Cycle-Smart: Solutions for Cycling provides individual coaching for road, cyclo-cross, mountain biking and track cycling. Their coaches are experts at guiding clients of all ability levels through the unknowns of training for competitive cycling. With coaches located throughout the country, Cycle-Smart is able to offer unique, personalized coaching plans for all of their clients.

Surviving The Trainer
Getting The Most Out Of Indoor Workouts

  Written by Adam Hodges Myerson
  Cycle-Smart President
  March 2, 2006

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.

Cycle-Smart Training Articles A Case For Base    by Adam Hodges Myerson    February 2, 2007 Power, Stability, and Confidence    by Adam Hodges Myerson    September 20, 2006 Training While You Work    by Adam Hodges Myerson    April 25, 2006 Surviving The Trainer    by Adam Hodges Myerson    March 2, 2006 You Gotta Have A Plan    by Adam Hodges Myerson    January 8, 2006 Peaking For Cyclo-Cross Nationals    by Adam Hodges Myerson    November 29, 2005 How To Improve Your Starts For Cyclo-cross    by Adam Hodges Myerson    October 18, 2005 Interval Training for Cyclo-Cross    by Adam Hodges Myerson    September 9, 2005 Hang On To That Form!    by Adam Hodges Myerson    August 9, 2005 Resting Your Way To Fitness    by Adam Hodges Myerson    June 22, 2005 How Long, How Hard, and How Often?    by Adam Hodges Myerson    May 25, 2005 Warming Up    by Adam Hodges Myerson    April 11, 2005 "Training" in Training Races    by Adam Hodges Myerson    March 13, 2005 Preparing for a Cyclo-Cross Race    by Johs Huseby    November 16, 2004 Choosing Between a Club or a Team    by Kirk Albers    October 6, 2004 Running for Cyclo-Cross    by Adam Hodges Myerson    September 22, 2004 My Aching Back (and legs, shoulders, hips, feet, neck)    by Christine White    August 4, 2004 Key Workouts for Early Season Mountain Bike Racers    by Kurt Perham    July 14, 2004 The Philly File    by Adam Hodges Myerson    June 12, 2003 Training Weaknesses, Racing Strengths    by Adam Hodges Myerson    May 15, 2003 The Lanterne Rouge - The fine art of driving the bus in a stage race    by Adam Hodges Myerson    April 18, 2003 Choosing a Coach    by Adam Hodges Myerson    March 13, 2003

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.

To learn more about Adam, or for more articles by Cycle-Smart coaches, visit www.cycle-smart.com.

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