Cycling the Great Indoors

Ride now to be your best next season!

Winter can make the Upper Midwest unbearable for cycling.  You may be tempted to put away your bike, put on your slippers, and cozy up on your couch and watch football or your collection of Ironman Hawaii Broadcasts.  However, cycling in the winter is exactly what’s needed if you want to be great in the summer.  I am not suggesting you layer up in your cold weather gear and brave the icy roads.  It is cycling indoors, along with complementary strength training,, that make cyclists in the Midwest so strong.

What to ride?  My perspective on indoor trainers

Your selection includes: standard trainers (fluid, magnetic, or wind), rollers, health club bikes (upright or spin), or computerized trainers like the CompuTrainer or the TAXC.

Standard trainers are great because you can bike in your living room or basement.  Although magnetic and wind trainers are much cheaper, I prefer the fluid trainers because they are very durable, quiet, and have excellent resistance.  My favorite is the Kinetic because it is rock solid and has a big fly wheel that provides a pretty good road feel. 

Rollers are great for developing spin technique and balance.  If you only have a triathlon bike, forget about rollers, as the forward seat position on a tri-bike decreases your stability and makes rollers rather sketchy. 

I used upright bikes at the health clubs when I first started training for triathlons 10 years ago.  I like them because they give a watt reading.  I can remember training myself to hold 325 watts for 20 minutes.  Now watts are the latest craze in smart training on the bike.

Spin bikes at the health club are a good training resource for a few reasons:  First, the enormous fly wheels make high cadence spinning easier.  Second, they are very sturdy - ideal for standing drills and high resistance work.  Finally, these stationary bikes work well for group cycling classes, which can be highly motivating.

Computerized trainers bring the advantages of the health club upright bike to your own living room.  You get a wattage readout and the ability to program race courses.  The CompuTrainer has a spin scan that can point out inadequacies in your spin technique.  The TAXC is, for lack of a better term, super cool because it has a motor that simulates downhills and a steering cradle that allows you to soar down the challenging descents of The Tour de France.  Sound fun?  You can purchase a TAXC at Gear West or check them out at www.taxc.com.   

I personally use a fluid trainer with a power tap hub.  The power tap hub gives me a watt readout that is always on my bike whether I am on a trainer or on the road. 

Why training indoors is so beneficial

With no stoplights or pesky traffic, you have the ability to get an intense and/or highly skilled workout.  With moderate resistance on an indoor trainer you can simulate a steady hill climb or cycling into a perpetual headwind.  This phenomenon allows for endurance enhancement, threshold, or even V02max workouts on rides as short as 30 minutes.  Traffic signals, hills, and corners make it extremely difficult to find 20 minutes of constant resistance on the road. 

Indoor cycling is also a great opportunity for drilling.  You can do high-rpm drills, single leg spinning, big gear work, and position experimentation with convenience and little interruption.

Now for the workouts! 

It is very easy and practical to concentrate on good form while indoors.  Here are some form concepts to address while riding:

·   Keep a stable core – no swaying twisting or bobbing.

·   Keep heals low throughout the entire pedal stroke to focus on using glute and quadricep muscles for power production.

·   Sweep the feet through on the bottom of the pedal stroke and slide feet forward over the top.

·   Don’t try to pull up on the pedals; just try to make your legs weightless as they float to the top of each rotation.

·   Maintain a relaxed upper body with soft elbows and light hand pressure.

·   Do 5 x 1 minute segments where you concentrate on one aspect of form for each minute.  Then finish your ride trying to focus on all the form concepts.

Cycling technique workouts are perfect for the indoor trainer - the options are endless.  Single leg spins are great for developing a smooth and complete pedal stroke.  A good progression would be:

·   20/20, 40/40, 60/60 second single leg spins

o       20 seconds left leg only, 20 seconds both legs, 20 seconds right leg only

o       Continue this pattern for the 40 second and 60 second reps. 

o       Resistance can be light for the single leg spins.

High cadence work can really enhance your ability to perform on the bike.  When cycling with a high rpm, you utilize slow twitch muscles, which have great endurance.  Training these muscles to be active and strong on the bike will really improve your ability to go strong for long! Here is a progression for high cadence training:

·   6 x 30 second fast spin (rpm 95 building to 110 plus)

o       easy 30 seconds after each one

·   3 minute fast spin (rpm 95 building to around 105 plus)

o       relaxed 3 minutes after this one

·   Resistance should be light so you can do efforts at aerobic effort.

·   Focus on form and keeping stable hips and a relaxed upper body.

In order to really improve your ability to hold higher speeds, you need to be able to push a big gear.  Here is a superb big gear workout idea:

·   2-4 reps of 5-10 minutes in a big gear (rpm 78-82)

o       5 minutes of relaxed high rpm spinning between each rep

·   The big gear is at a resistance that is 2-3 gears harder than a normal time trial gear. 

·   This workout is best done at a strong aerobic effort. 

·   Your legs should get tired but not experience a lot of that lactate-induced burn.

Let’s put it all together

Once you have developed good form, high cadence practice, and big gear strength you are ready to work on the endurance needed to hold a big gear.  Once this endurance is attained, you have the ultimate combination for fast cycling!

One of my favorite endurance enhancing workouts involves a reverse latter:

·   For my first ride of the year I start with a 5,4,3,2,1 minute ladder. 

·   With the 5 minute interval I start in a big gear and a moderate cadence of about 82-84. 

·   As the intervals get shorter I stay in the same gear or resistance but increase my cadence to raise my intensity level. 

·   I take about 1-3 minutes of easy spinning between each rep. 

·   By the time I get to the last 2 intervals my watts are pretty high along with my HR.  

·   I either ride at a strong aerobic or a threshold effort based on my goal for the workout.

·   I may build up this ladder in durations so my first rep starts at 1 hour if I’m training for long course racing (but I’m usually back on the roads before that happens).

I encourage everybody to find access to a watt meter.  You can use them at the health club, hop on a friend’s CompuTrainer, or invest in a power tap hub.  I suggest testing your power every six weeks with a 6 minute or 30 minute max average watt test to see if you are getting the most out of your training. 

Once you master all of the technique and form concepts, you can design a highly productive cycling week using variations of the last three workouts I listed.  That’s three workouts per week; one high-rpm, one big gear focus, and one longer endurance enhancing ride.  Workout length can range from 30-90 minutes and be mostly at a moderate aerobic intensity, with the weekly endurance strength ride building up to threshold intensity as the season draws near. 

If you’re serious about improving your bike, don’t wait for the snow to melt; start today!

Date modified: 10/7/2009