The Indoor Riding/ Zwift/ TrainerRoad etc. Thread

DJMK4 said:
As much as i would love to try it , I dont really get the whole indoor riding thing, it wouldnt motivate me,

being outdoors seems better in the summer


although i can sort of see the benefit in the winter when its raining and miserable outside.
Click to expand...

Your last sentence means you do get it.

The benefits of training indoors over winter can be massive. I gave Trainer Road a go this winter, and really enjoyed it, and saw some gains. Plus the ability to do structed workouts is a game changer. Hated doing it outdoors. Start a 1 minute 400W effort now!!.....oh I can't there's a junction, or I'm going through a town etc etc.

I get some people find it monotonous, I must be weird in that I can quite happily sit on the bike for hours. All you need is something decent to watch and the time flies by........
 
Shadowness said:
Your last sentence means you do get it.

The benefits of training indoors over winter can be massive. I gave Trainer Road a go this winter, and really enjoyed it, and saw some gains. Plus the ability to do structed workouts is a game changer. Hated doing it outdoors. Start a 1 minute 400W effort now!!.....oh I can't there's a junction, or I'm going through a town etc etc.

I get some people find it monotonous, I must be weird in that I can quite happily sit on the bike for hours. All you need is something decent to watch and the time flies by........
Click to expand...



The issue i find is, as soon as Winter is over, people are supposed to get together and ride,

I find that people continue the indoor training through the summer, I would much prefer if i could meet friends and go for outdoor rides
 
DJMK4 said:
The issue i find is, as soon as Winter is over, people are supposed to get together and ride,

I find that people continue the indoor training through the summer, I would much prefer if i could meet friends and go for outdoor rides
Click to expand...

Find new (and normal) friends then.

There's a bit of a merge of indoor and outdoor riding in Spring, as the weather can still be a bit iffy (wet). But in Summer, if people are still riding indoors then their weird. (or maybe training for something specifically still.
 
Shadowness said:
Find new (and normal) friends then.

There's a bit of a merge of indoor and outdoor riding in Spring, as the weather can still be a bit iffy (wet). But in Summer, if people are still riding indoors then their weird. (or maybe training for something specifically still.
Click to expand...
Why would it be weird to still ride indoors during summer? I do it all the time just much more time efficient. Minimum time I need for outdoor rides is 1h indoors I can do something productive in as little as 20 minutes.
 
Well I struggle with heat in the winter, so summer would be unbearable.

And why would you need 3 times longer outdoors as opposed to indoors? What productive workout would you do in 20 mins bearing in mind you'll need at least a good 10 minute warm up or so.
 
Shadowness said:
Your last sentence means you do get it.

The benefits of training indoors over winter can be massive. I gave Trainer Road a go this winter, and really enjoyed it, and saw some gains. Plus the ability to do structed workouts is a game changer. Hated doing it outdoors. Start a 1 minute 400W effort now!!.....oh I can't there's a junction, or I'm going through a town etc etc.

I get some people find it monotonous, I must be weird in that I can quite happily sit on the bike for hours. All you need is something decent to watch and the time flies by........
Click to expand...

Exactly. Over the winter 99% of my riding is indoors and it keeps my fitness up (and even improving) over the 4 or so months its grim outside. Gives me a chance to watch the TV shows I want to watch. My partner likes to watch what in my opinion is utter crap tv 90% of the time and sits there with it on in the background while shes on her phone. This is when I can watch interesting series and films.


DJMK4 said:
The issue i find is, as soon as Winter is over, people are supposed to get together and ride,

I find that people continue the indoor training through the summer, I would much prefer if i could meet friends and go for outdoor rides
Click to expand...

Easier said than done. Young kids, busy lives etc etc. I'm sure I could find more people to ride with but currently my time is limited, not dependable and quite often its much much easier to ride outside on my own. I ride with mates when I can but one if them is very unfit and the other is hard to find matching times with.

robj20 said:
Why would it be weird to still ride indoors during summer? I do it all the time just much more time efficient. Minimum time I need for outdoor rides is 1h indoors I can do something productive in as little as 20 minutes.
Click to expand...

Yep, I still do 2-3 trainer rides indoors at the moment. I will likely do less going forwards as the evenings are now long enough that I can go out after the boys are in bed but my partner also has things she wants to do in the evenings so its not always possible.

Its not a replacement for outdoors, it just allows flexibility and good use of time. I can't easily do many of the workouts I want to do outside and honestly, they aren't super enjoyable vs just riding. VO2 max intervals? Find a long enough hill but make sure you don't cook yourself on the 300m of climbing before you get there. Steady state intervals? Don't hit too many hills or you will have 1-2 minutes of not being able to put down the right power and try not to hit any traffic lights or too many road junctions.

