Hi,
I’m going through a strange phase at the moment and I wanted to ask if anyone here has had the same experience.
Here in Germany the weather is quite good for cycling at the moment. But I can’t get motivated to ride my bike outside. I’d rather sit on my Wahoo Kickr bike with Trainerroad and watch Netflix in an air-conditioned room for 2 hours than ride outside.
What’s annoying me at the moment:
The same routes over and over again. I know almost every route within a radius of 60 km, I’ve ridden each one at least 100 times.
There are 3 routes of 10km each from my apartment that I have to ride to get to a nice corner. I’ve ridden these 3 routes 10000 times, I can’t see it anymore.
Outdoors I always have problems keeping my zones. Traffic lights, intersections, cars always interfere with something. There is no road here where I can ride 5km without being disturbed
No mountains, just hills. There are no mountains here where I live. The highest gradient is 100 meters in 1 km. And I’ve ridden every one of the gradients 100 times
Cars fucking cars everywere. I’m sick of breathing in exhaust fumes and constantly being overtaken with a 10cm gap. There’s some idiot at every ride who puts me in unnecessary danger.
Last year I loved group rides. This year I’m much better and it annoys me to wait for the group on every hill, someone always has a problem and everyone has to wait.
Riding with my girlfriend, who also rides a road bike, I can’t stand it nervously. FTP 180 vs 280, I’m too fast for her and she’s too slow for me. That leads to arguments after 30 km. That’s why we don’t do it any more at the moment.
I find cycling outside terribly inefficient. Cloth change, sun protection, ride for 30 minutes until it’s nice. Then ride for 2 hours and then another 45 minutes to get back home. That’s 3.5 hours for maybe 1.5 hours in Zone2
Somehow I can’t see my bike at the moment. I actually wanted to buy a new one this year, but I’ve now put that on hold. I wanted to take part in a bike marathon in August, I’ve been looking forward to this event all year. I sold the tickets yesterday with a smile.
So at the moment I cycle indoors in all weathers and maybe outdoors early in the morning every 2 weeks. Cycling is TR + Netflix for me, which is fun but still kind of weird. At the moment I feel like a rower who only rows indoors.
Have you ever had a phase like that? How did it end?
I am pretty much in that boat right now (tagging on your rowing analogy ). I continue to do 4 indoor workouts per week with the random outside ride when weather and my desire do align. But I still enjoy the indoor workouts for basic fitness and multitasking of web stuff or watching shows like you. I rode inside yesterday to watch a movie that just dropped vs riding outside in decent weather.
After a decade plus of hard training & racing, I just lost the desire earlier this year. Minimal interest in the harder suffering of the events themselves and to a degree, the workouts needed for them. I’ve only done one race this season and that was more about doing a new gravel race route during a family weekend visit than anything. I have signed up for multiple races and bailed on all but that early one, with one remaining in late Aug. I am questioning if I will bother with that either, but still time to decide on that later.
Perhaps related, I have restarted my old hobby of sim auto racing. I did it heavily for many years but stopped in 2008 to focus on cycling. I have now ditched my easy mid-week endurance ride in favor of a night of sim racing, which is new-ish and definitely a change of pace.
No idea where I will end up with all of this, but I figure I enjoy the inside cycling on it’s own and can leverage that fitness if/when I get the bug to train harder and race again. I can’t see stopping cycling entirely and plan to ride outside when the time is right. But it’s less of a draw for me right now for some reasons similar to yours as well as others.
I’ll likely keep at it for health reasons (even if I never race again) while mixing in sim racing or any other hobby that catches my interest down the line. Just a matter of deciding I have more desire to do the stuff that is really “fun” for me and less of a “chore”.
It can go in cycles, and as long as you are enjoying what you are doing, I think it’s all good.
I am in the opposite mode, I have gone back to to exclusively outside riding almost. Maybe an hour recovery ride inside on Saturdays, but otherwise I can’t drag myself to the trainer.
I feel the same. I love it indoors. I go through phases. If you’re enjoying it who cares? If you’re anything like me the outdoor motivation will come back and you will want to ride outdoors again. But either way, don’t feel bad about only wanting to ride inside. It’s your life and your are getting fitter and you will live longer.
I joke with people that I get to combine my two favourite things, watching tv and riding a bike!
I am actually considering moving, not just for better cycling friendly cities and trails, but for hiking, ease of access to outdoors, better weather, etc. Is that something you can do?
I’m in a similar mode at the moment. I’ve ridden or raced almost every road in my country, my strava heat map is depressing as everything within 100km is dark red.
I live 2km from the sea on the east and north is not an option as capital city is 10km away.
