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Five ways to make hitting the trainer just a little more bearable

For most of the country, it’s full-on trainer season. That means riding indoors and fighting the monotony. To stay motivated and fit, here are five tips to keep you spinning on the spot.

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Ryder Hesjedal testing with team trainers. Photo by Lucas Gilman
Ryder Hesjedal testing with team trainers. Photo by Lucas Gilman

For most of the country, it’s full-on trainer season. That means riding indoors and fighting the monotony. To stay motivated and fit, here are five tips to keep you spinning on the spot.

  1. Find a distraction. I’d never recommend finding a distraction while riding outdoors, however, when riding indoors it’s almost a must. Pedalling endlessly and not moving a single centimetre can at times be disheartening. Watching a movie or listening to music is perhaps the best way to address this issue. Hearing the audio of a movie or music above the noise of your indoor training system can be difficult. One remedy is wireless noise cancelling headphones. There are a variety of options out there that are relatively inexpensive.
  2. Change your workouts every week so that you are not doing the same mundane intervals week in, week out. Try new efforts and styles of workout that keep you engaged and thinking throughout an entire trainer session. This variety will also increase your adaptability when riding outdoors once spring arrives.
  3. Build a routine so that riding indoors becomes part of your daily activities.
  4. Train in a group environment. It can be lonely riding indoors, alone. Making indoor cycling more social can be a great motivator. Find a local place to ride or invite friends over to have a group ride indoors.
  5. Split up your training. Rather than do one long indoor session, split it up into segments. For example, one a weekday, ride for one hour in the morning before work, and then 30 minutes in the evening.

There are many ways to grind through a Canadian winter as a cyclist. These tips will take the edge off of that grind as you head back to the trainer during those snowy months.