I haven’t gone out on the road for about a month now and I’m really tired of sitting on the trainer for my workouts. Tomorrow is going to be ideal for riding outdoors, but my workout is 5 sets of 30-30s .
Given that these are anaerobic/neuromuscular efforts, would you rather do them on the road or on the trainer? I live in the Bay Area of Northern California so, unfortunately, there are cars everywhere. But just thinking about doing these efforts on the trainer just make me want to heave .
I prefer outdoors but at this time of year in the UK it’s hard to get to quiet roads without junctions and if I can’t get to them (as now) I’m erring on the side of caution and do threshold & above workouts indoors.
Yeah, I’m pretty much dying by the end of each set with full on tunnel vision and shaky arms on the final set. If I could get to an isolated parking lot or road, I’d feel much safer.
I just did Taylor -2 up Tunnel Rd (Oakland/Berkeley, if you’re unfamiliar) last week. Very doable, but don’t try to turn around between individual intervals, wait for the long rest between sets.
Not sure exactly where that is, but if it’s near Ohlone wilderness area I thought people ride out Tesla to Mines? IDK, I’m usually driving from Sac to South Bay.
I did Taylor -2 outdoors yesterday. There were some challenges, but it was sort of fun. My main problem was running out of room (stop sign, traffic light, etc.) in the middle of a interval.
Yeap, my issue would be rolling hills and blind curves. I can probably do Taylor outside without going full tunnel vision, but max effort 30-30s usually leave me heaving by the third or fourth set. I ended up doing them inside today and was glad I did, I accidentally unclipped during one of the intervals which would have probably led me to crash if I’d been on the road
I‘d do the on the road if I were you, the RPE is just way lower. You just need a suitable piece of road, don‘t want to have to stop after interval #3.
That said you can do them indoors too, I just had Bluebell inside this week and it was a blast.
If you chose go do them indoors, +1 for resistance mode. Personally I hate the „too easy - too hard“ cycles ERG goes through sometimes, that distracts me too much from the effort and spikes my RPE. Personnal preference though.
I’d do them on the trainer. On the trainer it is just about my power numbers, on the road I have to navigate traffic and pay attention to cars and other cyclists. The closer I am to my limit the less I can do that. At the very least you need a long, quiet stretch of road that you know very well and is suitable for that.
The issue with some of them is length: my next workout tomorrow is Taylor, 3x20 minutes of 30-30s. Finding even a 10-minute stretch of road without interruption (e. g. traffic light or intersection) is difficult. For shorter (but much more painful!) VO2max stuff and especially sprints that’s easier.
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Posted a link to RWGPS route (above) for any possible ideas but I haven’t ridden that one.
