13 minutes in to the first trainer ride of the winter

As I was groaning about to roll out of bed Thursday morning, the beautiful redhead whispered in my ear, “You need to exercise today.” Rather than hitting her with a pillow, I agreed. It wasn’t just for the physical benefits of it, but for the stress release as well. I determined I was going to get on the trainer that evening.

After a bit of delay due to the fact I couldn’t find the skewer for my trainer, I got the bike set up and climbed on board. I had the same feelings that I have at times when I’m about to set out on a ride that I know is going to be a long one… this wasn’t just the start of a trainer ride. It was the start of the new season!

I had a dread of 1) the boredom of an hour being spent going nowhere, and 2) the realization that this would reveal just how out of tune I am. To battle the first issue I started a  movie on my iPad. I figured I could avoid number 2 by spinning easy this first time and just letting my legs get back in the motion.

Wow! The basketball business was hurting! One thing this all has revealed is how desperately I need to cross train. My non-cycling muscles had all kinds of aches and pains going on. It was even affecting my stroke on my left side. Some tendon on the backside of my knee was tight and caused me to pedal blocks and swing my heel out with each revolution.

Those negative thoughts began to seep in… “I’m getting old.” “Most of the guys have been out doing long base mile rides. I’m so far behind, I don’t know if it is worth it.” “Do I really want to go through this again?”

The voices in my head got so loud that I even turned off the movie. I wasn’t paying much attention to it. I just silently spun for a moment being lulled into a trance by the rhythm of the spinning wheel. By this point I was starting to warm up and the pain and stiffness was leaving.

I raised my head and looked around the room. Right in front of me were jerseys covering the wall. Each one of them told a story… Assaults on Mount Mitchell, Challenge to Conquer Cancer rides, podium finish in the state criterium championship, and numerous charity events. There was that Greenville Spinners jersey from my first ever win.

All those memories started pushing against the negative thoughts. It has been a good ride over the last five years or so. Whatever the future holds, the bicycle has been good to me.

Perhaps where I have gotten off course is trying to be something I’m not. In my mind, I’ve always seen myself at the front. I’ve wanted to be one of the “fast men”. Early on, I was. However, as you move up it takes more and more commitment to stay at the front. It is a commitment that I now realize I can’t invest.

You know, that might sound like a negative thought. However, it is freeing. I’ve got a lot of great memories of success to hold onto. I’ve also got a lot of great opportunities and memories to make off the bike.

I looked down at the meter and saw my hour was nearly up. My legs were feeling pretty good (though that one push for a few seconds at around 750 watts reminded me I’ve got work to do before spring). Best of all, my mind was feeling pretty good.

Me and the bike are going to have a more mature relationship this year. I’m looking forward to it.

Thankfully, I just got my Sirus CycleOps Fluid 2 trainer back. Last night was the first chance I had to get back on it. Wow! What a difference. It was way better than the borrowed trainer, but it was even better than it was before I sent it off.

I didn’t notice the degraded performance of the unit due to the leaking hydraulic fluid until I got a chance to ride the new one. The very first thing I noticed was that it was much quieter. Then I noticed that it was, well, more fluid. Welcome back, old friend!

There was another discovery last night as well. When I got home from the race Saturday, I immediately took my wheels off the bike and cleaned it. I took the rear wheel upstairs with me to repaint my rear spokes (my front spokes are black and the rear are metallic). I was able to touch up the exposed spots while watching North Carolina beat Duke (oh yeah!)

Sunday I took off and didn’t go back down to the bike until last night when I planned to do an hour of spinning to ramp up for the rest of the week’s training sessions. I put my front wheel back on the bike and then lifted the bike from the stand. “Slosh. Slosh. Slosh.” Hmmm, did I have water in my frame? I shook the bike. There was water somewhere near the front of the bike.

No wonder there was water in my wheels!

I spun the front wheel and it became obvious where the water was located. Looks like I brought a little bit of the River Falls race experience home with me inside the Boyd Carbon 50 wheel. I took a tire tool and wedged it below the bead. Water started splattering out. I went and checked the rear wheel. No water.

Now back to baseball. Thankfully, the Beautiful Redhead and I work together to get Thing Two to his baseball practices. I figure that there may be times when I’ll throw the trainer in the back of the car and get my workout in while watching him, or I’ll find a route near his practice location where I can get in the session on the road.

Again, it is that conflict of wanting to stay fit and productive on the bike while also making sure my boy knows that he is more important than the bicycle. Some times two good things can conflict with one another. Still, with a little bit of flexibility, we’ve made it happen in the past. We can do it again. Baseball and bicycles can coexist.

It was after one of those late evening sessions that I noticed something odd. Normally, when I am done spinning, there is a good amount of fluid beneath my bike. It’s my fluid — as in I sweat a lot. It will sometimes pool on the linoleum beneath the front wheel stand. I clean up the bike and the floor before heading back upstairs. This time, I noticed some fluid back along the rear wheel.

No biggie, I guessed somehow some sweat got back there during a time when I was sitting upright or some water from my bottle got spilled. I wiped it up and went about my business. The next morning I came down to get something for work and noticed that the patch of fluid was back. This time I stuck my finger in it and realized it wasn’t water. It was oil from my trainer.

The "fluid" part of the Fluid 2 trainer

Turning the trainer over, I could see that fluid was all over the bottom of the resistance unit. It was one more thing to add to a growing list of things I had to work on, so I just kept riding it for a few more sessions. Finally, I got it in to Sunshine Cycle Shop where I purchased it.

I have been pleased with the service of Saris. When I first got their CycleOps Fluid 2, the tension handle broke. Sunshine gave me a handle from another product and Saris replaced it. In this case, Mike called Saris and they said to send in the resistance unit and they would send out a replacement. It would have been nice to have gotten the replacement part before shipping off the unit.

As it is, I have learned to appreciate my Cycleops Fluid 2! I was given a basic resistance trainer to use while waiting for my replacement. Wow, what a difference!

The Fluid 2 really does give me a near road experience. My power files from trainer sessions compared to the road are very comparable. Now that I am on this piece of junk, I am all the more impressed with the Cycleops product.

Yesterday, I was supposed to do a session that included my short “race winning efforts.” These are ones where I come out of the saddle and sprint for about 14 seconds before settling in to hold a steady wattage of 400+ watts for 2 minutes. Ha! I tried this on this new trainer… at 180 rpm I was hitting 500 watts. That was my sprint! Then I attempted to  “settle down” to 400 watts. I couldn’t do it. I was spinning at 128 rpm just to hold 300 watts!

Needless to say, I didn’t complete the workout properly. I also won’t be attempting any more sessions on the trainer other than easy spins at 150 watts or so. That session was doable on the Fluid 2. In some ways it was more effective on the trainer than on the road.

The good news is that the temperatures are improving and the days are beginning to last a bit longer. It would be nice to have my Cycleops. Still, trainer season should be about over anyway.

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.

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!