Gawd it takes so much time to get ready to ride outdoors after Zwifting a lot

Triathlon Forum
1

Have been zwifting on weekends due to time constraints, but did an outside ride yestereday (it’s Norcal here, ride year-round!)

After having zwifted awhile, I’d forgotten how annoying it was to get ready to ride outdoors and the many mishaps that add prep time.

Yesterday was a particularly bad one for me, as I was getting the TT bike off the Kickr rather than riding my road bike, but things that ate time were:

  • Getting dressed for 40-45F with wind takes a bit of time.
  • Forgot to charge my Garmin 945
  • Forgot I had to change my Garmin Varia mount off road bike to TT bike
  • Forgot that I had to put on booties on my shoes so my feet won’t freeze
  • Find my riding fleece undercap so my head doesn’t freeze
  • Inflate tires with my pretty new Lezyne floor pump, which SCREWS onto your valve stem. Find out the hard way that I didn’t tighten the valve cores enough, and pull out the core once I’m inflated. Have to find my valve core tool and tighten it for the redo.
  • Clean my filthy sunglasses

Added like 20-30 minutes of unexpected prep time.

Ya get spoiled with the ease and convenience of Zwifting! (Plus no mechanicals en route! Last week, my quick chain release snapped off requiring replacement, then my water bottle bolts somehow came loose so I had to stop to remove the entire mount. Never has happened to me before, but such is the life of mechanicals)

2

LOL this is so true
.

3

Yep; everything you listed plus nutrition, hydration, and stocked repair kit. And don’t forget having to wash the clothes and perhaps the bike when finished. I’ve got a dedicated bike on the trainer, shoes, and old iPhone setup for Zwifting. All it takes is a pair of bike shorts and I’m riding. That said I would ride outside every day and twice on Sunday if we had fall like weather all the time.

4

Omg, this is my EVERY spring… takes about 5 or 6 rides to get the outside set-up back into easy/efficient … always a struggle for me… but jumping on the trainer, always easy…

5

Haha yes! Big pain in the butt, especially when its cold out

The worst is that anxiety/excitement feeling in the ten minutes leading up to clipping in…my hr is always over 100 when i start my workout recording. Never get that on the trainer…

6

Add in I’m now even more freaked by d’head drivers then I’ve almost lost my outdoor cycling mojo.

The other ‘frustration’ is that I tend to group ride when outside riding, and so there’s the faffing time at the start of ride, then when you get a series of punctures (think we had about 5 per ride for a while), so lots of stop/starting. You forget how efficient zwift is for GSD riding (Gettin Sh1t Done).

7

lol at my wife as I rode down the driveway and she was checking to see if her Bluetooth, ant+, wifi router was plugged in cause that was tech supports best idea after a 30 min hold.

Not really - but god forbid once it all finally works it doesn’t upload to strava cause if it ain’t there we know it didn’t really happen.

Inside isn’t always simpler if you ask me.

8

Add in I’m now even more freaked by d’head drivers then I’ve almost lost my outdoor cycling mojo.

The other ‘frustration’ is that I tend to group ride when outside riding, and so there’s the faffing time at the start of ride, then when you get a series of punctures (think we had about 5 per ride for a while), so lots of stop/starting. You forget how efficient zwift is for GSD riding (Gettin Sh1t Done).

It’s unfortunate - one of my greatest joys, period, is doing group rides outdoors. They’re so fun, no matter what the speed! (Ok, if it’s toooo slow, not as fun, but that’s rarely the case even if you’re the strongest one.)

But yeah, the group stoppage is an absolute killer for those on any sort of schedule. Even if COVID was absent, I get in like 2 group rides per year now since it’s time crunched with young kid, job and working wife.

My wife loves that I use Zwift, for obvious reasons!

9

I was thinking this the other day - it is like two different sports for me. I am on my trainer 95% of the time - purely for fitness (nothing actually enjoyable about it). The other 5% when I am outside, it is fun to see the scenery and cover ground with a group, but feels much less about training, and much more about either racing or sight seeing.

I love outdoor riding, but the time commitment and the increased danger don’t make it worthwhile most of the time (I live in the heart of Toronto).

