Just did my first Zwift ride today. I am going to be hooked, I can tell.

I live in a beautiful area with lots of low traffic roads, but I still have issues with real road riding. The small windy roads means those fewer cars are actually more dangerous, we have tons of redneck aggression toward anyone in spandex, and all I have are hills. In the long run that will be good, but it's hard to get started that way.

The last time I went outside for a swim or bike ride was Sept 30th at IMCHOO.

I still ride 4x a week, but I do it with TrainerRoad and a dumb trainer. Even before IMCHOO, I spend 90% of my training time on the trainer from Feb to Sept.

Hopefully at my next race I dont get on my bike and fall over. And more hopefully.... I SO HOPE I DONT FORGET TO CLIP OUT!

I love training indoor so much that I have passed on a couple triathlons already this year because I have no desire or motivation to go outside.

99% Trainerroad, the last two years, I usually only do one outside ride before my races to check the bike/tires, sometimes not even that. I've never done a group ride, i don't own a bike computer and never even attempted to do a structure workout outdoors. I don't enjoy "just riding" and i don't have the luxury of going for rides, in order to utilize my time I use TR to squeeze as much workout time as possible within my schedule, TR allows me to workout day or night with minimum prep time. I can do a 2 hour TR workout without music, TV or a computer, just me, looking at the inside of my garage door, and enjoy it just as much.

Same boat here! Started using TrainerRoad because my wife didn’t feel safe with me out on the roads where we used to live. We have since moved and things are much safer here but I fell in love with the efficiency of indoor training! Minimal prep and always available night or day rain or shine. Always being productive.

Haven’t been outside since September of last year and don’t really plan too until a pre race equipment check.

I honestly thought indoor training with TR would suck big time without TV or audiobooks, but turns out that most of their plans have workouts that are so friggin hard that there's no way you can do anything except grit your teeth and hope to survive to the end on most days!

I still remember the 'not-so-long ago good ol' days' when nearly everyone on slowtwitch and other tri forums would be horrified at the prospect of doing most of your bike training indoors. Tons of 'but you'll be soooo dangerous on race day with your bad bike handling', and 'it's NEVER as good training as outdoors, you're leaving a lot on the table', and 'the static position doesn't translate well to outdoors' was the norm.

Now it's flipped totally on its head - not only are folks here favoring cycling indoors, but people are freaking watching pro triathletes train INDOORS on youtube. Crazy!

Like I've had to tell my son 1000 times, go outside and play.

Threads like this make me sad.

at least mountain biking is still outside (I think??)

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Swimming Workout of the Day:

Favourite Swim Sets:

2020 National Masters Champion - M50-54 - 50m Butterfly

Expecting other people to like what you like will always make you sad...;)

I definitely do almost all my riding indoors, with TR (zwift is concurrent as a bit of visual distraction, I could easily do without though). For me, it's a matter of convenience, I live in a town 10miles from Boston, just on the edge of the good riding but just far enough that for me it takes a bit to get to a place where I could do longer intervals. I'm pretty terrible at outdoor workouts and keeping steady-ish power on rolling terrain, which is obviously a sign I should work on it, but being able to just get down to business on the trainer is huge for me. I work from home and the 90-120min workouts fit in well in the flow of my day, if I were to go outside it would eat into work time and what not. Plus I can listen to stuff or watch soccer on the weekends and it's just a good experience. I save my outdoor stuff for long group rides or just enjoying the weather

I raced CX this past season without ever doing any outdoor riding and I did just fine (for me).

I think this is very dependent on the life of each person. Pre kids, nearly all of my rides and runs were done outside. 20 degrees or higher I would ride outside, and I've run outside with a windchill of around -30 F. Now, virtually all of my rides are inside and I only do outside runs on the weekend. I find that it is also quicker to get on the trainer/treadmill each morning compared to getting things ready to go outside (jackets, flat kits, hydration, etc.). I also feel that indoor training can be more 'bang for the buck' - no stops on the bike unless I'm taking a quick bathroom break, and it's easy and predictable to hit target paces on the trainer and treadmill as you aren't influenced by weather, traffic, etc.

