Am I the only one who generally doesn’t use any sort of entertainment while riding on the trainer? I spend the whole time staring at the graph. I’ve turned on the radio once or twice, but that’s definitely not the norm. I did try watching a youtube video of a bike race for a session a couple weeks ago, & I guess that was a nice distraction.
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Yep
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That sounds dreadful. How long a session do you do with no distraction?
I’m going to guess you are in the minority. I did that many years ago in my cold garage staring at a concrete wall while riding my wind trainer/mag trainer/rollers.
Now I use Netflix on a large screen for sweet spot and below, YouTube bike race videos for threshold, and very loud music for vo2max. 
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The longest so for is 2:15. I did 1:45 last night.
Once or twice in fifteen years of indoor riding the battery went out on my MP3 player. Man, those sessions were hard. Don’t know how you do it!
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Why stop at no entertainment? Don’t use a fan, go into the workout fasted and skip drinking or eating on the bike. Don’t bother with using a chamois while you’re at it. I mean if you’re gonnna punish yourself might as well go all in!
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Well now that you mention it, I don’t usually use a chamois on the regular 1hr sessions (just under armor or equivalent). I do however always use chamois butt’r. The fan is also non-negotiable, although it’s just a pretty generic box fan type thing. I’ve been thinking about getting one of the squirrel cage fans folks are always raving about.
You might be the only one. I’ve never done a trainer session with nothing. Like @miesemer I like Netflix for sweet spot or below and music for VO2 intervals.
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Same here, netflix for sweet spot.
Music for vo2 or higher.
And iffffff sweet spot gets really hard, i’ll stop netflix and switch to music.
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(In my best Paul Sherwen impression) “I think you are in the extreme, Eddy Merckx, hardman minority. Paul, did you know that Eddy Merckx would spend hours in his basement on a trainer just staring at the wall?”
I am one level up from you - I can’t watch any videos for any period of time, but I must listen to music. I have playlists for VO2 Max, SS/threshold, and endurance/recovery.
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I think @MI-XC just invented “World Naked Trainer Road Day.”
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I just have radio 4 on, or a podcast - but to be frank, the pod coasts are “in out time” and usually science I am interested in, but I miss much because I am concentrating on the session. No music.
Just Chad nagging me and the conversation in my head, filled in with the radio/podcast. That is enough.
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It’s rare, but I’ve done a few sessions at night with very very little light in the room and no other entertainment.
I would never do that regularly though, I always have multiple entertainment options queued up.
Just music for me. I like to try and focus my mind on the job at hand.
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There can’t be many of us.
My maximum entertainment is Spotify trance playlists thudding in my earbuds while I feast my eyes on the Blue Blocks of Doom on my Android phone.
Sometimes I like the purity of self-flagellation that is the no-entertainment option, just the blue graph, cadence-readout tunnel vision and the gale force wind howling round my face from my gigantic fan. Pure, perfect, undiluted misery!
When I’m burying my mind and soul in another deeply unpleasant VO2 Max session, it is such an all-consuming experience that I’m baffled by how or why anyone could or would want to give any attention whatsoever to an actual movie. I mean, I can’t follow the plot in a movie at the best of times…
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I do the same.
I just stare at my power number for 2 hrs at a time.
RPE seem to be lower and I can concentrate better.
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I always have music at least. I can’t have a visual distraction/entertainment during hard sessions. Easy/Zone 2 or even some low-end sweet spot stuff I can watch sports or listen to a podcast, but once I’m up in threshold and higher, forget it. It’s just noise and a beat after that. Definitely no visuals because I have to focus on the feeling/pain.
I’d say 80-90% of my rides are done without visual entertainment.
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Stamstad says that he knows he’s mentally ready for a race when he can do a five-hour stint on the wind trainer, maintaining a heart rate of 155 beats per minute while staring at a blank wall.
Are you John Stamstad?
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I quite often have music or a podcast available but start without it and keep on going. Often more than an hour.
Intend to think about work problems or other things that need a bit of concentration.
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