- What is the most effective way
of reaching your peak fitness?
Is it training indoors?
- Or outdoors?
We thought we'd discuss the facts.
(smooth jazz music)
- Well, firstly, one of the biggest advantages
of indoor training is the quality.
And by that I mean that every second you spend
riding on an indoor trainer,
you can press on the pedals and make it count.
So no waiting at traffic lights,
no stopping at road junctions,
and no getting stuck in traffic.
And we have our own
indoor training success story
right here in the GCN offices.
Because Matt
used indoor training to great effect
through the last part of his racing career.
He took all the quality
from multi-hour road rides
and condensed it into super-hard
indoor training sessions.
And
he got screaming fit.
- Alright, fair point.
Can't argue with that.
I must admit I do hate it
when I have to freewheel in the middle of an interval
and watch my average power plummet.
But as for long rides,
they can be really enjoyable.
Great fun, in fact.
Long rides, with intervals, are fantastic.
- Well, yes.
But
working hard, reaching milestones,
is incredibly good fun, too,
and very motivating.
So,
if you take something like this,
TrainerRoad, for example,
it is a training app
that provides carefully thought-out
training plans that comprise
of individual workouts
that are set, specifically, with a goal in mind.
And also taking into account how much time
you have available to train.
And not only that, but they're also individually tailored
to your ability level, set by
your Functional Threshold Power.
And you keep track of that
with regular FTP tests.
Again, you have one here.
So, if you are
the kind of person,
that
likes setting goals, working hard,
ticking off milestones,
then indoor training
is definitely for you.
And not only that, but you will know categorically
that each workout is done
to the absolute best of your ability.
And not only that, but each interval as well that,
because it's holding me
at
my target power.
Now admittedly, if you're not lucky enough to have
a smart trainer, then it won't do that,
but, the consistent resistance of an indoor trainer
will allow you,
woo, glad that 300 is over,
it will allow you to ride
very evenly at that set effort level.
And if you are lucky enough to have a smart trainer,
then if you tick the ERG mode box,
then it will literally keep you
at that specified wattage.
- Well, no, I suppose a road is not going to give you
a set level of resistance.
However, you can still ride to a set power.
You've just got to find the right roads to do it on.
And when you're riding on those roads
you're also going to be developing your riding skills,
which can be just as important when it comes to riding fast.
After all, there's no corners to go around
on an indoor trainer.
- No, indoor training is not gonna work
on your bike-handling skills.
But what if you don't actually live near any decent roads
to train on?
See, we're quite lucky here where we're based.
But one thing we don't have
are long, steady climbs for doing consistent intervals on.
But that doesn't matter if you're indoor training.
You can simulate the longest climbs that you fancy.
With having said that, there is nothing to say
that just riding up long climbs hard
is the most effective way to train.
'Cause one of the other advantages of indoor training
is you can actually dial up the complexity
of your training sessions
to make them more specific.
So if you take this one from TrainerRoad again,
it's called the Wolf Jaw Plus Five,
and what I'm looking at here
are seven sets
lasting about four and half minutes,
and each one comprising
a 20 seconds on, 15 seconds off, at 125%,
and then 88% of my FTP.
Try doing that on the road, huh?
- Uh, that's a fair point,
but outside
you can just smash it up climbs.
And what can be more specific,
and some ways more enjoyable,
than doing that?
Oh, and if you've got a good group to ride with,
that interval session that you're looking at Si,
is effectively
just like riding in a pace line.
And again, that's super enjoyable
and a very important skill
to learn.
- Well yeah, no arguments here with that,
except for the fact
that we're talking about ultimate performance.
And group riding
is inconsistent.
And, if you were looking at building to a physical peak,
you need consistency.
And that is indoor training through and through.
All you need is an allotted period of time
and then you know, categorically, you'll be able to get
your work done.
Consistent, quality work.
And again, if we turn back to our example of TrainerRoad
here, if you follow one of their plans,
then you could religiously tick off
session after session as you get it done.
And yes, fair enough, you could do that outside,
but indoors you guarantee that consistency
regardless of available daylight, regardless of the weather.
And yet, that does bring me to another plus point
of indoor training, is that you know exactly what weather
you are going to get, so no sacrificing training sessions
to adverse conditions.
- Yeah but what about being in the great outdoors
and enjoying the sunshine?
- Dan, we live in the UK.
- That is true,
but we do get one or two nice days.
In August.
Sometimes.
And actually, even when the weather is not quite that nice,
it's still enjoyable.
We're bike riders.
We like being outside.
And indoors, you get all sweaty.
I mean, I know you, Si, get sweaty wherever you are,
but it's gonna be particularly bad on an indoor trainer.
- Yeah, fair enough, I do get a little bit of a sweat on.
But a fan helps a lot and it's also not that far
from my bike to the shower.
- Alright Si, I can see that there is an argument
that from a pure quality and interval perspective
indoor training might just take the edge.
But you're not going to get
the endurance you need indoors.
After all, even with the best wheel in the world,
you're unlikely to spend more than 90 minutes at a time
on an indoor trainer,
although I guess there are some dedicated, hard-core
people out there who might be able to do more.
Joking aside, though,
in trying to decide for which one is better,
we might be slightly missing the point.
Yes, indoor training may well be slightly more effective,
but for almost everybody, indoor training
is all about making us faster when we're outdoors.
Oh, here he is!
Finally joined us, Si.
- I'm absolutely filthy already.
And you don't have to clean your bike training indoors.
Now, while training indoors may make you screaming fit,
it's not necessarily gonna make you a great bike rider.
And then also, if you only train outdoors,
you may not get as fit as if you supplemented
with indoor training as well.
- Now, if you are yet to subscribe
to the Global Cycling Network, please make sure
you do so by clicking on the globe,
which somewhere on your screen right now.
After you've done that, you might want to check
out this next video, which describes exactly
how to do an FTP test on an indoor trainer.
- Yep.
Or, for another video, particularly useful if you do
ride a lot outdoors, how to clean a filthy bike.