"Where is your bike?" That's what my coworker asked me as we left work for the day.
I stared at her like a deer in the headlights.
"Didn't you ride to work?" She inquired.
It was 50 degrees that day. For January in New York it was considered exceptionally warm for that time of year.
She was asking a totally reasonable question, since I have a reputation for spending all day on the bike.
"I have it here in my trunk, but I only spin indoors this time of year."
Now it was her turn to stare at me like a deer in the headlights.
Triathletes talk in a language all our own and we regularly forget that rest of the world does not.

• Spinning
• PR
• Cadence 
• Aero position 

Anyone of these tend to elicit a visual facial reaction the legal equivalent of
"Just how far back down the road did the spacecraft drop you off?"  I proceeded to explain to my coworker that between January and the end of March I do not ride outside.
Before she could ask about where the spaceship was actually going to land again, I showed her a picture me on my bicycle connected to a stationary bike trainer & that is called spinning.

If the air temp is 40, it feels like 20 on the bike.
In snow or ice, you have zero traction.
Carbon road bikes 
(& human bodies)
snap, like twigs on impact with cars trucks 
(or buildings).
Hence, spinning indoors.
(You could take a spin class?)
A. Why spend ten minutes re-adjusting the seat when you have a bike at home that already fits you?
B. Who says the class will be targeting you race season goals?
C. The instructor at my gym sings along with the workout music...& she is way off key.

I used to dread the 12 weeks when I could not ride outside. Then I discovered instead of staring at the walls of my garage, I could be watching movies or Netflix episodes of West Wing. Once I spent so much time on the bike that my family set a table setting on my back to tell me to stop for lunch.

So the next week, I took the bike outside & did a 30 minute set while my neighbors shoveled themselves out.

Now 3 times a week for about an hour each, I'm doing bike workouts after the kids go to bed.

(Hopefully inside the house).

The advantage of becoming a "triathlete hamster wheel" is the ability to reproduce workout results in a controlled environment.
There are 5 zones, ranging from 1 to 5.
Zone 1 requires so little amount of effort that it's practically "checking for a pulse".
Zone 5 on the other hand feels like "I'm going to die at this pace".
Each of the three workouts I do, require me to hold at a different zone for an extended period of time.

For example:

Zone 1: 5 minutes
Zone 3: 2:30 minutes
Zone 6: 30 seconds
(Zone 6????)
This is the plan. This is how I am going to get faster at the 112 miles of cycling for Ironman Lake Placid.

Here are a few Triathlon terms:

PR is Personal Record, your new fastest time. 
We want to be so faster, that we shortened the term for it.

Cadence is mph, but we are measuring how fast you make the wheel spin when you pedal. If you are pedaling too fast, you are in the wrong gear. The bike is a machine & it should be working harder.

Aero position, bent over the handlebars being aerodynamic. The lower you are, the less wind resistance slowing you down.