Now that we have dark and cold evenings, I was thinking of signing up to Zwift for a few months.
I bought a Kickr core a few years back but didn't really get into the indoor training thing at that time; but am prepared to give it another go.
Now I can set it up in the garage, but it's frankly freezing in there and doesn't help with my motivation. The alternative is to set something up in the kitchen, but that's really for eating and not turbo training.
If you do indoor training, which room do you use?
I use the conservatory, ideal in the winter, not so good on a warm day, but I’d be outside hopefully.
One downside is mould can occur on the pvc in the warmer months, I assume from the vast amount of steam I produce. Takes 5 mins to clean.
I’ve tried the garage but decided the black mould on the asbestos roof wasn’t conducive to lung health.
You need freezing. Or a bloody massive (noisy) fan. Or both.
Mine is indoors, in what used to be a dining room but is now a home gym. It's right next to a set of patio doors and these will be open whenever I'm using the trainer. I also have two fans. If you are generating any power whatsoever, you'll soon heat up!
Conservatory for mine as we dont use the conservatory in the colder months...its under 7c in there this evening
In the garage too. Colder the better! It was minus zero out this morning but I still only wore just a pair of bibs.
I'll have a think about using it in the garage tomorrow evening then!!
Mine is the garage. Start off with a jacket on that’s gets removed after 5-10 minutes once warmed up. And soon after the fan gets turned on. The colder the better for me and nice to have the garage door open for fresh air
Shed - but even doing easy zone 2 this morning I needed the fan on, despite it being sub zero.
What everyone else has said about the garage. It’s quite hard work so once you’ve warmed up you don’t notice. In high summer with no airflow it wasn’t much fun though.
If you can leave it set up that will help with motivation, I think. Also worth having some electrolyte/sporta drink even if you don’t usually bother riding outside
Another garage guy here. I start with a jacket over my t-shirt, comes off as I warm up and then the fan goes go a while later. If it's really cold, the fan is too much continuously, so I'll switch it off and on.
I also make sure I put the jacket straight back on when I finish, otherwise I end up getting very cold very quickly.
Another vote for the garage, yes it’s a cold start which doesn’t help with motivation but cooling is a big positive 👍
18” floor fan that only works on the highest setting, it’s on within about 5 minutes this time of year…another 5 minutes and jersey is off
Start with a hoody on in the garage and then gradually get naked.
Loft room here. Can get a bit hot in summer as the windows aren't the biggest. Having it permanently setup and ready to use removes a hurdle front using it.
Garage - T shirt and shirts, 5 mins in fan on , 15 mins in T shirt off
At least in the garage you can have a tv/music turned up loud
Zwift is not the only training tool. I’ve never liked it. I prefer Rouvy
Definitely garage. Get a remote control fan or remote plug socket for the fan. Start off with a jacket on (on coldest days I've even started with a down jacket and gloves) and after 5 mins you'll be stripping it off and reaching for the fan remote.
Garage.
When it's really cold I'll stick some thin leggings on over my bibs, but otherwise just normal jersey & shorts, with a thin long sleeve layer to start.
Even doing Z2 pootling gets you warm in 5mins or so an need to take the long sleeve off.
If doing a workout, or race, I'm normally down to my short sleeves by the end of the warm up and for a lot of the year it's just bibs.
With a fan in the winter, the cold air it blows over you can be pretty unpleasant. The position of my fan means it blows over my arms before getting to me, so I sometimes wear arm warmers if it's particularly cold.
Freezing garage, definitely. Start with a jacket (or even a fleece), take it off once you get going. Gloves, too, if you suffer from cold hands.
For those who train in the garage, do you not find condensation on anything metal afterwards? Even with the pedestrian door open I still had an issue.
Indoors is no use for me, just too warm and the noise disrupts others.
I used to do Garage - a proper, leaky, tin roof and concrete panel job that was basically outside temp during the winter and it worked really well - you can crank the tunes up as above, plus my old smart wheel-on turbo was bloody loud. Works really well as your cooking after a few minutes anyway. 'd start with a hoody on and then be stripped to a set of bib shorts only quite soon.
@hooli the roof would be literally dripping wet after that.
