More intervals

park said:

I've been doing 4 min intervals times 7 with 4 minutes rest between each as part of my preparation for time trialing. Mostly because of weather and convenience I've been doing them on the computrainer. My more experienced and much faster friend tells me I would get a better workout outside. I tried it and found too much variation due to wind, inclincation, intersections, poor roads etc. With the computrainer I can monitor speed, wattage and heartrate easier and I find I can do more consistent efforts. I do all of my other training outside so am I doing myself a big disservice by doing these intervals inside?

If it gets you on the bike when weather or inconvenience might otherwise cause you to skip a workout, then I'd say the trainer is probably helping you at this point.

It's nice to have clinical conditions for your ride so you have total control over your effort, but remember that you'll have to deal with all those distractions (road, wind, inclines) when you actually do your TT ride. It's probably good to become accustomed to them now, but I wouldn't say the indoor sessions are hurting you.