The Obligatory Pain Cave Post

If you’re in Denver and tri training in the winter you may not be riding outside as much as you like (or prefer). Riding indoors on a trainer historically was a drag, but these days it doesn’t suck so much — with the right equipment.

Here’s mine:

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The key to all of this is having a smart trainer. Paired with some software, it does a great job of simulating a real ride by increasing resistance for hills and then smoothing it out when on the flats. I have the Garmin Tacx Flow trainer. Maybe not the fanciest but seems to be working well for me.

As for the software to make the smart trainer smart, I’ve been experimenting with options. I really like Rouvy for the actual real video courses but I’m finding myself in Zwift more and more lately. A bit cartoonish for graphics but a LOT more people using it. I’m never alone on a course and, if you gotta suffer, it is more fun to not suffer alone.

What I love about either option is they integrate in with Training Peaks and can pull in an assigned workout, have me ride it, and then upload the results back to Training Peaks (and, of course, Strava).

The rest? Well I frequently work from home so I’m leveraging my standing desk and big monitors to make it all comfortable. Zwift on one screen, something to watch on an another (currently The Mandalorian) and another monitor for Slack and other work stuff that always comes up when I’m trying to get in a training ride. With this setup I can usually keep pedaling while I respond to the latest crisis of the moment.

And finally, currently using my trusty ol’ Pinarello road bike with a super hard training tire on it (which means it is a bit of a pain if I want to take it outside…). Eventually my tri bike will arrive and then it’ll be the trainer queen.