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Surviving the Trainer
Getting the most out of indoor workouts
If there’s one thing I can’t endure, it’s working out
indoors. For me, the enjoyment in cycling isn’t just the essence
of training. It’s about being outside, seeing different roads and
landscapes, and racing. I always prefer playing sports to "working
out" so riding the windtrainer in the winter is the pinnacle of drudgery.
I would rather ride outside in 33 degrees and rain than strap myself to
a machine indoors.
At the same time, if you live in a winter climate with cold, short days
and dangerous road conditions, riding the trainer is probably a necessary
part of your early season preparation, and one you’ll need to make
the best of. It doesn’t have to be all pain and misery, though, if
you take the right approach.
The essence of my indoor training strategy is to view the trainer the
same way you would a machine of any kind in the gym. You get on, you do
your efforts, and you get off. Don’t view your time on the trainer
as a "ride." The first thing you should change from the approach
you’d take to an outdoor ride is being concerned about your duration
for the day. Focus on the quality you had planned, and get those intervals
done.
Perhaps you planned a 3-hour ride, with 60 minutes of light intensity
intervals and 30 minutes of threshold work. Disregard the duration goal
and focus on the intervals. Get on and warm up, get one interval done,
recover, then move on to the next interval.
The key to making this bearable is that the recovery can come on or off
the trainer. Get off, get some water, stretch--just like you would between
sets of lifting in the gym. When you’re ready, get back on and do
your next interval. This approach is also similar to what a track workout
would be, where it's not so much about "going for a ride," as
it is getting all your work done.
Another tactic is to mix up what you do. Some clients prefer to warm up
and cool down on the rollers, but do their interval work on the trainer.
You can even mix indoor and outdoor work into a single workout. If you
don’t like to ride after dark or perhaps are commuting home and have
time to do most of your work, you might come in and finish your intervals
on the trainer in the safety of your own living room. You can meet for
indoor "group rides" and try to get a few people together to
do their workouts at the same place in order to pass the time more enjoyably.
And if you can’t do all the training in one go, you can even split
the workout up into a morning and evening session.
It’s also important to consider having the right tool for the job.
Rollers or trainer? Wind, fluid, or magnetic? Rollers are useful for developing
a smooth pedal stroke and improving balance on the bike. There’s
very little resistance, however, and you might be limited in terms of
the intensity of the work you can do on them. Early in the year when your
work is primarily aerobic, you’ll find you can do most of it on the
rollers without difficulty. The downside is that you have to pay attention!
It takes considerable concentration if it’s not second nature, and
there’s nothing worse than interrupting an interval by falling on
the floor. Sprinting on the rollers is always a fun challenge, and while
you might not achieve maximum wattage, you can certainly work on leg speed.
If your skills are good, you can show off by getting out of the saddle,
riding no-handed, or even taking a sweaty jersey or T-shirt off while
you ride. If you really enjoy doing your indoor work on the rollers, you
can buy brands that use small diameter rollers or add-on resistance units
to increase the difficulty.
A trainer will offer more stability and control over your effort, but
takes away the natural road feel you get on the rollers. The advantage
here is in being able to do precise, consistent efforts with no distractions.
Certainly, the type of trainer you have can make a difference. A windtrainer
uses a small fan that simulates wind resistance outdoors, and gets exponentially
harder the faster you go. A fluid trainer achieves the same result with
a sealed hydro system that’s considerably quieter. A magnetic trainer
is different in that the resistance increases linearly as you go harder;
it doesn’t go up quite as fast, but allows for more control over
the resistance itself by allowing you to change the settings. Some trainers
can measure wattage, or even include an interactive video display that
can make things truly interesting.
While I’ve had clients who had no problem putting in four-hour rides
indoors, and actually enjoy the work, I think for most of us riding indoors
is a chore. With this approach, you can not only make your indoor training
time bearable, you can hopefully use it to improve your fitness and prepare
yourself for the season outside to come, or make the best of training
days during the season where work or weather keep you indoors.
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