00:00With the emergence of a whole raft of turbo trainers, indoor training bikes,
00:03and accessories by the bucket load, indoor cycling has all but established itself as
00:08an entire discipline. But as the niche continues to grow, so do the list of faux pas one can make.
00:15So I'm going to tell you everything that I wish I knew when I started training indoors.
00:20So let's jump on the bike and get into it.
00:23Not drinking enough can be a mistake that we make when we're outdoors as well,
00:28but the level to which you can go wrong indoors can be amplified
00:32to the same level of not drinking enough outdoors in summer.
00:36And this is because the strong fans that we use when we're riding indoors
00:40obviously help blow away the sweat that's coming off of us when we're riding hard.
00:44But that means you might not notice how much liquid you're actually losing.
00:50Also, while riding at home, I for one know that I can get complacent
00:54about filling up enough water bottles, and that's because I think that when I finish my session,
00:59I can go and drink as much as I like. But really, I should be following the same example
01:04that I would set for myself when I ride outdoors.
01:08For most of us, that means 500 millilitres of water per hour.
01:12And if you want to mix in some electrolytes, well, that's only going to be a good thing,
01:16because of course, you'll be losing them through your sweat.
01:26The importance of regulating body temperature was made incredibly apparent in recent times
01:30when Filippo Ganna and his team went to the incredible lengths to keep his core
01:35as cool as possible in the run-up to his hour record attempt
01:39so that he wouldn't overheat in the final 20 minutes of his ride.
01:43And that's because if you get too hot, then your body can't operate at its best.
01:49This is why ventilation is so important.
01:52If you don't have a fan, then get one. And if you do have one, then get another
01:57and ensure that your head, your chest and your legs are all getting a breeze.
02:02Now, there are plenty of high volume fans out there that do the key job of keeping you cool.
02:07And to help you find the ones that I'm a big fan of,
02:11well, I've left a whole bunch of links down in the description box below.
02:15One thing that I've learned recently is that if you want to make your training sessions harder
02:20and you want to put more strain on your body, then you can train without a fan.
02:24Just be prepared for the fact that you may not be hitting as high numbers as you may do with a fan.
02:31Also, do be sure to stay on top of your hydration,
02:34because you will be losing a lot more liquid a lot faster.
02:41We're all familiar with junk miles,
02:43those being the miles that we put in on the bike that don't really assist us
02:47in getting to any sort of end goal.
02:49And it can be quite easy just to roll around the Watopia landscape in Zone 3
02:54that doesn't really provide you with any sort of benefit compared to
02:58maybe foundation building Zone 2 work or riding it threshold or above
03:02to really start to push the envelope.
03:04So if you're training indoors, try and stick to a training plan
03:07or structured workout to fully maximize your time on the bike,
03:11because after all, riding with no sort of end benefit would just be the biggest waste of time.
03:21I, for one, love my food.
03:23In fact, my love for food is probably equal to my hatred of bonking.
03:28Now, one mistake which I used to make, and I'm sure some other people may be making out there,
03:32is actually not having enough food either before, during or after your training session.
03:38So I think ensuring you have something, even little, in your stomach
03:42when you start a session is important,
03:44because it will mean that you can execute your training sessions with more conviction,
03:49which means they'll then end up being more beneficial.
03:52Now, you may be saying, Sam, what about fasted sessions?
03:55Aren't they any good?
03:57Well, to answer that, I would say, yes, they do have their place in training,
04:01but they're better suited to professional cyclists.
04:04For us more normal cyclists, I would say that it's about working on consistency
04:09and getting the basics perfected.
04:11If you then go on to take your training really seriously,
04:14then I would be looking at everything around your training,
04:17such as your nutrition and your recovery, before you then start going into fasted training.
04:23Sitting up whilst you're training isn't a bad thing by any means at all.
04:27And actually, we all need to stretch out and take a breath every once in a while.
04:31However, if you're undertaking the entirety of your training sessions sat up,
04:36then you could be missing out on the opportunity to engage and activate your core.
04:40And as we all know, a strong core plays a massive role
04:44in being able to put out your best amount of power.
04:47Now, another reason why you should be sitting up
04:50your best amount of power.
04:51Now, another reason to train in your riding position
04:55is so that when you do go back to riding outdoors again,
04:58you haven't lost any flexibility and actually,
05:00you're still incredibly comfortable on the bike.
05:08As someone who used to work in a bike shop and more specifically in the workshop,
05:12I have seen my fair share of salted up stems and headsets.
05:16I cannot stress how important it is to use a towel
05:20or some sort of bike covering to protect the top of your bike.
05:24Sweat is incredibly corrosive to bikes, especially aluminium components.
05:30And these are all things which can be found in and around your handlebars,
05:33your headset and your stem.
05:35I can also speak from experience that there is nothing,
05:39nothing more disgusting than unwrapping salty,
05:43crusty bar tape that has seen the equivalent soaking of the Pacific Ocean in sweat.
05:52Occasionally, our fitness levels do slip away from us.
05:55And one mistake we could be making is actually
05:58not adjusting our FTP bias in line with our current level of fitness.
06:02Now, your FTP bias is the number that your indoor training software uses
06:07to calculate your training zones.
06:09And then from there, it works out what numbers it would want you to hit
06:12during a structured workout.
06:14On the flip side, you may have been training so much that your FTP is increased,
06:19but that then means that your training sessions are no longer hard enough
06:22and will then stunt the ability for those continual gains.
06:26The key point is if you don't adjust your FTP bias
06:29in line with your current level of fitness,
06:31then you won't be training in the correct zones.
06:34And that means that you could either be doing sessions that are too easy for you
06:38or you could just be sending yourself in a downward spiral of sessions
06:42that are just too difficult.
06:47While indoor training can be a pretty time-efficient way of training,
06:51there's two things that shouldn't be forgotten.
06:54Warming up and cooling down.
06:56This is obviously a bit of a no-brainer,
06:58as most of us will need to warm up to get our legs into a comfortable operating zone.
07:03However, it can be very easy to neglect the cool down.
07:08Gently spinning your legs for 5 to 10 minutes
07:10ensures that you can flush out all that lactic acid
07:13and it gives you a chance to relax your muscles after some full gas efforts.
07:18Not to mention, it kickstarts your recovery
07:21and will help alleviate some of those aches and pains
07:23that can accrue after a pretty intense session.
07:30Much like my earlier point of not following a training plan,
07:32it's also important that you set yourself a goal
07:35that you'd absolutely love to achieve.
07:37Now, riding without purpose can be quite freeing and quite liberating, which is great.
07:42However, when spending time on the trainer,
07:45it can be a huge source of motivation
07:47if you've got something in mind that you can hold on to
07:50that you really want to achieve.
07:52Having something to work towards will give your training a brand new sense of purpose.
07:56The key here is that the goal is something that you'd absolutely love to achieve
08:00rather than it just being a kind of nice thing to do.
08:03So those are all the things that I learned when I first started indoor training
08:08and a few tips that I've picked up along the way.
08:11If you guys have any lessons that you've learned,
08:13then drop them down in the comments below.
08:15If you enjoyed the video, drop it a like,
08:17subscribe to the channel for more content
08:19and I'll see you all again very soon.
08:33Bit too much power.
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