Is it better to do structured training indoors or outdoors now that we have the option. Which will produce the most adaptation?
Depends.
But if your goal races are outside and you can complete the workouts as assigned outside I would do them outside.
However if you donāt have the terrain to complete workouts as assigned then you might be better off indoors.
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Indoors will likely be easier to hit your targets and potentially lead to greater gains compared to sloppy outdoor ridesāalbeit possibly a negligible difference. However, if your goal is better performance for outdoor rides or races, you need some practice hitting targets outside, in addition to good bike control.
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You can get the adaptations either way. Sometimes outdoors takes more time getting to the right place to do the intervals, but that can be nice added volume if you have the time. Ultimately, pick the approach that best motivates you to get out and train. Consistency is going to matter a lot more than whether you do the workouts inside or out.
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Here is my experience:
- For intervals the trainer is better, it is more time efficient, it is safer. Finding suitable routes for longer intervals has been hard-to-impossible. Finding safe (!) stretches of roads that are uninterrupted has always meant I had to ride 20ā40 Minutes just to get there ā if they existed at all.
- Endurance rides are much better outdoors, especially at lower intensity, but longer. Ditto for off-road riding.
In practice, outdoor rides require much more time. Navigating traffic to get out of the city is time on the bike, yes, just not training time. - If you have the extra time, Iād focus on things that you canāt do on the trainer, e. g. pacing, using momentum to your advantage and cornering.
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Hereās a handy way to determine how good your workout was.
Erg mode, indoors. Unless you can execute outdoors as well as you execute indoors (from 15:00).
āā-
In reality, a good mix of what suits you and your goals will be the ābestā way forward.
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No one measures adaptions, they measure their performance. The key is consistency, frequency, and volume. A key to consistency is to do it in a way that motivates you.
You can do it all outside, all inside, or a mix, say higher intensity indoors, and lower intensity outdoors.
There is no right or wrong answer to your question.
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Classic āit dependsā question - what kinds of training areas do you have available? What are your goals? What types of intervals and workouts are we talking here? What type of riding/event do you do?
Hereās my personal preferences:
Indoors:
- sustained power intervals (threshold/SST/over-unders)
- some neuromuscular work (higher leg speed stuff, single-leg work)
- Short/Shorts (like 15/15 or 30/30 anaerobic type workouts - done in STANDARD mode)
- recovery spins
- Any other workout where Iām trying to maximize time efficiency.
Outdoors:
- Long endurance riding
- VO2max workouts
- Short maximal power work (e.g. 1 min repeats on longer rest)
- Sprinting
- Low cadence grinding neuromuscular stuff or torque work
The advantages of training indoors are time efficiency, a controlled environment for intervals, and overall safety. The advantages of going outdoors are usually improved motivation, ability to safely unload maximal power, social opportunities, previewing courses/terrain types, skill development, etc.
Most people can achieve their cycling goals training indoors or outside, but there are too many variables to give you a straight answer that applies generally.
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For me, I do every workout outside unless the weather doesnāt allow me to.
I will do 30 laps of a 2 mile loop to get my threshold intervals done outside before I do them on the trainer. I find that even if that one workout is āmore effectiveā or whatever (debatable) on the trainer, my motivation takes a much bigger hit in the long term if I do them on the trainer.
Plus, being that Iām training for outdoor races I think thereās an excellent skill component to be able to ride and navigate roads while doing efforts.
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First year trying to do more trainer stuff, and I like the control and how precise you can be. As it warms up I can see doing the shorter intervals outside, and following as closely as I would indoors. If I can manage the cooling, threshold and SST would be more time efficient indoors, but I find them to be a mental struggle on the trainer.
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Youāll get many conflicting messages. If you read through the forums youāll notice thereās compelling opinions for both sides of just about everything we do.
- You have a significant number of people who say using ERG mode is not good for race craft (pedaling dynamics, locked in on effort, etc.) as it is not stochastic enough to train race feel.
