Hell Yes, I’m Going Out in That!

n recent years, indoor training has become such a richly connected world of interactive workouts, social engagement, and virtual environments that some people choose indoor workouts even when the weather’s fine. The tech geek in me had become increasingly intrigued, so I finally got a smart trainer last year. It’s still sitting in its box, unused. I’ve just never liked riding inside – an aversion that dates back more than two decades, to a time when I had visions of being a racer, and my friends and I would one-up each other with tales of increasingly masochistic (which made them largely counterproductive) indoor trainer sessions.

Aside from bad fever- dream recollections of these thrashings, you miss out on a lot if you avoid the outdoors. For one thing, you tend to pedal in squares – thanks in part to the ‘resistance’ feel of many trainers, though they’re improving, and also because the bike is fixed and doesn’t move with you like it does on the road or trail. You also won’t hone your handling ability if you don’t have to steer and brake (even in the most energetic Spin class, your muscles get a workout but your pack skills don’t). You can also lose your resilience for less-than-ideal weather conditions, and your knack for assembling the jigsaw puzzle of the proper clothing to wear.

But all of that is simply a list of the logical benefits to choosing to ride outside. None of them is the force that propels me to go out in temperatures in the single digits or even hovering around zero, after or even during a storm. I do it because, simply, I need it.

Science backs me up. There are many theories about why humans need nature. I’ll focus on one. Research in environmental psychology points to two basic types of attention: directed and involuntary. Directed is what we use at work – a conscious effort to focus on a task at hand. It is a vital skill: our ability to focus is crucial to problem-solving and willpower – being able to stick with a task, or to think and plan longterm. But it’s a finite resource, that once depleted must be