GUIDE TO INDOOR BIKE TRAINING
Looking to take your off-season bike training indoors? Then you’ll need our essential guide to turbos…
Should you invest in some kit so you can train indoors? Well, you could save your pennies and spend the entire off-season running or riding outside, especially if you mix up road cycling with mountain biking and trail running. But even then, there’ll be times when you’ll be beaten by the weather. Without indoor kit there’s every chance you might miss a session. With it, you can tick off every session.
So the key item you’ll need is a turbo trainer. These are perfect for those of you with children where you can babysit atop your saddle! Just note that if this is you, spend enough to bag yourself a quiet trainer. We’ve tested ones in the past that are off the decibel scale. Also, remember that as much as us triathletes cherish a pain cave, many of us simply won’t have the garage or room space to create this training nirvana. Fear not – the front room, kitchen, utility room, nowhere’s safe from you, your bike and your turbo. Just keep both clean or your indoor efforts will be short-lived.
Right, onto transforming your bike from the warmth of your home…
WHAT YOU NEED TO GET STARTED
Indoor trainers come in many forms, from loud £100 turbo trainers to the high-tech, two-grand, silent WattBike Atom. Whatever suits your budget and home set-up is fine. But beyond your bike and trainer, remember a few more essentials to keep things clean, efficient and cool. These include: a front-wheel block to level out your bike; a fan; towels to wipe your face and to catch your sweat; a water bottle; and some form of visual and/or audio stimulation.
Looking for a real indoor test? Eschew a turbo and roll out the rollers. As the name suggests, this advanced training tool is essentially a set of three rollers where you balance your bike and pedal. It’s more technically taxing than turbos and takes time getting used to, so ensure you have something either side of you to lean on while you learn. Stick with it, though, as mastering rollers will improve your pedal technique and efficiency, work your core harder and deliver a more realistic ride. Many options are also more wallet-friendly than turbo trainers.
DIRECT DRIVE VS WHEEL-ON TRAINERS
If rollers don’t take your fancy and you want a turbo trainer, you’re faced with a choice of two different types: wheelon trainers and direct-drive trainers. Both types are available as smart options, allowing you to connect to virtual platforms and utilise variable resistance, but there are a number of differences.
When using a direct-drive trainer you remove your rear wheel and attach your bike directly to the trainer via the rear dropouts. Your bike’s chain then drives a cassette that’s mounted on the trainer, but these aren’t always included when you buy your turbo. The result is often a more realistic ride than you’d get with wheel-on trainers, but the downside is that they’re also typically bigger and heavier. While that’s good for stability, it can be frustrating if you need to move your trainer around a lot because you don’t have a permanent space for it to live and be trained on.
Direct-drive trainers use a built-in power meter and don’t tend to experience the inaccuracy issues that can sometimes be caused by wheel slippage on wheel-on trainers. Power readings are often more accurate, too, as they’re taken direct from the rear axle.
And the other bit of good news is that, due to the lack of wheel, you’ll be saving your tyres from wear and saving your household from excess noise.
Most – but not all – wheel-on trainers come in cheaper than their direct-drive counterparts and are split between smart and non-smart options. They’re normally more easily moved around and stored, while adjustable resistance allows you to make your session easier or harder. While smart options can usually change resistance levels according to your virtual platform’s course, you’ll have to use a control to do so for a standard wheel-on trainer.
SHOULD YOU ADD A TREADMILL TO YOUR SET-UP?
While you can run in all weathers, treadmill running does come into its own during the off-season. That’s not solely down to defying the climatic odds – it’s down to beating injury, too. You see, the softer surface dampens forces driving through the lower limbs and joints, and so reduces the chances of overuse injuries. That’s even more important during the autumn/winter months as many of you will crank up the run mileage. Of course, they do take up a lot of room and take away a lot of your savings, so it’s down to you to decide whether or not they’re worth it.