Yes you can do interval work outdoors, people have been doing it for a long time, its just much much harder and for some of it, you don't actually get to appreciate being outdoors because you are so focussed on what you are there to achieve.
 
I should point out that I live right at the edge of the 'countryside', and only need to ride for 10 mins or less before being out on nice country roads. I appreciate people living in much bigger urban environments might not be able to start riding properly so quickly.
 
  • Like
Reactions: fez
Shadowness said:
I should point out that I live right at the edge of the 'countryside', and only need to ride for 10 mins or less before being out on nice country roads. I appreciate people living in much bigger urban environments might not be able to start riding properly so quickly.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I'm very luck that I am the same. 10 minutes and I am out into the countryside in almost any direction I go. Its wonderful.
 
Shadowness said:
I should point out that I live right at the edge of the 'countryside', and only need to ride for 10 mins or less before being out on nice country roads. I appreciate people living in much bigger urban environments might not be able to start riding properly so quickly.
Click to expand...
Countryside is literally on my doorstep. Still when you only have limited time the trainer is a godsend.
 
It's different if you message your cycling mates and they say 'sorry, I don't have time, I'm just going to jump on and do a session' as opposed to 'sorry, I know the suns out, but I prefer to do an indoor ride'. The former is understandable but the latter is a bit weird.
 
I cut all indoor rides around march i think and not done any since. To be fair life has been busy the last couple of weeks as is so even outdoor has been a push. But I find it very good to get out around 7pm when it cools down for a nice ride.
 
Last edited:
10 mins? You poor people. I'm like 2 mins from the countryside and quiet roads. I still ride Zwift, even this week with up to 29 degrees forecast I'll be riding a TTT Thursday night. But I would agree & question my sanity this week, but that's an exception... For me there's only a few weeks per year it's a 'bad' choice.

Reality is for a Thursday I likely wouldn't otherwise ride, certainly couldn't weekly. There's just not enough time - when it's Zwift there is. Once all the work+home stuff is done (other half home at 6, evening meal done by 6:30) I then do have around 1.5 hours I can ride. Heading outdoors would be hard pressed to do a decent loop and any of my friends/club riding go out earlier wouldn't be back home for 8:30. With Zwift I'm done+cooled down+in shower at 8:30. A few home chores by 9pm to sit down for some adult time/TV together. If I went out although I could cut the group ride short, the reality of being home+showered by 9pm every week pretty unlikely. So it then puts a strain on family/other half, along with the stress then of 'fighting' to get out every week. Certainly for those of us 'middle aged' and family commitments we take the easy option don't we!? ;)

So for me Zwift has turned into the only option for a regularly weekly timeslot I can get away with - but I'm also more committed than 'just jumping on to ride'. I run 2-3 different teams in various events while riding myself, usually arranged/organised 4-5 days in advance at specific timeslots. I can't easily change my mind when the weather is nice and the home stars aligned to get out... But I do have a 'social' element to that commitment too - the build ups and organising, then chatting with 'friends' online while riding/racing/leading too. If I went out solo for a 1.5 hour ride, I wouldn't get that.

DJMK4 said:
As much as i would love to try it , I dont really get the whole indoor riding thing, it wouldnt motivate me,
Click to expand...
This still making me chuckle... It could quite easily be considered trolling but I know it's not as you're a regular.

Context: you're in the 'indoor riding' thread, within a cycling sub forum of a computer/nerdy forum asking why we like riding an 'online computer game'... :cry: :cry: :cry:
 
If you're frequently jumping on the turbo for just a gentle ride by your own standards, keeping motivated is much harder. But if you're doing races and/or intervals, motivation is very easy IMO.

For the last couple of months, when I've not been ill, I've tried to ride outdoors rather than on the turbo because I was very much restricted to turbo due to my long covid for ~2.5 years. But I find it a bit harder to get myself out of the door, even on my new ebike, if I know I've got an hour tops rather than 1.5-2.5 hours (probably because that means I can cycle ~8 miles to the closest "proper" hills to me near Bishop's Waltham).
 
UTmaniac said:
If you're frequently jumping on the turbo for just a gentle ride by your own standards, keeping motivated is much harder. But if you're doing races and/or intervals, motivation is very easy IMO.

