If we liked breathing stale, recycled air, we’d all take up a sport like wrestling or indoor fly-fishing. But we love the feel of a gale on our faces. We cherish the smell of cow manure filling our nostrils with its almost tangible grittiness. We hold scared the privilege to breathe in diesel fuel while doing hill repeats up l’Alpe d’Huez.
But such whimsy is not for every day. Occasionally, we find ourselves faced with the prospect of an hour of solitude upon the wind trainer or rollers, where our sport is transformed from a glorious experience of powering ourselves along with only Nature for company to one where a ride of 30 minutes is barely tolerable, 45 seems like a lifetime wasted, and 60 minutes is more than most of us can even consider enduring. 60 minutes on the trainer at a leisurely pace or a 4 and a half hour death march up a barren, heat-riddled climb? I’ll take the 4 and half hours every time, thank you very much.
We all have to do it, and there are even some redeeming qualities to be had. You get better at Rule #5, for one. You develop a more magnificent stroke, for another. Whatever the redeeming qualities, we all have our way of coping. Jeff in PetroMetro returns with his view on how to make it suck just a little bit less.
Yours in Cycling,
Frank
—
Either due to life-threatening weather or poor scheduling of life’s lesser priorities (see Rule #11), we Velominati spend a little time each year riding indoors. Whether one enjoys a ride on rollers or a trainer, and no matter if one methodically spins (as all good recovery ride specialists do), grinds out intervals, or practices ways to improve one’s magnificent stroke (scrape the mud off your shoes, scrape the mud off your shoes…), death-by-boredom is always a possibility. I’m not one to go for videos, or read books, or hook up to a computer. Call me old fashioned. I like to meditate on the V with only the voices inside my head screaming for mercy from the pain of a complete lactic acid meltdown.
Or, sometimes I like a little music.
Back in the Dark Ages, I used the yellow (sweatproof) Sony Walkman to play my favorite homemade training cassette tapes. But in our modern days of inexpensive digital storage, and with the brilliant invention of the “shuffle” command on my iPod Nano, I have some seven hours of musical motivation to keep my indoor sessions lively and loud.
I thought I might start a little conversation regarding favorite training tunes. Now, I know ALL of my fellow Velominati strictly adhere to Rule #62 when riding outside. And of course, we prefer strict adherence to Rule #9, but, as I stated above, shit happens.
While I have eclectic taste, I don’t fancy Al Green, Buck Owens, or Duke Ellington when loving a Rule #5 beatdown. No. I tack to the loud and fast. My preferences are punk and “classic rock”. (It was just rock when I first heard it.) So here’s a little flavor of my indoor training selection, in no particular order.
Hate to Say I Told You So“”The Hives””from the album “Your New Favourite Band”
Tick Tick Boom“”The Hives””from the album “The Black and White Album”
American Idiot“”Green Day””from the album “American Idiot”
The Rock Show“”Blink 182″”from the album “Take Off Your Pants and Jacket”
I Fought the Law (Live)””The Clash””from the album “The Clash: Live at Shea Stadium”
Batman Theme“”The Jam””from the album “In the City”
Communication Breakdown“”Led Zeppelin””from the album “Led Zeppelin”
The Real Me“”The Who””from the album “Quadrophenia”
Rock Around the Clock“”Ten Pole Tudor””from the album “The Great Rock’n’Roll Swindle”
Of course there are many, many others. But I offer these few picks-to-click to perhaps start a little discussion and get some musical ideas for my next indoor shopping spree at the V and Dime.
A-Merckx
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Indoors-at-the-V-and-dime, Jen's style!
How I Survive Winter and Keep Training, by Jens Voigt
Indoors-at-the-V-and-dime, Chris Hoy style!
"We're used to working hard on the track, road and gym, week in week out, but these drills on the turbo stand alone in terms of pain. It's a love-hate relationship that I have with these particular sessions. We only do them at certain points in the season and there's no two ways about it - they hurt.They hurt a lot.
The thing is, you know the benefit they can bring and you know that the real returns only come when you push yourself right to the limit of your pain tolerances. After the full set of sprints which are interspersed with very short recovery times, I usually collapse into a heap on the crash mat next to the bike.
The searing pain in your legs is horrible and you begin to shutdown totally as you retreat into a dark little place for a while. You feel sick and indeed often are sick. It can get pretty messy. And every time you do it you convince yourself that you have never felt this bad before, you must be ill or something is badly wrong with you. Never again.
And then, every time, after about 15 minutes in the foetal position the mist and pain lifts and you start feeling OK, a bit groggy and your muscles ache but basically all right. So you get up and do it all again.
The strange thing is that counter-intuitively you actually suffer more as your conditioning improves. You are able to produce more power, create a greater concentration of lactate in the blood and therefore hurt yourself more. You'd think it would get easier but it most certainly doesn't!
It's very tough but I always feel reassured to complete such a block."
I am obviously not trying hard enough...
@Chris
He obviously reads the Rules and pays special attention to Rule 10 with his qutoe:
"You'd think it would get easier but it most certainly doesn't!"
Any advice on Kreitlers or any other comparative set of rollers ?? Any ?? Anyone ??
I need to pay my dues when indoors is a must.
@Vin'cenza
I've got Kreitlers. They are great and I enjoy riding on them. That said, the last couple months I've spent way more time on my wife's cyclops trainer. After about 45 minutes on the rollers my balls fall asleep and I get scared as I like my balls and my ability to procreate. I can do three hours on the trainer and switch up positions. Yes, I can ride out of the saddle on the rollers but it doesn't feel natural and takes too much focus. So I stick to shorter periods on the rollers to build stroke and improve smoothness.
@Vin'cenza
(1) So much better than stationary trainers -- more fun and improve rather than ruin your pedalstroke
(2) why would you consider anything other than Kreitlers?
(3) get the 3" or 2.25" the 4.5" diameter won't give you enough resistance; if you are in any shape you'd easily spin out your top gear on the 4.5s. More info on chosing the right size on their website.
@Marko
Thanx for the affirmation on Kreitlers. I do need to focus on technique and may need to stay sharp(er) just to stay engaged. And I may know where there is a used set (3 or 2.25)
@Nate
Thanx as well. Can change the belt length and cylinder if I must go to 2.25 -- right ??
@Nate
Agree with all the above. Go with the 2.25. I used stationary for four years and thought they were the best but this November I bought a pair of Krietlers 2.25's and I have not gone back. At first I could not ride much past 1 hour as my nurts also would fall asleep but after about 5 rides I learned to slowly ride the rollers standing up and that really helped to keep the blood flowing and now can ride over two hours straight without problems. I just ride standing every 15 minutes for 1 to 3 minutes. Definitely would recommend krietlers!
Ditto that on the Kreitlers. My first rollers and went for the 2.25s without regret, though I am on a compact.
But aye, the nethers can suffer. Managed 2 hours last night after putting the kids to bed. Won't be having more kids.
And yeah, the smaller ones are where it's at. Mine are 3" and that seems to feel closest to actually riding. Buck's a hardass, two hours, shit. But then again, he's got like 18 kids already so probably isn't too worried about his nards. I also feel like the stationary allows me to stand for long periods which is better for low intensity "climb" training/core strengthening. I'll "climb" for five-ten minutes at a time. I'm not trying to dissuade you from rollers, I love mine, just not for long trainer sessions.