In 2023, my goal was 4,000 miles, and I made it, so I started with the same this year.
In late September, 2024, my local club did a ride across our state, about 350 miles over 4 days. After that, I was about 20 miles shy of the 4,000 goal, and hit it within the following week. I normally ride 80-120 miles per week, so 350 was a huge jump.
Then, I upped the goal to 5,000 miles, then finished that in late November or early December. A friend congratulated me and noted that 5,000 miles was almost 100 miles per week, so I made the new goal 5,200 miles.
Of those 5,348 miles, 2,111 miles (~39%) were on Zwift. I did three imperial centuries on Zwift this year, and several more metric centuries on Zwift. The rest were all outdoor, ranging from 25 miles to 120 miles.
I haven't decided on a goal for next year yet. Right now it's at 5,200 miles (it automatically resets to the same). But, for various reasons, I'm not sure whether I'll ride that much this year.
Yeah, that would be my next step, if I find that training over the winter brought me some benefits. I think I just like being outdoors! LOL
Yeah, I much prefer riding outdoor. Generally I ride 2-3 times each week outside, but I work during the day, so my winter rides were pretty much only on Saturdays. Then, add in some bad weather, and often I wouldn't ride at all. Each year in spring, I felt like I was starting over.
With the indoor platform, I can at least maintain my level over the winter (though I usually improve), so when good weather comes along, I'm ready to pick up where I left off.
There are some things that are much easier to do on the indoor rides, with the controlled environment. For example, the last few weeks, I've been doing an "FTP builder" (functional threshold power - essentially, the power I can maintain for a long time, like 40 minutes or an hour) plan in Zwift. The workouts require specific power output for given intervals, which is harder to do outside. It can be done, but, there are hills (both climbs and descents can be counterproductive), bad weather, stop signs and traffic lights, etc., all interfering with whatever goal power you were trying to achieve. And riding in cold weather always gets my heart rate up, making the workout less effective.
I'm not saying indoor riding is easy; I find myself watching the clock a lot more, for example. But it's better than no ride at all. From spring to fall, I'll generally only use Zwift when it's raining outside, or if we have something going on that limits my time to ride.
Indoor gives you consistency with the ride.
It's nearly impossible for me to do a 3 or 4 hour base building ride at low watts without being wildly over or under my targets. Indoors, I'm able to pretty much nail the target zones, so it's probably a more effective way to do specific training.
But my longer outdoor rides will include some monster hills, which aren't easy to duplicate with my current setup.
I'll make due with what I've got, and will look to upgrade when the need arises.