trainer vs outside training

[leanman]

with it dark at 5pm, and wierd hours working, plus family obligations , its almost impossible to get outside. just wondering what , if any, % of fitness you loose by staying inside on the trainer doing everything your supose to be doing outside .... normally i'm outside on a sat or sun doing my long weekly training ride of 3-4 hours, but with things coming up, i have to do those rides on the trainer.
there have been times in the past years where a scheduled 4 hour ride outside was done inside because of snow on the ground. no problem.. just watch tv and spin away.
with no wind and wind gusts, hills etc. , what do you think you loose? one guy thats a 2x national tt champ stays inside all fall winter and does trainer workouts. he hates the cold..then he said he adds his "far" on top of his "hard" once the weather gets a bit warmer and lighter out. he slowly does his longer rides and in 6 weeks is up to 80 miles comfortably..
i could care less about the cold, but i just cant get out with family and work.
do you tink you loose 10%, 20%, staying inside for a few months, or is it about all the same?
thanks

 

[ctgt]

with it dark at 5pm, and wierd hours working, plus family obligations , its almost impossible to get outside. just wondering what , if any, % of fitness you loose by staying inside on the trainer doing everything your supose to be doing outside .... normally i'm outside on a sat or sun doing my long weekly training ride of 3-4 hours, but with things coming up, i have to do those rides on the trainer.
there have been times in the past years where a scheduled 4 hour ride outside was done inside because of snow on the ground. no problem.. just watch tv and spin away.
with no wind and wind gusts, hills etc. , what do you think you loose? one guy thats a 2x national tt champ stays inside all fall winter and does trainer workouts. he hates the cold..then he said he adds his "far" on top of his "hard" once the weather gets a bit warmer and lighter out. he slowly does his longer rides and in 6 weeks is up to 80 miles comfortably..
i could care less about the cold, but i just cant get out with family and work.
do you tink you loose 10%, 20%, staying inside for a few months, or is it about all the same?
thanks

You don't have to lose anything. The people who do "lose" are the ones (and they are the vast majority) that psychologically just can't do the trainer, and that doesn't sound like you (if you can do your 4 hour ride inside when necessary). Sure there's no wind gusts, but there are also no stop signs, technical descents or traffic. And there most certainly can be "hills" (or can be depending on the type of trainer you have).

Many on these forums actually gain during their trainer time, as it is their base/build time of year. Believe it or not, they build the fitness on the trainer and spend it on the road!!

 

[jhuskey]

TT world champions have trained indoors successfully although I have never heard of a climber getting all he needs on an indoor trainer.
Everyone varies in inability and commitment but doing something is certainly better than doing nothing at all.

 

[frenchyge]

TT world champions have trained indoors successfully although I have never heard of a climber getting all he needs on an indoor trainer.

Climbing = TTing with your front wheel on a phonebook.

Seriously, I do the bulk of my winter training indoors and find it very beneficial in building fitness as long as an appropriate intensity level is maintained. For those with serious constraints on their training time, the lack of coasting, drafting, stops, riding out to the good spots and back, etc. can make indoor sessions even more beneficial than the same amount of time spent outdoors.

I might question spinning away for 4 hours in front of the TV (depending upon the intensity), but a couple hours of high tempo are very beneficial.

 

[jhuskey]

Climbing = TTing with your front wheel on a phonebook.

.

I tried that but it got very inconvenient when I had to get off and raise the back wheel each time for the downhills.

 

[DancenMacabre]

I hella hate the cold too & guess what? It keeps me inside when lotsa riders are outside. Part of being a desert rat I suppose

Just get in & do your workouts.

#1 -quality more than quantity. Like frenchyge says you get super quality workouts b'cause there's no lights, stop signs, cage driving idiots on the road to deal with, no having to 'ride' to your fav. spot, yadda yadda. Quality > quantity for most peeps means higher intensity (L3/L4). I always see higher IF indoors b'cause there are no junk miles like outside.

#2 - if you got your heart set on a 2-3 hour SST/tempo ride, then try splitting it. Do half in the AM, other half in the PM. My brain would explode but thats another subject!

#3 - get some entertainment, keep yourself amused, dvd's, music, biking dvd's, whatever. After 1.5 hours of an indoor session I am tired but even more just bored.

#4 - stay cool! turn up the fan or get a bigger one, open the windows, have plenty of cold water. I like to roast a little b'cause the heat doesnt bother me so muc so a small fan works for me. YMMV!!

# 5 - what about some x-training to keep things lively? I'm gonna x-c/downhill ski + hike & climb this winter. Maybe some small amt. of weight training too.

Sweat when working out hard on your trainer but dont sweat having to train on the trainer.

 

[gman0482]

Here's a couple of pages from Carmichael's book.
Just throwing it out there.

 

[gman0482]

I personally love the trainer, but I'm just weird. I just think about improvement the whole time and that's what keeps me going and happy. It doesn't let you coast like Frenchyge mentioned, which is huge help.

