I add about half an hour minimum to each workout commuting to a track. Itās a pretty easy commute, but too many lights to include it as part of the workout, unless itās active recovery. But I donāt do those as prescribed; I just go out to get passed by basket bikes. (On those rides I like to play a game of keeping my instantaneous power under 200w for the whole rideā¦ bonus points if itās lower.)
True, the commutes are probably 11 junk miles per session but doing it this way I find to be substantially more motivating than being on a trainer.
Each week, I do one interval workout outside and one inside. Iām think ERG on the trainer gives the best workout based on how I feel and how closely I hit all the targets
The problem for me is my riding consistency would tank because I hate riding my trainer compared to riding outdoors.
This may be a controversial opinion ā¦but the fun factor is an underrated part of the equation. Unless your paycheck is dependant on your FTP, the priority should be to focus on whatever you enjoy more. That might be the trainer, or it might be outside depending on the individual and time of year.
The danger of neatly structured training, power meters is that it is a slippery slope to measure succeess. Is a summer reaching 305w FTP exclusively with a trainer better than 300w with Strava feed mixed in rides of awesome routes and rides with friends? That answer will depend on the individual.
Iāve been trying to do all my trainings outdoors, and as others have said itās more difficult to accurately hit my FTP targets. Even when I can get on a relatively flat patch there always seem to be small gradients or shifts in wind that throw off the FTP. I end up with sprints near both the top and bottom end of the target. I can probably improve if I get better at pausing sprints and choosing my starting points. But most of the time there are just random stops, obstacles, other riders/walkers/joggers to navigate, you canāt really stay dialed in on the FTP. So I get pretty poor scores. If the weather is poor and itās an interval day Iāll head for the gym which has pretty good power meters.
Also to keep in mind - I donāt know if itās of added training benefit, but you definitely use muscles slightly differently outdoor vs indoor. The easiest example is the constant energy spent steering, and practicing doing so efficiently, but also in turns and especially moving my weight up hill. And a big drawback is hitting downhills Iāll find myself coasting way too often and need to make sure to keep power at the pedals by shifting.
Assuming you can find a relatively reasonable stretch of road to train on getting the intended benefits of the workout outside is very doable. You donāt need to stick to the exact watts prescribed for it to be an effective training session.
This above session of lt1 work is a good example, there is some variation in power but it is all well within an acceptable range.
The above workout has 2x45m intervals with a sd of 25w. The average power for both was just over 300.
Itās totally possible outside if you pick your routes & terrain. Itāll look a bit ugly to start with so be a bit patient. This 3Ć18ā workout was from a few weeks before I signed up with TR:
You can make out Warlow -1, done on the same hill.
Check out @Jonathanās Strava account for some mint examples of outdoor workout compliance. You have to go back to October though; heās spending his winter bike training testing & showing off the as-yet-unreleased-to-the-masses feature of exporting his scheduled TR workouts to Zwift.
Itās 37 degrees in my garage on the trainer right now. I canāt even turn on the fans unless Iām going gloves, long shirt and tights right now. Another reason not to live here
We have the opposite here in Texas. I have my trainer in my home office and itās so hot here in the summer that even with my AC set at 68 in the summer mornings Iām still drenched in sweat since it barely keeps up. We have a 10 yr old house with 2 ACās thatās well insulated lol.
Right now itās cold out and Iāve found the furnace at 65 to be perfect for riding. Usually have 2 fans and drop my hoody around 15 mins into the ride. On endurance rides I often donāt even break much of a sweat so then Iām not in such a hurry to shower, which is nice.
We get the same in the summer - so the worst at both ends of the spectrum. But, I am lucky in that my trainer is in a small enough space that in the summer I have an AC and two fans blowing on me to the point I never have an issue with cooling, even in the hottest weather.
The bigger training issue for me is actually the roads near where I live - they suck. For the most part, 45 minutes each way until I get to something decent unless I can hit the local MTB trails for a spin.
That is the worstā¦ itās cold, so you think youāre going to be goodā¦ but you still need the airflow to help a little bit, so you turn the fan on low, and then your fingers freeze and you turn the fan off, but then youāre melting againā¦ rinse/repeat. Hated that in my early morning garage rides in January for sure.
This happened to me in an early morning race a couple weeks ago, though I just left the fans going because I didnāt want to get dropped if a move was made while I was fiddling with fan settings. (My current clunky setup is that my fans are set to on, and the fan cords dangle from a loop on my rolling cart/desk, and I plug/unplug them into a power bar also connected to my rolling cart/desk.)
By the end, my head unit (dual-recording) said it was 5-6\degree Celsius, and I had a big floor fan making my hands/torso pretty darn cold.
I always prefer outdoors. Thereās more to cycling than becoming a watt machine on the trainer. Iāll never forget riding with a 70 year old in Mallorca (Iām in my early 30s) who would just absolutely dust me on descents because he was so much better at actually riding his bike. It convinced me I needed to do more workouts (vs. just riding) outside.
Iāve spent the past 3 months pretty consistently following a Plan Builder plan from TR. The weather has been garbage so Iāve done more indoor workouts in this period than all my years combined. I think because of the gamification and feeling of progress with PLs, I ātype 2ā enjoyed them. I can do a workout outdoors like nobodyās business, but finding terrain for threshold and sweet spot is tough, so I could see continuing to do those on the trainer, even when the weather improves.
I bought some remote control outlets off amazon that are great. You canāt control the fan speeds but you can toggle them on/off from a little remote. The one I bought came with three and you can control them individually. It was pretty cheap and might be worth looking into.
I do the same but have it set up to Alexa voice commands. Definitely is nice to turn on the fan (without having to get off the bike) after a bit of a warm-up on those cold starts!
work is a good example, there is some variation in power but it is all well within an acceptable range.
