Essay: On Indoors Miles

(2021) If the outdoor mileage counter is the thoroughbred War Admiral then the indoor miles can be thought of as the gimpy Seabiscuit. Neither the two shall meet. And certainly Seabiscuit will never pass War Admiral, at least on paper. Sticking to routines from years prior, the asphalt bike would maintain a lead in the off season and lengthen its advantage to absurd amounts in the warmer months. 

Two nights ago, during a make-up stage of Tour de Zwift, our indoor miles passed the outside riding distance, and we aren’t sure what to make of it. Since the start of the pandemic the trainer has been pressed into continuous service, being used more than once a week, a departure from times of yore when it was an offseason aid or mid-season enrichment device. How could this have happened that our indoor miles, thousands of miles behind, went right around the outdoor counter?

In years past the winter trainer was used for mid-week workouts. Monday through Friday the rigid computer anchor was fired up and digital laps were collected. The weekend could not come soon enough as we rolled out into the countryside, on real roads, making real turns, and being in charge of when we pulled our water bottle out. The weekend miles surged beyond the weekly digital totals. Sometimes the weekly digital miles were replicated in one weekend day. To have the indoor totals close the gap and charge around the outdoor miles is not something taken lightly.

There has been a plethora of reasons trainer season has hardly left. The ever-present Covid pandemic has canceled every mile-collecting event. Regularly canceled events decreased motivation. Group rides were hardly entertained on account of transmission and optics. Medical experts gave us pause to state laying a bike down could lead to a trip to an overwhelmed hospital, so it’s not worth it. Recently our region has been walloped by a winter that suddenly decided to show up and make treacherous snow covered roads even moreso. Now the weekend rides of high miles have been replaced by so-so trainer rides, if they happen at all.

Here we thought the War Admiral outdoor miles were the uncontested stud in the Race for the Ages, but along came the plucky Seabiscuit indoor mileage to steal the show. It isn’t likely the indoor miles are likely to sit up and wait as we prepare for another ten inches of snow overnight. Even if the roads were clear it’s not like there are races shoving entries in our faces like 1930s reporters with straw hats and odd accents. No, the indoor Seabiscuit miles are going to keep going. Our content may suffer but we will say it again because it bears repeating, if there was ever a time to be entwined with the indoor trainer, it might as well be now. At least we can still ride with our buddies across town, even if it is digitally. And maybe there will be some Seabiscuit surges on the online platform.