When winter hits, the nights have drawn in and it’s cold, wet and miserable the desire to go ride your bike can very quickly wane. Lucky for us, living in this technological era means we can take the fun inside and keep riding through the worst of the winter weather. But what are the benefits of indoor training using a turbo trainer? We’ve listed our 5 favourites below.
You Stay Warm & Dry:
As mentioned above, if your motivation to ride outside is at a low thanks to inclement weather you can still get a pedal in without a spec of mud in sight!
Less Prep/Clean-Up Time:
Sometimes going out on your bike can be a bit of an ordeal – getting the bike ready, gathering all your kit and making sure that you haven’t forgotten anything, sticking your bike in or on your vehicle etc. With indoor training, you can get straight into your kit and on to your bike without any of the related faff that comes with riding outside. And no dirty bike to clean after!
Leave Winter Fitter Than You Entered:
When winter draws in it’s easy to feel disheartened that all your hard work over the summer will be derailed, but if you throw a turbo trainer into the mix you can be sure that you’re able to leave winter fitter than you entered. With numerous training apps out there that can pair up with your smart trainer (or by using speed and cadence sensors with a standard turbo trainer) there’s no excuse for losing those summer fitness gains!
One Hour on a Turbo = 2-3 Hours Riding Outside:
When you’re riding outside a good portion of your ride is spent freewheeling, especially if it’s a hilly ride! When you’re inside on the turbo there’s no freewheeling, and nowhere to hide! So you’re getting a lot more bang for your buck in terms of fitness and training!
Training Apps Make It Fun:
As we touched on above, there are numerous apps out there that can link up with your trainer to make the indoor experience more interesting (staring at a blank wall for an hour can definitely wear thin quickly we’ll admit). Popular app Zwift completely gamifies the turbo training experience – race your mates or battle with other users all over the world in digital versions of some of the world’s most interesting and beautiful locations. Other popular options include Wahoo SYSTM (Previously Sufferfest) and Trainer Road, both of which feature a myriad of different plans that will help you build general fitness or more structured training building up to races and other events.
So there you have it – have we convinced you to get turbo training this winter? You can find our range of turbo trainers from Wahoo, Tacx & more here:
