2Mins2Midnight

Just curious why so many people don't consider trainer mileage? I understand the arguments regarding cycling "tradition" and that trainer miles can be really inflated compared to outdoor depending on your setup/recording practices, but pedaling is pedaling! I spend a lot of time on Zwift year-round simply because it's convenient with my work/life schedule. Excluding those miles would be really underselling the hours of sweat I put in!

rsbob 

Be careful what you ask?

Some consider trainer miles more difficult. Some ‘purists’ consider outdoor miles more valid because of outdoor environmental factors.

I care less what others think are valid and lump all of mine together. The only bummer about hill or mountain climbing on a trainer is that it doesn’t readily (at least in my case) make me a better climber IRL. If it works for some people, what is your secret? (I just try to hammer the hills, but…)

mschwett 

2023 was a great year, until it wasn't. i was on track for around 6500 miles before a few ill-fated rides in september and october. i've gotten back on a bike, but it is sadly not the same. hopefully at some point i'll be able to look back on the march '21 to sep '23 period with fond memories rather than loss, but not so much quite yet.

total for the year was 5,293 miles and 285,000 feet, of which the last 280 or so miles were on an ebike with just a little bit of assist.



the point where the steady green line (total miles since 1/1/2021) inflects is where everything went sideways.

bampilot06

If one is actually doing workouts and or riding alone, I find the trainer is noticeably harder when riding alone than outside. The issue I think is when people just get with a pace partner and get pulled around for hours and hours. Average speed is wicked high, so they are racking up miles in a short amount of time, something they would not be able to achieve outside and alone.

At this point in my life, I don’t care. I try and ride outside as much as possible, but with my limited availability sometimes trainer is the only option or I don’t ride.

Makes me think of this segment on strava I came across. The KOM was some guy from like 3 years ago. It was blatantly obvious that he forgot to turn his computer off and drove home. Reached speeds of 65 MPH. I flagged it, nothing happened. My friend flagged it, nothing happened. I finally asked him to delete his ride. His response. “No, who cares, it’s from three years ago”

Ride your bike for you, not anyone else.

choddo

I kind of ignore KOMs these days (there are way too many elite level riders around here) but this kind of pig ignorant response makes me fear for the future of humanity.

I assume a bunch of people have publically dissed him in the comments?

having said that, flagging rides has always worked for me.

choddo

I usually work twice as hard on the trainer for maybe 30-35% higher average speed so I count them. I would guess maybe 10% of my total are zwift or indievelo.

eduskator

That's odd. A 65MPH flag won't automatically delete the KOM? It's most likely because it has already been flagged and the guy found a way to circumvent it. 100% of my flags so far deleted the KOM when I chose the ''done in a vehicle'' option.

It's also funny that he would have said ''who cares?''. He clearly cares about having a fake KOM under his belt. Stupid people everywhere.

eduskator

Stats for 2023:

Real: 6500kms (4050mi)
Virtual: 1400kms (870mi)
Total elevation: 98 500m (323 100ft)

Goal for 2024: 10 000km (6200mi), including virtual bike.

RB1-luvr

total cycling mileage for 2023 was 2222, 99,176'. I'll take it. My goal was 2023 miles. If I had not had six weeks off the bike due to a concussion, I'd have had another 300 miles.

my goal for this year is 2024 miles. And to stay out of hospitals.

phrantic09

363 hours, 45 minutes

6155 miles- 400 short of goal but summer really sucked from a motivation perspective, so I will take it

I don’t separate real from fake.

Bob Ross

It's a semantic issue, not a cycling-specific issue:

Yes "pedaling is pedaling" but pedaling-in-one-place versus pedaling-to-propel-your-bike-over-some-distance are very different concepts, and the word "mileage" is very specifically a reference to distance.

Trainers don't cover any distance; they sit in one spot, immobile. Ergo the time spent on trainers can't legitimately be considered "Miles" ...they can however be counted as Hours, or Revolutions Of The Pedals/Wheels, or Work Performed, or any number of other metrics that are indeed involved when one sits on a trainer. But it's disingenuous to refer to that time/revolutions/work as covering any sort of distance.

Breadfan

1300 miles. 95% of it was gravel/dirt. It was my first year riding since I was a kid, and then I only rode for fun. It's been a lot tougher on my knees than I thought it would be, otherwise I could have done more.

MoAlpha

Only in ergo mode.

2Mins2Midnight

I hadn't thought about it in such terms, but that makes perfect sense. Thanks for the response!

aliasfox

To those of you who can crack 2,000 miles while living in the Northeast and being employed - kudos. I barely cracked 1k miles living in NYC, and moving upstate during Covid couldn't get me to past the 2k miles mark (1,818 miles in 2022). A combination of the weather staying cool/cold until well into April and it getting cold again by October...

But moved out to Northern CA this year, while still working east coast hours - warm-enough weather (even into Dec!), and a schedule that lets me hop onto a saddle by 3pm...

3,001.1 mi
129,554 ft
211 hrs, 50 mins

All but ~400 mi of that since the beginning of July.

Yan 

In 2023 I rode 8,881 miles, 335,406 ft of ascent.

I went on bike tour so it's a bit cheating from a time off work perspective. I'd never manage this much in a typical year living in NYC.

downtube42

For me it's pretty simple: they are not miles. No miles were traversed. No distance covered. No places visited.

I have a smart trainer. It's a great workout, impervious to weather, and safe. Short of an irl race, it provides the best workout I can get on a bike.

Trainer time is all about the fitness result. Road miles are an outdoor experience. The purpose of trainer time is to make road miles better.

That's me. You be you.

The Chemist

Just a solo long ride, like my other big rides of the year.

eduskator

+1. That's why I separate my real mileage from my virtual mileage. Fortunately, Strava allows that.

It took me a while to understand why some of my friends had 5000kms more than me at the end of each season. I didn't Zwift at all during winters until last year.

choddo

That is pretty wild 👏

mschwett 

why would you consider it mileage? no miles were traveled lol. of course, calories were burned, revolutions of the pedals made!

David_Harris

1400 miles. First time in my life I counted them. One metric century.

I’ve got plans for 2024.

2Mins2Midnight

As others have said, it's a semantics issue. In my head I was seeing it as distance traveled, even if it's virtual. But by the dictionary definition of mileage, you're right - trainer "miles" wouldn't count. I see now why people distinguish between the two when giving their stats. I'll always include my trainer "miles" because I would probably be saddened by my numbers otherwise haha

bblair

4500 miles, 224,652 ft climbed.

My goal was 5000 miles, but I wimped out when the weather turned colder. Not gonna ride today either.

(real miles, not Zwift miles. Because I really didn't go anywhere, just a few feet from my TV. But since ALL motion is relative...well, never mind, too much free time in the winter.)

botty kayer

Finished the year on 8005 miles, all real outside bike milea. Just sneaked past 8k target, which considering UK weather this year was more rubbish than usual, I'm pretty happy with.

The last few months were.especially moist. Went to see family in Wales over Christmas, which is wetter than average for the UK, was there for 11 days and it hammered it down with rain all day for 10 of those days. Looking forward to spring already.