The Basics of Indoor Training for Gravel Biking
Are you getting started with indoor training or just wondering how to use your indoor training more efficiently? Besides being a great way to get in a workout, indoor training can help you ride stronger when you have the chance to get outdoors.
Why indoor training?
Convenience
Unless you’re one of the lucky ones who can ride from your front door and the flexibility in your schedule to get out a few times every week, indoor training is a good alternative. If you create your pain cave (or pain corner), it’s easy to hop on the bike during the week and get a great workout in.
Fitness ROI
Back in the day when we could all gather in a small sweaty room, I regularly taught indoor cycling over the winter at the Energy Lab, a cycling performance studio in Atlanta. Coach Bell would supervise.
Trainer workouts will also help you with measured fitness gains. It’s simply easier to control the variables while riding indoors so you can execute a specific workout more easily.
Accessory work
It’s also much easier to hop off the trainer and do a 10-minute strength and core circuit than it is to add that in when you come back from a long ride.
Types of Trainers
Smart Trainers
Smart trainers are the most expensive but will also give you the biggest benefit. The smart trainer will give the program you use the ability to control your bike, making it harder based on intervals, elevation gain, and pacing. These trainers will run from the $800-$2000 range.
Fluid Trainers
These trainers start at a much lower price point and will depend on you as the user to control the bike. The trainer works by putting tension not the back wheel and you change the difficulty by shifting gears. Often individuals who use this method will also train in heart rate zones or use rate of perceived exertion (RPE).
Rollers
Rollers are a set of rollers and don’t have an impact on the wheel of the bike. You simply put the bike on the rollers and start to ride. You change gears to make it harder or easier. Rollers will mimic outdoor riding more and require more skill than a static trainer.
Stationary Bike
With the rise in popularity of Peloton and similar bikes, some people are finding good fitness gains on these types of stationary bikes. You will improve cardiovascular fitness on the stationary bike, but it’s more challenging to get specific training if you have an event or upcoming goal. To maximize your time on the bike, see if they offer power zone-specific training with FTP tests.
Zwift
If you’re using a smart trainer, you’ll need a tool that controls the workout The most popular is Zwift, a virtual cycling and running platform that drops you into a location and allows you to ride with thousands of other riders from all over the world. You can hop on Zwift and simply ride the course (the trainer will adjust with the elevation), you can do a preset workout, write your workout, or you can join in a group ride or Zwift race. Zwift also offers training plans as a part of a monthly subscription of $14.99.
The Sufferfest
Another option is The Sufferfest owned by Wahoo. The Sufferfest is designed around training plans and preplanned workouts. Rather than riding in virtual reality, you’re either following along with a Sufferfest video or riding a workout. Warning, although they kind of crack me up, the Sufferfest videos do have a very 'dudebro' feel to them.
The Sufferfest workouts are notoriously hard, so the training plans adjust the workouts to a percent of the difficulty based on the weekly plan. Since Wahoo purchased The Sufferfest, they have added yoga and strength programs for cyclists. Pricing is currently $14.99 monthly or $129 annually.
TrainerRoad
TrainerRoad is similar to the Sufferfest in you use preset workouts but trainer road emphasizes training plans. It also has a robust tool to build out workouts and many coaches use trainer road to build and deliver workouts to their clients.
TrainerRoad is currently billed at $189 annually or $19.95 if you pay monthly
A piece of paper and a timer.
You can also go old school and just write your workout down on a piece of paper and timer. I've used this method more on outdoor rides when I wanted to do intervals but didn't want to load a workout into my computer. I like the free smart WOD trainer (also use it for strength training).
Benefits of a Workout Plan
Some people enjoy just getting on the trainer and riding Zwift. While you will gain endurance and fitness from this approach, following a workout plan will help you see the biggest gains. This is especially true if you’re going to be taking on a challenge or event that will have a time cap around it. It’s also just fun and motivating to see your improvement. If you don’t have a coach, you can try out one of the plans inside the platforms.
Most plans will include 3 types of workouts each week: a long endurance workout (which is better and more fun outside but may not be possible with weather and/or time commitments), an interval workout, where you’ll be doing intervals at a rate that feels uncomfortable with recovery after each interval, and what is called tempo work - which is just riding at a pace you can sustain. You’ll get a lot more out of your time on the trainer with structured workouts but group rides and races can also be fun.
Other things you need for indoor riding
A Towel
There’s something about indoor training — it immediately becomes a sweatfest…like you’ll find buckets of sweat pouring off your body. Not only is it annoying, but the sweat will also drip right onto your bike frame and can cause corrosion in any cables or joints in the bike.
A Fan
The fan is a strategic piece of training equipment. Why? Because it will dissipate heat and let you work harder during a tough session, which means you get the stimulus needed to improve. If you're working on fitness gains, this is not the time to try to sweat it out to lose a few water-weight pounds.
Plenty of Water
You should be going through at least a bottle of water an hour. For any training sessions over an hour (or if you sweat heavily), I recommend adding a bottle of electrolyte mix.
Snacks
If you’re going to be doing a longer indoor training ride, you’ll want to add nutrition. For anything over 90-minutes, come up with a plan to fuel your ride. Don't wait until the one-hour mark to fuel. Start 20-minutes into your workout so you're properly fueled for a longer ride. You don't need much - typically between 100-200 calories per hour depending on duration and your body weight.
The indoor trainer setup is an investment and some people hate it. Because of where I live (in a busy city where I need to drive to trails), I find it much more efficient and less stressful to plan most of my weekly training rides indoors.