Making riding on a trainer more enjoyable

So everytime I ride on my trainer, about 10 minutes or so into the ride I find myself really bored and pretty unmotivated. I’m wondering what tips anyone has to make it more tolerable at least.

Yes, ride outside.

Thesufferfest.com
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I tend to watch action movies on either my computer or on the TV if it is available. Although sometimes this results in going above my target heart rate/speed at particularly suspenseful points.

The same with me, 10 min in and i hurt and want to quit. 30 min in and it is getting better, one hour and it is even better.

Netflix.com

I look forward to riding on my training because that’s when I get to watch tv.

  1. Trainerroad
  2. Sufferfest (combined with Trainerroad is fantastic)
  3. Netflix for really bad horror flicks (MegaShark meets Giant Croc etc)
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If it’s just a steady 1 hr ride, I will have my ipod going with earphones in, my Blackberry handy, and a stack of reading that I need to get caught up on.

If it’s a longer steady ride, I watch an action movie or two.

If it’s supposed to be a hard ride, I use a training dvd.

Find out if there are any group trainer rides in your city (with a leader). Those are very good for keeping the motivation up. Like a spin class at a gym, except you bring your own bike & trainer.

Also, give yourself an attitude adjustment. Before you get on your bike, remind yourself why you are doing it, and the benefit you are going to get from doing it all winter, compared to the folks who go inactive for all those months. If you dread getting on the trainer and keep thinking about how much you dread it, it’s going to be a very long winter.

X2 www.thesufferfest.com

Fight Club
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So everytime I ride on my trainer, about 10 minutes or so into the ride I find myself really bored and pretty unmotivated. I’m wondering what tips anyone has to make it more tolerable at least.
I’m the same way.
x3 on TheSufferfest.com PAIRED with trainerroad.com, it will make it easier.

I too get bored on the trainer, so I wrote a thing that’ll let me ride around a world and “do things”. It’ll also yell at me if I want it to and instruct me on intervals or whatever other workouts I’ve entered. Originally I wrote it to calculate power for me before I had a power meter, but I’ve long since got a powermeter so now it just reads that data wirelessly from the bike.

http://jmtc.ls1howto.com/pics/350/road.jpghttp://jmtc.ls1howto.com/pics/350/customwheels.jpghttp://jmtc.ls1howto.com/pics/350/night01.jpghttp://jmtc.ls1howto.com/pics/350/actionshot.jpg http://jmtc.ls1howto.com/pics/350/sshot0067.jpg

There’s more screens and info here: http://jmtc.ls1howto.com

Get a good fan.

ps3
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Riding aimlessly on the trainer sucks. Have a workout to follow that has adequate variability and the time goes much quicker. Even something like a 20 sec sprint every 5 minutes is enough to make the time go quicker. It doesn’t have to be a smashfest but just enough to have you watching the timer planning for the next change in pace.

Are you kidding me? You did that in your “free time”? Where do I sign up?

Anyone want to recommend their favorite sufferfest video?

A killer playlist with upbeat dig’in type music. I tend to like a mix of old school Sugar Ray, Ricky Martin (yes really), The Cranberries etc… fast paced, or at least very strong driving beat. I use this for tempo runs too. But for LSD/base, movies do well such as high suspense thrillers-spy flicks.

I saw the video on your website. I agree with Iron Buckeyed. Where do we sign up?

This is a very cool project.

They’re all pretty great. I like fight club and local hero.

Are you kidding me? You did that in your “free time”? Where do I sign up?

x2, that looks awesome!