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Effective Indoor Cycling for Triathletes

By Sally Drake

Winter weather or summer storms don't have to affect you or your client's key race this season. As a coach, I find my clients avoiding the cold basement and indoor trainer and suffer a bad attitude because of this. Taking the winter off is one option, and this may be best for athletes who have raced into the fall and need the physical and mental break. Others can use this time to focus on important training aspects. The indoor trainer is the perfect place to perform an effective workout, in fact, many triathletes do most of their key sessions inside all year ‘round. I will share some ideas to help motivate your athletes and help to make the minutes (or hours) fly by! The specific focus of each workout depends on the limiters of the athlete, the training phase (transition, base, build, peak) that he/she is in, and the timing of the first key race. A few tips to consider (or to recommend to your athlete) before attempting a successful trainer ride include environment, bike comfort, and a pre-ride warm up.

Create a Motivating Environment
The training area should be motivational - include festive lighting, race photos, pictures of pro triathletes, bright colors, aromatherapy (candle, room spray), a TV, an iPod or CD player and a fan if needed. A table next to the bike is also recommended for snacks, magazines, channel changer, and towels.

Warm Up Well
The first part of each type of workout is a 15-30 minute warm-up. This can be a spin, high cadence, or for triathletes it might be a dynamic warm up with an easy run. A dynamic warm up consists of walking, high knees, arm circles, hamstring kicks, heel walking, toe walking, and other movements to warm up and increase circulation in the muscles and aid in injury prevention.

Bike Comfort
An expert bicycle fit is crucial for longer rides outside and for indoor trainer workouts. Before you or your athlete begins training seriously for a race or bumps up training volume, bike fit is important. This will ensure optimal seat comfort, reduce the chance of major chafing, injury prevention and definitely better performance.

Now the stage has been set for the ride! The table below contains effective indoor trainer workouts and their purposes.

Aerobic Endurance / Fat Burning Iron Ride
A 2-3 hour ride at an easy, aerobic effort. This can include "skill focus" and pick-ups. Heart rate zones 1-2, or 60-70% of max. (no warm up necessary)

Muscular Endurance Long climbs
A 1-2 hour ride with long hills. Short bursts of climbing out of the saddle on steeper climbs. The focus is the climbs (2-3) with 10-15 minutes in heart rate zones 3-4, or lactate threshold.

Skill Focus Full, balanced pedal stroke
A 45-60 minute ride with a focus on high cadence and a full pedal stroke. After a 15min warm up, take one foot out of the pedal and spin with one leg. Hold until fatigue, working up to a few minutes on each leg, varying gears. Spin a few minutes in between drills to feel the full pedal stroke.

Skill Focus Improve Cadence
This will be a 45-60min ride, or can be incorporated into a warm up. Cadence drills will include 3-minute intervals, starting minute 1 at a comfortable cadence and increasing this each minute to reach 90-100 in minute 3 or if bouncing in the seat, back off.

Lactate Threshold (LT) Testing Heart Rate Zones
This is a 30-minute time trial. After 10 minutes, start the heart rate monitor and record the average for the last 20 minutes of the effort. This will be a starting point for the athlete to calculate heart rate zones. (details below)

Functional Threshold Power (FTP) Testing Power Zones
This test is similar to the above LT, but the average power is taken from the entire 30-minute time trial. This will give the athlete an estimated FTP to establish power zones (details below)

LT or FTP Intervals Muscular Endurance / Aerobic Capacity
After a long warm up, perform 2 x 10-15 minute intervals at just below LT or FTP. In between, spin easy, high cadence for 10-15 minutes. Long cool down.

Sprints / Speed
This can be a 30-60 minute ride, incorporating short sprints at a high speed and cadence with recovery between each. Example: 5x2min with 3 min recovery in between. Or, 7x1min with 2-3 min recovery between each.

Other Indoor Options:
Computrainer - a Computrainer can be described as an indoor trainer with a computer that applies resistance to your wheel to simulate hills on a course that you watch on your computer or projected on a screen. There are numerous triathlon and road race courses available in the software, or you can purchase videos that take you on a video of the actual race course. There are also tools to evaluate your pedal stroke, and you will have heart rate, cadence and power data.

Rollers - These can be used as an indoor trainer, but the bike is not anchored which requires a great amount of balance. The bike sits on the rollers and will only stay upright if the rider is on and pedaling. I have a few clients who use rollers, but alternate between this and their trainer. This can be effective for improving handling skills.

Spinning Class - A nice spinning class at a gym can be a super aerobic workout, and add variety to indoor training. It is important to spend most of the time on the bike that will be used in the race. So, with my clients I will suggest spinning once every couple of weeks if they enjoy it, and an outdoor or trainer ride for the other sessions. Also, I encourage them to find an instructor who is a cyclist or triathlete. These instructors will hopefully offer more interval and endurance work and less "jumps" and exercises that can be risky on the bike.

Mountain Biking - If you or your client owns a mountain bike, this is a training option for bad weather. It is easier on a mountain bike than a triathlon bike to bundle up in thick gloves and a heavy coat to hit the trails! And, it provides skill work - balance, cadence and strength.

So, No excuses! You are now armed with fantastic ideas on how to make your and your clients' indoor trainer rides effective and provide you with a base for the best season ever!