I love cycling. It is what I do for fun. It also happens to be great exercise. But I cannot always get outside to bike. When it is too cold outside or it’s raining, then I can still ride inside. That use to be a pretty boring activity. Spinning classes offer some help, but they are still a long way from being really fun.
Today, I use Rouvy. It provides a video stream of real life routes from many different places. It is almost as much fun as actually riding outside. My bike is connected to a smart trainer, which is wirelessly connected to my computer. The Rouvy app (or program) can see how much power I am generating & how fast I am pedaling. It uses that information, along with my weight, to calculate how fast I would be going in real life and it adjusts the video playback speed to match the speed that I am going (virtually).
The Rouvy app also knows the grade of the terrain along the entire course of the video. So it has my trainer increase or decrease the resistance to match the terrain. This make the indoor bike ride quite enjoyable.
I can lose myself in the experience. I will sometimes find myself starting to lean into the turns. I also start getting a little nervous when it looks like a car is going to pull out in front of me.