It’s winter. In the South, winter equals cold and rainy days, which are miserable for riding bikes outdoors. In my opinion, riding indoors is equivalent to the same misery. I hate indoor cycling.
In my last post, I discussed what motivates cyclists to ride during the winter. My motivation for riding outdoors is to keep from riding indoors. I would rather suffer in freezing cold temperatures than to set up the rollers or trainer indoors. As a matter of fact, the day after that post, I did a group ride in the snow. At least I wasn’t on the trainer.
When I think of riding indoors, I think of last year’s training sessions where I’d spend 2 hours on rollers trying to build my fitness and mental toughness. I was shooting for a good 2009 racing season, but raced about three times due to the arrival of my second child. Those roller sessions really sucked, and for 2009, those sessions proved to be worthless.
If you haven’t figured it out from the last few paragraphs… I HATE INDOOR CYCLING!
But… there’s a time during the year when a cyclist like myself must do the deed. There’s a time when you drag out the image of the giant scale, weigh the pros and cons of riding in the cold rain versus sitting on the rollers, and eventually side with the indoor training option. It’s different types of misery, and sometimes the rollers win.
So… what is the line that must be crossed to push me to the “dark side?” One of the big reasons for me is the demon of self-image. (Side note: You know self-image among cyclists is a problem… don’t even pretend you don’t know what I’m talking about.)
When I see myself as “fat” and “out of shape,” I usually turn my training up a notch. There’s a certain “fighting weight” that I try to stay between throughout the year. If I get close to the upper limits of that range, I get unhappy and start to do something about it. I tend to change up my diet for a while and add a few extra hours into my riding schedule, whenever possible.
Another reason I switch to training indoors during the winter is weather. I am aware that not everybody is lucky enough to have the “winter” that I have in Georgia, but it’s still not fun to ride in sometimes. Our winters tend to be cold, windy, and wet… adverse conditions for me. If it’s too nasty, I don’t want to put my bike out in those conditions. Sometimes, it’s just too much trouble to clean and tune the bike after riding in the rain.
What pushes you indoors? What’s the point that you say, “I’m not going out today. I’d rather stay in and spin?”
PROBIKEWRENCH 
I just moved from San Diego to Reno and so far I have survived the cold, but it snowed last week and after crashing on the ice I finally set-up my trainer and rollers. Once I get on them I have found the thing that keeps me most motivated is concert DVDs. They give me both something to watch and listen to, but at the same time I don’t become inattentive and just watch the TV.
Rain=OK
Cold=OK
Rain Cold= CRANKY
Besides I hate tuning the bike more than once a month.