I did my first tri last Sunday and I averaged over 22mph. There could be have been multiple factors but one of the biggest factors was that I bought a Kickr earlier this year and have been crushing it on zwift. I feel like I get a much better workout in less than time on the trainer than I ever could on the road. I'm hoping for great things by the end of the year.

I am doing St George in 2 weeks and haven't ridden outdoors since September, except for 10 miles riding to a bike fitting and back. Plan to get 2 outdoor rides in this week and 2 next week but it's been a major challenge due to the weather and some mechanical issues with my bike. I feel like it only takes a few rides to get my (limited) bike handling skills back.

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Strava

Great question, since I have been giving this a lot of thought.

I have not ridden outside in training for about a year. All riding on a trainer except for races.

But after doing a few races already this season, and having crappy results, been talking to folks. I have to admit all have been saying that getting some rides outside, semi long, and ideally hills, seems to be important.

I have just been changing so many things that it is hard to dial in what is going on. Newer bike now. Different crank lengths.

So going to try and get back to my once a week Sunday morning 4 hour ride in the hills with 5000 feet of climbing. Never hurt me in the past, just do not like riding around cars and all the other elements
the roads throw at me.

This is one fun thing about our sport. Nothing every seems to stay static.

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Dave Campbell | Facebook | @DaveECampbell | h2ofun@h2ofun.net

Boom Nutrition code 19F4Y3 $5 off 24 pack box | Bionic Runner | PowerCranks | Velotron | Spruzzamist

Lions don't lose sleep worrying about the sheep

I did PR with 1.5 outside rides.

I thought based on the time of year I got outside last year that doing a race a month earlier wouldn't be a problem. The all the snow we didn't get the rest of the year came, sure it melted quickly but the roads were utter crap. So I got in one quick lunch ride on a loop near my office and a half ride before double flatting on a pot hole the day before the race, I racked my bike with no wheels..

Had I changed nothing I probably could have been ok but since I was still dialing in a new cockpit the lack of real time outside to fine tune it ended up being an issue.

Unless I move I doubt I'll do a race before mid april in the future.

Agree with all of the above re: trainer being good for developing power and being time efficient. Its why I ride mine at least once per week all year.

Having gotten that out of the way. I think that you will probably need at least half a dozen rides outdoors in the month before the race. There are just too many things that the trainer can't prep you for. Things such as managing the wind, staying aero on rough descents, gear selection on rollers etc.

I think that it's totally possible to put in a great performance on just indoor riding, but there are bigger speed gains to be made in other ways in the lead up to the race (especially if it's quite long or technical)

I raced Puerto Rico last month on zero outdoor rides since I raced IMCoz in November. Living in NY makes it nearly impossible, especially with the winter we had this year. Biked 2:11.

Plenty of people ride the trainer year round and I am going to continue to ride mine for all interval and hard tempo rides this year. I'll do long or easy rides on the road, but the workouts from the trainer are just so efficient and effective.

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Instagram | Team Kiwami North America

Dang, you're the man - 12 hrs on the trainer is legit, even for a pro!

From your blog:

Totals for the week:
13,300 yards in the pool
12 hours on the trainer
52 miles running
22 hours of actual training time

I've got 8 days from this coming weekend to ride outside, those will be the only rides before I get to the race venue in June. They will be the only rides outside since I started riding again - last July.

I can't ride outside at all - its to dangerous, not in the sense of possibly being cut up by someone hanging a right in to KFC but in the sense that we have a ridiculously high fatality / trauma rate on the roads - I don't ride outside. The second reason is that it was 42C today - give or take - and will consistently be in the mid 40's from May onwards, lows in the high 30's to low 40's overnight from now till October, riding outside is not an option.

so I'm going to spend a week outside, then back on the trainer, then race and we'll see what happens. i don't think time wise it will be a problem, its obviously not ideal but I think it will be ok

I rode approximately 7 minutes outdoors this season prior to Oceanside last month. Race went great - had my best bike and run times on that course in five races there.

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Steve Johnson
DARK HORSE TRIATHLON |

Since 2012 I think I have logged less then a dozen non-Race bike workouts outside.

Haha. Thanks! That was a bit of an above average bike week for me. I averaged 9-10 hours on the trainer a week over the winter. It's mind numbing but pays dividends. Honestly, if I had the time I'd do more.

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Instagram | Team Kiwami North America

I just got home from new orleans 70.3 and I was only able to get one ride outside prior to the race. I had my best ride in a half, and felt like I had more power from the winter trainer rides. However, it was a very flat course and even on some of the small hills I didn't feel like I had the climbing strength I had last triathlon season. Not sure if there's any science in that, but it's something I'm thinking about.

I have done some races with no outdoor riding, depending on the weather

Things that make me go hmmm....?

Dave,

Have you been doing longer rides on the trainer, or keeping most in the 60 to 90 minute range?

