With temperatures dropping, it is time to retreat into the recesses of my home, mount my bicycle on a trainer and kick my own butt. While I will no longer feel the wind on my face for a few months (save for my commutes on my spiffy Vespa GTS 250), the advantages of indoor training are numerous. The famously abundant stop signs of St. Louis will no longer interrupt my training, the morning and evening traffic will not distract me, and flat tires and mechanical issues will no longer hold me up or strand me far from home. Nonetheless, motivating myself to ride inside without that change of scenery is tricky.
I brought home a set of rollers that our cycling team has for our spring season. Let’s just say that they terrify me. I have never had the greatest balance on the bike, and by that I mean grabbing my water bottle is tenuous, removing my right hand from the handlebars is tricky, and riding with no hands is absolutely out of the question. My partner James stood next to me for five minutes while I fiddled around on them in a doorframe and I spent a lot of time leaning into him. He’d scold me and tell me to get back up and I’d gently remind him that I don’t MEAN to be leaning into him, it’s just that staying upright on the rollers is a real challenge. Thus, the goal is 10 minutes a day. Maybe eventually I’ll be able to do it without needing that moral support standing next to me.
Anyway, to make riding the trainer more interesting I invested in some videos. Robbie Ventura, one of the commentators for Versus during the TDF and a former pro cyclist is the host and does work both on trainers in the video and POV on the road. It’s like having a spinning coach in your room, although not as exciting as an all POV video. I find that he keeps me on track pretty well. I purchased the Ride 101 video as I would consider myself intermediate in terms of experience, but frankly beginner when it comes to strength and stamina. This video will keep me busy and burning calories.
The 35 minute Ride 101 workout I did today produced the following results:
8.2 miles/14.2 mph average/157 average heart rate/470 calories (although I wonder if my HR monitor lies to me about this, but it has a lot of reasons to be accurate). I do rather wonder if my resistance is a bit too high on my trainer right now. Yeesh.
Some women from Teamestrogen.com forums recommended sufferfest as well. It’s a series of videos that use helmet cam footage from pro-races to keep you chugging along. Truthfully, I haven’t tested it yet, but it looks like the perfect alternate day video from the Ride 101 series I bought. I’m looking at getting the downward spiral interval video and the ‘angels’ climbing video. I figure if I’m crossing the cascades, the continental divide and the rolling hills of the Appalachians, then I best get crackin.
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