 

[leanman]

gman
thanks alot for the info on charmichael. i'll read what he has to say in a bit..
i often wondered about the differences. lots of times i hear when you're on the trainer you dont coast like outside, or have to stop at stop signs like outside... well, when i train, i do a 10 mile loop trafic free or on country roads that go on forever where its continous peddaling.. so no coasting or stopping... never. just peddal the full time.
thats why i wondered whats the difference other than the hills or wind.
thank you

 

[frenchyge]

well, when i train, i do a 10 mile loop trafic free or on country roads that go on forever where its continous peddaling.. so no coasting or stopping... never. just peddal the full time.

The resistance on the trainer never lets up. Unless you've ridden with a power meter, you might be amazed at how much an insignificantly small decline in the road can reduce the power output during that portion of the ride. Even though you might not be coasting a lot of level 1 time creeps into a typical road session.

A trainer is like headwind or uphill the entire time. My trainer session almost always have a higher average power than I can sustain on the road.

 

[gman0482]

^^^ I couldn't agree more. You could be on 53/15 and 80 rpm on the road, and feel like your not doing any work. Not a chance on the trainer.

 

[leanman]

frenchy
A trainer is like headwind or uphill the entire time. My trainer session almost always have a higher average power than I can sustain on the road.

very interesting comment.... i never thought of it like that...
per my last post, and its very true, on my long 4 hour ride, on my 10 mile loop, or on the country roads, my legs never ever coast..the downhills, though not steep, i keep peddaling, as the flats as well as the up hills... i keep on peddaling..
trying to make the most out of what little time i have to train.
thanks for that comment

 

[jollyrogers]

with it dark at 5pm, and wierd hours working, plus family obligations , its almost impossible to get outside. just wondering what , if any, % of fitness you loose by staying inside on the trainer doing everything your supose to be doing outside ....

I don't think that you necessarily have to lose anything by training inside and, for some workouts, you can get more done in less time.

My indoor training has become much more effective since I started using a power meter. Watts are watts, indoors or out, so I just set up my workouts and go. For most of my work-week sessions, all that I lose is transit time to/from the sections of road where I do interval work. Sure, there are a few kJ unburned, but I get all of the productive parts of the workout.

One thing that I do pay attention to is cadence. While cadence is less important than power, I find that on the indoor trainer I end up using a much narrower cadence range than outdoors. Again, power is more important, but I don't want to completely negelect the neuromuscular demands of higher cadences so I will throw in some work 10-15 rpms above self-selected cadence.

Like many others have said, 1h30m-1h40m seems to be about as long as I can stand to be on the trainer so I do lose some of the lower zone time if the weather forces me inside on a Sunday. Plenty of time to get that in when the weather improves though.

 

[migelon]

I hate training indoors so I moved to a warmer climate.
Problem solved.

 

[jollyrogers]

I hate training indoors so I moved to a warmer climate.
Problem solved.

Less the temps for me than daylight ending so early.

 

[migelon]

Lights vs wind trainer:

I vote for lights

 

[gman0482]

Snow & ice vs. Sweat & L4 intervals

I vote for Sweat & L4 intervals

p.s.- wind trainer vs. fluid trainer

I vote for fluid trainer

 

[Felt_Rider]

The resistance on the trainer never lets up. Unless you've ridden with a power meter, you might be amazed at how much an insignificantly small decline in the road can reduce the power output during that portion of the ride. Even though you might not be coasting a lot of level 1 time creeps into a typical road session.

A trainer is like headwind or uphill the entire time. My trainer session almost always have a higher average power than I can sustain on the road.

I am certainly finding this to be the case lately.
For over a year now I had been doing an outdoor 2 hour out and back type training on Sundays, but with interruptions like intersections, dangerous situations (speed versus foot traffic & intersections) and rain almost every weekend I had started doing the 2 hour effort indoors.

Switching to indoors I have been completely frustrated and yet completely satisfied.

The amount of effort and focus it takes on the trainer I have a huge ceiling above me to grow, whereas, on this particular near flat outdoor route I can be sustaining near 30 mph and barely holding 200 watts at times. Since I have a compact gearing I sit in the 50/11 and do not have enough gearing to push a higher output, but indoors I struggle to hold the meekest of power outputs. Plus whizzing by folk at near 30 mph has not been ideal for anyone either. They kind of freak out like the squirrels.

Not much danger of that on the trainer. I am starting to like the trainer more and more. Plus I generally have a 45 minute one way drive to get anywhere to cycle so that helps on saving gas.

 

[limerickman]

Daylight restrictions at this time of the year, are the problem for me regarding outdoor sessions (sunrise 7.55hrs, sunset 15.55hrs)
Temperature can go as low as it likes, it's not a problem.
Trying to get time outside on the bike is a killer at this time of year.

Last three days, I've managed to get 3 x3hr spins outdoors.
I really value that time outdoors.

Indoor training, I simply cannot do it.
20 mins max and I am bored.