Indoor training times vs. outdoor

Canadagirl

Fairly new to the sport and live in cold snowy Canada and thus am resigned to train indoors. I read somewhere that your time on the bike can/should be reduced due to the fact that there is no coasting involved. Makes sense but does anyone know what percentage your time should be reduced? Or do you even reduce it?

notanotherhill

Firstly welcome to the addiction that we call a sport!

Im surprised that there have been no replies to you post as of yet because quite a lot of the training threads on here would have to do with turbos.

Before i begin to rant, i dont have an exact answer to your question.

Turbo training for most people is dictated by a number of factors such as the amount of time you have available and the amount of time you can actually endure the tedium of a turbo (or indoor trainer). There are widely different views of this from contributors to this site, but im on record as stating that my tolerance of indoor sessions is about the 45 min mark. After that my boredom level has overtaken my interest level

Your obviously taking about doing long duration sessions on the turbo, which are fine for some and dont work for others (see my previous comment about my boredom threshold!!)
The way around this for me is to use the turbo for interval work etc this way you get a good workout in a relatvely short space of time and you dont get into the questions of whether to reduce training time beacause of coasting factor etc.

Ive only been racing for a year, so im probably not the best person to answer your query but if you can catch any of the really experienced guys on here they are usually very forthcoming with advice.
Best of luck with your training either way

Alex_Simmons/RST

I think it's more a matter of showing up how crummy groups rides generally are for training, rather than than how much more difficult it is to ride indoors.

Indoors, just ride what you think you can tolerate. Better to do some than none, even if it's a focussed shorter session. If you find you can ride just as long, then good for you.

Roadie Rods

I managed to get through the entire Desperate Housewives series 1 this week + 2 films this week. 6 x 3 hour sessions, 1 x 4 hour session.

I find it can often be harder to get my HR up on the turbo, but once it's over 70% it stays there. As for long sessions, I think they have their place, if you can put up with it, as you can ensure that you're working in the zone(s) that you've identified for that particular session. Workrate wise, I definitely work harder on the turbo than a group ride (club rides often seem to end up a little sedate for anything other than a recovery day)... unless the group ride is a proper chaingang effort... in which case, the chaingang wins hands down.

Canadagirl

Thanks for the input. The reason I asked this question is that I'm following a "base building" plan from a book "Fitness Cycling". This particular program (they cover a hills program, a TT program etc.) is 12 weeks in length. The workouts range from 30 minutes initially up to 3hours (!) and although I think I have every bike video known to man to watch while I'm training, I don't know if I'm looking forward to a 3 hour stretch indoors. Another question....when I'm on the trainer for an hour plus I'm getting a slight pain on the outside of my right knee only. I think I've read somewhere it may have something to do with my seat position forward and back but I done all the standard checks. Any ideas? This newbie certainly appreciates any feedback you veterans can offer.

Yellow Cliff

The figure I have heard banded about is to add 1/3 the time to deduce the equivolent road ride. This is supposedly arrived at by taking power data of actual rides and removing all the time that the subject isn't cycling effecively. However, it is clearly very dependent upon the type of cycling that you do.

Personally I don't count any extra time, but it helps me feel better about spending the time on the turbo. I get bored of cycling videos in the end too, a good film or documentry helps more.

Regarding the knee, from memory it sounds like tightness in the ITB. Plenty of resources on the web for stretches. Might be worng though and unfortunately I have lent my copy of "Complete medical guide for cyclists" (Pruitt) out, but I would recommend the book if you want to learn more.

bombdogs

Again, like everyone has said, it all depends on what your workout is for that particular night.
For instance, tonight I am down to do a 'group ride'. How I am going to manage that on my own on my rollers in my bedroom is beyond me, but I'll prob aim for an hour with my heart-rate at about 70-80 percent of my max with a 20 min warm-up.
Base mileage, so I am told, should be 50-60 per cent of your max heartrate, so about 127-138bpm if you're 29 and weight 12st12lbs like me, for about two hours.
You only really start to get the benefit after the first hour, so anything after that is a bonus really.

garetjax

when I'm on the trainer for an hour plus I'm getting a slight pain on the outside of my right knee only

Yes definitely could be a tight ITB ( band running from your hip to knee). But saying tight ITB is a bit like saying someone robbed your bike, i.e. it doesn't tell you who did it!

Tight ITB culprits:
- Something wrong with bike set-up ( cleats too inwardly rotated, not enough float, saddle too high/low/forward or back)
- something wrong with training i.e. doing too much too soon. Not got your turbo on too high a resistance, for example?
- something wrong with you: poor biomechanices caused by anything from hip to foot ( my ITB problem is here).


Keep an eye on it . It can be a pain in the censored .
Whatever the cause, some good ITB stretches will help. Stretch before and after session.

I've heard it said that an hour on the turbo is worth two on the road. True or not I cannot say.