John Booker, my son-in-law, gave me a Schwinn static bike some years ago. Very useful for those days when the weather is not to one’s liking. The big question is what routines to invent and how long to spend? For most people I have talked to about this, the incredible boredom crops up regularly. Time takes on a new dimension, where minutes expand and guesses at a period of time which has passed is always seriously under-estimated.
Without spending a small fortune on a Zwift set-up, or rigging up a music-listening set-up, or even a TV set, there is nothing but mind-games to pass the time. I’ve tried music but it doesn’t work for me. I have to concentrate at a minimum level to make up a varied routine of cruising, sprints, standing up sessions, adjusting the resistance periodically. Although there are days when I just set the resistance at a comfortable level and just keep things constant for the training session. I call it cruising.
A friend from Darlington Cycling Club – a very fit, retired, ex-uphill racer – suggested an hour with a heart rate of between 90 and 100 bpm for the over-70’s. However, other friends have said to do more than 40 minutes or even 20 minutes is totally mind-blowing. After some experience and determination, I have reached the one-hour suggestion above. It all gets easier with time and practice, like so many other things to do with keeping fit. It is quite rare to do an hour of high-effort pedalling when out on a ride. Most rides are a complex mixture of high effort, steady pushing and zooming downhill with minimal effort. So, I am finding that the one-hour routine keeps my fitness level reasonably well.
The important thing for me is to maintain fitness, despite long periods of no road work. We all complain about how easy it is to lose fitness and how quickly it happens. I remember (before I had the Schwinn) a period of 2 months, when the weather was just too bad to go out. Icy temperatures, snow, high winds where just too dangerous for my riding skills. However, the return to the road was just exhausting. It is so unfair to lose a good level of fitness in a very few weeks.
With the use of the spin bike, that doesn’t happen any more. The one-hour routine keeps a very reasonable cardio-vascular and leg muscle condition, I find. The joy of going out on a lovely ride in the open air is all the more enhanced. A bit like I imagine farm animals feel, when they are let outside after a long winter cooped up. Fresh air, views, the countryside, roadside flowers changing through the seasons, the wind on the skin. Can’t whack it!!
Alex Menarry's blog, "thoughts from a 89 year old athlete" 
Bettie says it was her spin bike not Fred’s. Good post I found that having three or four different sessions on the spin bike made it easier, was going to say more interesting but spin bikes and interesting is an oxymoron.
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