Should You Train Hard Outside Or In?

As daylight hours shorten and temperatures fall, Anna Marie Hughes assesses whether it’s really necessary to keep doing high-intensity sessions outdoors

- Anna Marie Hughes

Roads littered with leaves and twigs are a clear sign that winter is lurking. Even if you’re able to shrug off the worsening road conditions, there’s no ignoring that the clocks went back on Sunday, meaning it’s now dark by 5pm. Let’s admit it, riding outdoors is becoming less appealing – while the turbo or smart-trainer is becoming strangely alluring.

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.