Intensity and/or time reduced when doing “Outdoor” rides indoors?

Doing the GG 200 and wondered if I should lower the time or the power targets when doing the long endurance or related rides on weekends indoors rather than outdoors.

Not really, but that’s open for debate.

Riding indoors is different and in many ways more difficult.

No coasting, no wind, no traffic, no motion, all make it a harder effort.

That said, if you drink - more than usual and not just water - eat and probably most importantly, make sure you’re properly cooled, by placing big ass fans, you can still push your outdoor numbers.

It’s a mental challenge too, so distraction, like good video footage and music you like, will also help.

All in all, it’s not uncommon that people adjust their targets, or lower FTP, for the indoor season.

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That’s why I ask. I thought I read in a SUF training article (can’t find it) that if doing an outdoor workout as part of a plan and you were to chose a NoVid that matched it, that the power targets would be lower for the indoor ride as outdoors you are aiming for a higher avg power (eg outdoors 90% vs 80% of FTP indoors).

So, I wondered when doing a 5hr 30min outdoor session indoors instead by using the NoVid Endurance+ for example if I ought to reduce intensity or time since the indoor riding is, at least theoretically, harder. I do wonder what the coaches think here. I’m “happy” to leave things as is but if I’d get the same benefit with less time or intensity, I’d do that too.

This is the article you’re thinking of, it says at the bottom about the relative power for indoor vs outdoor.

For a long zone 2 indoor ride I’d be tempted to keep my eye on power and heart rate. If heart rate climbs too much then drop the intensity. I’d probably call it a day if heart rate was in zone two but power was dropping to zone 1. I’m sure a coach would give a better answer though!

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I think that makes sense if you take into consideration that your indoor ride will have a NP that is equal to average Watts. Outdoors, this usually is not the case and your NP is (considerably) higher than the average.

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One thing you could do is look back at your outdoor rides and see how much time you spent coasting at close to zero power. Then simply deduct that “dead” time from your equivalent indoor ride. Depending on how hilly your outdoor rides are you could find that a 3 hour indoor ride is equivalent to a 5 hour outdoor session in terms of time spent in productive power zones.

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Thanks @Peteski. I should really just present myself to flogging station #8 for even wanting to reduce the suffering. I just figured if the coaches sanctioned it that I might not be flogged quite as relentlessly.