That's a great idea. Thanks for sharing that.

Same here. I can do 3 hours with a bunch of set thrown in there. Last week I did an hour warm up then 3x20 70.3 pace with 10 easy between. I could not just sit and do 3 hours z2. That would be terrible! It’d be like running 90 minutes z2 on the treadmill. Yuck!

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Training for Cozumel last year I did a 6:15 session (an hour longer than race time). I watched Sportscenter, then College Game Day and then a game (can't remember which game). You need distractions. Trying to maintain a steady pace is not too hard with entertainment. It is harder if you are trying to follow a workout with varying power.

1st 4:30 was without a fan for heat acclimation purposes. Gave in and turned on the fan for the last 1:45.

Yep, indoor training and in particular endurance type zone 2 training can be tricky. The key is to figure out what motivates you. Some people simply can't stand riding indoors. No matter what they try they simply hate it. However, if you're in the indoor camp you have so many options these days. And smart traininers have helped definitely.

Many people love Zwift. I find it boring. Really boring. Same for Sufferfest, these videos are too hectic for my liking. And I can't stand this pseudo-suffer-theme all the time. Does not really motivate ME. And Sufferfest does not really offer options for longer rides. Only exception would be to do one or several vids during a longer ride. Especially later when you're already mentally fatigued.

What really works for me is to slice such a ride into pieces. Same mental strategy as outside: "just this hill", "just this section", ....

A 4-5 hours low intensity indoor ride could look like this:

Hour 1 (mentally fit): surfing the internet, reading a book, ....
Hours 2-3: watch a movie, sports, ...
Hours 4-5: do some structured elements, Erg mode helps a lot with that. I have my own "Sufferfest"-type videos. A simple element would be 20-30min of 2-3 minutes intervals of different intensity (from low Z2 to low Z3). "Just this interval". There is no limit to the number of different varieties for these elements.

Sometimes I already do "elements" earlier. Those are slightly more intense. Really depends on ...

Usually once I'm past the 45-90min mark it gets easier. Being aware of why you're doing this helps as well. Goal setting!

Also a very good strategy: ride outdoors and then finish up indoors.

This works for me. But as already alluded to above, everyone has to figure this out for himself. There is no one magic boredom buster. However, sharing our strategies may provide some inspiration.

I maxed out at 4 hours on the trainer due to bad weather, my max ride outside was 4.5 hours. I had no issues with the distance on race day.

My number 1 tip for long trainer rides is to wear two pairs on cycling knicks. Saved my ass big time... literally!

I learnt that trick from bike racers doing the famous Melbourne to Warnambool bike race here in Australia.

Other than that, a mix of music and tv shows/movies.

I'm not suggesting this will be the same for everyone, but by my way of thinking these two comments are contradictory. A major part of the reason I like Zwift is because it provides a "landscape" which facilitates that exact "just this hill" or "just this section" strategy. I've never gone over 3hrs and rarely over 2hrs. But even for these "longer rides", I don't start counting down from the planned duration. I get started and aim to complete the first lap or the first climb or whatever my short term goal might be. Much as I would on an outdoor ride. When you do a long alpine sportive you don't start counting the kilometres if you want to stay sane (well I don't anyway), it's more a case of considering each major climb as a goal in itself. Zwift facilitates that mentality IMO. It's not inherently entertaining, especially for solo riding, but you can make it entertaining or motivating - much like riding outdoors.

I often see friends on Strava posting 35 minute indoor rides and saying things like "urrgh, trainer". No way, the trainer is awesome, it's your best friend for sure. I use a combination of TrainerRoad for serious training, Sufferfest because it's so much fun to hurt like that, and Zwift for just cruising around at tempo for an hour or for longer races. I get bored only 2% of the time. The rest of it is time well spent.

As for watching TV - no way! Get yourself in a fast pack on a Zwift race and hang on for dear life. Brilliant fun!

???

Same mental strategy, just applied differently.

You use your Zwift hills/landscape, I use

"just 15 min of this The Walking Dead episode",
"just the last 20k of Milan-Sanremo",
"just this chapter in the book",
"just this newspaper article",
"just this 10min zone 2/3 over unders element".

Exactly....sorta

I did a 6 hour ride indoor the same day as Ironman 70.3 World Championships last year. Watching the full race live helped a lot. I also have been working on the 2008 Ironman WC Live Broadcast on youtube while doing some longer rides. Keeps ya motivated

Me too. I can do an hour on a trainer without usually going insane. I usually just stick to my higher intensity workouts on the trainer and end up doing about an hour. I've done as long as 2.5 hours and it was awful.