Indoor vs. Outdoor Time Trial Effort

Training
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I am involved in a seven series Time Trial. I rode the first two on site, however, the third race I had to miss. I brought my bike and trainer to on my trip and rode the TT virtually. My Garmin devices had a hard time connecting to the route and showing accurate data for riding the virtual route. I ended up riding Recess -5 on TR with the ERG off. My on route TT time was 27:14:00, my indoor time was 31:40. It was harder to stay focused due to being in a dark room, the hype wasn’t there, and every reason my mind conjured up to quit, despite not quitting.

Is TT’ing indoors on a trainer more difficult than outdoor? I will say, the course for the TT is flat, with little to no elevation gain, headwinds, crosswinds, and tailwinds. I thought I would crush my time, but I fell short by a 4:26min. I would love any insights you all may have. This is hopefully my first and last time doing a TT on an indoor trainer. Cheers!

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You are comparing apples and oranges, an indoor TT time is meaningless unless you compare it to other indoor TT times.

Indoor efforts like that would be harder for many reasons, heat & motivation being the biggest IMO.

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Imho and probably not a popular opinion, but there is no such thing as an indoor time trial. That is just a workout and there isn’t much to compare it to except other indoor workouts. Certainly can’t compare to an outdoor time trial.

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That is great to hear. I didn’t want to lose out on the effort of this month’s TT, so by doing it inside, I at least did it. But I’ll never willingly choose to do it again.