Indoor Trainer Time vs. Road Time

Some will say that an hour on the trainer is worth two on the road.  Other people will say that those people are full of crap.  A lot of it is going to depend on how hard you work on the trainer vs how hard you would be working on the road.  When outside, you have time to coast and stop pedaling... you'll also have hills where you need to work harder.  There might be stop signs and red lights and cars....    on the trainer you don't have any of that.  If you stop pedaling, well, your workout "stops." 

I will leave you with this:  Time on the trainer is better than no time at all.

Maybe as far as calories burned that ratio works.  But for real riding (and race) experience, no way.  If you could get an hour's worth of riding done in 45 minutes all the pros would spend all day on the trainer.   There are too many variables missing from the trainer rides to ever call them equal.   Even if it were true I would almost rather spend 2 hours on the bike outside than 45 minutes on the trainer!  Boooooring....

As far as workouts I would just count them as the same time.  If your workout plan calls for an hour of riding, ride an hour either inside or outside.