The weather is getting nice and it is staying light well into the evening. Why the heck would I want to ride indoors on my trainer in the basement? To get better, that’s why. Let me explain.
As a road cyclist, I can’t wait to ride my bike on the road. It’s what I live for most of the time. In the Winter, with the short days, and colder weather, it can be hard to ride outside during the week. So, if I want to continue to train I have to ride indoors, at least a couple of times a week. In the Summer I can ride outside every day yet I typically do 1 workout a week indoors. The reason is because I can get a very specific workout in without wasted time.
Threshold Workouts
In order to get faster and stronger you need to be doing some sustained efforts (15-20 minutes) at your “threshold” pace. Whether you train by heart rate or watts, your threshold pace is the level where you are basically functioning right on the edge of aerobic/anaerobic. The more you train at threshold the better (higher) your threshold becomes. A higher threshold means you will be able to go faster, for a longer period, before “blowing up”. For some more detailed information on what threshold power is and how to train with it, check out item #2 on the Training Peaks “power 411″ page. For me, because I train with a Powertap (watts), I know that my threshold level is 270 watts +/- a few watts. It is almost impossible for me to find enough level road in my immediate area to do two to three 20 minute intervals at a steady effort, there’s just too much traffic, hills, and stopping/starting. So, in order to get the work in that I need to, I use my Kurt Kinetic trainer and “pedal to nowhere” in the basement.
Quick But Effective
I find trainer workouts longer than an hour to be really tough mentally. Luckily, you don’t have to spend more than an hour on the trainer to get a great workout, if you do it right. A good threshold work out for me is a 5-10 minute warm up, 2×15-20 minute intervals at my threshold power with an easy 5 minute spin between intervals, and a ten minute cool down. Total time 65 minutes tops. One of these workouts each week combined with the typical group ride or two along with a longer, easier paced ride can help you get stronger on the bike.
So, next time the sun is shining and the temperature is perfect, go down in your basement and ride your trainer for an hour. You might just get faster.
For those of you that are interested in learning more about threshold training and how to do it, I plan on doing a few posts about it in the next month or so.
