Bike Intensity... (Page 3)

There's no reason why work inside should be any different from work outside (there are some potential cooling issues riding inside).  You can use the same position insde & out as well.  Inside does allow you to easily hold 'steady' pacing since you don't have to deal with terrain, traffic, etc.  But there's no reason you can't do good work outside.

I ride indoors a fair amount (and all through the season), but this has mostly to do with what works best for me from a scheduling standpoint (often ride early when it is dark and much less safe for outside riding).

My HR tends to be lower indoors to begin with (even using the level 3 setting which is the hardest on my trainer).  I can see where he is coming from with that though.  You are putting a constant load on your body as you said.  This is why a lot of people prescribe that doing indoor work versus outdoor is about a 60 - 70% difference in time needed for the same sort of workout.

I just refuse to do mind-numbing trainer rides anymore.  I've done 3 - 4 hour rides in the past indoors.  I have a hard enough time doing more than an hour now ......

Running off the bike is totally dependent on the type of ride I just did, regardless of whether the ride was indoor or out.  Most of my indoor rides are shorter in duration, so that in and of itself generally makes it 'easier' to hit the run.

PennState - 2008-03-18 10:06 AM The only thing I would add about indoor vs. outdoor bike training is that since there is no 'coasting' on a trainer ride, that it is a slightly different kind of effort. No downhills etc. My coach feels as though trainer LSD rides should be at a lower HR than outdoor long rides. This is controversial though...

Yes, a steady ride can be very different than a more variable ride.

Why on earth would anybody do an LSD trainer ride? 

Here are some of my longer rides as a comparison:

(Not sure why I didn't have a HR recording)

Granted, my terrain is not as rolling as Fred's up there in central PA, but it is also never flat around here.  I also didn't include the 112 from Chessieman here which was my only other ride over 100 before my IM.  I did not have HR data in the logs, but I averaged in the 160 range for that on a flat (but brutally windy) course with a 21.8 average overall after sitting up after the brushfire and re-routing of the course.

My bike LT is in the 170 range as compared to Fred and Bryan's (un-calculated - cough cough) lower range.