FTP gains is the primary measure for sure. Qualitatively, I ride with the same group of guys on the weekend and I used to struggle to hold onto the group and now I easily keep and push the pace. Is that what you meant?
Yes.
Don’t want to get too bogged down in this, but I really feel that people can get just as big gains by other means than spending time on a trainer indoors. And for some, there are more difficult to measure gains than FTP achievable from getting outside and enjoying the world.
I guess the point I’m trying to make is that you don’t have to stress about completely replicating an indoor session to get just as big gains.
I agree, if people are actually doing proper training outside. If you are able to do largely the same activity outside as inside, the training benefit will be the clearly be similar. I think what is most commonly observed is that indoor training is properly structured following a plan with set intervals and outside riding is a group ride hammerfest, Strava segment chasing or a Z3 waste of time. So it’s frequently not apples to apples. It’s not the outdoors environment that I question (although as I said, for me that is more challenging), it’s the fact that a lot of people ride outdoors rather than train outdoors.
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I agree you can train v effectively outdoors…just Not necessarily at 9.30 in the evening with 1 hr to spare! This is my issue. In order to find half decent roads to train on (I.e. not traffic lights and heavy traffic every 2 mins) I need to ride for approx 25-30 mins. That means to get in an hour’s good training turns into a 2 hr ride…and I never have 2 hours! If I did however then outdoors sounds great!
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Maybe for you. I personally don’t have roads that are flat enough or climby enough to do something like 3 x 20’s without coasting a bit, turning a lot, hitting traffic lights or that kind of thing. So I’m terms of shear efficacy I disagree. Doesn’t mean that you can’t get a good or great workout outdoors, with that I agree.
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To answer the OP question: My summer (northern California) is a combination of outdoor and indoors:
Outdoors for group rides, racing and fun rides, including those with a specific training purpose such as a 5-6 hour endurance/tempo ride.
Indoors when I have a specific training purpose that I won’t be achieving outdoors (e.g. sweet spot, threshold or O/U efforts) or time is limited (e.g. recovery or short endurance ride).
But, does it really matter that much if you coast for a little bit, or have to turn? Is that really going to ruin a session? This is the problem I have. You don’t need to exactly replicate the indoor session. People trained outdoors very successfully for years before the advent of things like TrainerRoad, and did it pretty effectively.
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I spend all winter in the trainer and avoid it at all costs unless I have to once the weather improves. That said I live and compete in a mountainous area which is very conducive to the training I need to do…I also get that for those with serious time constraints it’s more a case of convenience that choice
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NC here too. 
Once the weather turns nice (late March, in the Piedmont), I mostly kick my trainer to the corner and go outside. I’m never going to stand on a podium in Paris, get handed a funny yellow stuffed lion, or shower in Roubaix. So for me, the choice is easy: go outside, enjoy the weather, be social, and just have fun riding. That’s the whole point for me… enjoy riding.
I have a regular group that rolls at 5:30am several mornings each week, and of course a Tuesday/Thursday evening knife fight. Weekends are for the long stuff between 60-100 miles and hills.
YMMV.
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I was planning on doing two indoor sessions all throughout summer. I had Red Lake +4 planned yesterday but after the two first intervals I had to quit. I could barely breathe with two fans, not very powerful ones, and 27C indoor temperature. Switched workouts to Gendarme -1 instead which went a lot better due to the intervals being much shorter. Last year I did all my training outdoors and sure my FTP probably got lower but my technique went up and above what I could sustain if I’d only done 1 outdoor session/week.
I guess you’ll have to negotiate with yourself how you want your training done. I believe that doing Tuesday/Thursday indoor and the weekends outdoors is a good middle-ground. Perhaps even doing a longer Z1/Z2-ride during Wednesday to enjoy the summer while it’s here.
I try to get outside on the weekend. If the plan calls for longer steady state efforts I ride to a TT course and just do a couple of laps of a 10, and if it needs <6 minute efforts I can get them on local hills (I don’t have any really big hills local to me). I like getting faster, but I’m not paid to ride my bike - riding outside when the weather is nice is a glorious feeling.
I try to maintain my structure with my weekly workouts, though most weeks I seem to have a mid-week TT, so I do that instead of a workout. The enjoyment factor helps maintain the consistency for me.
