Same or different

It is strange how queries come in clumps. In the past week I have had two people ask me the same about doing sessions on indoor trainers. Their question was whether the session should be modified when transferring it from the road to the indoor trainer. Strange coincidence.

In short my answer to them was no, do it the same.

I think I have probably mentioned once or twice that I really like indoor trainers. Big fan. One of the things I like so much about them is how effective they are for training. You can be really specific with them, target particular intensities with precision, ride without interruption from wind, rain, hills, traffic lights etc. Great tools for driving improvement in my books.

Furthermore, going to the question I was asked, I like trainers because you don't have to over think them. Sure there are some sessions that work better on trainers than others, intervals in particular are really good on a trainer in my experience because the pace changes keep you engaged and because the intensity can be so targeted. However, on a good trainer, pretty much any session can work. Just look at the popularity of Zwift and other platforms to see the wide variety of sessions that people use them for. You don't have to make it complicated, keep it simple, jump on the bike and ride. If you have a session planned for the road but the weather is terrible, great, do it on the trainer, no modifications required.

Sometimes for really long indoor rides I recommend people build small breaks into the session, virtual traffic light stops I call them. A minute or so to stop pedalling and get out of the saddle, much like you would at a traffic light. I recommend building these breaks in to preserve sanity as much as anything as I always found multi-hour indoor rides a bit soul destroying. However, beyond that I don't see any need to make changes between training plans for the road or the trainer. Both are great and I happily encourage all my athletes to use them with equal enthusiasm.