At TrueKinetix we love riding outdoors as much as everybody else, that why we want to mimic the feeling in our products.  When the days get shorter and the leaves start falling, so typically does the rain.  So with some regret, we move a larger part of our workouts indoors (not just the intervals).  There are a number of things to keep in mind when you do, to make the transition as smooth as possible.

Allow for the thermal shift

Riding indoors your cooling from your 20 Watt fan is much lower than from your riding wind at 200 Watts.  So your body will get warmer.  A normal reaction of your body is to increase its heart rate to pump more blood to your skin to help your body sweat and cool off.  Depending on your composition this is typically 5-10 heartbeats.  So if you find your heart rate to be higher than you normally have, don’t sweat it.

Rehydrate

As a result of the heat you will sweat more and your sweat will be less efficient due to the absence of noticeable wind.  So you will sweat even more.  So make sure you hydrate enough. How much?  We can’t say for you, but we love to measure things.  You can easily measure your sweat rate (liters per hour) by weighing yourself before and after your workout whilst holding your drink bottles.  The difference in weight divided by the duration of your workout is an indication of how much you have to drink per hour.

Fans will help

Both kinds of fans will help, but we mean the windblowing kind.  In our experience fan right in front of you is cute, but impractical since it does not cool your largest cooling surface … your back.  So we recommend (if you have the space and the fans) to have two fans at a 30-45 degree angle blowing from both sides, if possible at shoulder height.

Try to give yourself some variation.

Our human body is not good at doing the same thing under the same load for very long times.  If you ride outdoors you have hills, stoplights, and corners that add variation.  Indoors you can add variety by using a platform like Zwift (paid), Rouvy (paid) Mywhoosh (free), and many others to give you courses to cycle.  These will change the incline and thus the load you experience.  Another trick we like, if you don’t have to bother with an app, is to go hard every 8^th minute.  You will notice that these intense minutes not only are easy to keep up but will also increase your power in between hard efforts as well. Just set an alarm and do a 60-sec punch at a higher intensity

Distraction helps

So watch a movie, listen to music, or a podcast, or call a friend. You will notice time goes faster, but beware that you don’t drop away too far in your power.

Follow a structured training plan

If you feel that your motivation is lacking because of the moody weather or you simply don’t know what kind of training you should do, a training plan may work wonders for you. Having a plan can help to stay on track and encourage you to finish your workouts even if you don’t feel like it. We have a 10-week training plan to get started in indoor cycling with our TrueBike Home Gym Deal.