Not wanting to be labelled ‘soft’ or a fair-weather rider, the logical move is to start hammering out your hard sessions indoors; you can hit your interval targets far more accurately and you won’t be interrupted by road furniture, inclement weather or inconsiderate drivers. In terms of training benefit, is it OK to bring your intervals indoors until spring, or should you carry on doing at least some of your hard riding out in the real world?
If your season’s goal is to do well in outdoor races or events, it’s obvious that some practice is needed out on the roads. But can this be ticked off solely with the weekly club run at a chatty pace? Opting for the indoor pain-cave for interval sessions may seem a logical choice, but is it for this high-quality work that it matters most to train on the roads, i.e. replicating the environment of your targeted event? It’s time to find out.
The argument for outdoors With power meters, heart rate monitors and head units tracking your every pedal stroke, it’s tempting to assume you have to follow sessions to the letter to get the full benefit. However, the idea that there’s a magic combination of effort and recovery is misguided – human physiology is more complicated than that.
This story is from the October 29, 2020 edition of CYCLING WEEKLY.
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This story is from the October 29, 2020 edition of CYCLING WEEKLY.
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