Since moving a couple of years ago we have a permanent setup in the spare room, bike on turbo, on a thick mat, big 18" fan, and a set of shelves that sit in front of the bike for towel, my shoes (old XC tpe spds relegated to turbo use only), my HRM, chrger for the ipad etc. I consciously have the heating on frost setting only in that room, and keep the door closed and windows open when riding though, as even at ~16 or 17 degrees it feels very warm otherwise.
Having everything just 'there' ready to go really helps and means when I'm WFH I can easily fit a change-45min session-shower-change into a "be right back in 1 hour" status update over lunch. That, for me, is the beauty of the trainer or static bike.
With a fan in the winter, the cold air it blows over you can be pretty unpleasant.
I struggle with this. It's really not nice, sweaty + ice air flowing, but you need the fan. I've never got it quite right.
Garage for me, which is my home gym also.
Have a damp issue in our single skin garage as previous owners landscaped up against two sides of it without adequate protection, ended up drilling three 4" holes through the brickwork to help with ventilation - it's been much better since.
In the big shed/bike store/home office. Insulated and heated. No heating first thing tho, start cold, warm up quick but defo jacket for afterwards
Last year I put in an oil fired Rad that kicks in when temp drops below 10 deg, so it's never absolutely freezing anymore.
Summer, open all the doors and melt a bit.
Agree with above on having stuff ready. If I'm doing a 7am or something, I just get dressed in bike gear and potentially upset neighbours as I dash between house and shed 🙂
Oh humidity sensors go from about 45% to 75-85-higher (depending how long/how hot) while on turbo but drops pretty quickly so no damp/mould issues. Shed is pretty well insulated tho. And made of wood so I'm sure some air gaps are replenishing the damp air 😉
Garage.
I'm on rollers, so a major achievement for me was being able to sit up and take fleece off whilst keeping pedalling. I still get some momentary satisfaction from a smooth de-jacketing every session 😎
Gloves never last long, but I did end up on the cusp of numb toes this morning!🥶
hooli
For those who train in the garage, do you not find condensation on anything metal afterwards? Even with the pedestrian door open I still had an issue.
Our garage is brick, attached to house, with a tiled roof. It stays pretty dry, even with my sweating away in there a couple of times a week. Only noticeable issue so far noticed, is the exposed tips of the ANT+dongle & associated cable have minor surface rust.
We do have a window in there & to be honest, I should probably open it a whisker when on the turbo as the fan blows towards it & should help remove any damp, sweaty air.
barrysh1tpeas
With a fan in the winter, the cold air it blows over you can be pretty unpleasant.
I struggle with this. It’s really not nice, sweaty + ice air flowing, but you need the fan. I’ve never got it quite right.
If you have arm warmers give them a try. You still get the cooling effect of the fan, but they take the bitter, cold edge off the air blown from the fan.
Arm warmers are pretty versatile as you can pull them down by varying amounts to give yourself a bit of extra cooling. You can yank them right down during a hard workout interval, and then yank them back up during recovery.
Garage, you'll soon warm up, and need the fan on. Just start with the fan off, then turn on when you start dripping.
Do people leave laptops/PC's in the garage (cold) or take them from warm to cold to warm?
You obviously need to build a log cabin at the bottom of the garden with permanently set up fans, a good tele, sound bar, dehumidifier etc and then you can leave it all set up, also makes a nice place to keep your road bike.
Do people leave laptops/PC’s in the garage (cold) or take them from warm to cold to warm?
Yeah, not a problem, they don't go into preservation mode until it's around -10 to -15 degC anyway
Humble-braggers with their garages and not-filled-up-with-crap sheds!
I was considering a cheap popup gazebo / event shelter type thing kept by the back door so outside but sheltered from rain. Not sure how motivated I'd be to actually faff around getting it and the bike/trainer out there every time though.
If you're going to go outside anyway...
Not sure how waterproof smart trainers are - one thing the odd drop of sweat, another thing entirely if it's pissing it down...
richmars
Do people leave laptops/PC’s in the garage (cold) or take them from warm to cold to warm?
PC hooked up to 32" monitor, so it all stays in the garage.
chaos
Humble-braggers with their garages and not-filled-up-with-crap sheds!
