Dan333SP

You could be thinking about all of these things and nothing else, but you certainly don't need to be to get an effective workout in on the trainer. I speak for myself, but I find that my body positioning falls into place on its own and I don't need to focus on knee tracking or cadence speed or back positioning, I ride just like I would on the road because that's how I'm comfortable.

When I'm mid-interval on the trainer, I'll just be staring at my HR number and my stopwatch without the ability to pay much attention to the TV, but I don't spend the entire trainer session at 180 bpm and the TV helps distract me during the non-interval stretches.

f4rrest

Intervals on the trainer with headphones and some metalcore or other aggressive music.

But the weather is nice here, so I haven't done indoor for quite a while.

I recall doing 3 hr z2 rollers while rehabbing fractures last year though. Just music.

DaveLeeNC

A century ride on Zwift could be 'interesting' I suppose.

dave

chaadster

Man, I feel sorry for y'all. I can hop on the trainer or stationary and knock out an hour in silence, with nothing more to look at than the power, HR, cadence, and clock on the Garmin.

I do ride to structured plans, however, so I have exact "maps" for every minute of the entire ride, with duration, target power, and cadence. And it's never all the same; maybe it's a 10min warmup, followed by a 5min L4+10w @ 85-90rpm, followed by 5min L2 @ 80-85rpm, into a 10min block @ L3 85-90, etc. Perhaps having a plan to follow makes all the difference in terms of engagement. I have the ride written out on a sheet right in front of the handlebars.

I ride a trainer all year round, too, at least 2 one-hour sessions per week, usually three, plus outdoor rides all year round, too (unless it's really subzero and nasty, but rain, cold, snow no problem). I'm starting year four of this routine.

Zwift, this past year, has really added a fun dimension to some of my trainer rides, and, especially in spring as I near the first crit of the season, I really enjoy watching forum member Carpediemracing's YouTube videos of his bike cam from his crit races; gets me hyped! I also love the on-screen commentary he does, explaining tactics and what's going on in the race, so call 'em educational, too!

I tried Sufferfest, but the music is like being at an a**hole frat party at some backwater, country college. Sucks. Real bad. That, and for someone accustomed to working to numbers, the RPE thing they do just doesn't cut it for me.

kbarch

Aside getting bike fit adjustments, the only time I ever rode anything like a trainer was on a stationary bike when getting a 5-10 minute warm-up at the gym, or when I had a broken shoulder and didn't feel stable or safe on the bike. With the broken shoulder, I could manage an hour, not including warm-up and cool-down, but HATED it. I'd be watching the news in the morning, and would set the thing up to do intervals. I wouldn't necessarily pay attention to the news; I'd often think the kinds of things @Carbonfiberboy was going on about. Not sure I'd call it boredom exactly, but it was very frustrating being so 'stuck there.' And very sweaty. I never sweat so much in my life.

But as much as I hated riding a stationary bike, I've been thinking of getting some rollers. If it were just about riding, I would definitely ride outside, even in the coldest weather (though icy roads are, naturally, a non-starter), but since it is about training, I figure rollers would provide opportunities for a little handling training as well. Funny thing about riding in cold weather; just getting out there and riding seems like work enough; thoughts of focused training just don't come to mind. Riding through the winter, I didn't feel I got any better, merely avoided getting worse.

Carbonfiberboy 

I didn't ride for many years and picked it back up at 50. I didn't have rollers then, so I rode an exercise bike in the gym for an hour and a half at a time and just like now, I worked my butt off on it. I'd have a good-sized puddle of sweat under the bike and probably not look so good. One time a little boy came over to me and asked, "Mister, are you all right?" Well, I've never been all right and I'm still not. Heck with that.

rpenmanparker 

Asking how to deal with trainer riding boredom is a lot like asking how to deal with hell. The difference is you can exit the trainer and probably should. Life is too short to make yourself miserable.