- Then there will be a subset of cyclist who are scared to leave the house for fear of getting hit by sleepy office drones in their 3,000lb guided missiles whoāll say ALL training and riding (other than races) should be inside on the trainer.
- Then thereās a few people who might ask āWhat do the proās doā¦are they forgoing long rides in the mountains to bust out 120 minutes of sweet spot over unders on their Jet Black trainer while binging crappy television?ā.
- Then thereās some whoāll say āit dependsā.
It can take a while to sift through the duality of just about everything we do. My preference would be to complete every single ride outside. So you can bet thatās the wrong answer.
Chalk me up as an it-dependsāer.
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Itās only potentially more effective if you allocate exactly the same time indoors and outdoors. Outdoors youāll usually get the workout done plus often a longer warm up and cool-down. In other words more volume. More volume, more effective, intensity of intervals very equivalent if you choose your outdoor roads well.
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Alternatively for many time crunched cyclists they may have considerably less time on outdoor rides if it takes a lot more prep time before and after the ride, or having to wait til the sun starts coming up, or driving to a decent location just to ride.
Hopping on the trainer in shoes and bibs easily saves me 15-20 minutes vs riding directly out my door. Granted, if I lived somewhere other than Houston, Iād do a lot more rides outside.
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@kurt.braeckel
Great list.
I would add that when I ride outdoors, I usually try to practice one skill that I canāt learn indoors, e. g. cornering, being aero or maintaining momentum. For offroad rides, itād also include a focus on bike handling. Thatās often neglected and I shuddered when I read that some people use brakes on descents to āstick to their power targetā.
To add to that: in my experience, VO2max workouts work best if you can find a suitable hill. Back before I did structured training, I mostly did hill climb repeats on a small hill that took me about 4ā5 minutes to climb. Importantly, I did that after work when there was very little traffic. Towards the end I could be pretty cross-eyed and had to focus on the effort (i. e. less on my surroundings), so finding the right hill (and time) is essential.
I find that I can do long, sustained VO2max workouts indoors equally well as outdoors (assuming I have a suitable hill, which currently I donāt).
These days, I prefer to do (long, sustained) VO2max workouts indoors. When doing them outdoors, I wouldnāt go by time, but simply by distance (e. g. until the top or to a specific marker).
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Agree VO2 works great on a suitable hill. As you say interval time controlled by length of hill and current fitness. Longer intervals in winter and shorter ones heading towards your summer peak.
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Just to muddy the waters ā¦
ā¦ you can also do hill repeats indoors. 
{runs away and hides}
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ā¦ until your partner complains about the stair carpet being worn out.
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Love your list and the breakdown. The only one I wonder about is why you have recovery spins as indoors? Those are some of my favorite times to go outdoors and just enjoy being in nature with the sun on my face.
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I find indoors itās easy to be strict and stick to recovery watts. Outdoors itās too easy to go a bit too hard on a hill (if unavoidable) or race the person who dares overtake you. Plus for a short ride sometimes I cba to get all my stuff ready.
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Yeah like @OwenL says, just keeping things easy. If youāre disciplined enough, recovery outside is totally fine. A lot of inexperienced man-children canāt handle being passed on a ride. I have told some of my less experienced cyclists who only train outside that my goal for them that day is for them to get passed by people on beach cruisers. No hills, no accelerating from stopsā¦ just spinning at 100W or whatever. One guy even sent me a video of him talking to a guy on a beach cruiser that he was passing on a recovery spin, where he was telling the cruiser guy he was going to get in trouble with me for passing him.
For me, I also liked them inside because once my legs started feeling pretty good, I would just hop off.
Also agree with the group about VO2s on a hill. Thatās the way to go. Re: hills indoors for VO2s, true-ish (Zwift, obviously), but the real issue is ventilation and cooling to me. Even with my gucci 3-fan setup at home, I always found I went deeper outside on my hill. I donāt know why necessarily, as youād think the trainer would be perfect, but that was just my personal experience having done it both ways a couple dozen times. Counterpoint: you donāt fall off of your bike into traffic on the trainer. 
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