Ha! If only!!
I mean, it's nice to have a garage (one of my must haves when we moved), but my turbo trainer set-up is surrounded by stuff. Most of the garage is in the 'no room to swing a cat' state.
It's like a game of tetris trying to actually get access to anything.
Humble-braggers with their garages and not-filled-up-with-crap sheds!
My garage has a car in it, which seems to be somewhat of an alien concept in 2023!
garage
/ˈɡarɑː(d)ʒ,ˈɡarɪdʒ,ɡəˈrɑː(d)ʒ/
noun
1.
a building for housing a motor vehicle or vehicles.
"a detached house with an integral garage"
(Shed, however, is definitely filled with crap, dont worry!)
Ref fans - I found it feels much nicer to have the fan further away, but on a higher power setting, rather than it being just in front of the bars blasting right at you.
Of course, the problem is you cannot then turn it up/down from the bike.
Not so much a humblebrag, more a necessity. If the turbo wasn't ready to go, I wouldn't go at all. No way I've the patience to drag it out of some corner and set it up for an hour, only to put it back again!<br /><br />Fair play if you do that, but I'd rather, er, go jogging or something.
Mines in the summer house, it's a slight faff getting the warmup right but otherwise the lest faff option. The only way to make turbo training palatable is to eliminate the faff. I'm now considering putting a PC in the shed just avoid the faff with connecting the laptop to the TV, sensors etc. It's an expensive way to save 5 minutes!
Leaving electronics in a cold but dry building is fine. It's only an issue if you bring cold electronics into a warm room which leads to condensation on components.
I'm thinking of getting some rollers, then once warmed up use the remote to open up the garage doors to keep the moisture & temps down - good idea or not? Could use a fan to aid air movement too..
can't help you with rollers. Every time I look at them, I'm thinking well catapulting myself into that window is going to be a miserable experience, even compared with the turbo 😉
can’t help you with rollers. Every time I look at them, I’m thinking well catapulting myself into that window is going to be a miserable experience, even compared with the turbo 😉
Even if you manage to ride off the side of them, you've not got any momentum, you just fall over.
I'd not advise using them with any sort of zwift or riding video though. That's the only time I've come close to falling off subconsciously trying to follow the corners! Fine for workout programs just following a graph (or erg mode if you have fancy rollers) though.
Tossup which is more tolerable, Z2 rollers or z2 zwift though.
Definitely garage, and ideally an old bike you can leave on there.
I have an old fleece jacket i have for turbo, wear it for warm up, then off for main effort, and sometime back on to cool down., usually wearing just a thin base layer even when it is freezing outside
For me, turbo is for doing the hard, shorts efforts in the week, then leave the zone 2 work for longer riders outside at weekend, unless weather is really poor...
If you have a garage, it is probably the best option. Start cycling and you will start feeling warm in a few mins, it is like running in cold. the beginning is hard and then you just can't stop how good it is in cool weather. Also maybe do some research on the indoor cycling apps, which will suit you best, that can bring you even more motivation. I'm using Rouvy for the possibility to ride real-life routes and cannot complain about the winter trainings anymore.
I googled this for an air resistance non smart trainer.
Apparently the what 3 words location is: metal.recycling.bin 🤔
I used to have it in our garden cabin thing. Chilly to start but soon warmed up a bit. It used to be I stored my road bike in it for ease. Maybe if I had had internet down there then and not bought something that would drown out the noise of Concorde taking off at 60rpm it would still be there and not in the corner of the tool shed stopping me opening a cupboard.
Cold garage and a big fan.
I'm torn between the "large appliances" or "scrap metal" sections at our local tip.
Cold garage and a big fan.
I’ll just have the cold garage on its own, thanks.
Rear conservatory for me and turbo set up 7-8 months of the year so I can just hop on.
The conservatory pvc doors have pull out fly nets (previous Australian owners, seems standard there) so I have doors open, fly nets pulled across even when its been -5c outside. Cold to start but I very quickly warm up and the open doors limit the condensation.
Its also a nice bonus to turbo whilst looking across the garden. Fortunate that it's a rather lovely space so theres an inkling of being out amongst the trees.