Obwohl das Fahren drinnen eine Lösung für schlechtes Wetter, kürzere Tageslichtstunden und von Autos gefüllte Straßen bietet, sowie fokussiertere und effizientere Workouts, kommt das Indoor-Training mit seinen eigenen einzigartigen Herausforderungen und Überlegungen. In diesem Blog werden wir einige der größten Fehler untersuchen, die Radfahrer, die drinnen trainieren, machen, und Vorschläge machen, um sicherzustellen, dass dein Indoor-Radfahren reibungslos verläuft.

1. Die Fahrradeinstellung übersehen

Viele Radfahrer verbringen Stunden damit, ihr Fahrrad akribisch für eine lange Fahrt im Freien einzustellen, erwarten aber, ihr Fahrrad auf den Trainer zu werfen und sofort für den Erfolg drinnen eingerichtet zu sein. Wenn du ein Smartbike hast, wirst du zunächst versuchen wollen, die Sitzhöhe, Lenkerposition und Kurbellänge deines Fahrrads im Freien so genau wie möglich nachzubilden, um die richtige Biomechanik und Muskelbeteiligung beizubehalten. Allerdings ist das Fahren drinnen nicht dasselbe wie das Fahren draußen, und es kann vorteilhaft sein, deine Position drinnen etwas aufrechter und bequemer zu machen, besonders über den Winter und zu Beginn der Saison, wenn du weniger Zeit im Sattel verbracht hast.

Das Gleiche gilt, wenn du dein eigenes Fahrrad auf einem Indoor-Trainer montierst; gehe nicht davon aus, dass deine Outdoor-Position deine Indoor-Position ist. Einige Trainer heben das Hinterrad etwas an, so dass Sie vielleicht auch einen Klotz unter Ihr Vorderrad legen sollten, um sicherzustellen, dass Ihr Fahrrad eben bleibt.

One of the benefits of riding a smart bike like the TrueBike is that, being endlessly adaptable, you can quickly and easily evolve your position throughout the season.

2. Rushing the warm-up

You wouldn’t dream of jumping on your bike at the foot of Alpe d’Huez and expect to motor full gas to the summit. But a huge number of riders step on the indoor trainer and plunge almost immediately into a set of intervals, asking themselves why it’s so hard to hit their target watts.

For harder sessions, try doing five minutes of mobility work focused on glute activations before hopping on the bike. Think exercises like monster walks and fire hydrants. On the bike, your warm-up should be at least 10 minutes long and include a couple of short harder efforts. Follow this advice and you’ll be able to get the most out of all future interval sessions.

3. Stay relaxed and focus on core stability

Watch a professional road race and you’ll notice how relaxed all the riders appear to be in their upper bodies. Tightly gripping the handlebars adds tension, using up energy and building stress unnecessarily. This tension through the upper body can impact riders’ ability to hold good form too.

Riding indoors is the perfect opportunity to practice riding with a relaxed grip, while focusing on engaging core muscles to stabilize the body and support the lower back. Not only will this result in pushing more watts indoors but, by creating good habits in a safe indoor environment without cars and road furniture to deal with, you’ll ride with grace outside too.

Smart bikes and smart trainers like the TrueBike and TrueTrainer use flexible lightweight frames and padded feet to provide a realistic rocking motion which will also engage the core, so you get two workouts for the price of one.

4. Locking into ERG mode

ERG mode is a fantastic feature for smashing hard intervals. You can work on stomping on the pedals without having to think about changing gears or manually altering resistance. However, spending time with ERG turned off could improve your cycling enormously.

For example, indoor cycling provides an excellent opportunity to fine-tune your pedal stroke and build strength in specific muscle groups. Instead of fixating solely on power, vary your cadence and resistance levels to simulate different riding conditions and terrain profiles. Experiment with high-cadence intervals to improve leg turnover and cardiovascular fitness, as well as low-cadence, high-resistance efforts to build muscular endurance and power.

The TrueBike’s built-in screen shows real-time data on metrics such as cadence, left/right balance and current gearing ratios, allowing you to work on your pedal stroke and see how riding at different cadences or in different gears impacts your output.

5. Taking cooling and comfort for granted

We all know that indoor training environments get hot and stuffy pretty quickly, especially during intense workouts without any air speeding past your face and body. But many cyclists underestimate just how much heat they produce and think that a table top fan should do the trick. A set of VO2 max intervals quickly proves that theory very wrong.

You can buy indoor cycling specific fans which do the job well but are pricey, but a robust, high-powered floor fan with a remote control can be picked up for less than 50 euros. Be warned: if you ride indoors regularly, you might want a couple of fans to cover you from all sides.

Comfort isn’t solely about airflow. One mistake almost all cyclists make is using cheap or old worn cycling shorts for indoor training, so they can save their fancy designer brand bibs for group rides when there are other riders to impress. In reality, this is the wrong way round. You move far less on an indoor bike or trainer and spend a higher percentage of the time rooted to the saddle, so wearing a quality pair of shorts and adding a good dollop of chamois cream before you ride will be a game-changer in terms of overall comfort.