Riding in place during pandemic and heavy oilfield traffic [View all]

I feel fortunate that I am retired and live in a rural place. I like to ride solo every morning in the spring, summer and fall. Winter I tend to ride midday or afternoon. Once a week I load my bike up to ride with my friends in town. Because the traffic on my usual routes became so heavy with oilfield, chicken trucks and dump trucks I splurged on myself buying a direct drive smart trainer and rebuilding one of my old bike frames to mount on it. A year ago we got unlimited data internet so I subscribed to Zwift.

Doing workouts using a trainer or stationary bike in the past was mind-numbing boredom. The most I could stand was 45 minutes with half of that having me grind my teeth. I am actually having fun on this machine with this app. Zwift is a game that allows racing or workouts that can be in a fictional place, Watopia or several places around the world. My group is starting up a Zwift team where we can ride together virtually. There is even a way to communicate with one another. What's a group ride without gossip and trash talk?

Physically my set up is perfect for me. The bike is fitted just like my road bike. It has a Brooks B17 Imperial saddle which is nice because riding on a trainer tends to be hard on the butt. Besides that the trainer moves a bit side to side which is more comfortable. For I mounted two small fans on a handlebar extender with a box fan that cools feet, legs and lower torso.

I haven't done 2 hours yet, but 1 hour + and only quite because of spousal nagging.