Love/Hate Relationship & Crisco???

The reality of our changing weather is slowly starting to sink in and unfortunately one of those consequences is the transition from outdoor riding to indoor riding....WEAH....hence the reference to having a love/hate relationship with the indoor bike.  I dig having the option to ride indoors when the opportunities to ride outdoors are limited.  With the days getting shorter (and colder), I find myself  spending a little more time on the trainer during the week.

The 'love' part is that it is an option....you can do it in a controlled environment...If you are uber motivated you can throw in a long movie (or a trilogy if you are that masochistic).  The longest I have been able to last on the indoor trainer is about 2 hours.  This is mostly due to boredom but somewhat to do with 60 minutes on a trainer being similar to 75-80 minutes outside.  The reason being that you are constantly applying pressure on the pedals indoors as opposed to outdoors where you are going downhill at certain times and don't have to 'work'.  Cycling indoors also means you have to watch your hydration a little better as you tend to have a higher sweat factor.  This is pretty much a non-issue for me as I never really spend enough time on the indoor trainer to run into those consequences.
It is also great to have a bike that tracks wattage, heart rate, cadence, mileage, time, etc...you can tweak one of the variables and train accordingly.  Ultimately, power output (wattage) is the constant where you can gauge how hard you are working.  This keeps you honest in the sense that there are days where it feels like you are putting out good wattage, only to look down and realize that you are fooling yourself and are indeed pushing with as much force as a mosquito...

The 'hate' part comes into play when your denial of your chances to ride outside are met with a reluctant acceptance and you walk to the indoor trainer with your head down and tail between your legs - ohh where have the good times gone...you even start to pine for how good the 'bad' outdoor rides were.  It is once again time to get re-acquainted with the already too familiar...pop in a vid, throw on some tunes, and find some internal fortitude to spinny spin spin.  No rider I know (in their right mind anyway) will admit to enjoying their time on and indoor trainer...I have not yet found a way to make it fun or all that interesting...the closest I have come is being motivated by fear of extra pain and suffering by not having a base for the long events.  The upside is that the riding hrs diminish and it is an opportune time to hit the gym and get some cross-training in...anywhere from weights, to plyometrics, to running (barf), or maybe even some speedo time (forehead slap).

I have managed to cowboy up this week and saddle up on the indoor trainer a few times...have even managed to get a couple of daily doubles in...very light spin for 30 mins in the a.m. to get the blood moving while never getting the heart rate up, and then a more intense spin in the evening...the current motivation is trying not to lose the fitness from the summer and fall....but it is a slippery slope and someone just greased the slope with a few tubs of Crisco...WEAHHH