10

Isn’t there an epic thread for crying like this? Life is too short not to spend as much of it as you can outdoors.

11

Have been zwifting on weekends due to time constraints, but did an outside ride yestereday (it’s Norcal here, ride year-round!)

After having zwifted awhile, I’d forgotten how annoying it was to get ready to ride outdoors and the many mishaps that add prep time.

Yesterday was a particularly bad one for me, as I was getting the TT bike off the Kickr rather than riding my road bike, but things that ate time were:

  • Getting dressed for 40-45F with wind takes a bit of time.
  • Forgot to charge my Garmin 945
  • Forgot I had to change my Garmin Varia mount off road bike to TT bike
  • Forgot that I had to put on booties on my shoes so my feet won’t freeze
  • Find my riding fleece undercap so my head doesn’t freeze
  • Inflate tires with my pretty new Lezyne floor pump, which SCREWS onto your valve stem. Find out the hard way that I didn’t tighten the valve cores enough, and pull out the core once I’m inflated. Have to find my valve core tool and tighten it for the redo.
  • Clean my filthy sunglasses

Added like 20-30 minutes of unexpected prep time.

Ya get spoiled with the ease and convenience of Zwifting! (Plus no mechanicals en route! Last week, my quick chain release snapped off requiring replacement, then my water bottle bolts somehow came loose so I had to stop to remove the entire mount. Never has happened to me before, but such is the life of mechanicals)

Sounds dangerous and arduous.
Looks like outdoor riding isn’t for you.
Better stay indoors.

12

Just described my ride today in an eerily similar fashion. And I have yet had to deal with a strong cross wind on a descent when riding on Strava…

13

I haven’t ridden indoors since January, and gosh it’s been glorious. Wish it’s been a little bit colder, but I think I’ll be pushed indoors easily by May. Lucky enough to have easy cycling spots right out the door.

14

Now that I ride indoors 95% of the time, I think about the past me who would (1) prep for the outdoor ride, including downloading courses, etc. (2) load the bike on the car (including rigging the bike rack) and drive 30 min to the start of the group ride (3) screw around waiting for the start (4) ride (5) reverse (2) and burn 4-5 hours for a 2-3 hour group ride. I still love riding outdoors, but the efficiency and safety of the indoor trainer wins almost every time.

15

The other ‘frustration’ is that I tend to group ride when outside riding, and so there’s the faffing time at the start of ride, then when you get a series of punctures (think we had about 5 per ride for a while), so lots of stop/starting. You forget how efficient zwift is for GSD riding (Gettin Sh1t Done).

No kidding. There’s a group near me that has an organized ride nearly every day and during the ride it’s good hard fun. But, they never start on time and take a 15+ minute break halfway into a 30 mile ride. Ugh!

Btw, I’m not talking about the normal 5 minute late start. They pretty consistently start 10-20 minutes late.

There’s another group that starts the usual 5 or so minutes late but every single f’ing ride is preceded with “which way are we going” and yet 99.9% of the time we go the exact same f’ing way for the first 25ish miles. Mind you I’m totally fine with that route but come on, we all know we’re going that way, why have the damn conversation at all.

16

I’m just the opposite. I think it takes me longer. It’s only been about 3 weeks since I’ve been on Zwift, that could change as I dial in the routine

Got to pull the kickr out of the corner
move the cart that everything sits on out of the corner, don’t forget to lock the wheels
put the bike on the kickr
move the fan away from the wall, plug that in. I will say though that 5000 on medium & 5700 cfm on high of air flow is nice
bring the laptop over, plug that in
find the ceiling fan remote, turn it on 2 to start
open nthe back slider to let in the cold air, vent out the warm humid air.
get the tv & stereo remotes turn on tv which turn on the receiver switch that to USB so I can listen to a lot of metal, some hip hop and alternative (no country bc that stuff sucks ass. Who wants to listen to some dude whine about his GF breaking up w/him bc he cheated on her, please…the sooner that genre dies the better the planet will be. ymmv…but it shouldn’t)
find the stupid dongle thing
boot up zwift which fucking takes forever it seems.
connect laptop to tv and cast it to the tv
get bottles from fridge. Grab a clif bar if going >2h + a mini clif bar if going ~ 2.5-3.
don’t forget your shoes.