I do enjoy getting outside to ride/run - not sure I like it inside any more or less, but I just think it's a bit more efficient to do the training inside. It's also a lot safer - although my wife nearly got hurt this morning when she forgot to tighten down the rear of her bike before getting on the trainer!

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Blog: http://262toboylstonstreet.blogspot.com/
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I haven't actually been, but B-line is supposed to be a gas.
https://www.blinebikepark.com

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Less is more.

I go back and forth. I've gotten to the point now that I don't ride outside unless it's for some combination of the following

1. Simply to enjoy being on a bike outside
2. More than 2.5 hours. (if it's winter and I want to ride longer, I go ride the trails)

At the end of the day, for workouts - indoor training is best for me. But I simply can't do more than 2.5 hours on a trainer without going insane. I also think there is some value to bike handling that you can only get outside.

My max is 3 hours. But I often split a 2h ride into 2x 1h with a short coffee break with my wife

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Follow my project on Project 100 miles / 4 hours

www.riprow.com

Was hit twice on my bike

Roads around me are bad for biking IMO

all rides are on a dumb trainer

Happy with the results and I like the training

I like it because efficient use of my time, effective training when using a smart traininer with TR or Zwift or Rouvy or whatever, and safe. But I'm good for about 2 hours max on the trainer and preference is an hour. I still do almost all of my longer rides outside on weekends. If I was not training for anything I would head out to some multi use paths close to my house and ride those. But since those are terrible for training due to so many street crossings and up and down sections I stick to indoor training rides.

The analogy I would use is masturbation. You can argue all day that it is simpler, more time efficient and safer but if you try to argue that those things make it better than the real thing, I'll feel bad for you.

I wonder why we don't ever have these threads about treadmills?

I prefer riding outside, but in practice I ride mostly on the trainer. I'm not crazy for Zwift or TR or Rouvy. I prefer to watch TV or movie with a plot, or sports. I also get better workouts in ERG mode.

More reasons: it's faster when I don't have to pump tires, locate a full cycling kit and helmet and sunglasses and phone, grab money, put on sunscreen, and wait for sunscreen to dry. Also I rarely have to clean my bike after a trainer ride. Avoiding all of that might only save 15 minutes per ride, but that's a lot if you only have an hour.

Also, in the deep south, I contend with thunderstorms and/or extreme heat for large chunks of the year.

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<The Dew Abides>

😂 I use the trainer in the Winter, although I Fat bike and XC ski when there's snow. I too love the efficiency and precise control you have inside. The problem I see with riding predominantly inside and then racing is bike handling. Unless you've already ridden thousands of miles outside, your bike handling skills are going to suffer. What happens when a dog runs out in front of you, another racer swerves into your path or it's windy and raining come race day?

And even then...

This past winter I did almost all my riding on the trainer, with only a couple of outdoor rides. Cue our first decent weather a few weekends ago and I grabbed the gravel bike to go ride the local MUT. Riding on the pedestrian walkway of a bridge to get to the MUT from my usual parking spot, tried to squeeze past a pedestrian through what should normally have been an easily-navigable gap, clipped my bars on the concrete wall, totally over-corrected and flipped OTB, scaring the shit out of the pedestrian (who was wearing headphones, which explains why she didn't seem to react to my two shouts of "on your left") by landing next to her in a heap of bike and sweary human.

Yes, even if you have thousands of miles outside, you get rusty. If you haven't developed the skills, it's even worse and plays right into the "triathletes have no bike handling skills" stereotype. I just like being outside too. I enjoy climbing and then descending, both on road and off. Zwift, etc.
can do a nice job simulating the climb, but they have a long way to go on replicating the descent.

Well said.

You have never woken up in a strange place with a weird headache, handcuffs and said WTF....:0)

I suppose that depends on how you define better. If I could ride outside, on a closed course, with few to any cyclists or pedestrians and no intersections, and all within 2 minutes of my house and with proper lighting so that I can ride at 5 am, then I'd agree that riding outside for training is better. But, since I don't have access to something that meets any of those criteria, much less all of them, I'll still contend that riding indoors is better for training. At least for me.

And as to why we don't have this discussion about treadmills. Maybe it's because I do have access to something that meets all of that criteria outside when it comes to running... the sidewalk.