It’s trainer season in large areas of the Northern Hemisphere. As someone who rides the trainer a lot, I figured it would be good to share some tips on how I make it work for me.

It’s important to frame some of these in the context of broad techniques, and not necessarily ridgid constructs. They are intended to get you thinking about what works for you. You may need to adapt the guidance to your preferences – what specific thing works for me, may need to change a little, to work for you.

Before getting to the tips, let’s address why you should trust me. The answer is that these concepts make it possible for me to ride the trainer for long periods of time – without stopping. Yesterday, I did around 5 hours. Most of the tips focus on managing relative perceived exertion (RPE). Riding on the trainer is harder than riding outside, a big part of that is we need to change what we’re doing to manage RPE inside. Riding outside is more fun, we need to shift our mentality and techniques for indoor. They are not the same activity.

RPE isn’t the only factor. Riding the trainer is also harder because it’s actually harder. You can’t free wheel, drafting is a thing in apps like Zwift but you can’t feel it. It doesn’t have to be a bad thing. Lean into that. It makes riding the trainer more time efficient. So you can get more training load in less time. This is the main reason I ride the trainer even when the weather doesn’t suck. I can do more actual work in 90 minutes inside, than I can in 120 outside.

Let’s get to the tips.

1. Use a comfortable bike. Many people put an old metal bike, with a metal seatpost, on a metal trainer on a concrete floor and wonder why their bum hurts. Why they can’t ride for more than 30 minutes. That’s not rocket surgery. There is no compliance in that system. I mostly use my Giant Revolt. It has a big gravel tire on the front, and a D-shaped seatpost. It’s a comfortable bike. If you don’t have a bike with a D-shaped seatpost, I recommend the Cannondale Save seatpost – I did a review, if you’re interested. Not quite as good as the D, but close enough.
2. Put something under the trainer to add compliance. I use these interlocking foam pads and a rocker plate. Form pads are super easy to install, and cheap. They also protect the floor from sweat and drool. I’m not sure I’d worry about the rocker unless you’re trying to push past 2-3 hours. That is where the additional compliance makes a difference.
3. Manage your body temperature. The main way you do that is with fans. If you are sweating all over the bike/floor, you don’t have enough fans. You are overheating, no wonder the experience sucks. It is hard to have too many fans. I like these Lasko fans. They move a lot of air, aren’t too loud and most importantly have a remote. The remote lets me scale the fan to what I’m doing, as I’m doing it. I have two of them up front, another fan that I can reach to the side and a get-of-jail fan behind me that I almost never use – but I like knowing it’s there.
4. Fuel. For the love of god, fuel. Hydration is included here.. Appropriate hydration also helps with body temperature. I fuel every ride, even the easy ones. I’m not doing it because I don’t have enough calories on my body to do the 60-90 min. It’s not about that. I do not understand why we fight fueling on the bike, but don’t think at all about having a Coke when we’re not exercising. One of these things is good for you. Drinking water with carbs and sodium lowers my RPE. Putting carbs in my body during the ride helps with recovery even if I don’t need those carbs to turn the pedals during the ride. It also helps with hunger after. You are less likely to binge when you get off the bike if you’re not starving yourself while you’re working. Adequate sodium intake makes it possible to stay on the bike, while hydrating, without needing to pee. For example, yesterday I drank 5l of water on my five hour ride. I did not need to stop to pee. Some of that was because I put 700mg of sodium in every bottle.
5. Wear good quality bibs. And by bibs, I really mean chamois. This might seem counterintuitive. But think about what you’re doing. You are locking yourself into a position, on a fixed object, with limited compliance. And then you’re asking your bum to take a lot of abuse. A good chamois, potentially with chamois cream – depends how long you’re going to be on the trainer, can be the difference between saddle sores and no saddle sores. I like Castelli bibs, but they aren’t the best fit for everyone. I would also recommend Giordana bibs, they will fit more people, and also have an excellent chamois.
6. Embrace distraction. A friend likes to listen to true crime podcasts. That doesn’t work for me. I like sports highlights, bike races, stand-up comedy, those Insider videos where they have an expert rate the realism of movie scenes, stuff like that. What I use to distract myself changes with what I’m doing. The more intense the activity, the lower the cognitive load needs to be. So if I’m doing a threshold workout, I’m probably watching a CX race. I find those very motivating. I cannot watch stand-up during those workouts, paying attention requires too much effort. But that might work for you, you’ll need to play with it.
7. Find a way to stay engaged while also not getting sucked into the intrinsic boredom of the activity. Engagement in the hurt is still important. This is why I use Zwift. I like that everyone around me is a real person. Having a real person target for VO2 Max intervals is motivating. I like to give the Ride-Ons. I don’t do the Zwift group rides, but for some people the social aspect of shared experience helps them. Those group/pacer/challenge things make it work, for them. Some people find Zwift annoying. Maybe MyWhoosh is more your jam. The point is to find a shared or guided experience that isn’t you, alone, in the basement, suffering, while you stare at the floor. Unless that’s your jam.
8. Use the right technology. In almost every other area of my life I like PCs, I don’t like iPads. But, for this purpose I prefer something like an iPad. I’ve tried using PCs to do the trainer thing a few times. It works, but it adds friction. Same with the Apple TV. It works, but there was unnecessary friction. I do not want to spend 15 minutes troubleshooting sensor connectivity, updates, reboots, or whatever when I am trying to get on the trainer. That stuff frustrates me. It makes the experience suck more. I don’t need that. I use an old dedicated iPad that is always by the trainer. I don’t have to look for it. I don’t have to remember to bring it with me. It’s always there. It’s always ready. Removing technology friction, makes it easier to get on the trainer. It does not need to be a nice iPad either. I don’t know how old it is, but it is super old – it doesn’t even get OS updates anymore.
9. Use small ring, big cog. This is just for the ERG people. I like ERG mode, so this is also kind of me saying maybe try ERG mode. I suspect that many people who don’t like ERG mode, don’t like it because they are using the big ring up front and a small cog in the back. Small ring up front, big cog in the back makes it more responsive. It’s an easier, better way to ride the trainer. It also puts less wear on the more expensive big ring.
10. Don’t ignore real pain. Scale your time increases sensibly. If you’re struggling with 30 minutes. Don’t try to get to 90 in one go. Work up to it. This concept is also true more broadly for all training; progressive scaffolding is a key concept. You might need to take a break every 30 minutes. Get off the bike, stretch, have a pee, whatever. Play with it a little bit. See what works for you. It is important to push through some of the “this sucks” barriers, some of them are just in your head. Defeating those will unlock new levels. Some barriers are physical, those are tougher. Riding the trainer highlights issues with fit that don’t pop outside. When you ride outside, it is so much more dynamic. You’re getting out of the saddle more, stopping more, moving around the bike more. Those little movements can hide bike fit issues that show up on the trainer. You’re not making those movements indoors, because why would you crane to the left to look around the person in front of you. You might experience pain, real pain, that is harmful and might cause injury. Don’t ignore sharp pains. The best answer is to get a quality bike fit, but that’s not realistic for everyone – so try to incorporate some of the movement/rest/etc. that make outside work for you while you’re inside.