So my options are flat coastal to the south or mountains to the west. It is beautiful however when the sun shines.
I cycle hills with my partner at the weekend so I make sure I do a hard threshold on sat then recovery with her on sunday which is fine as legs aee kooked.
I have resortrd to putting bikes in the car and driving to start point 50km away as opens up more options, that a.possibility?
I ride indoors early am TR workouts 4 days a week now and enjoying it,no guilt or weirdness even though weather is good…
As others have mentioned it moves in phases. In a few months I may return to work commutes and long weekend group rides.
The novelty of winter rides with all the gear may appeal again come december. Whatever keeps me fit and in good shape with some level of enjoyment.
I have some very similar feelings to you about riding indoors.
Maybe I’ve got an addiction to it?
I certainly find riding indoors is much more efficient, like you said , no traffic lights or annoying traffic.
I can get to my shed whatever time I like, when I try to go on group rides I’m either late or early or my plans don’t quite fit.
Maybe for the girlfriend ride, you could go out for a hard hour beforehand and then when you ride together you would already be tired and hopefully that would equalise things?
But I love my indoor experience. Nice tv. Plenty of stuff to watch.
On a related note, I can remember doing date nights with my wife where we’d go to the cinema. Sounds good until we realised we were spending a couple of hours sitting without talking. So not every joint activity is beneficial.
Not sure any of that helps, but you’re not the only one.
You can get a slower bike, or make yours slower. A gravel setup would be slower, and possibly more comfortable in the wet with wider, grippier tires. Then you can also take offroad
Try riding without having to “keep your zones.” Just ride.
Try gravel? I hate it, but many people (especially those who hate traffic) seem to love it.
Don’t drop your girlfriend unless you have pre-approved regroup plans. (My SO has an ftp of 300 and mine is 190. We ride together constantly and it’s awesome, so I’m going with “you’re doing it wrong.”)
I’ve gone through phases like this over the years. Bored with the routes that were close to my house (this despite the fact that there are some good hills and a lot of routes that go along rivers and lakes) but not enough free time to ride further to drive somewhere else for rides. I would just wanna ride inside where I could turn my brain off and listen to music. Not worry about watching for cars, deer, turkeys, potholes, etc.
Usually I just take some time and do what I feel like doing and then a few weeks later I begin to miss it and am happy to ride outside again. I think I tend to get a little bit bored doing just one thing or another and need to switch things up. This is why it seems like every 2-3 years I will switch between running or biking as my main focus.
Been there. Especially with the cars. When I ride with others that are slower I find it more enjoyable just to enjoy the company. I’ll often get my trainer ride in and just ride slowly with those that are slower.
All that said, I got hit by a car last summer. Moved to 100% gravel and I am having a blast.
Planning routes. Getting a little dirty and I hate dirt. Meeting a whole new group of riders.
I don’t mind admitting being on the bike and sweating is part of my mental health. Thus, hanging on the indoor trainer fulfills the need. Sure, they are indoor miles but I’m still fit and cute! Ha. And alive.
a few years ago i was having a bad day and was pretty distracted before my mtb ride. i ended up forgetting my HRM and bike computer (i also forgot my helmet and gloves lol). i decided to ride anyway, tried some new trails, got lost and ended up having the best damned ride i’ve ever had without having to worry about power output, zones, gps tracking ,etc… i miss that day very much. i guess what i’m saying is that we’re all slaves to tech and routines and it might be ok once in a while to just unplug and go…ride…
Not all of that, but I was getting pretty tired of my routes from home. I bought a bike rack for the car to get to new ones. I don’t worry about zones or training outside either, I just ride for fun (which for me mostly means shorter and faster rides)
My wife doesn’t like riding on the road, so when I ride with her we go to trails. She’s on a hybrid and I use the world’s heaviest hardtail (though with smooth tires), so it’s not too ridiculously easy for me.
Try something new and different. Gravel. MTB. Bike packing. The latter is especially engaging, as you need to plan route, gear, plus logistics for weeks in advance. So you get more entertainment from it than just the ride itself.
I’ve had phases like that but right now I dread the idea of settling up my kickr and finding a new series to watch. Right now I try to do my workouts outside which requires mental focus and a bit of planning. The ride to the place where I can do the workout I see as extra warm-up/ cooldown/ tss filler. Atm I even dread setting up my kickr so much that I even bought a new trainer (elite nero rollers)
). I continue to do 4 indoor workouts per week with the random outside ride when weather and my desire do align. But I still enjoy the indoor workouts for basic fitness and multitasking of web stuff or watching shows like you. I rode inside yesterday to watch a movie that just dropped vs riding outside in decent weather.