by vgpedlr » Mon Mar 14, 2016 1:10 pm
Happy to help.
1. I do use an indoor trainer from time to time. I hate it. Like most cyclists, I ride so I can be outside, not stuck like a hamster. I have an inexpensive fluid trainer by a discount American brand called Perfo Mande and it works fine. Since I do triathlon, if the weather is bad, I run. Plus, the bad weather in California is pretty restricted seasonally, so I take a break in the winter. If I were you, I'd go for the gym membership, since that's a lot more versatile. A lot more exercise options for ugly days. Trainers are really for serious cyclists who must keep up sport sp civic fitness and need to use their own bike for proper fit.
2. You can do a search of my posts in this subframe and see what I've written in the past. There are also reflections on my blogs regarding fueling. Where people get into trouble is being overly concerned with fueling. Thanks to hype from the sports nutrition industry, people try to copy the protocols of pro athletes when they are not all applicable to regular people. People obsess over pre post and during workout fueling when it is almost never important. It applies to the pro who must train, recover then train again multiple times a day. That does not apply to regular person exercising for fitness. Just use your regular meals. The best time to eat is after a workout. The body has become somewhat depleted, so it will make great use of th ncalories yountake in. I always try to schedule my workouts it's so that my next meal is within n hour of finishing. For a workout lasting an hour or less, you don't need anything, not even water, unless it is really hot. I train on water alone for all workouts 2 hrs or less. Once you reach about 90 minutes, you may run into glycogen depletion and a need to trickle in some calories as you go. It depends on the individual, how fit they are and their diet.
Hope this helps.