Equipment used and background: Stages left side, Kickr Core, ANT+ , SSB lv I and II, FTP right at 200, erg mode, small ring front/middle gear in back. no shifting
For whatever reason, at the conclusion of every 1 hour session in SSB, it tells me I completed right around 12 miles covered. This sounds absurdly low to me.
Any insights?
Distance is irrelevant on a trainer and can vary based on gearing. Just go by power/tss
You left out mode and gearing.
Both of those are the reason, as covered in the article above.
Took me awhile; let go of the emotional connection of distance “traveled” it’s irrelevant
I do! I’m forced to, But for wear and tear on the chain/wheel/etc I’d like a ballpark that was fairly consistent
Then you are fine and have exactly what you want.
The estimated distance from the workout is based upon the number of revolutions of the hub on your trainer, with the wheel circumference you enter (or is default?) in the TR app. The “distance” is appropriate to that and can be used in your wear considerations.
The chain, cassette, bottom bracket bearing, pedals, trainer hub all move at that same effective distance.
Hours is a better way to measure component wear anyway.
You’ve answered it yourself. Small chainring front/middle gear back. If you want to “show” more miles travelled swap over to the large chainring front, but you’ll notice less flywheel benefits.
As others have said. Distance is irrelevant indoors. Simply measure duration and tss.
Obviously the above replies are accurate. However, I like to set my gearing to something that roughly reflects the pace I would ride on terrain. 12mph seems a little low to me. I would shift in to a smaller cog and see where that puts you. I run Zwift and TR side by side and like to see those distances roughly equivalent. I feel (and maybe it’s just me), but its a more realistic gearing for what I might ride in on a normal ride.
I at least think it doesn’t cause any harm.
You can certainly find that gear that pretty closely matches real life distance, but that usually results in more cross-chaining (big-big or small-small) than I want to do on a trainer… and when you’re about to die on Kaweah, those couple of cross-chaining watts matter, at least to me!
My gearing translates to big ring and 4th cog, and so I don’t really have any issues. It also seems to be the quietest for me, so I’m happy.
It is wrong - your distance was 0 every time!
Does someone have that meme of the woman and cat that someone posted on here making fun of that!? “you went 0 miles.” I was looking for it the other day in the search, but couldn’t find it.
I am more concerned that you have a distance showing more than zero kms, as you aren’t moving anywhere.
If distance covered is what you’re looking for then you need to get a set of 4.5" diameter rollers (without a mag bar or flywheel), add a wheel speed sensor, and do your SSB workouts in the 53x11.
That would get you above 12 miles per hour.
You’re right. The distance traveled was almost certainly 0 miles. 
Seriously though, the estimated distance while doing a TR workout is rather arbitrary and completely irrelevant to your effort. If it really bothers you, you can use a higher gear combo (big ring in front, smaller ring in back). This will increase the flywheel speed and your virtual “distance”. Personally I prefer running in the small ring though. It gives a smoother ride, doesn’t bottom out during the low rest intervals, and is quieter.
Posted
love it