Is there any difference in doing low-cadence intervals on a trainer vs doing them outside on an actual hill? I’d love to get out on a proper hill to do them but sometimes I’m time-constrained and doing them on a trainer is more convenient. Am I missing out on any physiological benefits by doing them indoors?
Personally I don’t see much of a difference between training indoors and out, except that outdoors is a ‘less controlled’ environment. There is something to be said about riding outdoors. On a sunny warm day, it can be so awesome to ride outdoors, and with varying winds and different elevations, they can all add up to a more interesting experience, but, for people that don’t have hills around, driving there and back really sucks a lot of time. A lot of time that could be better used riding, rather than driving.
I train indoors way more than riding outside, and when I do ride outdoors, it does seem to be ‘harder’, but when I was training hard, I really noticed a huge benefit outdoors.
If you have hills nearby, I’d say do a blend: On clear days, ride outdoors, on windy dry days, ride outdoors. You do you… (Envious of people with hills)
2 Likes
If doing them on my Kickr, I prefer to use sim mode and it will feel more like a hill. You could raise your front wheel for a little more realism, and place hands on bars as if you were outside.
FWIW I’ve always done them on flat roads, along with high cadence work, and have had no issues doing actual long 1-2 hour HC climbs (I’m usually around 2.7-3.0W/kg).
1 Like
Probably depends on what gear you are in on the trainer. If youre in a low gear if gonna feel harder inside than outside. If in a big gear, it will feel similar me thinks.
This article on Zwift.com is confusing. They should have said that 'ERG" mode means the demand is set, and pedaling slow, or fast, you have to do that demand. ‘SIM’ means it simulates the efforts of riding outside. You hit a hill, the hill controls the demand based on how fast you pedal. Pedal faster, the demand goes up. Back off, and it sort of goes down.
To me, ERG mode makes the most sense because it’s like lifting weights. Grab a 20 pound weight, and it’s 20 pounds, it doesn’t change by how hard, or soft you lift it. I can see where SIM mode would be advantageous…
I usually ride in ERG mode. Having come from a Peloton bike, the first ride I did in ERG mode, I was excited because the Peloton ‘demand’ is controlled by the rider, and some riders were not as proficient as others adjusting their knob. Some had also figured out how to ‘cook’ their bikes.
1 Like
With all due respect, that type of forum overthinking literally made me slower on climbs. We aren’t lifting weights on a bike.
There are a few times you might want to use erg, but IMHO as someone that does a lot of low cadence hill and mountain climbing, this isn’t one of them.
I think ERG mode is perfect for this sort of thing. You can slow your cadence down as much as you want and pedal against the trainer and it definitely feels like cycling up a hill. (As long as you’re wattage is set appropriately of course).
YMMV: Lots of people have had poor experiences of ERG but on a TACX Neo 2T, its been flawless and just like riding outdoors.
3 Likes
Outdoors it will probably be easier to achieve them, so indoors you’ll be getting a better workout.
Yes, I overthink things. GUILTY GUILTY GUILTY!!! (It’s a habit from my occupation prior to going to (seemingly) a full time lab rat life) I wish I could find a good trainer (person) here that could help me to underthink what I’m trying to do and help me get to where I think I want to be, but there aren’t any locally from what I hear, so I do the best I can.
FWIW this winter I did JoinBaseCamp group training and it was fantastic if you want to understand how to think like a coach.
As someone who does a lot of climbing (living in the mountains) AND spends a fair amount of time on the trainer, low cadence work on the trainer very closely emulates the outdoor climbing experience IMO.
The only “real” difference I feel is I don’t get the “stress” in my lower back/glutes indoors that I do outdoors, but that’s because steep grades (in the saddle) change your bike position and engage some muscles that the trainer is not quite capable of. However, easy to train those muscles with some off-bike strength training.
1 Like
It does a good job of outdoor climbing, a couple of tweaks I do to better emulate:
- trainer or flat road, just “engage the glutes” which for some can be easier said than done
- hands on hoods, just like how I climb
Inside I vastly prefer how Kickr sim mode provides more and varying resistance. Outside on real HC climbs, even if the road is fairly steady 300 feet per mile, my cadence varies even if power is steady.
Yes.
Lots of differences.
Position on the bike.
Movement patterns. Muscle recruitment (esp small stabilising muscles.)
Angle of the bike.
It can be approximated, raise the front wheel and using a rocker plate, but it doesn’t totally equal gravity and a climb, and lateral movement (low cadence or otherwise) in the real world.
2 Likes