Working stiffs just don't have the daylight hours most of the year to ride "on the roads" during the week. Weekends? Maybe. It is so much easier and time efficient to hop onto the bike that is mounted on the trainer. As an older fart, too much intensity on the trainer bike is counter productive.

I did 99% of my training indoors last year. (87km outside lol)
- Sometimes I started at 4am and be done by 8am and with the family theme park by 10am on a Saturday.
- Safety. Drinking and driving, texting and driving. Just cant risk it. Where I normally ride my bike outside is where somebody got hit by drunk driver in 2014 (i believe you had an article of him in slowtwtich. Cant remember his name but he was a fast athlete. )
- Time effeciency. I can time my kids nap time to my bike ride. One hour ride is one hour long in the basement. Didnt need to travel anywhere.
- Quality. I could just put my head down and focus on my power without having to worry about my surroundings. 5hrs long ride sucked but totally worth it on race day.
-I have 2 kids. If my wife REALLY needs me she can just yell/call me in the basement and upstairs within a few seconds. Doesnt burn out your support system.

Result
2:24 Half Ironman bike split

I didnt really find needing to learn how to ride my bike again on race day. When I got to my bike I just totally forgot about "biking".

This is an unfair comparisson.

If you get hit by a car doing a 60kph while on a bike you definitely will get hurt or possibly die.
If you get hit by a car doing the same speed while on a car you could get a fender bender or damage to your car etc etc.

This is like comparing throwing a rock at you vs throwing a snowball at you.

THIS ^^^^ While I'm not a parent, it seems like common sense to do all your cycling inside if you are one. Anything happens, you are home with the kids/wife/husband.

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Honest question for the indoor trainers, why do you think we never have these threads about treadmills?

Do most of my rides during the week on the rollers inside or stationary trainer mainly due to time constraints and having run out of daylight, especially during this time of year. Weekends I typically do my long ride early Saturday or Sunday morning as I try to be aware of traffic patterns on the roads I ride. I figure early morning rides will reduce the drunk driver chances, just have to worry mostly about distracted drivers.

As for why this discussion has not come up about treadmills I think most people do not run with traffic on the roads. Even when I run on main or secondary roads running against traffic gives you another layer of defense to take evasive action, just my opinion.

Short Course racer here. I'm on TrainerRoad's High Volume Sprint plan which is a lot of sweet spot and VO2 max work during the week which I do indoors on my computrainer. On the weekend I head out the West Orange Trail (great bike trail here in central florida) and get in a 2 hour Z2 ride.

I have a little comfort as I drive a big truck. My chances of dying on a bike by getting hit by a car is much higher than getting hit by the same car while in my truck.

That said (and to the OP) I ride inside because I enjoy it. I also run on the treadmill because i enjoy it.

Outside is fun, but inside is better in my opinion.

Part of that could be all the allergy inducing "things" in the outside air that I don't have in my air-conditioned house.

Because I can't run 30 mph.

I train almost completely indoors on a smart trainer. I have a 7-month old, 2 year old, and 4 year old, and a wife who is putting up with my 70.3 goal. Once the weather warms up I will be doing some of my long rides outdoors.

Random reasons why I choose indoor training:

Personal safety

• I work and get home at rush hour. By the time rush hour is over it is dark.
• No shoulders / unsafe roads around my house.
• I see distracted drivers every day on my drive home from work.

Balance family life

• If my wife needs me I can stop and not be 10 miles away. <-- HUGE for her
• Kids see their dad more.
• A lot of my rides are after 8pm when family is in bed.

Better training

• I can see my power on my smart trainer and train using power.
• Zwift and Trainer Road workouts are a far better use of my limited time than the roads around here.
• I can do group rides without planning a week in advance and no one showing.
• I can do a race if I want to and there is no fee.
• I can climb a mountain in my basement that is 6 times higher than the mountain behind my house.

Comfort

• I can watch or listen to whatever I want to pass the time.

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"If it costs you 30 minutes at Maryland so what" -dwreal

I now ride Monday-Friday all indoors. I put about 6 hours a week on my trainer, then about 6-7 hours on the roads on Saturdays/Sundays.

