Hi everyone,
I often find it challenging to stay motivated during long indoor TrainerRoad workouts. To help keep myself focused, I try to break the ride into smaller intervals and celebrate completing each segment. Watching shows, movies, or YouTube videos while riding helps pass the time, and listening to music or podcasts keeps my mind engaged. I also make sure my training space is comfortable, with a fan, water, and good lighting. Riding virtually with friends or participating in group workouts adds accountability and makes the session more fun. Visualizing outdoor rides or the terrain I’m training for keeps me mentally connected to my goals, and I reward myself with a treat or relaxing activity after finishing tough sessions. I’d love to hear other strategies the community uses to stay motivated during long indoor rides.
I’m convinced that indoor training more than one hour affects space-time. If you select a two-hour workout, time will pretty much come to a standstill at 1:45. There have been at least two workouts I’ve abandoned out of concern for how the slowing of time is affecting the rest of humanity. In reality, the effects are probably concentrated around a microscopic black hole in my brain.
My strategy for endurance workouts is simply to watch GCN or Ask a Cycling Coach podcasts on YouTube. I can sometimes watch videos during a sweet spot workout. More intensity means that I simply have to gut it out. I’ll often count every other pedal stroke up to four repeatedly, or during the last minute of an interval I’ll sometimes count to twenty several times.
Being a Luddite, I haven’t tried Zwift, yet.
Depends what you mean by long.
1-2hrs iPad, streaming shows, water, something sweet maybe choose a movie beforehand
2.5-4.5hrs I’d have a virtual race course I’m timing myself on, podcasts at the same time, maybe tri or bike racing streaming too, a selection of drinks and food salty and sweet
Hello fellow traveler. It’s good to know it’s not all my fault.
“I’m here now Murph” 
There are some great raw race footage collectors out there—like, am I likely to race Leadville? Yeah, probably not, but I can “ride” Leadville over a week with someone’s full 11-hr youtube (https://youtu.be/gfoXzSzVTow?si=tz918_521apg3PIB)
Having seen it all this way changes how I watch the race for sure, and gets me through longer sessions—my wish for 2026 is that some female pro rider starts doing this because so far I haven’t been able to find a single one.
Syd posts many of her races
Totally agree with the OP about removing all impediments and making things as comfortable and pleasant as possible. This will be my 10th year riding a trainer in the off-season (aka winter). Best I’ve ever done is 2.5 hr. IMO, anything over 2hr is cruel, unusual, and against the Geneva Convention. My preference for distraction is mtb POVs with moderate tech where I can imagine choosing lines and riding the features. Movies, TV shows, etc. don’t do it for me. And, was on Zwift for a few years and just don’t like it at all.
This may be strange, but my approach is the opposite of the other responses so far. For long indoor rides (2.5-4 hours tends to be my indoor “long”, with it usually being ~3), I’m most successful if I fully engage myself in the ride itself (I’m on Zwift). This includes a few things:
- Selecting a route with some hills to partition the ride into different chunks (Four Horsemen is my default (pic from ZwiftInsider.com) below.
- Maybe music, but not always.
- Paying attention to other riders I’m passing or being passed by.
- Paying attention to my power : HR ratio to help signal getting behind on fueling/hydration.
- Making sure I mix in some Z3/Z4 chunks every once in a while… usually on the hills.
When I’m watching TV/youtube/checking email/etc., I mentally checkout of the ride and it feels like a chore. The only streaming that works for me are a few different live sports (which strangely doesn’t include cycling - it’s usually too slow for me to remain interested), otherwise I’ll end up skipping forward in replays.
Thank you!!! MI-XC is local to me and istg I’ve memorized some of his videos (I’m in a fair few, too) but I didn’t know the others, and thanks especially for the Syd lead!
Oh man. Between your post and a post yesterday that we’ve lost GPLama, I’m missing so many of our prolific or helpful posters who we lost in the last year.
Great insights here—thanks everyone for sharing such varied approaches.
@randomcoach, I really like your perspective. Fully engaging with the ride itself instead of distracting from it is a great reminder that indoor training doesn’t always have to be “background noise.” Using terrain, hills, and power/HR cues to create structure makes a lot of sense, especially for longer sessions. I can definitely relate to zoning out too much when watching random videos and suddenly feeling like the ride is dragging.
It’s interesting how motivation can be so individual—some of us need external stimulation to get through long indoor workouts, while others do better by leaning into the ride and staying mentally present. I think that flexibility is key: sometimes entertainment helps, and other times focusing on metrics, fueling, and virtual competition keeps things engaging.
Also appreciate the community reflections here—this forum really benefits from people sharing experience, perspective, and encouragement. Looking forward to trying a few new ideas from this thread and hearing what others find works best for them over time.
My solution has been two 55” TVs with a Mac mini to run zwift and my PlayStation on the second tv. Often I will also have top gear reruns going on for another distraction, have plenty of food and water around with an overload of fans.
Even with all of that it still takes discipline and effort to do anything longer than an hour.
A good setup helps. I have a 65 inch TV that I load a YouTube playlist with lots of GCN and GCN Tech sprinkled in with some Syd and Macky, Phil Gaimon, NorCal, and a few others. I keep multiple hand towels and headbands ready to go and can control my two 20” Lasko floor fans from my phone. I also have my drink bottles and Clif Bloks on my bike trainer desk which holds my laptop where I run Zwift. I find Zwift can be a saviour. It really helps time fly when you are pushing it hard.
Another big tip that I just learned this week while finishing the Rapha 500 indoors, when you are doing 3-4 hour rides, take two minutes in the middle and change your bibs and shirt. It was surprisingly nice to get into dry gear for the second half.
Another vote for engaging in the ride - and Zwift is ideal for this. I did a 111km ride yesterday on Zwift in an organised ride and the time flew by. My power was a little bit up on the prescribed workout however.