Editors Intro: Adam is… Well… Adam doesn’t need an intro! Everyone knows (and loves) Adam! He runs our shop, and keeps our motley crew on track.
Moving to Scottsdale from Buffalo in 2017, I am very familiar to training indoors. Years of racing on the road, and with weather that rarely cooperated with your training schedule, I used to spend October to April indoors getting ready for the upcoming race season. It was boring, mentally draining, and most days, sheer torture! But, when you are committed to the process, these were the days and months that the gains were made. My hours spent on the trainer, made me strong right out of the gate!
I've used many platforms over the years riding indoors, but I always come back to my trusty stalwart, Rouvy. It's like a lifelong best friend. When I need it, it's there for me. To turn my legs into pulp when it's time to dig in and train hard. I never expected to be on a trainer in AZ. "Why would I need a trainer in AZ, when it is sunny over 300 days a year?" Well, I underestimated the HEAT! An indoor trainer, even where the weather is nice, is imperative to keeping up with your fitness goals. When it's too hot to ride outside from May to late-Sept. unless you go out before the sun rises, you can head into your pain cave, and get your training in. Maybe for you, it is your work schedule, maybe you have a hard time focusing on your numbers when you are outside with all the variables, maybe you feel unsafe on the roads, and right now with stay in place orders, and physical distancing, having a trainer may just be YOUR best friend!
A little more about Rouvy. For me, it checks all the boxes. For the basics, there is Free Ride - treat it like your trainer of old, jump on and ride. There is a large catalog of workouts available, is you like structured intervals, or if your coach has you working on specific work, Rouvy can handle it. You can also create your own workouts, or even better, if you use TrainingPeaks, it has a feature that will upload your workout that day from your TrainingPeaks calendar! How cool is that! There are routes - and I don't just mean some crude map or video game like virutal world, I mean real world first person view routes. There are far too many to count, needless to say, there are thousands available. It's an open source platform where the other Rouvy users are uploading their rides into the program. If there is no video file available, you get a google satellite map plotting your course. Rouvy also has premium routes available. There are online challenges where you can win prizes, there are online races available if that's your thing, and there is even Augmented Routes where you can ride with virtual riders! For my money, it has it all!
In closing, keep an open mind to indoor training. When done right, it is very effective. With some planning, you can make it a very immersive experience, and not something you hate doing. The trainers, and the software formats these days are so good, don't just take a day off because the weather stinks, or it's too hot, or you had to work late - jump on your trainer and knock out a workout and stay strong, stay safe, and stay healthy!!!