I’ve tried that too but getting the TV set up outside was just too much hassle… 
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The only reason to train indoors in my humble opinion is if it is too nasty outdoors. Yes, I know indoors is more precise, especially with the great TrainerRoad sessions, but it is boring. Lots of data now showing just being outdoors is healthy. I am lucky. I live in New Mexico at 6000 feet and we can ride nearly year around, but it is still cold in the winter-I ride in 25 degree F. weather all the time and on a mountain bike with heated gloves down to single digits. I used to work at the US Embassy in Ottawa and my record was commuting to the Embassy in -30 F on a fat bike. If you have the right clothes, it is still more fun being outside. Rain in the 30’s F is the worst and I will not do that.
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Leave the TV indoors and face the bike to the window.
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In the Netherlands we call that waterkoud, water cold, it’s by far the worst kind of weather. I am surprised English doesn’t have a word for it though…
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I don’t have an indoor trainer. I won’t have an indoor trainer. I live in Sweden (having moved from the UK) and rode all through winter last year (over 1000km a month). There isn’t really a need to have an indoor trainer unless you live somewhere that’s particularly ill suited to cycling.
I would argue that if outright fitness is your goal, that @ [AJS914] is correct with their recommendation for a Concept 2 rower. I recently got one again (after having had one years ago) and I’ll be leaning on that more this winter and reducing my outdoor rides a little. It is objectively a better work out than cycling, and it’s far easier to get into the upper HR zones as it’s taxing your entire body. It’s also boring as hell, but you don’t have to use it for long for massive benefit.
But every opportunity I have, I’ll be out on my bike, on studded tyres, whizzing around the gravel roads, through the forest, marvelling at the changing seasons, keeping an eye out for moose or white tailed eagles and enjoying all the benefits that cycling bring that are beyond simply pushing out the watts*
- and I love pushing out the watts. I’m a total number nut, but I need the escapism of cycling outside.
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I don’t know what “30’s F” means but the word could be ‘sleet’ - an icy kind of rain.
Water cold isn’t so much about the precipitation but more about the unpleasantness of high humidity near freezing temperatures
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Clammy is probably the nearest English word for that.
Could be oorlich but that’s not a word we’d use in the south, it’s a northern dialect.
Good call, although we tend to use it in heat more Inthink it can be in the cold. And it speaks to the feeling more than the weather itself.
For some reason I have Gollum in my mind’s eye thinking about it.
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You use it for similar in heat because your skin is clammy I.e. damp and cold.
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I’ll take 30F over 35F just about any day. Once below freezing the humidity drops and it feels so much better.
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concept 2 rowers? Are we forgetting that actual boats exist outside? People really need to stick to the rivers and lakes they are used to.
Anyway, these threads are always weird. No one asks someone why they do all their squats and curls inside when it is possible to do them outside, its the same fresh air right? No one questions hopping on a c2 and knocking out a 10k as a workout. But once someone says they like training inside there is always resistance. Some people just do this to workout. I love riding my bikes outside, I also love training. You know what I don’t like hills. But here is the curveball, not because they are hard to get up, but because I don’t the wasted time putting out little to no power going down them to get to the next one to go up. I like getting good at pedaling with 0 breaks just as much as I like nature and fresh air. They are 2 different things for me.
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All fair enough. I admit that I also respond weirdly to people saying why should I train outside but that’s because I race road. And we all remember the early season post-covid crits when generation zwift/TR/Peloton discovered outside racing after getting into cycling during the pandemic. Let’s just say it wasn’t pretty. 
But if you’re not racing? Yeah dude, train where and how you want!
But the OP specifically asked why he should train outside. The thread is not titled “I Like Riding Inside”, it is “Why should I train outdoors?”
If you ask a question like that, you gotta expect to get responses like those submitted.
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I’m mostly referring to the unless its a cat 5 hurricane there is no reason to be inside type posts that always come up in any of these types of threads. Those aren’t answering the question.
There is a bit more involved with setting up a boat than going out on the bike. I don’t think that the comparison is applicable.
There is obviously a whole industry that has developed around indoor cycling. Zwift et al, smart trainers, specialist fans even Zwift bikes. Huge amounts of financial outlay (both capital and subscription based) for an experience that is objectively inferior.
I understand the training benefit, and don’t get me wrong, there are times it would tempt me, but there are cheaper and more time effective ways of maintaining winter training than indoor cycling.
Let’s say (for example), you’re a 10hr a week cyclist (for reference, that’s about my baseline and I average 10-14). Over winter, when the weather is suboptimal, drop to 4hrs, done at the weekend. Through the week, add in a couple of runs, a couple of sessions on the Concept 2 and some resistance training. You come out of winter at least as fit and probably stronger (and with better bone density!).
Or if you’re in a colder climate, cross country skiing. I know loads of guys here who switch from cycling to cross country skiing over winter and there are no issues at all. They do really well at both.
I think sometimes in cycling, we fall into the trap of being too focused on racking up the kilometers, too strong in the belief that only cycling will make us faster cyclists. A bit of hybrid training is only a good thing.
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And going out on a bike is more involved and does have more issues/risks than riding inside, which is why the OP was asking if those things are worth it. Didn’t realize the gate you were keeping was so tall you couldn’t see the sarcasm, there was even a TLC reference.
I mean you are the only person to mention anything about KMs in the whole thread, while telling people there is no reason to even owner a trainer. You rack up exactly 0 KMs riding inside.
I do agree with you on the cross training, I do triathlon so its sort of built in. I love a good C2 session even, wish they were cheaper than my indoor cycling setup so I could justify buying one. But just because cross training is a thing and good workouts doesn’t mean it is better if someone prefers riding to nowhere.
Surprised to see such strong opinions some people have here. It’s a bit silly like some almost seem a bit bent out of shape what others do.
I live in a very residential neighborhood. In the morning, when I ride, trying to do 20 miles in our neighborhood blocks is torcher. Riding on the “main” roads in the dark with our traffic and minimal shoulder is not safe.
I have a 3 year old and 2 month old. I try and get all my cycling in at 5:30 am before anyone wakes up, and my weight lifting over lunch on days I work remote. I’m lucky to justify a 3-4 hr “long ride” outside, every other weekend. The local good route doesn’t open til 7 or 8, which puts me not getting home until lunch. I personally don’t care to spend half a day, every weekend, away from my family. Often my long rides are again, early on the trainer.
I’m also a pretty big advocate of polarized training, and it’s really hard to beat the perfection of intervals in ERG mode.
When we did a family trip to Colorado this summer, I was thrilled to do 200+ miles, all outside. I would probably do many more rides outside if I lived somewhere like that as opposed to the crappy hot and humid and boring gulf coast.
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The day I live on a lake and have a boat house, I’ll gladly put a scull in it!
My point was that if you just want to ride a machine indoors for exercise then there are arguably better options.
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