Welcome to indoor trainer season

It's that time of year when chilly winds suddenly make your bib shorts and jersey feel inadequate. When it gets forbiddingly cold to ride outdoors, indoor training sessions are a must to keep your fitness in check. That's why we've integrated SportTracks into a variety of popular indoor training platforms — so your workout log, Training Load, and Performance charts remain as accurate as possible.

Suffering on your indoor trainer may not feel as consequential to your fitness as climbing a challenging ascent with a fast group, but as far as your cardiovascular and muscular systems are concerned, it can be every bit as impactful. Indoor cycling workouts make a big contribution to your overall fitness, and SportTracks lets you know how well you handled them, and how quickly you will recover. 

Photo by Martin Thomas

When you're cranking away on an indoor trainer (which are also referred to as "turbos" in some parts of the world), it can be extremely beneficial to do more than just stare at a wall or a TV. It pays dividends to have motivation, guidance, and a plan. That's where the following platforms come into play...

TrainerRoad

Working out on an indoor trainer isn't just about maintaining your fitness. With the right direction, you can actually improve and become a faster rider. This is the promise of TrainerRoad, an automated bike training program for Mac, Windows, iOS, and Android.

While TrainerRoad shines in its ability to push you as a cyclist, it doesn't take the rest of your training into account, nor allow integrated coaching. That's why SportTracks is the perfect compliment to TrainerRoad, because without it, you've only got half a solution.

Our auto-sync integration makes all of your TrainerRoad sessions automatically upload into SportTracks, where you can analyze them alongside your runs, swims, and other training activities. Not only can you then use the advanced analysis tools in SportTracks to discover trends in your TrainerRoad workouts, but you can see how they impact your Health charts, so you get a complete picture of your current fitness.

Learn more about our TrainerRoad integration in this post.  

Wahoo

Wahoo Fitness offers a range of wildly-popular fitness tools that all play a role in indoor training. Their advanced bike computer, the Wahoo ELEMNT, was designed to be used as your primary tracking device for both outdoor and indoor rides. And, of course, the ELEMNT features built-in auto-sync integration with SportTracks.

Fully compatible with both iOS and Android, the Wahoo ELEMNT makes syncing with SportTracks extremely easy. In fact, this bike computer is famous for being ultra-easy to set up and start using (compared to the other options out there). It features built-in Wi-Fi, which makes sharing workout files absolutely painless. And again, the ELEMNT was designed for both indoor and outdoor use, so your workouts are covered all year long.

If you use a Wahoo KICKR bike trainer, you can auto-sync your workouts to SportTracks if you also have a Garmin Connect account. The Wahoo Fitness app features an integration with Garmin Connect in the "Share" section of its settings. If you enable Garmin Connect sharing, and also have auto-sync enabled between Garmin Connect and SportTracks, the KICKR workouts you complete with the Wahoo Fitness app will automatically upload into SportTracks.

Learn more about our Wahoo integration in this post.  

PeriPedal

For those of you who have a trainer and a computer that runs Windows, an application called PeriPedal is an excellent indoor workout companion. PeriPedal displays important stats from your workout, such as Power, Heart Rate, Speed, and Cadence, and it lets you do useful things, such as controlling the playback of a Netflix stream as you ride. It also features built-in auto-sync with SportTracks.

As you surely know, cycling can be an expensive endeavor. However, not everything needs to be pricey. You can easily go into bankruptcy buying an all-carbon frame, a top-notch drivetrain, and wheels that are lighter than air. PeriPedal is a rare example of high-quality cycling tool that has a competitive, budget-friendly price.

Learn more about our PeriPedal integration in this post.  

These are our main indoor training partners right now. However, we constantly work on broadening our partnerships. The goal is to give you as many different training options as we possibly can. So expect more indoor training options with built-in SportTracks auto-sync to appear in the future.

If you have any questions or comments, we would love to hear them in the comments below. Keep warm and suffer on!