Tonight was my first time on a trainer. For those not in the know, it’s not quite training wheels, but it keeps your bike stationary and simulates a ride. 45 minutes on that thing is equivalent to an hour outside, but it shouldn’t be a replacement. It’s much like running on a treadmill shouldn’t replace a run outside. Tonight was a scheduled bike ride, but I got out of work late, plus I’m not comfortable riding at night anyway. I was sitting at home watching Mythbusters anyway… might as well, right? What you see above is my roommate Carlos’ trainer on a pinkish yoga mat from our friend Gretchen. It does its job. I set up Netflix to watch something on my queue, which was “Gigantic,” a Zoey Deschanel movie (that kept me motivated for sure).
When I first clipped in and spun, I noticed my cadence was at zero. Noo!!! I just bought that sensor too. Hmm… tried a little troubleshooting, but no luck. I’ll search online later. That sucked because I’m supposed to practice getting my cadence at 90rpm, the magic efficient number told by my coaches. I’ll test it again tomorrow, it was already 11:45pm, so I didn’t have time to mess with it. I winged it and just rode for 45 min, with a few spin up drills (that’s when my cadence increases) for 30 seconds at a time. Whew! What a workout! Carlos warned me that I’ll be a sweaty mess, and yes, I was. Maybe it’s because there’s no air circulation in the room (oops, I hope it didn’t get musty) to cool me down, or maybe it’s because the seat is making my ass hurt, but yeah, it’s a workout. Thoughts in my head? “Wow, I’m supposed to be riding like this for 8 hours… I can’t even imagine how that’s going to be!” I finished the ride at 12:35am… and I’m so awake!
So, what do you think ?