Trainer Tales

Kansas City, just like most of the Midwest, or the country for that matter, has been under the spell of Old Man Winter for the past three-four weeks. It started Christmas Eve when we were hit with ice, followed by snow, followed by a blizzard that Paul and I fought (literally and figuratively) our way home in, and it did not stop snowing until Monday, Dec. 28th. When it was all over, we were left with 12+ inches of the white stuff (that's what she said).

There were a couple of good things that came out of that storm: we had the first white Christmas I can remember in years AND we went sledding with some good friends on Christmas night despite the frigid temps. I have not laughed that hard in a very long time!!

But with the goose-egg temps and snow up to my ass, it's time to get back on the trainer...and the dreadmill. I don't know why we all complain about the trainer so much. It seems as though we would have adapted to it by now given our geography. Hell, come spring I have a hard time getting off the trainer and riding outdoors!! I would much rather sit in the comfort of my home, watching a movie, with immediate access to warm, clean facilities than ... get all geared up, make sure I pack enough nutrition, tubes, etc. and have to plan a route, wait for stop lights, etc., etc.

Speaking of comforts of home...with the colder temps, the dungeon has been anything but comfortable. Exhibit A and B below prove that our 1920's basement/garage are anything but comfortable at the start of a ride:

Exhibit A: It's 48 degrees in the dungeon.

Exhibit B: All bundled up - hat, gloves, sweatshirt, yoga pants over bike shorts

Actually, this works out quite well for those harder interval, steady state, and testing days because I don't even have to run a fan! I just start with all the layers and peel them off one by one.

But all this riding indoors has damaged my equipment. Or, rather, if you don't pay attention to the details while riding indoors, your equipment can fail faster than you can say "watts". Case in point:

You can actually see the threads!

Turns out, if you fail to apply the correct amount of tension between the trainer and wheel, the friction will cause the wheel to overheat and therefore, shred your tire. I can't tell you how many times I walked away from a trainer workout covered in tire shreds! At first I thought it was my trainer - it sucked. But then I realized (after a quick physics lesson from Coach Liz) that it wasn't all my trainer's fault - there was user error too!

But I ended up having to get a new trainer anyway, because, well, I'm just too powerful for the one I was using. I had to upgrade because the equipment I was using was not capable of handling my wattage output! That's just so funny to say! I crack up every time I say it. Ha! Ha!

Anyway... as I type this the sun is shining and the birds are chirping and it's finally above 20 degrees! In fact, I may even break out the shorts because it's supposed to hit 40 today! There is so much melting that if you look out the window, it appears it is raining - from all the snow melting off the roof tops. I even heard a rumor that it will reach 53 next Tuesday!!

Spring is just around the corner, right?