We’d like to know about your indoor training habits

I used to, when I worked on a ship and had a long commute. Since I started working within cycling distance of an office I gave it up. I’d rather be outside in the cold rain and mud TBH.

Maybe when I’m older. But then maybe I’ll just buy an e-bike and keep going outside….

I went to my first spin class at the Gym last night..

Made me realise i’m not nearly as fit as i thought i was!

I’m going to try and do 1 or 2 a week over the winter, to try and limit the seasonal fitness losses..

The option I needed was, ‘Tried once….didn’t do it again’. For me, cycling is about being outside.

Another request for tried it, hated it/got bored!

To be honest I only rode on my rollers until I could ride no handed, hop on/off and trackstand on the side frame.  My wife gave it a better attempt and did a few ‘sessions’.

I think what killed it for both of us was a few goes on zwift using a wahoo gps and heartrate with a dumb roller resulted in a very sluggish and unresponsive experience on screen.  The cadence would get stuck and no matter how hard you rode you’d be crawling on screen!

Gcn sessions on YouTube are good, I try to do one session a week over the dark months, this fits around my limited outdoor riding and 2/3 gym sessions. I have an older turbo but hate it, I use rollers now which are so much nicer to ride and also help develop smoother riding. I also have my 10 year old do 1/2 sessions a week to fit around his football training, football matches, cycling club training and cx races. Only takes about 45 minutes to get a real sweat up. 

Seems to work well for my boy and myself. 

The way I treat indoor riding is the same as I treat the gym, keep it short and sweet but do it regularly. This way you limit boredom and will reap the benefits which will see you hitting the spring trails without the winter weight and heavy legs. 

I’m certainly in the ‘bikes are for outside’ camp. Turbo trainers can be really effective ime but for me they’re a tool for fine-tuning fitness for something specific, they don’t replace riding outdoors. I’d rather be out in the damp and grey for a couple of hours than using a trainer.

I have an old trad trainer, a HRM, an over/under threshold session that get results if I stick at it once a week for 8-12 weeks and a playlist of techno or thrash metal that works. Simple stuff. But I need to be motivated by something in the first place otherwise my regular riding is enough to keep a reasonable form, I’d rather do hill reps or a hilly loop than an interval session and I reckon it’s almost as effective overall.