Resistance
Every winter, the trainer comes out, dusty and cold, from its spot along the side wall of the storeroom. Whether yours operates on principles of magnetism or fluid dynamics, the trainer is an unwelcome sight, like bars on a prison, a reminder of captivity. You will clamp your bike into it, and it will hold you to the floor as you pedal and sweat in your lonely cell.
Whining through sprints and intervals, and clanking through mock climbs, the trainer is a poor substitute for the open road. Not only does it not vary as much as a real ride, but it deprives you of natural bike movements, whether that is canting through obstacles or swaying up a standing climb.
However, the real problem with the trainer comes not from the trainer itself, but from the fact that you have to exercise indoors. Cycling is meant to be an outdoor sport, and the stifling heat of a long indoor session is the most depressing part of indoor training. Even with a good oscillating fan set on high, the amount of perspiration you lose during a long indoor session is remarkable. This is because the evaporative cooling you experience on the road is optimized when the air moves all around your body, over the cylindrical shapes of your arms and legs, and around and across your back. With a floor fan or even multiple fans, a high percentage of your body's surface area doesn't receive a breeze, so evaporative cooling is greatly reduced, leaving you gasping in a pool of sweat.
These associative memories of indoor training make the appearance of the dusty trainer all the more dreaded. You can feel your dry skin crackle at the thought of soaking in a film of sweat, and you recall the towels and jerseys drenched in last year's Tour de Basement. You shudder. But, no matter how you might resist, you realize that you have to press onward.
For, odd as it seems, an unpleasant indoor training session is, ultimately, better than nothing. By the end of it, and after the obligatory shower, you feel a lot better, and you know you've invested in your fitness again. It will pay off. You will ride farther and faster this year. Resistance is not futile.
Whining through sprints and intervals, and clanking through mock climbs, the trainer is a poor substitute for the open road. Not only does it not vary as much as a real ride, but it deprives you of natural bike movements, whether that is canting through obstacles or swaying up a standing climb.
However, the real problem with the trainer comes not from the trainer itself, but from the fact that you have to exercise indoors. Cycling is meant to be an outdoor sport, and the stifling heat of a long indoor session is the most depressing part of indoor training. Even with a good oscillating fan set on high, the amount of perspiration you lose during a long indoor session is remarkable. This is because the evaporative cooling you experience on the road is optimized when the air moves all around your body, over the cylindrical shapes of your arms and legs, and around and across your back. With a floor fan or even multiple fans, a high percentage of your body's surface area doesn't receive a breeze, so evaporative cooling is greatly reduced, leaving you gasping in a pool of sweat.
These associative memories of indoor training make the appearance of the dusty trainer all the more dreaded. You can feel your dry skin crackle at the thought of soaking in a film of sweat, and you recall the towels and jerseys drenched in last year's Tour de Basement. You shudder. But, no matter how you might resist, you realize that you have to press onward.
For, odd as it seems, an unpleasant indoor training session is, ultimately, better than nothing. By the end of it, and after the obligatory shower, you feel a lot better, and you know you've invested in your fitness again. It will pay off. You will ride farther and faster this year. Resistance is not futile.
posted by Recycled Cyclist | 3:34 AM
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