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Making the Most of Indoor Training...

Sunday, 23 January 2022 00:10

By Joel Friel (triathlete.com)

You can train all six physiological abilities (aerobic endurance, speed skills, muscular force, muscular endurance, anaerobic endurance, sprint power) while riding inside. To make the most of your training, you can align the ability you’re training with the type of indoor cycling that’s best suited for it.

Aerobic Endurance (AE)

Recovery rides and aerobic threshold rides can certainly be done alone, but having virtual company through an interactive app can be helpful. A lot of riders skip recovery rides indoors because it seems like a waste of time to get on an indoor trainer just to go easy. But indoors or outdoors, recovery rides serve an important purpose and, for the highly experienced rider, are better for your training progression than not riding at all. Getting together with a club or a friend through an interactive indoor cycling app can provide the incentive necessary to get on the bike. Having company can also help keep your easy ride easy. Riding too hard during a recovery ride is a mistake coaches see all the time, and peer pressure from a group is a good way to enforce the “go easy” mantra....

Aerobic threshold rides tend to be your long rides of the week. These are zone 2 rides at a conversational pace or the zone 2 portion of a combined ride where you might spend an hour at aerobic threshold and include a speed skills or muscular force set in the middle. Long zone 2 rides outdoors are great to do solo and can certainly be done solo indoors, but many riders find them more enjoyable when connected to apps that feature video and virtual courses, or with groups through interactive apps. It may be difficult to find long aerobic threshold rides at indoor cycling studios, however, because “moderate and steady” isn’t very marketable.  READ MORE