Indoor training - legit!
 

I haven't been outdoors since November 2013 per my Garmin. Mostly due to logistics with family and having to watch my toddler all weekend since my wife works a lot then, as well as briefly, some health issues.

50 miler, 4000ft of climbing. Normalized power for the ride was 5 watts higher than my best last year when I was doing this loop ride every weekend starting from mid 2012.

No problems whatsoever with the bike handling, although I do have years of experience riding outdoors in the past and even two years of competitive road racing back then so it's not like I was rookie going into it.

This wasn't exactly a surprise to me, but just to share the method to the madness, as I've been doing it:

- I train with power exclusively indoors. I was using Trainerroad + powermeter, but recently upgraded to Wahoo Kickr which will actually control the amount of power you are targeted for (like a treadmills set to target speed). Takes all the guesswork out of ?am I improving?, and allows for continued progression. My FTP now is higher than it was 6 months ago despite even having to take nearly 2.5 months off for health reasons.

- Trainerroad rocks. I'm their biggest unofficial shill, for sure, but it's the best money you can spend on cycling if you actually want to improve, imo. I dont even think you need to use real power to improve- the virtualpower works just as well, although you can't use the virtualpower numbers to gauge outdoor rides (it'll be inaccurate compared to real powermeter power, but it's very PRECISE or reproducible so quality of training is identical.) TR also has like hundreds of workouts and now, countless plans that target most kinds of races or workout goals (TT, century, half ironman, base training, road racing, etc.) written by a good cycling coach - it's honestly like having a personal cycling coach with tailored workouts exactly to your level since it's by FTP. And the metrics are awesome for tracking your improvement.

- You gotta have a good indoor setup to do this. I'm lucky enough to have a permanent bike setup in my garage, with a laptop to drive Trainerroad, and a larger external monitor for videos/movies. Big fan and good bike cover to stop corrosion. But dang, once you have that setup going, it's like a training lab. As well, if you limit your Game of Thrones watching to the trainer, you'll actually look forward to the long trainer rides - I've found I can actually do even VO2max intervals while watcihng movies, and with the kickr it's even easier.

- Despite all this, indoor training STILL isn't as fun as riding outdoors. There is no substitute for the fun and freedom of the outdoors, and if being outdoors is the main reason you ride, you'll hate the trainer. But if improving and/or getting a time-efficient training session for racing is important to you, this setup (Kickr+Trainerroad) is amazing for continued improvement. Although my wife loves that I'm not at risk of getting hit by a car, esp at my workout time of 4:30-5AM start time.

I had a terrible season last year for a variety of reasons -- time pressures, allergies, a nagging hamstring injury. In approaching this season, I decided to follow a different program in the winter -- actual base-building instead of power intervals a couple times a week.

The end result is I dropped more than 20 pounds this winter using TR and the High Volume I, II, III training plans followed by the Advanced Century High Volume plan (though that has given way to outdoor riding). I followed them religiously.

Took my P/W from 2.7 at Thanksgiving (W was up from norm, P was down from norm) to 3.2 by March. My endurance is fine and I'm right there with the strongest riders in my group instead of being OTB like I was late last year. I have a nice base of fitness to build on -- my CTL today is where it usually is in late June, my weight has stayed off (I went from 197 to 173 at 6'3" tall) and my power is higher than it was all of last year -- still need to build a few more watts onto it but that will come.

I got through the training sessions by listening to music. I can't read a book or watch movies -- breaks my concentration too much.

And VO2max intervals -- well I shut off the music, close my eyes, grit my teeth, and just suffer through them. No way I could pay attention to anything else while doing one.

Trainer Road is the real deal. High quality training programs at a reasonable price. You just bring the discipline.

It works, it's good training. Too bad the suck factor is so high but one good thing about it, nothing better than getting on the road for the first ride and being able to go full force.

Indoor training is very important...especially when having one of the coldest winters on record (LOL).,,

i refuse to do marathon sessions as I just cannot stay motivated to do it...but good, HIT training that's <1hr is good to go. I felt pretty strong the first few times I took to the road this month...now I just need to get the stamina back.

Trainerroad + Game of Thrones + Kickr = Quality long rides no problemo. Even better than outdoor riding in terms of quality - you can reliably ramp up your TSS, power targets, etc., so you're not stagnating week after week, as typically happens with a lot of folks who aim to improve but just 'ride somewhat hard' on their long rides.

Long rides indoors are like death though without the objective numbers telling you how you're faring as well as a video or other AV thing to occupy your mind.

Agree.

My recipe: Kurt Kinetic plus inRide plus iPhone set on the iTunes Metapharstic channel plus someone's riding adventure posted to YouTube.

I trained for a century earlier this month by riding my trainer on about 80% of the rides leading up to it.

I tried indoor training a few times -- omg what torture. I finally rigged up aero bars and put the bike near my desk, so I could play COD on the PC while riding. Needless to say, I sucked more than usual in multiplayer.

KICKR + PeriPedal + Netflix

My world is rocked.

Hey,

Thank you for sharing your thoughts. I am actually in a market for an indoor trainer bike and joined this forum to also find out about that.

Sorry my ignorance...Trainerroads is the brand? Are there certain models that your recommend?

Thanks a lot,

Jorg

did you forget how to use the internet?

Let me google that for you

If you already have a bike, buy a Kurt Kinetic or similar and mount your bike on it. Readily affordable exercise bikes aren't very good.

You should be able to find a Kurt Kinetic new on sale or used on Craigslist now that the winter is over. People will start to dump them. The KK trainer is so highly recommended because of its consistency and high build quality.

To stay on topic, my experience with indoor training reflects that of the OP. I did two of the base programs and then started in on the build. My outdoor riding was every bit as fast as where I left off last fall and my endurance is better. The indoor training is so effective that I plan to continue using it for the rest of my build program interval sessions. Outdoor rides will be for endurance, fast group rides, and just-wanna-go-for-a-ride rides.

My indoor training has been going well enough that I'm pretty much relegating my outdoor rides to 2nd-class status for training priority. My gains will be primarily made and tracked with my indoor setup, specifically, with Kickr+Trainerroad. I could never gradually ratchet up the wattage this precisely without these tools.

Outdoor riding for me will be for the rare day I get off, without prioritizing improvement. (Riding outdoors is still always more fun than indoors, as I said above!)

Another TR user here... exclusively since last october.

I went from 205 to 175 before christmas and have maintained 175 since.

I've done intermediate build 1 & 2 and have been working on advanced build.

FTP went from 130's to 170's using virtual power.

Kickr is well outside my affordability range... need an actual road bike first.

I've been on TR for about three years now and love the workouts. I can only watch tv or movies during base workouts. Anything "sweetspot" and above and I can't concentrate.