For me, having the variety makes riding more fun. Some of my training rides are with a road bike, even a gravel bike at times. But I'm just a scrappy age group athlete that ocasionally lands on an AG podium at local races and not a Kona or 70.3 worlds slot.

A lot of athletes near me do a bit of road bike racing and cyclocross, gravel etc. and are extremely strong on TT bikes.

I do the majority of my training on my road bike. As bigger races get closer I'll do more sessions on my tri bike to make sure I'm comfortable in aero, but TBH the roadie is more fun to ride (climbs better, handles better). Many pros also do lots of miles on the road bike; and even when they are on the tri bike, for group rides they are on the basebar.

Rides on a road bike and spin classes are definitely applicable to IM training. Fitness is fitness.

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ECMGN Therapy Silicon Valley:
Depression, Neurocognitive problems, Dementias (Testing and Evaluation), Trauma and PTSD, Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)

It all depends on your goals.

If you're just in it to stay fit and have some fun, knock yourself out with whatever you choose. I'm pretty confident in saying that a large portion of triathletes do long, z2 weekend rides on their road bikes. As far as spin classes, sure, they're a shake up and get you sweating, but if you're *really* chasing substantial triathlon-specific fitness, you're better off on your triathlon bike, on the trainer.

The caveat here is that you're fresh in the sport. Depending on your background, when you're new, fitness gains happen quick. You'll likely see gains from anything physical and those gains would have crossover value into triathloning.

However, training on a tri bike, in a tri position, targets certain muscles and can expose quite a few holes in your fitness. What good is a 320 watt FTP on the road bike if you can't hold 280 watts for 20 minutes on your tri bike in aero? The value in training in your actual race position is hugely undervalued. I use to be slightly uncomfortable holding my power target while racing because I cheated myself. I used to do a lot of my training on the tri bike, but would hardly go into aero while doing intervals on the trainer. Now, unless I'm inbetween intervals and recovering, I'm in aero as much as I can be, especially when doing race-paced power.

In short: if you're new, you'll get fit regardless and see gains. However, doing "cardio" (i.e., spin class) is only so beneficial. To maximize your time to triathloning, hammer out intervals in the basement on the tri bike in your aero position in the dark.

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@floathammerholdon | @partners_in_tri

people will have different opinions so here's my $0.02

i do 95% of my training on my tri bike indoors. when i do bring out the road bike my power is nowhere near my tri bike power. in fact, after those road bike rides, my legs are sore. i'm not losing motivation (yet) to train indoors on my race bike, so i don't really care. but with TraineRoad rolling out outdoor workouts for Wahoo, I might do my easy endurance rides outside once the weather permits.

I say it's fine to mix it up. Whatever gets on your bike more and harder will pay more dividends than worrying about which bike to ride.

Someone who rides very hard 8 hrs a week on a near-upright cheap gym Schwinn bike will outperform someone who rides 2 hrs a week not that hard on their $10k racing bike, even with the limitations of not being in the aero position on the Schwinn bike.

Obviously the specificity of the position becomes more important as the equation is more balanced - if you can ride 8 hrs on your race bike no problem, I'll favor you over having ridden 8 hrs on a road bike given you can hold aero better.

For most, though, it's all about riding as much as possible. Which is why bike commuting is often supported here for IM training,even though it's often as far from structured race-bike training as you can get.

I ride my tri bike just enough to know its working, and will race well. I do the majority of my outdoor riding on a 53 year old road bike. I do 80% of all my riding, indoors, on a old Sears spin bike. The old spin bike is set up identical to my tri bike, with split saddle and aero bars. I put over 10,000 miles on it last year. I'm just an old age grouper, but I do dominate my local age group. And I PR'ed IMAZ last Fall, so it's working.

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Athlinks / Strava

Pro cyclists, who race bikes for a living, do most of their riding on road bikes and are plenty fast on TT bikes.

Fabian Cancellara , one of the best time trialists in recent times- is on record saying he rides his time trial bike at least once a week though- so if you consider that a pro cyclist is riding at least 6-7 days a week then thats about 10-20% of their rides on the TT bike.

Some training specificity is probably helpful, but I doubt you get no gains from riding a road bike. If you're fast riding a road bike, you'll be fast riding a TT.

^^^THIS^^^