For the last couple of months, when I've not been ill, I've tried to ride outdoors rather than on the turbo because I was very much restricted to turbo due to my long covid for ~2.5 years. But I find it a bit harder to get myself out of the door, even on my new ebike, if I know I've got an hour tops rather than 1.5-2.5 hours (probably because that means I can cycle ~8 miles to the closest "proper" hills to me near Bishop's Waltham).
Click to expand...
for me outdoors is the way forward but in winter it's hard to fit it all in so I'll be back on my indoors. I do find it extremely boring but I also was quite unfit when I got back into and it did massively help me with it, I've got a chunk of cardio/cycling fitness back in me now so I feel much more comfortable pushing my self outside, got some nice 20k routes around me that are lovely to cycle at 7pm ish so it's great. I know I'd regret not going out when the winter hits again.

but all in, to each their own. Do what makes you tick and if indoors is your preferred or only option then who actually cares. Better than sitting on a sofa watching google box and sipping stella ;)
 
Having had a small disagreement with Wahoo support about SYSTM dropping my HR regularly when training (they say 'I don't think Whoop supports external connections', I've pointed out how ridiculous this is, but they are standing firm) and with 2 weeks before renewal is due, I've cancelled with them. I've just signed up for a month with TrainerRoad. Does anyone have any tips for getting the most from it?
 
grudas said:
for me outdoors is the way forward but in winter it's hard to fit it all in so I'll be back on my indoors. I do find it extremely boring but I also was quite unfit when I got back into and it did massively help me with it, I've got a chunk of cardio/cycling fitness back in me now so I feel much more comfortable pushing my self outside, got some nice 20k routes around me that are lovely to cycle at 7pm ish so it's great. I know I'd regret not going out when the winter hits again.

but all in, to each their own. Do what makes you tick and if indoors is your preferred or only option then who actually cares. Better than sitting on a sofa watching google box and sipping stella ;)
Click to expand...

Its interesting to see how my fitness changes from indoors to out. Indoors is 99% completely controlled for me. ERG constantly. So when Spring comes around I suck outdoors when it comes to hard hills and the natural surges and lulls that outdoors has.

I just did a steady state workout last night which was 3x15min at pretty much FTP and really struggled. Something which I wouldn't have done if I was training more. I've been sleeping pretty awfully lately which won't help but still, I think I have lost "Zwift" conditioning in favour of outdoors conditioning. Perhaps I have just lost both :mad:

As you say though, hard to sit indoors on the trainer when the evenings are nice. I'm trying to balance my desire to constantly improve with my desire to simply enjoy the summer weather as much as possible.
 
I don't like heading out or coming back during rush hour, so I just did ~28mins of late join "XP Express" group ride on Zwift that's every 2 hours on Tuesdays and Thursdays in the 1715 running...

Just casual riding in slippers, but shocked that ~120W felt and ~75rpm cadence felt so hard, albeit I've not calibrated the turbo for a while and should really do after last week's heatwave... Back in March before my two infections I'd expect ~160W @ 90rpm cadence to feel comfy!

Hopefully will head out after dinner for a gentle spin, probably on the ebike.
 
UTmaniac said:
I don't like heading out or coming back during rush hour, so I just did ~28mins of late join "XP Express" group ride on Zwift that's every 2 hours on Tuesdays and Thursdays in the 1715 running...
Click to expand...

I find that I can go out for 2 hours and if I leave or come back during rush hour or school pickup I will get 20x the ****** drivers in the 5 minutes I am in civilisation vs the 1:55 I spent in the countryside. Thats ignoring the horrible traffic and complete gridlock.
 
fez said:
Its interesting to see how my fitness changes from indoors to out. Indoors is 99% completely controlled for me. ERG constantly. So when Spring comes around I suck outdoors when it comes to hard hills and the natural surges and lulls that outdoors has.
Click to expand...
From Xmas '17 until spring '22, when using the turbo over winter for pretty much all but my commute cycling, I usually used to switch my Zwift sessions to 100% trainer difficulty about around late February and add a bit of weight to my avatar... To get myself a bit better prepared for the outdoor season taking out two bidons on my real bike with far worse performance stats than my virtual Zwift ones.

If I hadn't done some ~90min+ turbo sessions, those first few ~25+ mile rides would be a bit apprehensive and a bit of a shock to the stamina, but it didn't take long for my body to adapt back then.

When I didn't get my typically annual March respiratory infection in '22, like Andy above, I hit the outdoors in great shape... Challenging or beating my segment times from the previous five years, even though I was ~80Kg and was as light as ~73Kg in August '17 (no power meter indoors or out until Xmas '17).

But in the last ~2.75 years with long covid, I could be wrong, but besides improving my pathetic mamil sprint a bit it feels like my aerobic fitness has largely only been static or declined (especially after respiratory infections).
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom