Indoor vs Outdoor Training

Podcast

August 24, 2020

More than 60 PBs in a month across our athletes' power results. How indoor and outdoor training compare, and which suits you. Get Fast Podcast.

Get Fast Podcast, Ep 38, with Gerard and Jordan Donnelly

Use both. Indoor training gives you control and constant pressure on the pedals, and outdoor riding gives you bike handling, tactics and the enjoyment Gerard rides for. His rule is simple: if you can't find an outdoor course with the terrain you need, ride indoors.

Is Gerard team indoor or team outdoor?

Outdoor. "I am an outdoor rider," he says. He loves fast corners, the mountains, the sun on his back and the scenery.

On a climb he has ridden both ways, his Zwift time was 10 minutes quicker than in real life. He still advocates "using the best of both worlds".

What is the biggest benefit of indoor training?

Control. Gerard says "it's like being in a science lab". The standout is pressure on the pedals. On Zwift, if you stop pedalling, you don't move. Outdoors, a climb might be followed by eight minutes of downhill with no pressure on the pedals at all.

What does outdoor riding miss?

Constant pressure. You get small breaks everywhere, even when the road drops a metre. In the middle of a bunch, there are periods when you don't need to pedal. At traffic lights you might stand for 30 seconds or a minute while your heart rate drops. Gerard could hit 30 sets of lights on one long ride.

Those breaks suit other types of training, but they work against steady endurance. That's why the hosts rate a steady indoor ride as worth a much longer outdoor one.

Can you build endurance indoors?

Yes, if you progress. Starting from about 100 km on the trainer, Gerard added distance week by week. He reached 100 miles (160 km), held that for a while, then built to 220 km.

Did indoor riding help TriVelo athletes improve?

It was one factor. During a long period of mostly indoor training, 30 or 40 riders extended their Saturday endurance ride, and those same riders set FTP personal bests. Gerard calls the link with pressure on the pedals "massive".

He's also clear that "it's never one factor". The riders were racing most weeks in a private TriVelo series, riding to their numbers in specific sessions, handling easy rides better and recovering better.

What do rollers teach you?

How to pedal. Pedal badly and you start bouncing, and you can bounce off.

Gerard warmed down on rollers at around 145 to 150 watts while an athlete rode with him. For the first 15 minutes, that athlete kept going ahead and dropping back. By the second 15, he had learned to keep the pressure even.

Does indoor riding help you outdoors?

It can be a stepping stone. Gerard's order for a less confident rider starts indoors, then adds one thing at a time:

A velodrome adds wind.
Flat suburban streets add traffic.
Hills add riding with power uphill and downhill.

Indoor racing also lets novices practise surges and sitting in a bunch without the risk of crashing. You still need to practise your skills outdoors.

Is indoor racing the same as road racing?

No. Gerard finds it harder in some ways, because when the pace eases you still need pressure on the pedals to stay in the bunch. Road races have harder and easier periods, and they're more tactical.

Indoors, he says, "the strongest guy is going to win".

How should you use Zwift?

With a purpose. Getting on Zwift every day with no program is like riding the same local road in a group every day. Your intensity and duration never change.

You can load your TrainingPeaks session onto Zwift, then ride to your power numbers while still feeling like you're riding with others.

What is the right mix of indoor and outdoor?

It depends on your climate and your terrain. Where it's snow and ice for months, you have to ride indoors. In northern Australia, you can choose all year round.

Gerard is "not an advocate for doing everything indoor". Outside, he picks courses with more pressure on the pedals and keeps pedalling. If you can't replicate the terrain you need, go indoors.