Hi guys,
I am a busy Dad who works full time studies full time and wants to ride my MTB full time.
I often supplement my limited riding time with indoor training, mostly I use sufferfest videos. I am starting to notice that the landscape is changing for indoor trainers with the addition of the Wahoo Kickr and computerised trainers as well as online platforms such as Zwift where you can compete against other people in a virtual race.
Does anyone else use a indoor program? I am interested to know what you use such as trainer, videos, personal workouts as well as how you measure intensity I am using heart rate, does anyone use power what are the pros and cons?
Thanks,
The landscape is definitely changing! Technology is changing the way we train. 'Enthusiasts' can now easily access scientifically backed training and coaching that professionals use which is great. I use wahoo kickr + trainer road and have it set up at my gym to use between clients which is super handy. Trainer Road breaks down the training into different disciplines, phases and volume to give you a structured weekly progression which is amazing ie. You can select 'off road', 'gravity' and 'low volume' and boom, you have 8 weeks of training in front of you. Alternatively, there is road, cyclocross, triathlon, xc etc that you can choose from.
Improving you performance in cycling comes down to improving your technical skills, your Functional threshold power (FTP) plus your ability to sprint (obviously each discipline of mtb or road cycling will prioritise each of those differently). Improving your FTP can be done by using a structured progression of threshold workouts (intervals, over-unders, sweet spot are all terms you may here) plus simply improving your aerobic base. Without going into all the physiology, your body adapts differently to high and low intensity training and cyclists need both. Training to power indoors using a set up similar to wahoo + kickr enables you to train with the most accuracy and specificity which obviously leads to the greatest improvements. Your first starting point with power training is doing a FTP power test (I started off the year by doing mine yesterday. Warning: These are brutal and never fun!). This gives you the power you theoretically can put out for 1 hour consistently. Your power zones and all following training sessions are based around this FTP number and should be designed to see that number increase over time. The balance though is that most of us didn't get into cycling because we love to sit inside on a bike and spin, so structured training needs to be balanced with outdoor rides for fun, socialising and training in order to stay motivated.
I recommend my clients do a combination of the below depending on goals, phase of training and abilities:
1. Strength & Conditioning work in the gym to focus on muscular balance, injury prevention and power base.
2. Structured power based training indoors to focus on specific training adaptations for them (you don't get this as much on a social group ride)
3. Outdoor solo or group training rides. These can be a combination of specific event/goal based rides, social group 'shop rides' or 'coffee loops' etc or low intensity recovery rides.
4. Sprint work. Sprints are a great way to maximise neural adaption and muscular recruitment efficiency in timely way eg. Do 10 x 20s 100% effort sprints with 2 min recovery for a great 45 minute workout (w/warm up and cool down). These can be done indoors but I prefer not to. Tracking your power in the sprint overtime is useful but you don't need to track each one, they are simply 100% effort so you don't need to do them on a trainer, plus you can't sprint properly on a stationary trainer.
Apologies for the long winded post but hopefully it's of some value. Feel free to PM me with any questions if you like. If you are in Brisbane, happy to put you through a FTP test on the power trainer as well at anytime if you wanted.
I've got a bunch of trainer road promo codes for a free month access to the app if anyone wanted to try it out also. Just PM me.