica a través de su ordenador o pantalla de TV.
A continuación se muestra un ejemplo de cómo un atleta utilizó su CompuTrainer en su camino a su mejor temporada: Erik Prince terminó la temporada 2001 como el Campeón del Mundo en el grupo de edad de 25-29 años en el Campeonato Mundial de Duatlón en el Powerman Venray. Terminó tercero de América (primer lugar general) y su tiempo de 2:57 para la carrera 15k/60k/7.5k tenía sólo 12 minutos por detrás de Pro Campeón del Mundo de Benny Vansteelant. Prince logro avances significativos en 2001 en la bicicleta, y su progreso se inició en el invierno de 2000/2001. Príncipe vive en Nueva Jersey, tenía un crudo invierno. También tiene una semana de trabajo regular . Después de dos semanas de descanso completo su formación para la temporada 2001 comenzó en diciembre.En los próximos 3,5 meses previos a Powerman Alabama Príncipe hizo un total de 60 viajes de capacitación, y todos menos 10 fueron hechas en interior con su CompuTrainer. Su formación se inició con paseos fácil que incluyó alta cadencia y un ejercicios de pierna. Tras el inicio de su trabajo de base, agregó entrenamientos moderados (la calificación es fácil de controlar en una CompuTrainer) e intervalos más largos, y finalmente avanzó a intervalos más cortos y más intensos, hecho casi exclusivamente en su CompuTrainer.

Esta mañana recogi el primer Computrainer para uso personal en las aduanas del aeropuerto de Barcelona.

Este blog lo he creado para tener informacion y estar en contacto con todos los interesados en adquirir CompuTrainer.

Sera mi plataforma de lanzamiento inicial de este producto del cual soy Agente de Ventas para toda España.

Linkado esta la web oficial en los USA, a la espera de una herramienta de traduccion al español para hacerlo mas facil.
De momento en este blog y con toda la voluntad que he podido he traducido algunos puntos importantes de este producto, aun asi la traduccion no es perfecta.

Computrainer esta llenando el mercado americano tanto a nivel personal como de clubs y centros fitness. Aqui todavia no ha llegado el boom, pero como siempre ocurre tardan unos 2 años en llegarnos las novedades o modas a España.

La idea es compartir el espacio con el tradicional Spinning o tener otra opcion igual mas amena de entrenar en grupo y con tu propia bicicleta ! !






CompuTrainer ofrece la más interesante experiencia indoor de bicicletas que se ha creado. Que aumenta su poder en bicicleta por 20 a 30% y su velocidad de 2 a 4 MPH. Sea cual sea su punto de partida, se le mejoran significativamente. CompuTrainer es el mejor en su clase por un amplio margen. Que establece el estándar de la industria de precisión (± 2,5%), el poder (1500 vatios), la calidad y el servicio de toda la vida (10 + años). Características exclusivas como SpinScan ™ pedal electrónico y análisis de los accidentes cerebrovasculares ajustable Factor de resistencia aerodinámica son exclusivas de CompuTrainer. Entrenadores de Ciclismo y triatlón de todo el mundo usan CompuTrainer como su principal instrumento de prueba. Prueba y formar a su equipo de atletas con CompuTrainer.



Dos importantes innovaciones en la técnica han aumentado significativamente CompuTrainer de formación de valor:


1. El factor de resistencia aerodinámica en el algoritmo de software CompuTrainer ahora es ajustable individualmente, una primicia en la industria. Que permite al ciclista ajustar el alimentador automático de documentos para dar cuenta de su propio cuerpo la geometría y posición de pilotaje. CompuTrainer precisión aumenta otra muesca.


2. 2007 marcó la introducción de un hito en la mejora de la capacitación de la experiencia interactiva de CompuTrainer : Curso interactivo REAL ,vídeos. Videos de famosos triatlones y la bicicleta son cursos filmado en alta definición y se combinan con nuestros interactivos, software de mapas GPS para hacerte sentir como si estuvieras en el curso real. Filmación de completar cursos de bicicleta el día de la carrera ofrece una carrera de simulación y realismo.
LINK AQUI









Standard 3D Software
Panaromic 3D course (LINK AQUI)
Grade Profiles to 15%
Multiple Scenery Selections
Male Female Pacer Options
SpinScan Bar & Polar modes in split screen
Custom Course Creation
Split Screens
Unlimited courses and saved races
Download free prerecorded 3D courses
Monitor your progress
Data bar displays:

- distance
- lead
- lap time
- finish time
- adjustable aerodynamic drag factor
- calories
- instant/average/peak
- watts
- cadence
- heartrate
- speed
MINIMUM SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

- Pentium II 233 MHz PC (or equivalent)
- Windows 2000 or XP
- 16 MB DirectX 7 compatible video card
- Available USB port