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5 reasons why indoor cycling should be part of your training routine
Got a turbo trainer sat in a cupboard collecting dust? Alan Milway, coach to the Athertons, explains why cycling indoors can be a crucial and highly beneficial training tool, whatever your goal.
Cycling indoors or on a stationary bike was once seen as a last resort form of training. Completed in a garage/backyard on a rickety turbo trainer that whirred and slipped, or performed in a lab to test fitness while wired up to all manner of scientific equipment, it felt a world away from a normal ride.
However, thanks to the vast improvement in turbo trainers and cycling apps, it now forms a fantastic, information-rich and far more enjoyable way to train. Equipment has developed at such a rate that you can now record, share and compare data with friends, and tackle stages and locations of your favourite races, all while sat in a virtual peloton of professional riders.
Zwift brings the world of cycling into our homes
© Zwift
You can also take your indoor riding into a more competitive level
© Zwift
Plus, it’s a great way to supplement outdoor cycling and build volume during the week, where otherwise there wouldn’t be the opportunity to ride.
Not convinced yet? Alan Milway, who has coached Rachel and Gee Atherton, and a whole host of other mountain bike and biking pro, gives five key reasons to get on board...
01
Time-efficient
Indoor cycling allows you to focus on training from start to finish
© Dave Mackison/Red Bull Content Pool
The key factor for improving performance and fitness is to train in a consistent and regular fashion. You can have the best training plan, the best kit and the best ambitions, but the biggest influence in achieving your goals is consistency. Anything that helps this will be an asset, and having an indoor bike set up can cut out a lot of missed sessions due to external factors or ‘life’ getting in the way.
It allows for time effective, accurate and regular training sessions with clear, measurable feedback – enabling you to track and improve performance and continue to progress come rain or shine, day or night.
02
Ride without interruptions
You can't get a puncture while on a turbo trainer...
© Bartek Wolinski/Red Bull Content Pool
When riding outside, I set my cycle computer to auto pause when I stop during a ride, so it calculates riding time and effort while actually cycling – not stopping to wait or chat. For many mountain bike rides, the social aspect or group dynamic can dictate the efficiency more than anything, and it can be surprising how little cycling is actually done in a two-and-a-half hour ride!
Indoor cycling can be done on your own or in a group but allows the session to cycling focused, rather than waiting for everyone to catch back up or fix mechanicals.
03
Perfect for zone work
It's pure focus when you're in the zone
© Oscar Sey/Red Bull Content Pool
One of the biggest benefits of indoor cycling is that detrimental and unpredictable elements of training – such as undulations in the road, head winds and stopping for traffic lights – don’t get in the way; as such, you can stick to a pre-determined effort level very accurately. Interval sessions can be done much more effectively on a turbo, and although they might feel harder than doing them outside (because you don’t have micro recoveries due to a slight downhill or tail wind), they are far more efficient.
Being indoors allows you to put in consistent efforts
© Kelvin Trautman/Red Bull Content Pool
I plan many sessions to be done on an indoor bike instead of out on the road – even for professional riders – as I know they will get a better session and a more accurate training stimulus that way.
04
Focus on technique
Certain training bikes (such as the Wattbike) include a feature that details your pedal stroke, giving you live feedback on your stroke efficiency and also whether you have a stronger or weaker leg. This is so useful for improving your riding technique and subsequent performance.
Wattbikes are great for focusing on pedal stroke technique
© UCI World Cycling Centre
For those rehabilitating from an injury, the limb may ‘feel’ OK, but could still show a 65/35 split in output, which is very useful feedback, in terms of knowing where you're at with your recovery. It also shows if someone is stomping on the pedals and has ‘dead zones’ at the top of the revolution.
Simple cues like ‘imagine you are scraping mud off the sole of your shoe’ on the up stroke can help this hugely, and you'll be able to see how this changes the graphic and smoothes the effort to remove dead zones.
05
Beats bad weather, lack of light and when you can't get out for a ride
A turbo trainer can be a handy training aid all around the year
© Patrik Lundin / Red Bull Content Pool
We all know the feeling – the desire is there to go for a ride, but the weather turns, the cold rain falls and suddenly that ride is not so appealing. It is understandable, but this leads to a lack of consistency and really hinders improvements in fitness. Taking away the external factors that affect whether you can ride or not will help you to build regular sessions, increasing the volume of your training.
Even on summer evenings where it’s light until late, after work sessions can still be harder to arrange, and plan for, if you need to travel to the start point, fix up a bike or join up with a group. Supplementing bigger outside rides with indoor cycling will put you in a better position, building a higher level of fitness so you are ready to push the pace and enjoy those weekend rides even more.
