How to Fall in Love with Indoor Training (Seriously)

Indoor training is like going to bed early, eating healthy foods, stretching, and meditating. The first thought that crosses your mind is, “Ugh, I don’t really want to do that.” But when you do, you feel so much better.

It would be so much easier to lay on the couch, crack open a bag of chips, and scroll through social media all day. But that’s not living a good life, and neither is avoiding indoor training like the plague. Some of us ride indoors more than others; sometimes by choice, and sometimes out of necessity. Even if you live in a beautiful climate like Girona, Spain, there will still be times where it doesn’t make sense to ride outside.

Perhaps it is pouring rain, the streets are packed with traffic, or a cold front is sweeping through town. After a crash or injury, it is common for doctors to prescribe indoor training as rehab. It is safe, effective, and stable; but it can also be fun.

In this article, we’ll tell you how to fall in love with indoor training.

What’s the first thought that comes to mind when you hear the words, “indoor training”? For some, it might trigger thoughts of torture, of staring at a wall, locked in the jail of your own mind for hours on end. For others, indoor training feels like going into work when you hate your job. There is zero motivation associated with the activity. Instead, you do it because you have to (or feel like you do, at least).

But for many others, myself included, indoor training is exciting. It is a different form of cycling — a crucial thing to remember — that unlocks a whole new world of opportunity compared to riding outside.

Endless opportunities in the virtual world

Variety of choice is one of the things I love most about riding the indoor trainer. When you’re connected to the virtual world, you can ride anything, anytime, and anywhere. You aren’t limited by the nearest 50 miles surrounding your home.

If you live in the Netherlands but you want to climb a mountain, you can (virtually) on the indoor trainer. If it’s pouring rain but you want to enjoy the sunny weather in Spain, you can while riding indoors.

Even when it comes to structured workouts, many of us are limited by the types of roads nearest our home. I could never perform 2×10 minute torque intervals on my local roads, but I can on the indoor trainer. I can also perform microburst intervals indoors, such as 30/15s, that could be complicated and dangerous to perform outside. Instead of watching for traffic, braking for a corner, or shifting gears over a roller, I can just focus on my power output while training indoors.

Higher quality and efficiency

There is no free speed on the indoor trainer. If you start coasting, you immediately lose your speed and momentum. But when you’re riding outside, you will find thousands of micro-rests in every ride. Whether you are slowing for a stop sign, turning a corner, or sitting in another rider’s draft, there are countless opportunities to coast while maintaining your speed.

With less rest comes greater efficiency, and it’s often said that your indoor training volume means more than your outdoor training volume. During a given outdoor ride, you might coast for 3-5 minutes out of every hour, even more if you live in a hilly or busy area. Take a look at your most recent outdoor ride file if you’re curious.

If you’re riding 10 hours per week outdoors, how much time did you spend coasting? It might be 30-60 minutes for most riders, or 2-3 hours for those that live in the mountains. Either way, it’s a significant amount of time spent with zero physiological effort going into the pedals. I hesitate to say it is time wasted because you are still working on your bike handling or pack-riding skills in these situations. But for most of us, time is everything.

You could argue that indoor training provides a larger physiological stimulus in the same amount of training time, and that’s not the only time-saving benefit.

You never have to worry about the weather for indoor training. In fact, you don’t even have to think about it. You’ll never have to decide between the vest or winter jacket. All you need is bibs and a pair of shoes. Even the socks and jersey are optional (because no one will see you anyway).

Time yourself the next time you ride outdoors. How long does it take you to prep your kit, grab your helmet and shoes, pump up your tires, load the GPS route, and head out the door? When you’re riding on the indoor trainer, you can prep for your ride in under five minutes.

Easy setup

Speaking of the indoor training setup, let’s dive into that topic because it is a crucial one. Your indoor cycling setup will make or break your relationship with indoor training. Have an awesome, sleek, and comfortable indoor setup, and you are much more likely to use it. Or you can have a cramped, sweaty, anxiety-inducing setup that will make it much less likely you ride indoors.

Here are a few quick tips to perfecting your indoor training space:

• Set up one (or multiple) fans to keep you cool
• Use a training mat, towel, and headband to avoid creating a pool of sweat on the floor
• Ensure your trainer is level and stable to avoid pain or injury
• Set one or two TVs, laptops, or tablets that you can use to run an indoor cycling app and keep yourself entertained with YouTube videos and streaming services
• Ensure you have stable connections between your trainer, power meter, and training app of choice – nothing kills your motivation more than constant dropouts or app crashes

Those are the essentials, but you can also improve your setup with music, headphones, and a table where you can place your bottles, phone, remotes, and nutrition.

Virtual training doesn’t have to be lonely

As many of us learned during the COVID-19 pandemic, indoor training doesn’t have to be lonely. When many of us turned to it out of necessity, we realized that there are thousands of people riding around these apps every single day. You can chat with them, race together, organize meetups, and create clubs and groups within the apps.

Of course, it isn’t the same as real-life interaction. But it is a helluva lot better than nothing. For introverts like myself, you might actually enjoy the limited online interactions. If you want to socialize and chat on the app, you can do that. But if you just want to zone out, play some music, and focus on your workout, you can turn off the chat features and do exactly that.

Indoor training is tough, but that might be a good thing

The final topic I wanted to hit on here is the psychological challenge of riding indoors. Cycling is a sport meant for the outdoors. The world is a beautiful place, but especially when you experience it by bike. Staring at a basement wall is closer to torture than cycling, but that’s what many cyclists did before the advent of indoor cycling apps.

Indoor cycling is very hard, even with the constant stimulation provided by the apps. You might see your avatar in the virtual world, feel the virtual hill, and chat with your virtual friends; but for many, the virtual experience isn’t even close to reality. Cycling is a very hard sport, and indoor cycling is even harder.

You could make the case that indoor cycling is a fast-track to burnout, and I would completely understand each of your points. But like any sort of hard training, indoor cycling can make you stronger, both physically and mentally.

Progressive overload is the ultimate training principle: push slightly past your limits, give yourself time to rest, get stronger, and repeat forever. Indoor training is hard, so every time you push yourself through an indoor session, are you getting stronger?

I certainly feel stronger after completing a tough indoor session. And those benefits aren’t just physical; they’re also mental. Chasing down attacks on an outdoor group ride is one thing. But pushing yourself through a 5min VO2 Max effort on the indoor trainer is another. Personally, I’ve found that I get a bigger psychological benefit out of intervals on the indoor trainer. There is nowhere to hide, and no corner to coast through.

On the opposite side of the spectrum, I love using indoor training to decompress. This might sound counterintuitive, but stay with me. After a long and hard day at work, the last thing I want to do is jump on the indoor trainer and do Anaerobic intervals. Sometimes I just want to spin, chill out, and catch up on a TV show. I still want to ride because the exercise makes me feel really good, but I don’t want to challenge myself mentally.

I don’t even have to think about the weather, prepping my bike, and grabbing a flat kit. Instead, I can hop on the trainer in a matter of minutes, and zone out for as long as I like.

What once was a tortuous activity is now an enjoyable one for millions of cyclists. Whether you’re a complete newbie or a seasoned eSport racer, indoor training has something for you. To fall in love with indoor training again, build a space that you look forward to using, and structure your sessions to maximize efficiency. Love for indoor training isn’t just a concept, it’s a mindset – and it’s one that you can use to take your training to the next level.