My workouts are structured to fit into a 1 hour and 12 minute timeframe that I have to train in the mornings before my long-ass commute. That puts me up at 4:00AM, on the trainer by 4:25AM, and on the road by 6:10AM. I get home at 6:00PM. A little family time, dinner, get ready to do it over again.

I envy the folks who have a better work/life balance with a more flexible work schedule. We work in such a connected world; I struggle to figure out why I need to commute to an office to sit and do what I could do . . . anywhere.


ETA: I'm a roadie only. Cat 3. Focusing on road races and time trials.

I am also a 9 to 5 er-ish, so m-f I also ride the CT,weekends outside.

Doesn't bother me a bit, the hour I spend on the CT is much more enjoyable as I do not have to deal with traffic, weather, as well as being more productive as I am available to the family if needed and the workout is way more intense. Can get caught up on TV/sports as well. Between terrain, traffic, and stoplights getting the kinds of intervals done outside that I can get done inside would be very difficult if not impossible without riding for :45 to get somewhere safe enough to do them

Been doing this for several years, including training for IM Canada and Coz and tons of halfs. Granted, for the fulls I do have a few weekends of 80 + mile rides

As someone who is working toward base training for the first time, i am currently deep in base training based on TTB. In that, he has you doing a lot of zone 1-2, with some zone 3 thrown in. How does the Trainerroad/Zwift workouts align with this type of training plan, which I have to imagine a lot of people are following?

Back when I was doing half training, I did it almost exclusively on my trainer+TR. Even my long rides. Not only did I not regret it, I'm glad I did. It helped me face my weaknesses and address them. It meant I could train more late at night (when I had free time). I could measure my progress and see how nutrition/hydration/rest affected performance. In the end, I was dialed in, confident, and ready; even if it was a bit mentally brutal.

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Echoing what a lot of people have said:

Personal safety
Less things to worry about when riding the TT bike which has a more compromised position than the road bike


Balance family life
A lot of my rides are after 8pm when family is in bed.
Trainer time is way more efficient, just add ~30mins to the duration of the workout to account for pre-ride prep and post-ride shower and that is all the time it takes.


Better training
Kickr and TrainerRoad make it so that there's no cheating on the intervals, only perfect efficiency
Allows to focus on TT position adaptation, and easing in to it over time.


Ex-triathlete, now Cat3 roadie aiming for early-season (end of Feb) stage race w/ flat TT to seal my upgrade. So far, with 3 months of focused trainer time over the winter I've managed in the past 3 weeks to equal or outperform my best 2016 power numbers for almost everything from 5s to 1h.

We do have these threads about treadmills. The reason we have them is that for a lot of people (myself included) a lot of the enjoyment of both running and cycling lies in being outdoors, getting fresh air in your lungs, sun (and rain, wind, and recently sleet...) on your face, conquering hills (and mountains if you're lucky) and hopefully exploring and seeing places you've never seen before. The reason we get more of these threads on cycling than running is that cycling trumps running on all those factors - you can go faster, further and for longer, so can have some pretty epic outings. I also think there are less people doing all their running indoors than cycling - it's easier to run outdoors when it's dark, there's less of a safety concern, structured running training is less likely to be messed up by traffic or gradient, etc.

I have no issue with people who don't feel the same way about training outdoors as I do. I get all the arguments about higher quality, time-efficiency and having more control, and I do some indoor bike training for those reasons. But if those things somehow became more important to me than being outside, I wouldn't be cycling at all, I'd be doing things which are even more time-efficient and give a better all-body workout like indoor rowing or CrossFit.

A few years back, training for 70.3, I'd do 2 hours super hard on the weekends, all done on my Fluid2 trainer. Super hard being ~90% FTP. I think I biked a 2:17ish and managed to run well (for me anyways). Probably the best biking shape I've been in, I've always credited those 2 hours of power on the trainer.

With so many triathletes seemingly training indoors, is it any wonder that their bike handling at actual races is often so poor? Cornering, bottle hand-ups, weather etc cannot be trained in a pain-cave. Similarly, how many Olympic distance pros have ever raced more than one Crit or road race?