Carbonfiberboy 

The secret to a short life is to not do the work or make the decisions necessary to prolong it. The secret to a long healthy life is to never give up, never surrender to those voices in your head that tell you to quit or to eat those cookies. They'll get stronger every year if you let them. Like I always tell my workout partners, "If it weren't hard we wouldn't be doing it." That's how you know you're doing it right.

That said, resistance rollers are a lot more fun than that exercise bike in the gym. Fun is good too. I think a good set of intervals on the rollers where I kept hitting my numbers is fun. I'll have a big grin after.

KantoBoy

Get one of these things (I did) and ride outside.

kbarch

I don't know the future, and could die tomorrow, so a shorter or longer life doesn't matter; the secret is to make the best of ones situation. I don't exercise in order to live longer in the future, I do it in order to live better, including today, and to be happy with what I have done. To me, the problem with riding trainers and stationary bikes isn't that it's merely difficult, it's that it seems so stupid - it's so perverse and frustrating to just sit there, with nothing to show for your efforts except some numbers and some sweat. Riding outside, at least you get somewhere, and with other kinds of work, like chopping wood, you see the results of your efforts. And even with weight lifting, you see the size of the weights you're moving around, and you can go from station to station. With a stationary bike or trainer, it's just too abstract, and too confining. I'm glad to hear rollers are a lot more fun than an exercise bike, because as an alternative I've considered getting a setup to join friends on Zwift, even though I'm really not into electronics, and definitely not into "gaming."

Not without studded tires, and not without its own garage; I wouldn't want to have to look at it. Maybe if I had a cabin in the Catskills or the Poconos I'd get one, you know, in lieu of an ATV.

svtmike

I (and the few other riders I know who do serious trainer volume in the dead of winter) come out of my basement in much better condition in the spring than even my co-riders who ride their fat bikes outside instead. There is nothing at all abstract about the power and endurance advantages.

LAJ

TrainerRoad and old Indy 500's, Daytona 500's, and any other races that shrike your fancy. Good noise, and it doesn't take a lot of concentration to follow what's going on.

SpeshulEd 

The only downside of riding Zwift for me is when I ride outside again, I'm reminded of all the times I have to stop at intersections.

rmfnla

The tires have been mounted with different labels at the valve stems.

I wouldn't be able to sleep if my bike was done like that...

Athens80

Seriously. And traffic congestion. And inattentive drivers. And debris on the roads. That stuff is more prominent when I know I could be avoiding all of it.

Recently indoors has become the norm and riding outside just for special occasions (group ride, visible Sun, etc.)

Going with a KICKR the problem I've had to deal with recently is choosing which road to take -- Trainer Road, Zwift, Perfpro (with Sufferfest, Netflix or whatever), or the dozen other options available.

kbarch

Oh, I don't doubt anyone's ability to see greater improvement from disciplined trainer riding compared to merely getting out in the cold to ride - in fact, I'm sure of it. As for being abstract, power and endurance are necessary and qualify ones performance, but they aren't the "stuff" of cycling - they don't distinguish it from other activities.

Sure, numbers on a screen indicate real power and endurance, and can be encouraging and rewarding, but they don't quite overcome the inane, confining feeling of the activity that makes me, for one, significantly devalue potential improvements. Virtual rides (watching a screen of a real route, with effort varying according to elevation changes shown) was preferable to warming up on an ordinary stationary bike, but it convinced me to get OUT of the gym and onto a real bike. I'd rather climb hills and sprint down flat roads all day long than spend even 30 minutes getting any "exercise."

Ice41000

TV. Something engaging: bike race, scary movie, funny shows.

svtmike

Excepting maybe speedskating, I don't know of any activity you can engage in that will help your cycling power and endurance other than cycling itself.

I did two 2:15 rides this weekend. Next weekend is two 2:30 rides. I have to admit they are as much a mental challenge as a physical one; but my goal of being back in shape this spring (was hit by a car in '14, broken back and ripped up knee) keeps me going.

spdracr39

I think while I am riding "do I want a salad or a cheeseburger for dinner ?" The answer dictates the length of my suffering on the trainer.