I just wear bibs and i have my fan blasting my chest upwards. Sometimes wear a sleeveless base layer but thats as much as ill go.
No socks?? Do your shoes smell heinous or what? And what about blisters? So many questions
Jersey inside, absolutely not.
Once youāve warmed up and are doing any kind of actual intensity, the entire indoor cycling game is heat management. More heat, less power, less training effect = you are less fit than you could be (ignoring heat training).
A single drop of sweat falling from your skin means youāre body is not maximizing evaporative cooling. It spent energy to cool you, you failed to give it enough evaporative cooling, so it is wasted energy. Even to a small degree, your body will begin throttling your ultimate performance once this begins.
Basically, in a perfect set-up youād have enough fan power to keep you from visibly sweating up to any intensity. That would likely require vast fan power and dramatic air conditioning in warmer temperatures.
The most effective evaporative cooling is air moving over NAKED skin. Not a base layer, definitely not a jersey. If a clothing company writes some garbage about indoor cycling kit being in anyway superior to no kit, they are lying. Absolute marketing BS.
My tips.
Wear just cycling shorts, not bibs, yes the straps make you warmer, even if itās only a small amount. DHB (brand) do a nice simple short called the Aeron Speed Shorts. It has a solid pad which is important for indoor riding, obviously. No, you do not need bib straps to āpositionā the short. That is a myth.
Wear the coolest thinnest low socks that work for you. Nobody will see you, so donāt stress
Get the room as cold as possible, ultimately it should be uncomfortably cold when not training. Wear layers and bin them as you warm up.
Remember, your ultimate goal is no visible sweat. Obviously, this is very difficult, if not impossible to achieve in warmer temps, but it doesnāt change the fact. If youāre hot and sweating youāre not cooling correctly.
A pool of sweat does not mean you trained hard or effectively. It means you didnāt cool yourself correctly and put out less power than you could have.
Personally, I think Iād need a walk in freezer connected to a jet turbine to train indoors in summer, which is why I ride on the outside when the sun is cookingā¦
I canāt help but think that all of the indoor cycling clothing and indoor cycling nutrition is just one big marketing strategy - e.g. SIS in the UK have released their āturboā range specifically for indoor training!
Youāre 100% right.
You could make some very mesh, very breathable shorts. That would definitely help. Provided no human ever saw you in themā¦
Any garment on your upper body, once you are sufficiently warm, will only decrease your cooling and drop your performance indoors.
So marketing BS, absolutely.
Im afraid Im going to disagree with you. People have different sweat rates for the same exertion and environment.
Your ultimate goal is to get faster, appropriate cooling is fine, but fear of visible sweat is a distraction.
The last thing I want to do is wear anything indoors⦠(whilst cycling).
Following with interest this thread. Iām just curious if/how people cope with fan-cooled air hitting on exposed skin.
I always wear a shirt and often struggle with cool air especially on my neck or hands (i.e., almost bordering on neck pain when I end my training or needing gloves on longer rides to avoid frozen hands ).
For context: I have a Wahoo fan, train with an open window, and outside temp in fall/winter is ~4-10 Celsius.
Now itās winter, Iāve had a few mornings where Iāve left my jersey on in my unheated shed. One morning where my second vacmaster didnāt go full blast either. When I was one fan, there was no question, but I am finding two on bare skin more extreme particularly during recovery intervals.
Iāve just ordered a mesh vest for my zwift team - I could use a base layer, but I use my jersey pockets to carrying phone/ food out to the trainer. Iām also a bit more conscious when the children come in now as well, now ones a teen, and one a tween. Bibs still more than Iād where beside the pool, but stillā¦
If I took gels inside, Iād probably try the SIS ones. I donāt so I wonāt be!
Iāve circulation issues - so fans on means gloves on for me!
Seems relevant:
I also have a cold training space in winter, I wear thermal long bibs, merino socks and a base layer throughout, start wearing a long jersey during warm up then turn on the fan, then once Im warm under the fan remove the jersey.
I have the fan on the side on my body which avoids freezing fingers.
Winter garden is not cold, but not really warm either (usually about 15C when i start)
I start with base layer and a jersey, and usually drop the jersey after the first interval.
If the recovery is long enough, Iālll put the jersey back on to avoid catching a cold, with all that cold air circulating around my soaked base layer.
Other than that, bibs. And in the summer, I donāt wear a jersey
I open the windows, use a fan at max speed, and donāt wear a jersey, just a summer baselayer to catch a bit of the sweat and stop it dripping all over. I overheat quickly!
I donāt know how you guys do it though when itās recovery time. Iād be freezing without anything on
Yep, put the jersey back on if I actually cool down
I personally really dislike the feeling of a strong rush of air being blown over meā¦even at night in the summer I donāt like our ceiling fan on.
So I warm up thoroughly with a sweatshirt on before hitting the fans. By the time I get a good sweat going, I can tolerate the fans. I also have them on a remote switch, so I can control it right from the trainer instead of having to get off and turn them on.
This was a gamechanger, especially in the winter when you donāt want a fan right from the start.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00DQ2KGNK/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Yupā¦that is the exact one I have, I think.
But I plug a 3 outlet adapter into it and then plug all my fans into it (Pedestal fan blowing on my face, two Lasko fans on either side). That way I just have the one remote for all 3 fans at the same time.
I chose to keep them on separate plugs so I can fine tune things. e.g. one fan for endurance rides on colder days or 2 for harder workouts on warmer days. But thatās the beauty of the remote is that I can just turn them on/off on the fly if I get warmer or colder than expected.
Itās more seasonal for me. Iāll wear a jersey during the winter, but by the time summer comes, itās just the bib shorts.