I did my first Ironman by training 2x per week on my CompuTrainer with no single session in excess of 1h15', and 1x road ride per week.  Long rides on an indoor trainer are boring and not productive in my view.  The "fun factor" is missing as well.  Perhaps you should consider an Ironman that is scheduled in such a way so that you can do your longer rides outdoors?

I just trained for IMAZ indoors and it didn't prepare me well enough.  There is no replacing time on the road.

I did several 4 hour rides, a couple 5 hour rides and one 6 hour ride on the trainer.  The mental part wasn't difficult since I got caught up on Alias' 1st season (ha ha ha) but it's really the muscle memory that suffers.

Even on the trainer on your road or tri bike, you don't have to balance your bike so your stabilizer muscles atrophy.  This is particularly painful in the tri-bike position because, while you don't realize it, when you're on the road on your tri-bike you use quite a few stabilizer muscles in your shoulders to make micro adjustments to steer...something you obviously don't have to do on the trainer.

I felt this affect me dramatically after my swim, where you use many shoulder muscles (of course) and then continue to use the small stabilizer muscles for 6-7 hours on the bike in the tri-bike position.

My shoulders killed me (esp. my right shoulder) due to this inadequate training component and while you don't realize it, the pain absorption you withstand on the bike leg ends up draining more energy than you suspect, which may cause your bike and/or run leg to suffer quite a bit as the compounding affect takes place in a multi-hour race.

That being said, it can and has been done in the past but if you're looking for a "fun" training time with other IM athletes, don't pick IMAZ since there might be many less of them in CT where you live.

Just my experience/opinion on IMAZ trng during the winter months. 

THanks Steve! I hadn't thought much about that.

But would doing a few outdoor (long) rides be enough? I would probably be able to get in 1 or 2 outdoor rides each month, even during the winter. And I can also drive down to North Carolina for a few days or a week every couple months to get in some rides outside. 

So, would you think that, say, 3 outdoor rides of reasonable length each month would be enough to maintain the stabilizing muscles?

Thanks!
Tom

I don't know where the break-point would be.  All I know is what I experienced from my two IM races.

At the very minimum I would recommend ensuring you do almost all of your rides on the tri-bike the last 3 months of your trng...whether inside or out.

to get the most bang for your buck outside, make them the LONG rides if at all possible for the week.

Following is what my coach wrote about indoor training...I believe him!  It is long, but worth the time to read and absorb it.

Indoor Training Sanity

“Athletes should measure their training success not by how many hours they log, nor by how wide a sweat pool they can produce in dark and dank basements, but instead by how fast they ride when they eventually take to the roads come spring.”

I confess to having first discovered the expansive benefits of indoor performance training by a fluke, and whose circumstances you can read below under Genesis.    Short version is that I got stuck in Boston in the winter of 1991, could not stomach riding for more than an hour indoors, had the circumstance of having my very first ride outdoors in many months be a tough 70 mile ride in Spain where I rode inexplicably well, took the time to ponder just how that ride was possible, and then revisited the indoor concept and studied it for the next dozen years.  See Genesis below for more detail.

Couple the above circumstances with a belief system that tells me if something isn’t fun and interesting it isn’t optimal, along with not wanting basic convention to limit my training options, I allowed instinct and open-minded observation to guide me in exploring ways to maximize performance.

Of course there will always be people that disagree with the concepts I am describing.  However, I doubt that those that disagree have had first-hand experience in the methodology of applying the principles I advocate, much less have successfully implemented this proven method with countless athletes of all abilities. 

In short, their only frame of reference is if one were to do less of the same kind of monotone training the results would be a poorer performance, and this would likely be true.  The key is to change the way you train, not simply to train less.

So, if you live in Maine or Minnesota, and are determined to ride for endless hours indoors to build base, go ahead and do so.  But be aware that there are far more thoughtful ways to train, and which make base building more fun, less time-consuming, and ultimately more effective.  The athletes that I coach will already know this and will use the extra time balance their other training and life matters.

Afterall, athletes should measure their training success not by how many hours they log, nor by how wide a sweat pool they can produce in dark and dank basements, but instead by how fast they ride when they take to the roads.

Genesis of M2 Indoor Performance Bike Training

Steve-

You were doing it wrong. I factored in the whole shoulder muscle problem, so I used the Playstation controler to help with my stabilization problems.

Maybe I should write a book on this...Hummm

DAMN, I knew I was missing something! 

What was your max time on the rollers for IMAZ?  That's one thing I failed to incorporate into my IMAZ indoor trng regimine.

Thanks for the info, larry. This seems to imply that training on a trainer indoors is quite doable - although in your previous post you suggested not trying to train for an IM indoors. Am I missing something? Thanks!

And I hear you're donig Boston today - good luck!!!

Regards,
Tom