Riding a Bike Inside Versus Outside

cycling, mountain biking, training | UltraRob | Thursday, February 7th, 2008 at 9:34 pm

Today I got out for a nice spin on the bike trail on the mountain bike. It was in the 30s with lots of sun but there was still plenty of ice and snow on the trail. It was good to be out on the bike.

I got thinking about how much more I enjoy riding outside instead of on the trainer. I don’t even feel I’m working as hard when I’m outside.

Several years ago, I was part of a study on mountain bikers at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs (that’s when I started calling it the Olympic Torture Center). I told one of the researches that it seemed like I was working a lot harder in the lab. She decided to test me outside on an old railroad grade.

I would ride for 3 minutes trying to hold the same HR that I had at a given power output in the lab. She would get a blood sample and then I’d push my HR to match another 25 watts of power output. At each level, I’d use the RPE scale to rate how hard I was working.

The result of this test was that my HR and blood lactate levels matched for both the lab and out on the road. I pretty consistently used 2 points less on the RPE scale to describe my effort outside. It clearly seemed that it was easier to ride outside but I was actually working as hard.

In spite of enjoying riding outside more at least when it’s not too nasty, I still think riding a trainer is valuable. I can get training in without spending all the time of getting layers and layers of clothes on. Some workouts such as intervals, one legged drills and high cadence spinning can be more controlled on the trainer.

I also feel that riding a trainer gets you used to pedaling all the time instead of coasting for even a few seconds at a time. I think that’s why my legs sometimes feel more tired after riding the trainer. I’ve seen where some coaches think that you want to be on a trainer that mimics the feel of the road the best which would allow you a little coasting. I’m not convinced of it.

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