As the evenings darken and the cold winds arrive, it’s safe to say that indoor training season has rolled around once again. Frankly, it’s here just in time for me because I have a big end of season non-cycling goal and I really need to get fit!
I’ll soon be running the Valencia Half Marathon, and while I doubt I’ll beat my PB (1:25, thanks for asking), I’d like to do a decent time. The issue here is that I’ve been struggling with injuries this summer, so faster runs are too risky right now.
So I’m going to have to trick my body and do my hard training on the bike, and there is no better or more effective way to do that than through indoor training. Because you don’t have to get your kit and bike ready, stop/start at traffic lights and hose down when you return home, it’s time-efficient, controlled, and convenient.
icTrainer costs just £2.08 per month, making it one of the cheapest indoor training apps available, and the folks at icTrainer have challenged me to get as fit as possible in just 30 days. Hopefully I’ll see an increase in my sustained power and V02 Max figures and I’ll fly through my half…
First, I needed to find out where my fitness sat, so I loaded up icTrainer and selected a simple FTP test consisting of a warm-up, a three minute effort, a short break, and then a ten minute all-out smash.
icTrainer markets itself as a training-focused platform that foregoes the gamified experience that many indoor training brands have adopted, which means the display is honed in on your data. After selecting the compact view, I was left with the essentials on my screen.
I won’t bore you by describing the range of emotions I went through during the test, but it was my first FTP test in well over a year, so I’m sure you can imagine! When the 10-minute test finished, I spun my legs through the cool down and got the numbers, which were disappointing at best.
My three minute power was 328 watts and my ten minute power was 274 watts. My weight sat at 68.85kg, and I realised that this is the least cycling fit I’ve been since I was about 18.
Training, then, started with plenty of room for improvement. I got stuck into a couple of sweetspot sessions, as I always loved the efficiency of these efforts when I was racing.
icTrainer has a new training plan feature, icPlanner, which again is very competitively priced and links to the training software. However, as I was looking at a month full of travel and social commitments, I chose a more basic, ad-hoc approach of selecting different training sessions from the workout library.
After getting some solid training done in weeks one and two, something was bound to go wrong. Having travelled over to Sea Otter Europe to cover lots of shiny gravel tech, I got sick, picking up a lovely case of the man flu.
Training was, therefore, halted for nearly two weeks, which would have spoiled our little test. Once I got better, I lined up a few more sessions before taking another FTP test.
Thankfully, my work in the first two weeks, along with my ability to pick up fitness quickly, meant that this FTP test was less of a tortuous experience. Firstly, my weight had dropped by nearly 1kg, while my three minute power rose to 333 watts. My power in the 10-minute effort also increased, rising to 280 watts, bringing my FTP up by five watts. That’s not bad for just over a month’s training.
The usual caveats apply – some people will pick up fitness more quickly than others, and I was starting from a rather low point. But given how efficient indoor training can be, I will be very interested to see how much fitness I can gain before the weather gets nice again next spring.
Sign up for icTrainer here to access no-nonsense training plans for just £2.08 per month or £24.99 per year