When I ride outside all my gear is in the same 2 spots. all the bibs, jerseys, socks & chamois cream in one spot. helmet glasses, nutrition, arm/knee warmers, vest, etc in another. Takes <10 min to get kitted up & out the door.

Of course living in Tucson the outdoor riding is pretty awesome, hard for zwift to compete. You can pop in the ear buds and go ride for 3h of which 2:54 minutes (for me anyway) is in a car free environment and still come home with an IF of .85 if you wanted.

(Although if you’re always around .85 IFs you’re leaving time on the table)

17

Hah - that’s normal for non-regular Zwifters.

If you finally commit to having a permanent or semi-permanent Zwift setup, the bike will be already on the Zwift, you’ll may have a dedicated Zwift device or at least a device that’s very fast to hook up (like my Macbook) and loads super fast, and you can be up and riding in under 5 minutes. I know it’s under 5 minutes because I’ve rushed to a Tour De Zwift scheduled at a certain time with under 5 minutes and easily made it with time to spare.

Then again, you live in Tuscon with outdoor year-round riding which is still ‘more fun’ than Zwift for sure, and you’ve been doing it for so long now that there may very well be no need for you to get a permanent Zwift setup.

18

I think the problem is you not in the groove of outdoor riding. Everything you said should barely take 5 minutes if it is all stored and prep positioned in the right place that should take no time out of your ongoing day. Its when you do it all at once that it takes extra time. Have everything set up like you’re transitioning from swim to bike and it should be fine. You really don’t need to pump up your tires every ride if you are riding butyl and you don’t need electronics on every ride either.

19

I’m just the opposite. I think it takes me longer. It’s only been about 3 weeks since I’ve been on Zwift, that could change as I dial in the routine

Got to pull the kickr out of the corner
move the cart that everything sits on out of the corner, don’t forget to lock the wheels
put the bike on the kickr
move the fan away from the wall, plug that in. I will say though that 5000 on medium & 5700 cfm on high of air flow is nice
bring the laptop over, plug that in
find the ceiling fan remote, turn it on 2 to start
open nthe back slider to let in the cold air, vent out the warm humid air.
get the tv & stereo remotes turn on tv which turn on the receiver switch that to USB so I can listen to a lot of metal, some hip hop and alternative (no country bc that stuff sucks ass. Who wants to listen to some dude whine about his GF breaking up w/him bc he cheated on her, please…the sooner that genre dies the better the planet will be. ymmv…but it shouldn’t)
find the stupid dongle thing
boot up zwift which fucking takes forever it seems.
connect laptop to tv and cast it to the tv
get bottles from fridge. Grab a clif bar if going >2h + a mini clif bar if going ~ 2.5-3.
don’t forget your shoes.

When I ride outside all my gear is in the same 2 spots. all the bibs, jerseys, socks & chamois cream in one spot. helmet glasses, nutrition, arm/knee warmers, vest, etc in another. Takes <10 min to get kitted up & out the door.

Of course living in Tucson the outdoor riding is pretty awesome, hard for zwift to compete. You can pop in the ear buds and go ride for 3h of which 2:54 minutes (for me anyway) is in a car free environment and still come home with an IF of .85 if you wanted.

(Although if you’re always around .85 IFs you’re leaving time on the table)

I haven’t ridden outside since September. I probably won’t until April. Now I’m sad… :frowning:

For me, going outside is only marginally more time consuming than going outside. All my gear (and ride snacks + Gatorade) is hanging up or on a shelf in the room with my Zwift bike. Just have to pop the bike off the trainer, swap wheels (indoor only tire on it now, and the front tire is completely worn out, unsuitable for the roads. I use it because I have a butyl tube in it, and my outside wheels have latex.) and put on a couple extra pieces of clothing. But I don’t have to wait for Zwift to boot up, pick a playlist, or turn on fans.

20

after all these years you need chamois creme? Those areas should be hardened like tree bark.