Change this to a CX (or gravel) bike with aerobars, and I'd rank it very highly. And, you don't have to worry about cars.

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Steve

"If you ain't first, you're last." Reese Bobby Talladega Nights

I just got a smart trainer, and while the newness of it is still there, I'm pushing much harder than I ever did outside either alone or with a group.

I think it has a lot to do with no worries about bonking away from home, you just go and if you blow up before finishing the workout you can just get off.

Might be something else to consider.

I (or should I say my wife) is really concerned about safety. I do two rides per week on the trainer and one outdoor at a park with a 5 mile loop. I can get as tough a workout on the trainer as anything I can do outside, no cars, rain, flat tires, bonking away from home, crashing, interruptions, intersections, etc. I watch TV. For my long training rides indoors, I pick a good movie to watch on high def TV.

I vote for #3.

To me it sounds like you have two things to address: fitness and comfort/ease on the bike. If it were me, then I would spend a fair bit of time regaining fitness indoors without the handling/cars variables. From my own experience, I'm more confident on the road/trail when my fitness is higher. After your fitness comes around, start adding some outdoor rides to increase your comfort in those situations.

To the boredom point. If you really are, as you say, wanting to drive a pencil into your eyes after 15 minutes, then you're doing it wrong. What is your current indoor set up? Get a smart trainer, a Trainerroad or Zwift account, a good TV (at the right height), Netflix/Amazon/Hulu/YouTube, and a couple of quality fans (I just ordered two new ones after hearing the guys on the TR podcast talk about them). You'll never consider a recumbent bike at the gym again.

Good luck, keep us updated!

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Any run that doesn't include pooping in someone's front yard is a win.

Yeah, indoor trainer will always reach a point where you kind of start to hate it. But a good entertainment plan and zwift/trainer road take the sting out.

I went from hating anything over 30 minutes to getting some 3 hour rides in. Took me getting the proper fan and other things to keep comfortable, but now those 30 minute rides I used to dread 2-3 years ago feel like a warm up and I'm doing nearly all my riding on a trainer. Mostly due to convenience and ability to hit goals exactly without worrying about car or stoplights.

Also, you have road bike on trainer vs tri bike outside. why not tri bike in trainer?

Yeah. Indoor trainer rides rock.

Get Zwift or Sufferfest for fun. or TrainerRoad for seriously becoming faster. Don't sit there watching TV as that's a waste of time. TV sucks. Sit there and enjoy being on your bike, pushing out watts.

I do 1000's of miles a year indoors and never ever get bored!

Give the indoor trainer a try. You can get very fit off of 3-4x75-90min rides indoors. Let suffering be the entertainment!

Maybe look into the sufferfest (their sessions are supposedly great and not overly long), Zwift, or similar.

For now, while you're going easy, just watch Netflix or old races with some headphones on so that you can't hear the trainer itself. I'm not sure why, but that makes it more bearable for me.

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"Don't you have to go be stupid somewhere else?"..."Not until 4!"

First thing you need is tri specific fitness and then you need bike handling skills. Do TR on your tri bike to build fitness (1.hour workouts) in your Tri position, but I really like the gravel bike/mtn bike idea mentioned above for the bike handling endurance. Do all the endurance stuff riding the greenway to the trails and then cruise the trails for bike handling, balance,.... Ride greenway back.

You really can't skip the hard training time in the tri position.