And soon I’m going to get an afternoon off work, and I’m planning on spending it riding around the countryside while the weather is nice. Not training, just noodling around enjoying myself!
London looks hectic for outdoor training. What’s box hill like for intervals? Should be able to some really good sessions on that. And there’s the olympic circuit including box hill too, which looks pretty good for training on.
Just speculating, maybe it’s completely packed and totally rubbish during the summer!
Do Londoners tend to travel to Kent for long outdoor rides?
Box Hill does get busy on a weekend with a weekend with good weather. You might get a bit caught up in traffic if you’re racing up there.
That’s where I do 90% of my long rides, but then I’m in South London so Kent is the closest countryside. It’s where Dulwich (my club), Penge, Brixton, Peckham, Addiscombe, etc mostly go for their club rides. Clubs up in North London are more likely to head into Essex / Hertfordshire or somewhere, the poor sods.
Surrey and their hills is also an option, but involves more urban cycling to get there. Worth it though on occasion for a change.
Your other classic London training options are:
- Regents Park (north / central). Has a 7 minute outer loop with a few traffic lights where you get lots of cyclists smashing it before work. Also an inner loop, which has no interruptions but only takes 90 seconds.
- Richmond Park (south-west, a bit further out). A very varied 20 minute-ish lap with flats, short climbs, rolling bits, and descents. You may sometimes get held up by cars or the occasional wandering deer.
- Swains Lane. A north London road that’s the venue for the Rapha Urban hill climb. Popular for hill repeats.
- Herne Hill Velodrome. An outdoor velodrome with various sessions for both track and road bikes.
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you can definitely follow your indoor session outside. It will also make you a better bike handler and you’ll learn to really ride the bike, rather than be stationary indoors.
the sun is good; go get it! It sounds like you enjoy it.
Don’t stop training. Hammer sessions only will leave you burnt out and plateaued and upset that you aren’t making anymore gains.
good luck.
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Class, thanks for that! Always wondered what you guys got up to down there, like specific routes etc. Possible that we’ll be moving either London or Kent in the next few months (fingers crossed anyway) and was worried about riding down there. My memory of commuting in London on bike was pretty nuts (back in early 2000’s before I’d ever touched a race bike) so thinking about going back and trying to train there actual freaks me out a bit 
I live in South Carolina and I’m a high school teacher, so June-July is my time to do as much training volume as I can. It’s my Base period - 300mi weeks and riding in the morning before cutting back and having to ride in the heat after August starts.
If your races are in the Spring or Fall, I’d say enjoy the sun and get the miles in. You can always interval flog yourself indoors later, and the intervals will be more effective the more you’ve developed the aerobic system with two months of increased volume.
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re: the OP question, what you do should depend on your goals. For me, when it’s nice out I try to do 3 days of intensity a week, roughly following LV plans:
- early week outdoor workout equivalent
- late week indoor session
- weekend group ride or race
I ride my bike for fun, I’m a cat 4 with no major qualification goals this year, so this amount of structure is perfect for my needs. If I were trying to qualify for kona or was trying to win state champs or something I’d stick to a more rigorous indoor plan, because I don’t think there’s much question that that’s the best bang for your buck, but that ain’t me (at least not this year). I want to have fun, challenge myself, and do well enough in races. When the weather gets bad, I’ll go back to rigorously adhering to an indoor plan.
I do most of my training at 5 am, so I’d rather do that inside as opposed to getting hit by a car during the absolute worst time for visibility (sunrise/sunset). Plus indoors I just throw on a pair of bike shorts and hop on my rollers, I don’t have to worry about making sure I’ve got my spares/multitool/keys etc…
I’ll try and get a group ride during the week every so often to keep up my MTB skills, and ride outside on the weekends but even that is mostly solo and about 1/4 on the MTB. Dad duty, chores and other things dictate that I would rather ride from my house than drive over to a location for a group ride. If I ride with some people, it’s just a few others so we are riding more and chit-chatting less.
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Has nobody mentioned the new ‘do outdoors’ function for the workouts yet? You might need to activate it first. Structured training, outdoors!
For me the point of indoor training is that I can have more fun when riding (or racing) outdoors (because I’ll be fitter). If it’s too nice to stay in, don’t.
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