daily indoor training

cyclechick00

I was never really able to keep to an indoor training regime because I get so bored of it and by January, my bike's in the corner on the trainer and it sits there until March. This year is different. I've told myself I have to do this. One thing I'm afraid of though is that if I don't do it every day, it'll make the next day even easier to blow it off. Right now, I have gotten into a routine of riding about five sessions a week. I feel like I have to do it every day though because if I take a day off, it seems like I'm weaker when I get on the bike the next day. Does that sound strange? Should I take a day off out of the seven day week? I just don't want to get into the habit of not being able to mentally get back on the thing. What should I be doing?

grahamspringett

If you train 7 days a week on the trainer you'll get fed-up with it in probably no more than a month. If it's just you, the trainer and an empty room, you'll hate it no matter how disciplined you are. And if you hate it, you'll stop.

This has been covered extensively elsewhere but you firstly need a good set-up, and second you need a plan. And third, you probably need no more than 4 or 5 sessions a week.

For set-up, you need a good fan. I used a standard 40cm pedestal fan but now it's hot here in Australia, I have an air conditioner (which was already installed in my workshop/man cave) and 2 fans, the 40cm one and a huge I think 80cm industrial 36kg mutha of a fan.

This is not to say you need the same, but it illustrates the point that when the day tops 38 degrees celsius and at night (when I train) it's still 28 degrees celsius, you can still train hard indoors with decent cooling.

You also need to amuse yourself mentally. I have an old TV and cheap DVD player and I mainly watch cycling DVDs. It's good chasing Di Luca through Italy or Boonen through Flanders when you're doing intervals.

Which brings me to my next point. Read up on intervals and steady state threshold work. Use a heart rate monitor or, if you're flushed, get a power meter. Learn to use them effectively and make use of them to monitor your work on the turbo.

While noodling for an hour is OK from time to time, what is more effective (physically and mentally) is breaking it up into intervals. You start with a typically 15 minute warm-up, then you start the fun stuff, which might be threshold work for 10-20 minutes, VO2 max stuff over 3-5 minutes, or sweet spot training for 10-20 minutes. If you're relatively new or you don't want to compete you don't need to explore the limits of human suffering. You just need to feel the burn for a while.

To train using these levels you need to do a test to find your limit, and here is where you need to seek medical advice or decide for yourself how fit and healthy you are. I'm not going to suggest you flog yourself if you're really out of shape or just starting. Read online and in these forums on power levels, HR levels, threshold, sweet spot, VO2 max (though even VO2 max may be more than you need).

If you learn what you need to do to improve your fitness, set yourself goals and have something to keep you cool and to keep you amused, you'll find indoor training far more palatable. You may even - gasp - enjoy it and look forward to it!

Remember though, you do need rest and a decent diet. When you stress your body physically, the improvement comes when you rest and recover. That won't happen if you ride 7 days a week.

Keep us posted on how you go!

daveryanwyoming

+1 Really well stated on all points.

FWIW, I really despised trainer riding for many years. Rollers were a bit more fun but I still couldn't imagine a full winter of consistent indoor training. A power meter and a plan changed all that. I rode indoors, 5 days a week all last winter and actually looked forward to my trainer rides.

The PM is really motivating, but frankly the plan is more important. In past years I just got on the trainer and either rode real easy or tried to kill myself with short hard efforts. I didn't really know what I was trying to accomplish or how to get the most out of indoor training. Reading these forums, Hunter and Coggan's book and other sources about FTP, L4 work, SST, CTL, etc. led me to a training plan that centers on raising my sustainable power(FTP) and building a solid base of volume/intensity (CTL). Having those goals makes trainer riding a lot more focused and fun.

Most indoor sessions either focus on holding submaximal power longer, for instance stretching my efforts at 85% of FTP to 45 minutes, an hour or longer. Or they focus on challenging my current FTP, or at least my current 20 minute power with time trial like efforts right up against my previous best efforts. Later in the winter I'll work on other stuff like VO2 max efforts but for the next several months it'll either be holding long moderately hard efforts or somewhat shorter(still 10 to 30 minute) efforts at the highest power I can do them.

If you don't use a PM then you can use speed while riding the trainer to gauge your progress, but either way finding a way to measure your efforts so that you can try to replicate or improve upon them over weeks or months is really important. Otherwise it can easily become uncertain, mindless trainer time and that's a killer from a mental standpoint.

Anyway, search these forums as suggested, but make a plan and figure out a way to objectively measure your efforts and your progress. That makes all the difference for me.

Good luck,
Dave

P.S. Oh yeah, Graham's point about including rest is really important. I know he already said it, but remember you need the stress of training to stimulate adaptation and improvement, but it's while you rest and recover that the adaptations and improvements actually occur.

Lucy_Aspenwind

Should you or shouldn't you take a day off?

This seems like a deeply individual question as everyone has a different mentality/psychology about training. That's even more the case possibly, when you train indoors as it is clearly an artifical environment.

You have stuff like the PMC but your question seems more about whether to do do indoor training or at least how often, rather than overall training volume/frequency/intensity.

The only right answer is the one that works for you.

It can and does evolve with time, practice, and experience. First I loved the trainer, then I overdid it, then in predictable fashion I got hurt using it, then I hated it, then it got banished into the garage, and now I'm at some medium where I don't love it, but I definitely value it. When it gets dark at 4:30 and I get home at 6 or later, the trainer is a lifesaver.

My approach to indoor training is simple....keep it short, sweet, and useful - nothing over an hour, nothing under Level 4 intensity.

cyclechick00

Thanks so much to both of you. The advice is very thorough. At least I know I'm going in the right direction - got the fans, an old Tour DVD and a decent meal plan. It's hard for me because I work overnight (11pm-7am) and I come home in the morning and crash, wake up about 2pm, bowl of oatmeal, then I train an hour later and crank as hard as I can for 30 min. I follow that with a Myoplex soy protein shake and banana. THEN I sleep for another 3 hours. I may be getting too much sleep and it's tough to regulate this. I don't know. The reason I burn out so quickly is that I'm trying to lose weight right now so I can train properly once I do reach my goal. This may sound odd, but I'm female, 5'1" and 126 lbs. I know that's not a lot but I have a ton of fat around my middle. I take in roughly 1000cal/day and burn 200+ on the bike and another 200cal w/ moderate free weight training and an exercise ball. Any other suggestions on how to lose this properly?