Pace: trainer vs. outdoors

[zoom-zoom]

Ok, so I am a total noob and got my bike only a few weeks before our roads went all the heck with snow, ice, sand and road salt.

Hubby and I did one leisurely 30 mile road ride just a week or so after I took possession of my bike where I comfortably maintained an average pace of ~13mph. This was before I had any degree of cycle-specific fitness.

For the last couple of months I have been supplementing my running with 2-3 cycling workouts on the trainer. And while I feel more comfortable going longer (I'm up to a whopping 15 miles on the trainer for my "long" indoor rides), my pace has not increased and is generally 2-3mph slower than what I was able to comfortably do outdoors.

Is this normal? Hubby says he is noticeably slower indoors, too, but his resistance on his fluid trainer feels pretty high to me...and he's still 5-6mph faster than I am. Poo. I have my ancient magnetic trainer set at 2 the second resistance level of 6.

Someone tell me that I'm really an animal in the saddle, but the trainer is concealing my skillz.

[HillSlugger]

Trainer pace has little relationship to road pace. The trainer can feel much harder.

[BalaRoja]

Lots & lots of potential reasons why you are slower on the trainer:

1 - what trainer do you use & how tight is the tire on the trainer? You can get crazy speed readings, especially high ones, if you have the tire on loose.

2 - most, though not all, trainers have small flywheels which equate with low interial load. It means your muscles have to work in a totally different way than they do outdoors on the open road. For instance, try coasting indoors and see what happens to your speed - it plummets, whereas outdoors in the flats, coasting for a few seconds doesn't slow you down nearly as much. Most people find it more challenging on the trainer. So it may take you a while to duplicate your outdoor pace, indoors.

3 - another biggie: cooling/ventilation. heat affects blood flow, which can affect the amount of work your muscles can do. In short, you need to have a lot of air moving in your training space to keep yourself from overheating. You can adapt to warmer training conditions, to a point, but it behooves you to have as big a fan as possible or use a non-heated room or garage.

4 - motivation! no open road, blue skies, green hills, or even another rider in the distance to keep you motivated. Occupying the brain is as big a challenge for most people on long trainer rides as the physical part of the ride itself - so music, videos, etc are very useful.

Good luck with your trainer, I find mine invaluable :-)

[ny biker]

I have no idea how "fast" I go on the trainer. My front wheel doesn't turn so it doesn't engage the speedometer.

I just do the workout. I know I'm working hard and that's the goal.

[kelownagirl]

Just one more voice about the differences in trainers. My husband and I have identical trainers (a year apart in age but same model) but for some reason the resistance on his is much 'tighter' than mine. He is definitely a much stronger rider than I am, but when we ride the trainer, I can always maintain a higher average speed which I know is not accurate.

For the most part, I don't worry about speed and/or mileage - I go by time in the saddle when riding the trainer and I do specific drills or intervals or endurance (steady HR) rides to keep my mind occupied.

[Crankin]

Yep, I don't get a speed reading on my trainer either. But it is definitely overall a harder ride. Sometimes, I feel like I can hardly push the pedals. DH and I have the same trainer. One of them feels "easier" and one feels harder. We traded so I got the harder one this year!
I also use the trainer to do specific drills/training. The program I use never has more than about 45 minutes of riding. I couldn't deal with more than that. But, I feel exactly the same as I do when I do a long, hard ride outdoors.