I'm just curious as to whether you think the deficiency is the long ride in general, or more specifically, a long ride outside with hills providing some benefit that a trainer ride cannot, even with some structure in the long ride to simulate hills, either sustained or rolling.

Raced last weekend on a rented bike after not riding outside since the fall (less than 5 runs outside in the same time-period). Won my age group after spotting the contenders a large lead in the float - I mean swim.......

Over the past 3 years it's been probably 2-3 outdoor rides for me before whatever my main race is (yearly), and at least once before any other race. All of the rides are pretty easy and shorter.

Love my trainer with Trainerroad and/or zwift. Not only do I get to catch up on shows but I also get a much better workout on the trainer. Now where I am lacking with that approach is with longer climbs. My first IM was CDA. I did some research, elevated my front wheel and tried to simulate uphill riding as much as possible. Long story short but I don't feel it came anywhere close to mimicking longer sustained climbs.

The flip side being bike handling skills may suffer and/or not develop well. I don't worry about this too much since cars, unswept road shoulders, etc are somewhat mitigated for races. Still a place to train bike handling skills but I feel like I can get away with less of it as I'm not a road cyclist and the only other outdoor riding I do is (recently) CX where I do actually make it a point to get out and work on handling skills...and not even so much for myself it's more so I dont f up any other riders and their races.

Whatever the case, when it comes to road cycling, I much prefer being on my trainer and being able to focus on the training as well as netflix etc. If I were a true cyclist I probably would not have the same preferences.

I have been doing 90 minute rides.

Now maybe some have the mental strength to just kick butt on the trainer, but I do not.

As one post stated, in the flats, I did not see much of an issue. Where I saw the issue is the climbing of hills which has been a strength.

So I do not believe the long rides are anything I need. It is back to the rides where I get a lot of hill climbing like I have done in the past. Until I get back out and try, not sure but this is what I am hearing from a number of
other folks who do indoor training stuff, and seems to make sense to me.

Just like I love to run lots of hills in my run training for strength. And trying to get in 1 hour OW swims this season.

When I read threads like this, I am looking for the kind of courses. Flat, is one thing, lots of big hills which are the type of races I do are another.

.

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Dave Campbell | Facebook | @DaveECampbell | h2ofun@h2ofun.net

Boom Nutrition code 19F4Y3 $5 off 24 pack box | Bionic Runner | PowerCranks | Velotron | Spruzzamist

Lions don't lose sleep worrying about the sheep

I did zero before my last event and had the third fastest split in a race of a hundred or so. I did notice one part of my quads cramping during the run which was probably from the hills. Now I know and will do some trainer rides wth blocks under the front wheel and some more low cadence work

We had a real snowy winter and I have a couple friends who are riding well this spring, both are winning races at the cat 2 level on the road, etc. So how did they train this winter?

Person 1 did a boatload of volume off road on the fatbike, lots of 3 hour rides, pretty minimal indoor time on the rollers w/ no real structure

Person 2 did nothing but indoors, almost all of it tempo-threshold level work with long intervals and some rowing ergometer, not much time outside at all. All the trainer work was pretty high intensity like sweet spot or higher

They are both riding the best I have seen in years.

The take away? heck if I know.

I started doing my long rides on the trainer this year, generally lasting 2.5 to 3 hours on Sunday morning with some ITU races playing on the iPad.

It is mentally tough, but the quality is great and I get in some decent efforts and intervals.

I've pretty much exclusively been riding indoors this season, and when I have ridden outside, I've felt stronger on the hills compared to prior years, despite having ridden less volume. I think another big factor for me has just been consistency, as knock on wood, I've been injury free since the end of last summer, so I've been able to keep the quality up across all three sports without unintended interruptions.

I'm curious to see how it plays out over the year, time will tell!

I had this same problem on a fluid trainer, which felt nothing like actual hills outdoors.

In contrast, simulated incline on a Kickr feels to me just as legit as real outdoor hills. The kickr can add load so you can pedal low rpms without putting up 300+watts to truly simulate a hillclimb, even long ones.

Wow, that is impressive. I just do not have the mental toughness to do that.

After a year of data now not riding outside, and not liking the results so far, time to get out into those mountains some.

.

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Dave Campbell | Facebook | @DaveECampbell | h2ofun@h2ofun.net

Boom Nutrition code 19F4Y3 $5 off 24 pack box | Bionic Runner | PowerCranks | Velotron | Spruzzamist

Lions don't lose sleep worrying about the sheep

I guess one thing that I have noticed that can be both a positive or negative, depending on the course, is that you can completely control the trainer to keep it consistent.

Outside, power fluctuates a lot more based on the terrain, so I've found my ride effort to be a lot more variable, and if that simulates the race course, then I could see a definite benefit of outdoor rides if all indoor riding is steady intervals in comparison. I'll see how the next few months play out, as the plan as is to ride the trainer more or less exclusively unless I'm racing or at a weekend training camp. Unfortunately, despite having fantastic outdoor riding where I live, there is also a fair amount of traffic, and a bike crash killed my season really early last year.