Blog – Page 28 – Indoor Cycling Tips

You have sweated up a storm on your indoor bike, dominated the competition on Zwift, or nailed that DVD spin class and you want to record it on Strava. After all, you can't have your hard work not recorded right? You open your Strava app only to find there is no option to record an indoor cycling session. How can this be? Indoor cyclists are cyclists too. So how do you record your indoor cycling session on Strava? To record an indoor cycling ride on Strava, you will need to record your ride as a manual activity via the Strava website to ensure the Indoor Cycling option is available. Some selected smart trainers like Peloton and Zwift can now sync their data with Strava automatically. While some advanced cycling trainers like the Peloton bike or cycling app setups like Zwift now have Strava compatibility, most indoor stationary bikes are only going to give you the distance and watts. We will show where to get information on integrating Strava with those fancy smart trainers and apps shortly, but for the rest of us, there is no use in letting all that effort go to waste. Here is how to record your indoor ride via the Strava website so you have the Indoor Cycling option available (by the way, if you have a Fitbit instead, we have you covered here): How to record indoor cycling on Strava on a computer While Strava encourages us to use their App as much as possible, there is one thing they still do not allow on either Android or iPhone. Tagging rides as "Indoor Cycling". We'll get into why that is later, but for now, if you want to record an indoor ride, it is time to fire up the laptop or desktop computer and enter your workout manually. Here are the steps: Step 1: Login into the Strava website with your usual username and password. Note, if you originally signed up with Strava on your mobile phone, you may have chosen to log in with your Google or Facebook account. If that is the case, choose one of those options on the web interface as well. Step 2: Once logged in successfully, at the top right of the screen you will see a small plus symbol with a circle around it. Rolling over that will show a dropdown menu with various extra options. Rollover the plus symbol and choose "Add manual entry" from the dropdown list. Step 3: Here is where you enter your activity data based on the data you have either on your indoor trainer or any accompanying app it may use. Enter that data manually in each field, and be sure to choose the "Indoor Cycling" tag under the Tags heading in the middle of the page. This is the tag not available on Android or iPhone and the reason we are using the web interface. Step 4: While submitting your data at this point would be just fine, you may want to separate your indoor rides even further. A great tip is to add a new bike to Strava, even if it is the same bike you use on the road. To do this, you can create a "New Bike" to your equipment list as shown below, which will allow you to select this before submitting your indoor rides. Enter the details as best you can for your indoor trainer including the estimated weight of the bike. Strava will not allow you to add the new equipment without a weight. They use this data in outdoor rides to work out the different metrics they provide during a ride. While that doesn't apply to an indoor ride, you'll still need to add something here. This may be tough to estimate, so as a guide, the Peleton turbo trainer weighs 135lbs (61kg), while a typical road bike weighs around 17.5 pounds (8kg). In the end, though, it really doesn't matter as it won't be used. Save your bike, and choose "Create" at the bottom of the screen to save your activity. Here's a handy tip, I like to take a photo of the machine readout at the end of indoor training rides and add that to the workout via the mobile app later on so the full details are easily accessible (and sometimes, to gloat). Do indoor cycling rides count towards Strava challenges? So you have done a personal best, followed the instructions above, attached a photo and now you are ready to brag about another Strava challenge conquered. I have some bad news. Strava does not count indoor cycling sessions, whether manually entered or via smart trainer towards Strava challenges. Whether they are recorded manually or as Virtual Rides from a cycling app, they are still ignored when it comes to leaderboards and challenges. While frustrating, it is understandable. Strava does this to ensure challenges are more realistic. Riding on an indoor trainer while fantastic to improve fitness, cannot simulate the variable conditions you experience when riding on the road. The last thing you want after fighting a headwind, potholes, and slow riders is for your place to be taken by someone riding in the comfort of their air-conditioned lounge room. Keep an eye out though for challenges labeled as "Partner challenges". These are specifically created for riders of different equipment, including some indoor bikes, and might be something you can participate in. Where do I find the Indoor Cycling tag on the Strava App? As you don't move anywhere on an indoor bike (thank goodness!), no GPS data is available, and so Strava has decided to not make the Indoor Cycling tag available on their mobile apps. It is an odd decision considering most people live on their phones these days to record data, both indoors and outdoors, but they are sticking to it. The request has been around since 2014 to include it in the Apps options, but it looks like Strava is not keen to add it anytime soon. In a nutshell, if you need to classify the ride as an indoor cycling ride. Use the web interface of Strava. What about my smart turbo trainer? The good news is, in recent times, the more modern (and yes, pricey) indoor cycling setups now integrate with Strava automatically. You can invest in some fantastic indoor trainers like the Peloton Bike, the Expresso, or the Echelon Smart Cycle. All of these trainers will sync up with Strava and post their workouts automatically. Be ready to have the credit card ready though, as they can get pricey very quickly. Another option is the ever-growing bank of cycling apps that integrate with turbo trainers and often work with Strava. They not only log their data with Strava, they also come at a much cheaper price tag. Zwift is probably the most popular, but there are others like TrainerRoad, Sufferfest, or Bkool. Each setup will be different, but you can follow the instructions on the official Strava website here for the Peloton Bike, and here for your Zwift setup. Summing Up So there you have it. If you want to record a ride specifically as an indoor ride, you will need to use the Strava website interface only, like the Android and iPhone apps as yet do not allow the Indoor Cycling tag. If you have a smart trainer, you are in luck, just follow the guidelines provided by Strava and you can have all your rides sync up automatically at the end of each ride. Remember though, none of them count towards challenges, so you'll still have to get out in the real world and hit the roads to get involved and claim bragging rights. Related Questions How do I record a spin class on Strava? Spin classes held in a gym avoid having to store your bike in your apartment, and can also be recorded the same way as an indoor ride in your home. These will need to be entered as a manual activity, though some select classes may provide data from the bikes for you to upload manually to Strava. What's the difference between a virtual ride and an indoor ride in Strava? Virtual activities and indoor rides are essentially the same things. Virtual rides though have the advantage of including GPS, distance, elevation, and time data from a simulated route via the smart trainer software.