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Not counting apps, what do you watch when busting hiit or long hard sessions on the trainer, to help you stay focused and motivated, if anything?
Could it be criterium race pov, race footage, other pov videos like dh, mx, or movies, action, "adult", talk shows, documentaries, etc?
For intervals I just stick music on. Even when I used trainer road I only had the graph on screen to show where I was in the session. I like listening to music and find the track lengths help to break up the time
Sometimes put a cx race on - there's a lot of footage on youtube nowadays. Van Aert v VdP in brutal conditions gets your training head on.
I can't really concentrate on stuff if it's HIIT so find TV shows or similar don't work for me - can't follow them. If it's a steadier session I might listen to a podcast.
For short intervals I usually watch a video of people doing short intervals! I need it to keep me on track in case I lose count or get my timing wrong. I've also got (very boring) interval timer videos from youtube if I want to play with the number of reps etc. I couldn't imagine watching anything not directly related to the workout to be honest.
Longer intervals (e.g. sweetspot or similar) I usually use the same 2 or 3 GCN videos, I like that I recognise certain features of the climbs on their videos which correspond to how deep into the workout I am, and I even get a bit of a boost from hitting the virtual snowline.
Otherwise (if it's just time spent on the rollers) I'll watch CX races or even just footage of famous climbs.
I tried playing xbox on rollers once.
It didn't end well for my cyvling or Gears of War
I made a playlist with a bunch of UCI CX highlights on which works for intervals. For longer intervals / steady state might watch a full XC or CX race.
Tried using yourtube, but in the end decided that sufferfest was worth the £11 for the nicely made videos, and the app/training side is a bonus.
I used to listen to music on the turbo but recently switched to podcasts - which I prefer.
I'll watch stuff that's fun, but where I don't really care what happens. I've often used the Marvel series on netflix for this. If I miss a bit of, say, The Punisher it won't take me long to either figure it out or get over it. Only downside is when there's really violent stuff going on during recovery intervals - can keep the heart rate a bit high.
The wall in front of me, or the inside of my eyeballs. If I'm going at a pace I could watch a screen I'd much rather be outside. The CX clips idea is a good one though, can see something like that working for steadier sessions or making the gap between intervals less dull.
I'd love to take the time to figure out a perfect playlist, there's a couple of tunes that if they drop just right in an interval then I'm superman*. Of course they usually drop during a recovery section...
*relatively speaking...
If you are doing HIT intervals properly then you won't be able to watch anything!
For the long steady state stuff I've tried watching races via the GCN racing channel but I'm not keen probably because I'm on a dumb trainer so have to concentrate to keep things on track power wise.
Even for low intensity stuff I don't enjoy so much watching movies or anything like that, although I do watch the occasional documentary. I just find it hard to concentrate while riding.
I do spend 99% of my time listening to podcasts though. Mostly cycling stuff, but it can be anything. You can get your head down and tune out to everything else and just listen.
I cannot watch anything, it is too distracting. Pre-Zwift it was just music for me.