MAXIMISE YOUR TIME SPENT TRAINING INDOORS
Few long-distance athletes are going to spend upwards of 6hrs indoor riding, which makes it a hard place to practise your nutritional strategy. But with a degree of flexibility, you can challenge your gut in different ways. Crank up the intensity during shorter rides and continue feeding as normal to see how your guts responds. And increase how much you consume by around 10% to again test your stomach’s ability to absorb and assimilate sugars. As nutrition’s so important to finishing an Ironman, this is a good way to train your gut.
Looking to race in the heat? Indoor training will prove far more beneficial than autumn riding in the UK. But drop the fan. The lack of airflow and raised temperature will pay dividends. You see, by cranking up the thermostat in your pain cave, you’ll see a significant rise in core and skin temperature, which is key to physically and mentally prepping to compete in the heat. Around 10 sessions of 1-1.5hrs will give you most of the adaptations you need to compete in the most extreme conditions
If you’ve never ridden with aerobars, the safety of indoors is a great place to start. Once you’ve clamped them onto your bars, spend around 5mins stretched out riding at a moderate pace. Ease up onto the tops for 3-4mins and then repeat four times. Focus on keeping a stable head and shoulder . Increase time spent down on your tri-bars and decrease recovery time as you grow stronger in that position.position
SHOULD YOU SIGN UP TO A VIRTUAL PLATFORM?
Talking indoor stimulation, you’d have to live in a cave to be unaware of Zwift. It’s the market-leading gamification of cycling and has taken such a foothold that there’s even a governing-body recognised UCI Esports World Championship. Covid saw a dramatic increase in Zwift numbers, but they’re not the only ones. Virtual cycling app RGT Cycling is popular and thousands head to the likes of TrainerRoad, Sufferfest and Rouvy. Check out each for their payment plan but, as an example, Zwift is around £13 per month. Signing up can add an extra element of motivation to your training, particularly when racing against people you know or attempting to get a new PB on a certain route.
If you’re happy to bypass computer simulations for traditional efforts, though, high-intensity interval training is a good place to start, as it’s been shown to boost speed and strengthen the cardiovascular system in record time. It’s also more ‘entertaining’ than an easy tempo for 2hrs. One method is to warm up for 10mins followed by max efforts of 30secs. Recover for 1-2mins and go again. Do this as many times as you see fit before warming down.
IS THERE ANYTHING ELSE YOU SHOULD KNOW?
Even with a fan, indoor cycling can leave you a sweaty mess. That’s fine, of course, especially for heat acclimation, but it does mean you mustn’t neglect hydration. An hourly 500ml bottle swimming with water and an electrolyte tablet is a good benchmark to start from.
If you’re using a wheel-on trainer, you should also consider investing in a new tyre to be your specific indoor training tyre. That’s because the friction between the tyre and the roller that creates the resistance will cause your tyre to wear. Using a specific indoor tyre that’s designed to deal with the friction and temperatures generated means you can save your good rubber for outdoors.
3 TOP TURBOS
ELITE DIRETO XR-T
£829.99 The Direto XR-T may not come with a cassette, but apart from that it’s hard to fault. It’s not difficult to move around, is study and has a ride feel that’s unrivalled. The power adjusts quickly and smoothly, while a max resistance of 2,300w means even the best age-groupers won’t trouble this machine. elite-it.com
WAHOO KICKR CORE
£699 The Kickr Core is a little awkward to move around and has no built-in cadence sensor or cassette, but it connects to apps quickly, is quiet and puts out accurate power readings. It has a max incline of 16% while the max power it can withstand is 1,800 watts. wahoofitness.com
SARIS M2
£499.99 It’s one of the more expensive wheel-on trainers on the market but it feels solid, sturdy and saves you the faff of assembling/disassembling your bike with a direct-drive trainer. It connects to apps easily, allows you to measure power and cadence, and is reasonably quiet. saris.com
Find more turbo trainer reviews at 220triathlon.com