My wife likes to remind me, when I finish a Zwift session and tell her about being dropped (as usual) from a group on the first hill, that it's all in my head. The group was not there, the hill doesn't exist, and I was just pedalling away to nowhere.
I think I've taken it all to heart. Smart trainers have long simulated hills that aren't there, and let you change gear to reduce the effort - essentially, back to about what you could manage on the flat. As I understand it, the latest Zwift kit now lets you simulate changing gears that aren't there to cope with the hills that aren't there either, thus meaning that it is both increasing and decreasing the effort at the same time.
Meanwhile (back on topic), people are setting themselves up with posh training rooms that they pay to heat to comfortable temperatures. Then, rather as with the gears, they pay to cool them back down again with fans so that they don't sweat excessively.
All of which makes this spot on:
Have you got a back yard or some such to put the turbo? Outdoor riding going nowhere.
If I can imagine that I'm surrounded by a super-fit group on the latest Colnagos, then it's no problem to imagine that I'm in a heated room with cooling fans, and that my dumb trainer is somehow increasing the resistance that my entirely virtual shifters are then reducing again.
I just admire my bike.