I'm sure it's a factor, but not sure it's a major one, and I also think the poor handling of triathletes is often over-exaggerated. I'd put the poor handling of triathletes mainly down to:
1) Triathlon has a lot of beginners and people doing it as a one-off to tick off their bucket list. You don't really get these people in bike racing, you get more of it in gran fondo type events, but the bike handling at the back of the pack in those events can be pretty terrifying as well
2) Triathletes tend to o a lot of solo training, since they race solo. So they don't have much chance to learn from other people, and don't have a lot of incentive to learn to handle their bike in a way which works well when surrounded by other riders
3) Triathlon bikes don't handle great anyway
4) There really isn't much need to be a great bike handler on most tri courses. They're rarely particularly technical and the drafting rules mean there shouldn't be anybody too close. If you're riding in a tight group and can't hold a straight line while taking a drink, or can't get out of the saddle on a climb without decelerating your bike, then you're going to either cause an accident, get shouted at, or find that nobody wants to ride with you. In a triathlon, those things might cost you a few seconds in an event lasting hours.

Personally I think it is a good thing to try and become a good cyclist, not just a good triathlete on a bike. So learning how to descend, how to ride fast in a group, riding offroad, etc. Not sure any of it translates directly to performance on a non-technical course, but learning is always good and if it mixes up your training and gets you riding more then it translates to better fitness. But then I've had swimmers tell me the same about swimming, and that I should be learning to do butterfly, backstroke, tumble turns, etc in order to be a better swimmer, and I have to admit I just tend to ignore them and stick to freestyle with open turns (or better yet, freestyle in a lake with no turns), so I can't really take the high ground!

If you mean threads where someone comes on and says "I love training indoors for these reasons:", at which point it becomes an "us" versus "them" argument, I'd say it's because treadmills are less ubiquitous than bike trainers (If you search for treadmills you can still find the same type of "I love the treadmill" versus "The treadmill sucks" threads, there is just fewer of them).

If you mean threads where someone asks for workout ideas, I'd guess it's because there is [seemingly] less variation in treadmill workouts than bike workouts.

That's my hypothesis, anyway.

I wanted to chime in on why I ride indoors. I ride indoors because I enjoying doing a lot of volume, and the trainer is the most efficient way to do this. A 2 hour ride on the trainer is 3 hours outside. There's not a lot you have to do on the trainer to get ready. To get ready for a ride outdoors, there's so much to do. Then you have to worry about a flat or cars or if you're riding with someone else.

After 2 years of being 99% on the trainer I've actually gotten to the point where I prefer it over outside. Zwift has done a great job of making the trainer more enjoyable. They have group rides, races, workouts etc. You don't have to worry about the elements or stop signs. Riding indoors has improved my bike segment in triathlons so I keep doing it.

Maybe I just like video games and hate cycling. But check out Zwift.

I guess your point would make sense if he were commuting on his bike... but strictly for training purposes, there is no (or less) need to expose yourself to that potential danger whereas driving a car--for the vast majority of us--is necessary to daily life.

I like to see the perspective of another roadie using the trainer for a lot of training.

I am a Cat 3 as well--struggling for any upgrade points because I SUCK at short-duration power, my preference is getting into breakaways and time trialing. Trying to improve my 1' and below power is where I am not sure if I'm doing much good at improving on the trainer. I am trying to focus on developing that end of my power curve, but I'm not sure if it's entirely possible with my training restrictions. I am tending toward very hard, short intervals but I am hesitant to really 'sprint' on the trainer. I have a Cycleops Fluid 2 and feel like I'd damage my bike if I really 'sprinted' on the trainer. How do you train for those efforts to get ready for crits and road races while using the trainer? Or is the Kickr that much better for those types of efforts?

What ever my coach sets for me, what ever sets the training group can do on the road i can do on the trainer much easier.

The lead up to my last two races i did almost 100% of my training on a Kickr and Zwift, i think i did 1 one long ride outside. I was happy with my bike performance in both races and not riding didn't effect my bike handling ability at all, TTing is pretty simple as far as the skill set required.


Intervals are so much easier on a trainer if you don't have pancake flat roads to ride or a good hill to go up and down. Plus i can ride with brother who lives 500km away.