Hey Folks. My question is this. I am new rider. NOT competitive. I have never and likely won’t ever race. I use trainer road as means to ensure I am fit for groups rides and life/outdoor activity with my kids etc… I really like the structured approach to riding as it keeps me motivated and committed. To date I have used the platform only on an indoor trainer as it’s the only way I have power data. But I live in a place with beautiful outdoor riding and six days a week on the trainer in my basement is getting old. I am considering continuing my intervals inside but moving my two 60 min and one 120 min endurance rides outside. Here is the issue. I can buy a used gravel bike but cant really afford a power meter right now and the bike. This means that all my endurance rides would be heart rate monitor only using RPE. Will this drastically impact my progress because I don’t want to buy a bike for outdoor riding if I am going to be needing to keep riding indoors. Thoughts from more experienced folks about whether this is in my interest or if I should just keep riding in my basement cave?
Buy the bike. Go ride outdoors. It’s fun and the reason why you’d train indoors.
And no, riding endurance outside to RPE won’t hinder your progress. There is a slight risk of overdoing it, and then being too tired to do your next workout indoors. However - it sounds lile you’ll have fun riding outdoors, so if you’re too tired for the workout, just give yourself an extra day off.
I’m with @splash here and I say go for it!
I’ll almost always vote for a ride outside rather than a trainer in a basement.
It’s also worth noting that it’s actually pretty easy to get really accurate endurance rides in out in the real world with nothing more than a heart rate monitor. 
Power is better when looking to follow shorter intervals and general training above the endurance zone, but when it comes to easy, steady riding, I usually use my heart rate as a really precise form of RPE coming straight from my body (I don’t have to think about it. My HR will tell my how my body is feeling for a given effort).
Using HR data is actually really valuable and I think it’s useful to know where your HR typically lies for a given RPE. This will make riding by RPE on its own easier and also help you stay in tune with your body. There might be cases where the two don’t always line up and you might learn some things about what’s going on inside in certain circumstances that you wouldn’t necessarily be able to see without HR or maybe even with power alone. 
I’d recommend that you find your lactate threshold heart rate and calibrate your HR zones to that if you haven’t already.
When you need to get some specific work in, your trainer will always be there, but when the weather is good and you need to do some recovery, endurance, or even tempo work, put on your HR monitor and get out on the road! 
I never use my power meter for z2 only heart rate and rpe. It doesn’t really matter anyway as long as you try to keep things generally easy and don’t try to sprint through/ hard start every traffic light, sprint up every short climb or try to catch up to every cyclist ahead or shake everyone that gets attached in your wheel (and even 5-10 minutes of that as long as you keep it below your threshold heart rate won’t mess you up)
I agree with others in this thread - go ride outside.
Z2 is generally pretty easy to do with an HRM. One thing I would suggest is taking a look at the
HR from some of your indoor Z2 rides - you will probably see the HR rising over 15-20 minutes until it gets to z2, despite the fact that you are holding pretty steady power. You ideally want to replicate that outside. Going to Z2 HR outside in the first 5 minutes probably indicates you are going over Z2 in power terms.
HR and RPE are totally acceptable methods and you’re not losing a thing by doing it that way
Z2 is simple. Can you hold a conversation? Yes, good enough for z2, no, ease off a touch. I like to ride with music that I know most of the songs (90s one hit wonders is a good playlist haha). I try and sing to myself to make sure I can still do it.
For sweet spot and whatnot, use your trainer to get an idea of what power it feels like and sustain that while going off HR and RPE. This takes a little more trial and error but it’s how training was done 10 years ago before most people had meters.
Endurance/ recovery rides are better paced of HR IMHO and power kept for HIIT workouts anyway and you could progress/ recover better/ adapt more. Go for it and enjoy your new toy 
As other have said, go for it.
Outdoor workouts can be highly dependant on terrain and traffic, you don’t need to worry about being “in zone” the whole time but you will want to garage your route and effort somewhat and generally spend about 50% more time than indoor.
Riding always better than not riding. Get the bike if it will help you get outside!
I actually think doing long z2 outside by RPE is usually preferable than power or HR. I use both of those metrics merely as „control“ – usually after the ride. Going strictky by power works well for shorter endurance rides for me, although you shouldn‘t be afraid of tuning it down either if it feels harder than usual.
Just keep it easy and enjoy the ride. It‘s way more about time in the saddle withiut adding much fatigue than anything else. Your ride will not be ruined by some coasting downhill, a little tempo on some ramps or goong into z1 at times.
@empiricalcycling has a lot of wisdom
to share on the topic! I‘m basically just following his advice, because it works great for
me.
I hope it is okay to pose my own question in this thread; it doesn’t seem to justify its own thread.
I’m doing three days of cycling per week right now (all outdoors) with two endurance rides and one interval ride (using the TR Polarized LV plan). Many times the power ranges in the endurance rides are quite low, low enough that I am either in Z1 for heart rate or very low Z2. Since I’m only riding three times per week, I’m thinking it might be better for me to do the two endurance rides in mid to high Z2 (using heart rate and RPE as a guide) instead of limiting myself to the power ranges for the rides plan builder is giving me. Does that sound right?
Power trumps heart rate. Don’t try to force them to match up, because they won’t.
What %age of FTP are your endurance rides working out at and over what duration? And what’s your RPE for those rides?
Absolutely not.
We have a tendency to make things too complicated. Don’t overthink it and go ride your bike. 
55% to 65% is the power range of the most recent one and it prescribed 60 minutes. I ended up extending it a bit and rode for 80 minutes, finishing with an IF of .63. RPE was probably 1-2.
Sounds fine to me. Just go longer whenever the weather’s nice. 
And go really hard on your hard day.
Whatever you can recover from is fine.
Well. I bit the bullet and bought the bike. First outdoor workout tonight. There is going to be a huge huge learning curve. Planned a 60 min ride and wanted my heart rate to stay in Zone 2 for me under 151. Ride took 39 mins. Went back and looked at my last indoor endurance ride had an average heart rate of 117 and max of 138. Today. Average 138 and max 154. I could have slowed way down. My pacing was way off. I don’t really know what riding a bike outside feels like. But man it was fun. The 40 mins flew by compared to my basement rides.