Fun in the Dungeon
First off—congrats to Kate!
Second—can’t wait to taste your homecooking, Rebecca!
Thirdly, I thought I’d tell you all about the start of my indoor training adventures. I hadn’t really considered starting to think about riding indoors, until a) I officially committed to a race and really don’t want to embarrass myself and b) Rebecca was telling me she was thinking about dragging out her trainer. The good thing about teammates is they inspire you to do the same…
I am fortunate enough to have a Velodyne to ride when the weather is not so inviting. This beast was made by Schwinn in 1987 and apparently used to be the bee’s knees. It’s still pretty darn cool, and they are now making a new version priced at $2100! Yowzers. Fortunately, my husband (gunnar) and I have foraged two of the archaic ones, so we can sweat to the oldies together. The Velodyne is programmable to simulate the actual physical demands of pre-defined road courses (i.e. you can go up really steep hills without budging an inch right there in your own basement) and promises to “duplicate the relationship between pedaling resistance and rider inertia.” I just know it makes me whimper. Last night I chose the 1984 Olympic Course to make my 2007 debut. gunnar snuck down and took a picture of me during a particularly heinous steep section ( I don’t know how many laps they had to do, but I was toast after just 1).
All in all, it was a most satisfying experience for the first indoor training of the year, except for one small incident. One point I jumped off to turn on the fan; when I jumped back on, the back wheel was still churning away, and my right foot popped off the pedal and my leg (???) went into the rear spokes, thereby stopping the wheel dead, popping my left foot off its pedal and smashing my knee into the very sharp corner of the stairs. I only know it was my leg that stopped the wheel because it has a big welt/bruise on it (to match my left knee). Aside from that, I really don’t know how my beefy calf wedged itself in there! I might have the dubious distinction of being the only person that actually gets nasty bruises even when riding a trainer indoors (not counting those of you who ride rollers). Hope you all are having as much fun as I am! Please note little dairyDog’s sweet head, but her eyes don’t normally glow like that! BETSY2
posted by Bovis Fugit at 4:11 PM
6 Comments:
Goodness- sorry this is so long! Guess I got a little windy.
BS
Awesome picture. Bike parts everywhere, dog wondering what the heck your doing. Total biker hangout.
Programming courses on your trainer sounds awesome. Can you program race courses you plan to do this year on that baby? That would be very cool.
Sorry about the injuries. I recently pulled out of my pedel during a spin class I was teaching. Just a little scrape, but still.
Later,
J
No worries- just flesh wounds! Hope that hamster shows his little rodent face soon.
Nice going Betsy! Indoor cycling injuries earn you tough girl points. Love the photo---dairy dog just had to check out what his mama was doing. And way to smile on that H2 climb you're doing. My trainer is still in garage....but I'm now motivated to move it inside. any day now....
Y'all are scaring me with your tough girl workouts! (And that demon dairydog with the glowing eyes is kinda scaring me too...) I don't think I'm doing nearly as much as the rest of you--and I have my first race on Saturday!!! Ok, it's only an indoor Computrainer TT on a "rolling 10K course," but the results will be recorded for all to scoff at.
I gotta get with the program! J3
Great photo- hilarious! Way to work it! Rob and I are planning on setting up our trainers too- sweet idea.
See some of y'all this sunday!
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