SHOULD YOU TRAIN INDOORS OR OUT?
As temperatures drop do you endure the salt-filled spray of the open road or retire to the lounge with a turbo trainer and a techno playlist?
We pitched the advocates of the great outdoors against the
supporters of the stationary bike – pros, coaches and sports scientists – to reveal the best of both worlds and explain how this time of year can become your most effective, enjoyable season for training…
Everybody Out!
“Right now training is more or less 100 per cent outdoors on road bikes,” says Ed Clancy, TeamGB gold medallist and energy bar 9bar ambassador. “Endurance cyclists don’t tend to do much static bike training as it’s too far away from what riding an actual bike feels like. The gym still plays an important role in our overall training schedule, but for bike-based training getting outdoors is more effective.”
There’s plenty of science to back Clancy up. Research shows that metabolic changes in the cold weather mean training will increase fat burning and encourage the brain to release more mood-boosting serotonin. You’ll have to train harder to hit your goals in the cold too.
“Cold temperatures reduce exercise capacity. It can affect the amount of blood and oxygen being delivered to the muscles,” explains Professor Asker Jeukendrup, exercise physiologist and editor of HighPerformance Cycling (Human Kinetics), which makes personal bests and King of the Mountains even harder to attain.
Enter The Zone
Riders and coaches maintain that cycling out in the elements is essential to getting the miles in and building a solid foundation of aerobic fitness.
“Riding in bad weather is also good for developing mental and physical toughness,” insists self-confessed ‘old-school’ coach Dave Lloyd ( davelloydcoaching.com). “I also get clients working a lot in the endurance Zone 2 through the winter, maintaining a steady pace, which forms the endurance base and supports those higher end efforts. If you’re riding this outdoors it’s about working at a comfortable pace – you should still be able to maintain a conversation – but it is purposeful and, especially towards the upper end of this zone, you would have to start concentrating to maintain it.”