Posts Tagged ‘Trainer’

Hincapie’s jersey

Wednesday, January 21st, 2009

I climbed off the trainer last night after two hours.  I had a couple of sustained efforts over 300 watts.  For the first time in a while, I had a good feeling about it.

Sometimes after a ride, my legs feel really good.  I’m not sure how to describe it, but my legs just feel strong — tired, but strong.  The times I don’t like are those when I get off the bike and my legs feel weak.  Last night’s “ride” gives me a little more confidence.

Of course, I’ve been following the Tour Down Under.  Team Columbia took the first stage while Quick Step grabbed the second.  George Hincapie came in fifth after his team made an effort of controlling the race.  This moved him up to 13th in the overall classification with his teammate (and stage one winner) André Greipel holding down second overall.

A mystery to me was the jersey George was wearing.  It looked very similar to his teammates’, but some of the outlines on it seemed to be lighter.  I was trying to figure out the significance of the difference, but couldn’t find anything on any of the cycling news sites.

So, I decided to ask the man himself.  George replied, “Its actually an aero jersey that Hincapie made. We thought we had the art exact but its a little off. Will go back to normal Jersey.”  Then I remembered reading something on Kirk Flinte’s blog about a new aero jersey.  There was my answer right there.

As for me, it looks like I will be wearing last year’s Spinners jersey in the Spring Series.  We just got our order in for our new kits and I can’t imagine they’ll be ready in a month.  It will be nice to get a new one.  Mine is pretty beat up from a crash.

What is your favorite trainer exercise?

Thursday, January 8th, 2009

There was no opportunity to take advantage of the sun that appeared yesterday, so it was back on the trainer last night.  I had read earlier in the day about Kirk Flinte “bustin’ out the trainer” and a interval plan he was doing.  Got the trainer set up, turned on the TV to the UNC / CofC game, and climbed on board.

I couldn’t remember exactly what Kirk’s plan was and I was too lazy to get off the bike and look it up on the computer, so I just came up with my own that was as close to what I could remember.  I know I can sustain 200 to 250 watts for awhile.  Once I start going over that I wear down.

So, my plan was to spin easy for ten minutes – just to loosen up – then I would bring my power up to between 200 and 250 for five minutes.  At five minutes I would do an all out sprint for ten seconds.  After that I would ease off back to the earlier pace for another five minutes.  Another five minutes of easy spinning (between 80 and 150 watts)  and then I would repeat the whole thing.

I was able to get three of these in during an hour with the final ten minutes being a cool down.  I didn’t push as hard on the sprints as I did last night.  My back is still a little stiff from that one!  My max wattage for the night was 834 watts with my five second peak at 813.  I held the 200 watts pretty well during the five minute sections.  My five minute peak was 239 watts.

Next time I’m going to try Kirk’s plan which comparing the two plans shows I missed it by a mile!  However, I felt like I got a pretty good workout but at the same time I’m ready to go again today.  If I were to do my made up plan again, I would probably up the 5 minute steady wattage a little bit.

What is your favorite trainer exercise?  I’m up to giving it a try.  Just make sure it is a real one and not just something you have designed to kill me!