Avez-vous déjà remarqué que vous pouviez avoir une différence de puissance en roulant à l’intérieur par rapport à l’extérieur ? Ou que potentiellement les efforts à la même intensité semblent plus difficiles lorsque vous êtes sur votre home trainer ? Eh bien, vous n’êtes pas seul. C’est là qu’intervient la dynamique du cyclisme. De nombreux cyclistes constatent qu’ils sont incapables de produire la même puissance à l’intérieur que sur la route. Avant d’accuser le home trainer, il est important de prendre du recul et d’essayer d’évaluer pourquoi vous produisez moins de puissance à l’intérieur comparativement.
Comprendre votre pourquoi peut vous aider à identifier et à résoudre des domaines spécifiques qui peuvent être des faiblesses pour vous – et qui vous freinent.
Why Can I produce Higher Power Outdoors?
There may not be a clear black or white answer to this question, as this will differ for every rider. While some may see a clear difference between outdoor and indoor power, others may not have a numerical difference at all.
That being said, when you ride outside your bike is able to move freely underneath you. When does this affect us the most? Full out sprints! You are using not only your legs, but your upper body as well when you dance on the pedals and feel the bike moving back and forth beneath you. While many can assume that this added power from riding outdoors sprints can come from your upper body movement when you pull on the bars, it is not the only factor that is at play.
Gravity
While not always your friend when ascending steep climbs, gravity helps you to produce those high wattage numbers when it comes down to a sprint! Think about it, when you’re in a full-on attack, all of your body weight is being added to the pedal pressure instead of being supported by the saddle as it normally is. When you stand, the gravity that is typically being applied to the saddle is now being applied to the pedals. In order to maximize this advantage, you want your center of gravity to be over the pedal you are pushing down on. This is why it is advantageous to rock the bike back and forth when attacking!
Proper Alignment
Joint alignment of your feet, knees, and hips is crucial for power production when you find yourself out of the saddle. When we rock the bike back and forth we are able to not only utilize our friend, gravity, but we are also able to utilize proper alignment through dynamic movement. Yes, you can also stand up on the trainer and utilize gravity, but you will be missing optimal alignment of your major lower limb joints since the bike is unable to move beneath you.
Body Positioning
When the interval intensity decreases and you transition from out of the saddle to seat efforts, most cyclists will begin to see greater power differences. Most of the time, those with the greatest differences can be visually seen when watching them ride outdoors. Individuals who may fall under the “weave or bob,” category (those who rock their body back and forth with each pedal stroke) may see the most power differential when compared to indoors. Many people who fall under these categories have some form of weak hip stability. This instability can be caused by issues such as limited hip flexibility/mobility and weak glute muscle recruitment. Typically if someone has one of these issues, the other follows.
This type of body positioning is allowing riders to gain proper joint alignment when they are seated. If you have an unstable hip, the power you push into the pedals will be transferred through your hip and can throw your pelvis off-kilter. Therefore, most of the time individuals who bob and weave are unconsciously aligning the rocking of their pelvis with the rocking of their bike.
If you compound weak hips with a weak core, then the movement of the bike increases to utilize gravity as much as possible. What does this all mean for indoor riding? When the ability to move the bike beneath you is restricted as it is indoors, then your ability to produce the power you do outside is also restricted.
Air Movement
The joys of riding outside include feeling the wind in your hair…which is why indoor riding may potentially seem that much harder. You are generating far more heat with little to 0 airflow to cool you down! Heat and dehydration are well documented to cause declines in your performance, especially during longer durations. How to combat this? Bring on the fans and lots of them!
Mental
It is no secret that the motivation factors you encounter outside can drastically boost your performance versus solo indoor training. Having decreased motivation will have an effect on your overall performance where you may not be able to eke out every watt from yourself as you typically could outdoors. Smart trainer programs now allow riders to virtually see others on-screen to help not only boost motivation but to find those extra watts to simulate group riding. If not hooked up to any of these programs, indoor riding helps to build your own personal mental fortitude to help you get closer to your goals when the going gets tough.
Que faire si votre puissance à l’extérieur est différente de celle à l’intérieur ?
Ne craignez rien. La première étape serait d’essayer d’identifier pourquoi votre puissance est différente. Souffrez-vous d’un problème de mobilité des hanches ? Pourriez-vous avoir besoin de renforcer votre force du core ? Ou est-ce que la chaleur vous ralentit ?
À partir de là, vous pouvez commencer à augmenter vos schémas de mobilité pour essayer de débloquer vos fléchisseurs de hanches tendus ou prendre le temps d’augmenter votre force du core pour aider à voir des améliorations à l’intérieur.
Si vous avez une différence de puissance, et qu’elle est importante, alors assurez-vous d’aborder votre FTP intérieur et extérieur. Selon chaque FTP, vos entraînements seront modifiés pour répondre à vos besoins individuels. Si vous êtes quelqu’un (ou un coach) qui utilise des chiffres de fatigue accumulée pour suivre la forme physique/les progrès, l’utilisation d’un chiffre FTP qui est soit trop élevé soit trop bas modifiera vos scores de fatigue accumulée pour chaque entraînement.
Si vous n’utilisez pas la puissance, alors être à l’écoute de votre propre RPE (effort perçu relatif) peut vous aider à faire des ajustements aux entraînements à l’intérieur comme à l’extérieur.