Turbo Miles Don't Count

[Rasmus]

It depends on what your objective is. If you want to measure how many "road-equivalent" miles you have done to judge the progress of a winter training regime then go ahead and count them. On the other hand, if you want to measure how much distance you have spent enjoying the wonderful nature of outdoor cycling, then don't.

Ultimately, though, there can be only one answer: Do what you want, who cares?

 

[Citius]

It depends on what your objective is. If you want to measure how many "road-equivalent" miles you have done to judge the progress of a winter training regime then go ahead and count them. On the other hand, if you want to measure how much distance you have spent enjoying the wonderful nature of outdoor cycling, then don't.

The third option is counting the amount of time you have spent at your target intensity levels while on the turbo. Obviously not much point if you don't have performance goals which relate to time at intensity.

 

[Joshua Plumtree]

I find counting the hours I've spent on the bike during a given time period much more useful than the actual miles covered, so only make a note of time and average speed on the turbo to give some indication of where my fitness levels are.

I put my turbo sessions on Strava but only as time spent and not distance covered. Some people can become very irate if you suddenly rack up 350** turbo miles for the week on the turbo and knock them off the top of the leader board, when they've been outside hammering the hills all week for a total of 342!

** Just to add that I've never actually done 350 miles for a week on the turbo, in case you thought I was some kind of loony!

 

[Joshua Plumtree]

Whoops! Basically just copied Citrus's post!

 

[Citius]

Citrus

Citius...

 

[Joshua Plumtree]

Citius...

Sorry Citus!

 

[Tin Pot]

I know the answer to my question is 'Do what you want, who cares', however, is the old saying that miles on a turbo do not count to your yearly total relevant nowadays?

Modern smart trainers vary resistance for you and are very aware of the effort being put in and usually for me per mile the effort on a turbo is harder than on the road.

Traditionally I don't count turbo miles in my yearly totals, although strava is doing it for me. Do you think it is time for convention to change?

Who are you counting for?

I can't imagine miles being an appropriate measure of activity on a turbo.

 

[ianrauk]

Mileage logging websites allow you to track these separately (I think, I haven't checked them all). So you can have two totals. Inside and outdoors. Quote them next to each other and allow your devoted fans to decide whether to add them together or not.

Indeed.
MyCyclingLog you can separate the real road miles from the 1 or 2 inches travelled on the turbo/rollers.

 

[windyrider]

If you ride the equivalent of 20 miles on a smart turbo, then you may, possibly, have ridden the equivalent of 20 miles. But you haven't actually ridden 20 miles. I once shot down the red baron in an air combat simulation game, but I'm pretty sure he would have kicked my arse in real life...

I fail to see how riding a turbo trainer for a given amount of real time and registering an equivalent distance has to do with sitting on your ass and playing a computer game. Does the distance actually count, well assuming you were not riding in a virtual world while sat on backside and drinking a coffee, but physically pushing around pedals and cranks etc in the real world and getting all hot and bothered in the process, then yes damn right it counts, work done is work done.

 

[Citius]

I fail to see how riding a turbo trainer for a given amount of real time and registering an equivalent distance has to do with sitting on your ass and playing a computer game.

Clearly it has no direct correlation - like most metaphors...

 

[Citius]

Sorry Citus!

er...

 

[Milkfloat]

Who are you counting for?

I can't imagine miles being an appropriate measure of activity on a turbo.

The counting mile is just for convention - lots of people count their miles and display them proudly and have done for many years. As mentioned they are fairly meaningless as one man's flat mile is very different to another's hilly (before I get TNM'ed, same for women too). Perhaps we should all be measuring watts per year, maybe even divided by weight?

I think with smart turbos now, they are a far better approximation of the real riding than they used to be. I was floating the idea that perhaps the meaningless numbers of yesteryear could be replaced with meaningless numbers of today

 

[Mugshot]

A little group of acquaintances have started doing reasonably regular group turbo sessions in preparation for warm weather riding and sportives they've entered rather than doing any winter road miles at all. They meet once a week and train for around an hour using the GCN youtube training videos without a heart rate monitor, a cadence sensor or a speedo between them, but hey, they're happy.

 

[Andrew_P]

I think they should count for more just because it is as dull as ditch water. Not that I have a turbo

 

[Tin Pot]

The counting mile is just for convention - lots of people count their miles and display them proudly and have done for many years. As mentioned they are fairly meaningless as one man's flat mile is very different to another's hilly (before I get TNM'ed, same for women too). Perhaps we should all be measuring watts per year, maybe even divided by weight?

I think with smart turbos now, they are a far better approximation of the real riding than they used to be. I was floating the idea that perhaps the meaningless numbers of yesteryear could be replaced with meaningless numbers of today

Well yeah, people who love turbos are all about FTP and watts per kilo.

So, about three people on this forum anyway!

At the end of the day it's like number of steps taken, or number of press ups - no one cares. I would think people are more interested in how fast you are in a race - something results oriented, not process oriented.