Hmmm, tough question: One hour on an indoor trainer seems like about one hour ten minutes riding outside. Remember, on the trainer you never stop and coast. For every 1 minute you're on the trainer you are pedalling 60 seconds. There is no "cheating". also, I notice the effort it takes me to go 22 on a Compu-Trainer will get me 24 or more on the road (same heart rate/cadence/gear). It seems like you get a huge training benefit from an indoor trainer in a concentrated time. I doubt if that answers your question.... Sorry.

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Tom Demerly
The Tri Shop.com

Concerning indoor versus outdoor taining, with one exception, I think training on roads is far superior to training indoors. Here are my reasons:

1. It is more enjoyable to ride outside. You get to travel to places and see things.
2. It is more specific to your race. Very few races use trainers for the bike leg. Riding outside let's you develop handling skills and safety skills and lets you feel the effect of different riding positions.
3. You can push yourself harder. When you are riding outside and pick up the pace, your legs burn more, but you get the buzz of hauling a$$. When you are riding inside, all you get is the discomfort with no reward. This translates into being able to ride at a higher HR for longer when you ride outside.

The bottom line is riding outside is more fun. Cycling is a great sport and you might as well reap the benefits of checking out cool little towns, finding new roads to ride on, and riding with clubs.

The one exception is if you life in an area with disasterous riding conditions. Many major cities do not have much to offer in the way of routes and you may find yourself spending a large part of your ride waiting at stoplights or swerving though traffc at low speeds. If you live in an area like that you may be able to get more effective workouts indoors.

I agree that it's more enjoyable to ride outside, but I think you can get a better, more intense, and more structured workout on the trainer, in a lot less time. Here's a link to an article that addresses the issue:

http://vnews.ironmanlive.com/...s/cycling/985981276/

He also has a couple of other articles on the site that go into more detail.

Sure, outside is more fun, but may not be more economical.

The second exception would be if you have a job and don't have a big chunk of time during the week to get outside. An hour on the trainer is much more beneficial than if that same hour would be outdoors in the dark or dusk.

And, on your point 3.---That may or may not be true (about pushing yourself harder). I guess it would depend on the person. Lots of good interval workouts available for the trainer.

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clm
Nashville, TN
https://twitter.com/ironclm | http://ironclm.typepad.com

I tend to disagree with #3. I find that I can get a much harder workout on the trainer than I can outdoors. I would much rather ride outside than inside, but when it comes to tempo and interval sessions, I find the trainer is superior. I can maintain a much steadier effort on the trainer than I can outside. Hills, stop signs, wind and traffic can all complicate things and interrupt the rhythm of a steady effort. I generally do an interval or tempo session or two inside and then get outdoors for my long-ish rides. I have made my best bike gains on my trainer. Besides buying a bike, my trainer was the best training investment I've made.

RP

You can't really replicate a long slow distance ride of two hours by riding your trainer for one hour.

Michael Mccormack and rick niles would tell you that one hour of intensie intervals will give you many of the same endurance benefits as two hours at a lower intensity.

I agree that you can get MOST of the benefits but not necessarily all of them. If i have the time and the weathe ris nice, i go outside.

When you live in a cold climate you're fed up with your trainer by the time spring comes after being on it indoors all winter. Had our first decent outdoor rides of the season this weekend. It was wonderful. The trainer now goes into storage until next winter.

There both good! Nobody I've ever heard of rides a trainer only. A huge amount of the enjoyment of riding comes from the venues you ride or race. At the same time, there are things you can do on a trainer (mine is a Computrainer) that cannot be replicated on the road. So at 4:30am when it's dark outside, I'm in the garage doing spin scan, 1 leg intervals. The ability to get in more volume, and work on specific skills makes indoor riding a huge benefit when you get outdoors for some "real" riding. Without my CT, there's no way in hell I'd be able to train for an IM this year, regardless of the weather.

Can't wait to add some PCs to this mix as well for indoor training. Hmm, if I could only come up with the $600 or more to buy the damn things.