Prior to this year I couldn’t handle anything more than an hour on the trainer.
This past fall I got through TBMV no sweat. And now 2hr trainer sessions are no big deal.
Entertainment is the key. Watching shows/movies that are fast paced enough to keep my mind from wandering too much were they key to mentally getting through long sessions for me.
Physically bike fit is obviously key. But standing to pedal for 30 seconds or so every half hour helped me stay comfortable. And I’d always take one small off the bike break about half way through. Just for a minute or so to go the bathroom, refill a bottle or just to walk a small lap around the room. I figure in the real world every ride I’d do has mini breaks like that built into it, so a minute off the bike on the trainer cant hurt too much either!
I could and did 3 - 4hr sessions on the Kickr on my tri bike. I’d queue up movies, or a movie followed by tv shows, or just tv shows. Usually, these were non-stop but sometimes briefly interrupted by a quick potty break. TR was on one screen while whatever show was on tv.
My problem is getting to and beyond 90min now that I’ve sold off my kickr (and am selling my tri bike, a Cube Aerium) and just use rollers and my road bike. My max on rollers is just over 2hrs, which was a challenge. I’ll watch tv shows, like last night’s 75min. Though I rode fixed rollers in the '90s (for extra time on the mtb, with slicks of course, while watching tv at night) and again twenty years ago (for extra time on the tri bike, for up to 2hrs and with just music), now I have the Elite Neros (in resistance, not ERG, mode), but I can’t zone out and get into autopilot like I could on the Kickr (for what I think are obvious reasons). Maybe I need more time on them to the point I could ride handsfree?
I’m wondering, besides @AustinPT who commented on riding rollers above, is anyone else on rollers for long rides?
I’m riding rollers inside (pretty basic ones), but like you two hours is my max. I actually find it difficult to watch anything while riding, and its too loud to follow TV or similar, so I usually just listen to music. I’m pretty comfortable on rollers and can take one or even both hands of the bars for a bit, but not enough to eg type something on a keyboard. I also think the fact that you can’t mess with your weight distribution too much makes long sessions hard - my laptop will always stop at some point, and I can’t reach over, or turn around to get something thats further away etc.
Plus the cat gets concerned about me if its taking too long and wants me to stop.
If it’s lower intensity, what I’ve done is get as far into the ride as possible ready a kindle and listening to chill instrumental music. I’ve made it nearly two hours that way. Then introduce the Netflix or whatever it may be, so you don’t get too burned out on media.
I use Elite Quick Motion, which have some fore/aft motion; this lets me be able to climb out of the saddle for a minute or two. I think my longest session was 2.5 or 2.75 hours. I take a climbing break every 15 min. Have the laptop on a rolling stand that I can put pretty close to the rollers, and in natural line of eyesight, so I find it easy to stay steady on the rollers and get into a show or a race. I’ll use the rollers for recovery/endurance rides, and up to threshold sessions, but I find them too difficult to do the spikey workouts (like Spanish Needle). It takes me the whole 20-30 sec’s to ramp up to the target power level and I can’t recover quick enough. So lately I’ve been using the Kickr for VO2max and anaerobic
I would never give up TR, but I run Zwift in the background. When the intensity is high, a cycling visual is way better for me than an movie or TV show. See how long it takes to knock our every route in the library.
Don’t forget to get out of the saddle every 10 minutes.
And do more of them. The more you do long, well-fueled workouts, the more you’ll crave them.
Speaking of cycling visuals, the Bike the World YouTube channel has worked well for me when I don’t feel like watching a movie or TV show. Obviously not as interactive as Zwift, but it’s free and works reasonably well when paired with some good music.
There are two things that have helped me make it more routine. Take this with a grain of salt considering I haven’t done 3 hours in 3 or 4 months because of all of the setbacks I’ve had, but it has worked the past couple years so there’s that…
First, I usually do when I want to have a long ride indoors, the two our version of whatever workout is scheduled for me that day. Then I tack on an hour of endurance after. That really breaks up the ride where your micro focusing on the workout in the 2 hours goes by quickly, then you get off and refresh your nutrition and realize you only have an hour left, and when you break it up like that, the segments don’t seem as daunting.
Second, I pick long routes on zwift and try and beat my personal best times. My favorite for a really long ride is to try and do sub 4 hours on the Uber pretzel. When you’re constantly focusing on getting on someone’s wheel, maximizing your power-ups, and checking your average watts over a given segment time, you can really get lost in the time and find hours passing without realizing it. Especially when you try and time your bathroom breaks for the downhill so you never have a stopped moment during your actual zwift time.
Impressive. I also don’t have problems on indoor rides (mentally). I can do long zwift rides of 3h, and also sometimes did one of 5h (Uber Pretzel, Londen PRL Full). But they feel really hard at the end (it was not all Z2) Muscle fatigue occurs much sooner than outdoor.
Sryke, how do you feel about that? Or your body is really adapted to indoor rides? When I do a saturday ride and sunday ride of 3hours (total 6h). That feel much harder then if I would have done it outdoors.
For sure indoor rides feel harder. Even if you have option not to pedal all the time you still pedal more than outside. You have to have good will power to ride easy in Zwift for example.
If you’re not putting in 20 hour training weeks are you even training?
I may have hit 20 hours in a training week once during Ironman training and did once or twice for long gravel events. But I’m a masters athlete with modest goals.
No, I don’t see much of a difference on fatigue between riding indoors and outdoors. 3000 kJ of endurance work is 3000 kJ of endurance work. Because of coasting and so it may take me a little longer to reach 3000 kJ outdoors but in the end work is work. For endurance work is the main metric for me , not duration.
I just see that it is easier to do intense stuff outdoors. 4x15’ threshold intervals on a nice climb. Easier for sure. But in the end, 60min at threshold is 60min at threshold fatigue wise (for this I consider time and not work).
True! For me, the feeling is almost the same, 3hr indoor or outdoor, cardio wise. But my hamstrings are much more in suffering when riding 3hrs indoor.
