Well, the crap weather just doesn't seem to want to move on yet - another weekend, and another snow day, means my weekly long ride was on the trainer. Again. This week, though, I busted out every distraction that I could find - magazine, iPhone, and television (hockey game) - and the time went by pretty quickly. Well, about as quickly as 2.5 hours can go on a stationary bike set up in your living room.
The weird thing about a trainer - and I don't know if I'm alone in this or not - but I'm never really sure if I'm getting a quality session in or just (literally) spinning my wheels. I'm not doing intervals or anything that would usually kick my ass, so it's kinda hard to tell if these are quality "miles" or not. I do try to mix up the shifting - typically settling in on repeats of 5 or 10 minutes per gear, within a three-gear range - and I'm usually fatigued at the end, but mostly bored and sporting a sore ass. I guess that's just another reason why I wish the weather would break and I could get some real miles in on the road. Although I'm told that trainer "miles" are actually tougher than road miles, I still don't think there's any comparison to the real thing, training-wise. Oh, well, that time will come...it always does. Eventually.
So as to not be a total Debbie-downer, I should mention that our run on Saturday - one hour and 15 minutes along the lakefront with Cath and Drew - was beautiful (sadly, scheduling issues prevented us from riding that day), with clear skies and brisk, but not cold, temps. It was wonderful, and the company - as always - was terrific.
Today marks week 8 of The Plan, and get to back off an hour of training (yay!). I feel good today, so am (seriously this time) thinking of swimming at lunch so as to avoid the Tuesday double. We'll see. I'm always the most energentic when the morning coffee hits, but lunchtime is still a bit of a ways away still.
Hope everyone had a great weekend.
Ironman World Championship: Living My Dreams
9 years ago
I can relate, I had to do 60 miles on the trainer. Sore ass doesn't begin to describe it! But if it's any consolation, I felt like my trainer training was enough for the HIM, so even though they don't feel like road miles, you're getting a lot of benefit. Have you tried intervals to break it up?
ReplyDeleteI've actually avoided any interval sessions for no other reason than I'm afraid they'll take too much out of me, or rather, too much out of the next day's training. The plan I'm following just has us doing Zone 2 riding for now, but it can get pretty boring.
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