TRIQ Indoor Bike Training With Virtual Cycling Apps like Zwift
TRIQ Indoor Bike Training With Bike Trainers and Virtual Platforms Like Zwift
When it comes to indoor bike training there are many different setups that can be used to have a good training experience, depending on your individual preferences and the amount of money you are willing to spend on indoor equipment. However, for any setup the essential components you would need to have an adequate training experience with TRIQ and make use of physiological and performance data are:
- A smart watch or bike computer from Garmin® (we currently only support this brand but will add other brands soon) to guide you to you even directly control your bike trainer.
- A so-called bike trainer (Tacx, Wahoo, Elite, etc.) that can be smart or analog, creates resistance in a stationary position and is often attached instead of the back wheel of a road bike.
- Sensors such as a chest strap accurately measuring your heart rate (optical sensors integrated in a wrist device like a smart watch would do the job as well, BUT are missing additional data like HRV to enable further analysis and make use of the full data potential available nowadays) and optimally additional Power-, Cadence- or Speed-sensors (if they are not integrated in your bike trainer)
- A place where you either have a scenic outdoor view or a setup like TV, tablet, laptop, computer etc. where you can make use of the most common virtual cycling environments like Zwift, TrainerRoad, FulGaz, Rouvy, etc or stream other video content.
How to do TRIQ Workouts With Smart Indoor Trainers (Full Connectivity and Controllability) and Virtual Worlds Like Zwift®
This is a very common scenario many triathletes use. While there are minor technical differences in the exact specifications of the smart trainers and some triathletes even own a fully smart stationary indoor bike, the way to make it work is the same for all. We have decided to use Zwift (as the virtual cycling environment) in our examples.
- Make sure TRIQ’s workout is synced with your smart-watch or your bike computer from Garmin®
- Make sure that you are wearing a chest strap sending HR data and it is connected with your Garmin® watch.
- Once you are ready, initiate a "bike indoor" training on your watch and choose the planned workout from TRIQ that should be available for that day
- Turn on Zwift® (etc.) and make sure when connecting your smart trainer with Zwift® the you leave the controllable function disabled as the Garmin® device shall do the job. This ensures that Zwift® only reads data but does not send data to the trainer. Here is a blog article about that topic and also a video here.
- Choose a world or course in Zwift® you’d like to ride in
- Press START on the watch and begin cycling, with the trainer controlled by your watch.
See also the Garmin®’s own instruction here.
IMPORTANT:
- Make sure your watch or bike computer from Garmin® is within reach of your smart trainer.
- If you encounter problems and Zwift® is still controlling your smart-trainer then:
- turn off Zwift®
- delete the established trainer connection on your Garmin® watch and re-establish it
- turn on Zwift® again and follow the instructions and make sure that you disable “controllable” in the connectivity menu.
- start the indoor-training on the watch again.
- Disable the syncing between Zwift® & Garmin® and only record your data with your Garmin® device and sync it with the Garmin® cloud. This is necessary because Garmin® does not send data received by Zwift ® to TRIQ. Therefore, you have to record and sync the data with your Garmin® device & Garmin® cloud. If syncing between Zwift® and Garmin® is enabled, you will have duplicates on the Garmin® cloud.
- We highly recommend measuring your HR with a chest strap that has Bluetooth capabilities (e.g. Polar H10). This ensures high data quality and enables proper HRV measurement (see next point)
- Ensure HRV logging on your Garmin® device, so the HRV data is stored and can be used for threshold detection. For more information see our FAQ section.
How to do TRIQ Workouts with Semi-Smart Indoor Trainers (Some Connectivity but Manual Resistance Setting) and Virtual Worlds Like Zwift®:
Some indoor trainers like Peloton, Schwinn, etc. are semi-smart and can communicate cadence and power estimates via Bluetooth to your Garmin® device or virtual riding platforms but they are not controllable via wireless communication. For these trainers, resistance must be set manually during the workout to follow the instructions.
- Assure that your trainer is connected to your Garmin® device and optional also to the virtual platform.
- To follow the training guided by HR you need to wear a chest strap sending data to your Garmin® device.
- To follow the training guided by power you need a trainer with a power sensor or a power sensor on your bike that sends data to your Garmin® device.
- Once you are ready initiate a "bike-indoor" training on your watch and choose the planned workout from TRIQ that should be displayed for today
- If you are using a virtual environment (e.g. Zwift®), activate it and pick a world to train in
- Press start and begin cycling.
- Set the resistance on your trainer to such a level that you either reach your power target or the correlated HR target.
- Try to maintain your target values throughout the workout by controlling your resistance, cadence, or speed manually.
IMPORTANT:
- Check out the tips given for the smart trainer setup above.
- Make sure that the primary connection of your sensors is set up with the Garmin® device and not the virtual platform otherwise the recording of Garmin® might have missing data.
- If you’re still having problems setting up your training environment, please go to the website of your trainer’s manufacturer or your virtual platform provider to read about the proper setup. There are also lot YouTube videos explaining the common setups. See the links above.
How to do TRIQ Workouts With Non-Smart Indoor Trainers (no Connectivity):
The last group of bike trainers are those that are analog, meaning they do not have any digital communication in either direction. They are the most affordable trainers of the three options. For such trainers the setup is as following:
- To follow the training guided by HR you need to wear a chest strap sending data to your Garmin® device.
- To follow the training guided by power you need a power sensor on your bike that measures and sends data to your Garmin® device.
- Initiate a ‘bike indoor ‘training of TRIQ on your Garmin® device and press START.
- Set the resistance on your trainer to such a level that you either reach your resistance target or the correlated HR target of TRIQ recommendations.
- Try to maintain your target values throughout the workout by controlling your resistance, cadence, or speed manually.
IMPORTANT:
- Check out the tips given for the smart trainer setup above. If you’re still having problems setting up your training environment, please go to websites of your trainer’s manufacturer or your virtual platform provider to read about the proper setup. There are also lot of YouTube videos explaining the common setups. See the links above
We hope this little guide helps you to get set quickly and enjoy your training. Because after all, showing up constantly is the most important part. If you have any questions, feel free to contact us via our support menu in the TRIQ app. And if you haven’t tried TRIQ yet, what are you waiting for?
