[background music] Heather Fell: There's no denying it,
the indoor bike season has arrived. Now is the perfect time to sort out your training
space ready for some hard workouts all in the safety of your own home. We are here to help
you find that perfect space for you. You've got no excuse for missing any future workouts.
Let's work through in order. Obviously, first, you need to find your designated area.
Really doesn't matter what you've got, whether that's a shade, a spare bedroom, a fully kitted
out amazing pain cave, maybe it's your laundry room, or it could be the set. Doesn't matter,
it's what you do with it that counts. Obviously, you need to make sure you've got enough space
around your setup for your bike and your trainer. Then any additional things such as a fan and a
screen if you're using that. If you are using things that require power, make sure you've got
sockets that are in reach or an extension cable. Then you need to actually get on your bike because
what might look like an adequate space, you might suddenly find actually your shoulders bumping up
against the shelf, or maybe your head's in the curtains when you're down on the drops,
and the surface. Think about what you set it up on if you've got a really nice carpet,
or whatever the floor. I'd suggest putting down some mat so it protects the floor underneath.
Finally, check that your bike is level. Whether that's just from sitting on it and getting a feel
or maybe even getting a spare level because what might feel fine after a few minutes,
after 10-20 minutes or so you're going to start getting rather annoyed if you're on the wonk.
You've sorted your space, so now what about the bike itself? Well, if you do have a spare bike,
then that's brilliant. Obviously, make sure you get it ready. Take off anything you've
been using on the road that you don't need like saddlebag, lights, mudguard, et cetera, and give
it a really good clean. If you're using a wheel on turbo and you've got a spare turbo wheel,
swap that over now. If you don't have the luxury of that, then it's a good idea to maybe invest in
just a really cheap tire so you can keep your nice good road tires ready to put back on in the spring
when you do head back out into the road. Like I said, make sure the bike is clean,
but especially the chain itself. When you're riding on the turbo, you still want to have some
dry lube and you want to think about protecting your bike as well. Especially if you're a really
big sweater, you might want to have a towel or something over it, and whatever, even if you're
not that much of a sweater, make sure you always give it a good wipe down off after every session.
We often get questions as to what bike you can use for indoor training? Any bike that will fit
onto your turbo trainer will work and that includes mountain bikes. If you have got
a direct drive turbo, then you need to make sure that the cassette is compatible. If not,
you might need to invest in a spare cassette to swap onto your turbo to suit your bike.
If you have the option of a road or a TT, then it does depend on your goals and what riding you
might be doing. A road bike tends to be a bit more of a relaxed position, which might be preferable
for those long hours of indoor training. That said, if you've got a sprint triathlon,
then you might want to actually get used to riding in your TT position on your TT bike.
I personally have my TT bike set up at home all the time, so that it's there and good to go and
it means that my road bike is best. When there is a nice gap in the weather, I can actually get out
and ride outdoors. You can also alter your setup to even make your bike in a more relaxed setup
than you would have out on the road. Maybe even something like raising the handlebars. Basically,
you just want to make it as comfortable, as an enticing as possible so that you'll
have no excuses for not getting on the turbo. That's the bike all ready to go. What other
excuses could you have? It could be the wrong temperature, or boredom plays a big part as well.
You want to think about your actual environment as to whether you've got some ventilation. If you
can open windows, brilliant, or if you've got air conditioning. Maybe you're outside in the shading,
you don't need either of those, and it's probably going to be quite cold to start with.
It's always better to start cold and you can always have lots of layers on you can take them
off as you go and you warm up. Trust me, you will certainly warm up. If you've got the option of fan
or being able to put some of breeze somewhere in front of you, it makes such a difference.
I didn't use to ride with a fan. When I turn to using one, it means you can just endure awesome
danger. Enjoy indoor training much longer. Plan ahead to prevent your boredom. If you're using
an online platform such as we, set it up so that it's easy to see ideally straight ahead of you.
You don't want to be twisting to look at it. You might want some form of entertainment as
well whether that's watching something like GTN on YouTube or getting into a box set. Have it in
the line of sight and remember the audio. You're going to need it louder than normal to overcome
the sound of your trainer and your fan. Headphones are a great investment;
great for musical podcasts too and that way you won't be waking up your neighbors on those
pre-work efforts. Obviously, you need hydration to hand as well so you can usually keep a bottle
in your bottle cage. If you're planning a mega session, then it's a good idea to have a few extra
somewhere in front of you where you can reach and some nutrition as well, because you don't want to
be getting off if you're doing a key session. Finally, a towel is a brilliant idea because
no matter how much ventilation you have, you're still going to get sweaty. It's nice just to
wipe off your face and also stop you dripping on your bike quite so much.
Okay, you've got everything ready to go, but maybe you're still lacking motivation to get
on the bike. Your idea of fun might not be sitting staring at a wall while sweating. Yes, I get that.
I would recommend having a plan and a goal with some structure to reach it. Remember, when you're
riding indoors, you're going to be working far harder for the same amount of time as if you were
outside, you're not going to get any freewheeling. With that in mind, just doing 30-40 minutes of
riding on the turbo can still give you a really good workout. Or you could look at it as simply
a way to recover from a hard run and just using it as a spin-out. Before you know it, the time
will start to fly by. Well, almost fly by. Basically, you want to have everything set up so
that you've got to do minimal work each time. Just simply grab some water, turn everything on, and
you can start pedaling. The happier you are with your setup, the far more likely you are to enjoy
it and actually go and get it done. Hopefully, this has given you the motivation to get your
setup perfect. If you're really proud of your setup, then please do share it with us. You can do
that on the GTN uploader. Give us a Like if you've enjoyed it. You can also follow us on our social
media channels and subscribe here on YouTube. [00:06:34] [END OF AUDIO]