are you smarter than a turbo trainer? AKA 20 minutes in the hurt locker

Anyone who lives north of ohh.. dallas! has at one point or another spent some time on an indoor trainer. Those of us in the midwest that actually race full season spend more hours on an indoor trainer than we do actually racing usually.
That being said, there are hundred if not thousands of ways to pass time and trick the mind while pedaling to nowhere. I'm sure i know a lot of them, and i am sure there are MANY that i have never heard of. Things i have done in my day for hours include the obvious: TV, bike movies, intervals, etc.. and then the not so obvious: playing PlayStation football, watching the Superbowl and doing intervals during commercials, and one of the most memorable was setting up a circuit that 3 of us completed doing crunches, lunges, and roller sprints!
All of these things are done in an effort to pass the time. Intervals are by far the most common, and i started in on the hardest intervals i know to do - the dreaded 20 minutes at threshold.
I have done some 10's, some 5's and a heck of a lot of 2's, but last night was the first voyage of the season into the hurt locker. The 20's are tough because you are trying to average a certain wattage, so you start a little light of the target, cruise into the zone, then hurt like a Mutha! to maintain it for the duration. Its catch 22, because if you start too light, you have to work extra hard late in the game, but start out too strong, then you are squealing with like 7 minutes to go.
I did pretty well last night, the first one averaged 238W, not bad; but the second one averaged 252w! i was pretty happy with that, as i had been assuming my LT was around 240w. I think it may be time to do a performance test and see if my off season efforts are going anywhere.

I will wrap up the year tomorrow, and have updates shortly. We have New Years MTB ride on order, so hopefully i will get outside for a ride for the first time in almost 2 months!

mid month check-up

so far December has been a good month on the bike for me, despite ZERO outdoor rides due to the lousy 'Autumn' snow storms we have been hit with so far. Just think, we have had well over a foot of snow and its not even officially winter yet...
I have missed a few days and let a few double sessions slide by, but the current total for the month is 22 hours as of this afternoon, looking to add another hour tonight.
I am also down 2 more pounds from Dec 1 - making it down a total of 8 lbs from halloween.

I hope your December has been as good to you!

red zinger to coors...

for my viewing pleasure this week, I have added a unique dvd to the collection. its a 3 disc set documenting the classic red zinger and following its conversion to the coors classic. it was 1986 when I first saw it on tv, and I bet I can still recite the 1988 coverage. the video features names like jacque boyer, dale stetnia, george mount, bob cook, a very young davis phinney and steve bauer, lemond, and alan mccormick. international names like patro jimenez, bernard hinault, louis herrera.

some great throwback jerseys from gs mengoni, celestial seasonings, elf, denver spoke, bianchi, etc.

its a great disc to watch as a throwback to what really set the scene for american cycling.

its been a fun 60 minutes on the trainer tonight.

A sunday in Hell

No - i wasn't riding the cobbles in France, and no i wasn't even riding outside. By the time i got a chance to actually ride sunday, it was raining / snowing and i was not about to go out in the gook of the trail today, i didn't need anymore character.

Today i spent 2 hours on the trainer. Luckily i has a new copy of ' A Sunday in Hell' to watch and help pass the time. My review is that it was good entertainment, slightly motivational. But compared to other cycling films, there is not much of a soundtrack, and the commentary is a touch monotone for the significance of the race.

It was my own personal sunday in hell as we all know 2 hours on the trainer is certainly no fun, and it was the first ride on the trainer of that length this year.

November by the numbers.....

33hrs

774km

19230kj

down 4 lbs