Doing Time

With the miserable weather we are currently having in Perth, plenty of my athletes are choosing to do their bike sessions on indoor trainers. Being a big advocate of indoor trainers I have no problem with them spending more time there, provided they are doing the sessions correctly. However, this increased amount of time spent riding indoors has meant I have recently been getting a number of questions about how to best spend time on the the indoor trainer without going insane.

Okay so first up I think really the best way to maintain sanity while on the trainer is to limit the amount of time spent there in one go. The amount of time one can sit on a bike going nowhere is pretty personal, but I used to find my comfortable limit was about 2 hours. I could go for longer if I had to, but not too often, however, I was usually all good for for a couple of hours riding on the spot. This speaks to the sort of sessions that I think indoor trainers are best for, which is structured sessions that don't last too long, perhaps a threshold session or something like that. If it is miserable outside and you have some efforts to do, then I think an indoor trainer is a perfect alternative.

Where trainers start to struggle I feel is when you are trying to knock off a 6 hour Ironman training ride. The best I ever managed on an indoor trainer was 4 and a half hours and I think it cost me a bit of my soul to get there. For me I think I would simply prefer to ride in the rain. However, my training was in the days before Zwift and so who knows, with all the technology available these days, perhaps those longer rides are a bit easier. Not sure about that one.

Okay, say you just don't have a choice, there is a cyclone outside or something and you have to get this Ironman ride done, what then. Well there are a few things that I found helped with longer trainer sessions.

Step one was to introduce some structure to the session. One reason I think 2 hour threshold sessions work well on the trainer is that there is a lot of structure to the session, so there is lots going on to keep you engaged. Any time I sat down to simply spin for a couple of hours I would struggle. However, if the session was broken into warm up, efforts, recovery periods and cool down then it always seemed to pass more easily. Adding a bit of structure can be a bit harder for a long steady Ironman ride, but it doesn't have to be fancy, perhaps 3 x 20 minute Ironman race pace efforts or something like that. Just something to keep things interesting.

Tip two would be to have something to keep you stimulated. I always used to watch movies on the trainer, I have other mates who listen to podcasts, others who listen to music, Zwift is entertainment in itself. Whilst watching a movie or something takes away from the immersive cycling experience I always found it was necessary. You don't have passing scenery, other people, traffic etc to keep you mentally alert so you need to provide something else so that you don't simply get bored part way through.

Tip three is to not try and ride right through the entire session. You would never do a 6 hour ride in the hills non-stop. Nobody is that lucky. You would have pauses for traffic lights, other vehicles, waiting for mates etc. One trick I found for getting through long trainer rides is building some of these breaks into the session. I wouldn't be taking these breaks every 5 minutes or anything, but it is unrealistic to ride uninterrupted for 6 hours on a training session. These little breaks give you something to break up the ride and also help provide a little bit of motivation.

Tip four is to make sure you have all you nutrition all sorted before you jump on the trainer. You wouldn't walk out the door without having the right nutrition, however, we can get a bit lazy when we are jumping on a trainer in our garage. I always made sure that I prepared for these sessions as I would if I was riding on the road, including making sure I had sufficient water and fuel. Whilst regular little breaks are good, you don't want to be stopping unnecessarily to track down a Gel or something because you don't have one to hand.

The last tip is concerned with whether you really need to be spending that much time on the trainer. As I said at the start I would prefer to get rained on than try and ride on a trainer for 6 hours. If 6 hours on the road isn't possible, then how about 2 or 3 hours. Can you ride outside for a while before coming home and finishing the session on the trainer. I did this a few times when the weather turned particularly nasty on me and while it wasn't ideal it did allow me to finish off a bike session safely. Splitting the session between the road and the trainer also meant that I was only trying to spend 2 or 3 hours on the trainer rather then 5. Those few hours less can make a big difference motivationally. Sometimes it can't hurt to think outside the box a little bit with these things.

So there we have it, some tips for getting through those days where you have no choice but to spend some good quality time getting to know your indoor trainer just a little bit better.