If we liked breathing stale, recycled air, we’d all take up a sport like wrestling or indoor fly-fishing. But we love the feel of a gale on our faces. We cherish the smell of cow manure filling our nostrils with its almost tangible grittiness. We hold scared the privilege to breathe in diesel fuel while doing hill repeats up l’Alpe d’Huez.
But such whimsy is not for every day. Occasionally, we find ourselves faced with the prospect of an hour of solitude upon the wind trainer or rollers, where our sport is transformed from a glorious experience of powering ourselves along with only Nature for company to one where a ride of 30 minutes is barely tolerable, 45 seems like a lifetime wasted, and 60 minutes is more than most of us can even consider enduring. 60 minutes on the trainer at a leisurely pace or a 4 and a half hour death march up a barren, heat-riddled climb? I’ll take the 4 and half hours every time, thank you very much.
We all have to do it, and there are even some redeeming qualities to be had. You get better at Rule #5, for one. You develop a more magnificent stroke, for another. Whatever the redeeming qualities, we all have our way of coping. Jeff in PetroMetro returns with his view on how to make it suck just a little bit less.
Yours in Cycling,
Frank
—
Either due to life-threatening weather or poor scheduling of life’s lesser priorities (see Rule #11), we Velominati spend a little time each year riding indoors. Whether one enjoys a ride on rollers or a trainer, and no matter if one methodically spins (as all good recovery ride specialists do), grinds out intervals, or practices ways to improve one’s magnificent stroke (scrape the mud off your shoes, scrape the mud off your shoes…), death-by-boredom is always a possibility. I’m not one to go for videos, or read books, or hook up to a computer. Call me old fashioned. I like to meditate on the V with only the voices inside my head screaming for mercy from the pain of a complete lactic acid meltdown.
Or, sometimes I like a little music.
Back in the Dark Ages, I used the yellow (sweatproof) Sony Walkman to play my favorite homemade training cassette tapes. But in our modern days of inexpensive digital storage, and with the brilliant invention of the “shuffle” command on my iPod Nano, I have some seven hours of musical motivation to keep my indoor sessions lively and loud.
I thought I might start a little conversation regarding favorite training tunes. Now, I know ALL of my fellow Velominati strictly adhere to Rule #62 when riding outside. And of course, we prefer strict adherence to Rule #9, but, as I stated above, shit happens.
While I have eclectic taste, I don’t fancy Al Green, Buck Owens, or Duke Ellington when loving a Rule #5 beatdown. No. I tack to the loud and fast. My preferences are punk and “classic rock”. (It was just rock when I first heard it.) So here’s a little flavor of my indoor training selection, in no particular order.
Hate to Say I Told You So“”The Hives””from the album “Your New Favourite Band”
Tick Tick Boom“”The Hives””from the album “The Black and White Album”
American Idiot“”Green Day””from the album “American Idiot”
The Rock Show“”Blink 182″”from the album “Take Off Your Pants and Jacket”
I Fought the Law (Live)””The Clash””from the album “The Clash: Live at Shea Stadium”
Batman Theme“”The Jam””from the album “In the City”
Communication Breakdown“”Led Zeppelin””from the album “Led Zeppelin”
The Real Me“”The Who””from the album “Quadrophenia”
Rock Around the Clock“”Ten Pole Tudor””from the album “The Great Rock’n’Roll Swindle”
Of course there are many, many others. But I offer these few picks-to-click to perhaps start a little discussion and get some musical ideas for my next indoor shopping spree at the V and Dime.
A-Merckx
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View Comments
@Albert
Albert, you nailed it. Need me some Kraftwerk or hell, why not go all metal with a bit of Rammstein?
Riding indoors does suck. I was doing it for a few months a year before I moved south. My rollers now live in storage (my parent's basement!) I can last longer watching hockey or soccer, lots of play, few breaks. Or, cycling.
As for music, check out Death From Above "You're a Woman, I'm a Machine." A blistering album often overlooked.
@Chang He
+1 on the Crystal Method. Vegas is one of the best albums for just about any activity, indoors, outdoors, with or without drugs...
Nothing like a bit of Rage Against the Machine for those angry intervals..
Killing in the Name Of is pure power to the guns.
While I liken riding indoors to plucking scrotal hairs and prefer any type of outdoor ride, regardless of conditions and regard anything >10F as survivable for at least an hour, the lack of daylight forces my hand. This past winter, I tried listening to radio broadcasts of sports and hoped to make it to halftime before my brain exploded. The effort mostly failed.
The coming winter may entail watching copious amounts of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Sometimes I take the time indoors as an opportunity to actually *listen* to music, as opposed to my usual combination of listening + working or cooking. For those times, I want music music, not just sound music, music to inspire my own composition and playing, etc. Musicians/composers I will delve into this winter:
* Cecil Taylor -- the violence mixed with beauty are the essence of life
* Mahler -- the final movement of his 6th, with the three beats of death? yes please
* Rite of Spring -- imagine the bicycle as a device of frenetic cavorting and you have the ideal soundtrack
* Electric-era Miles -- mix a Bitches Brew of lactic acid in your muscles while Miles Runs the Voodoo Down
* American Mavericks -- Crumb or Feldman or maybe Reich or Glass? delve into various spates of minimalism
If it is weird and would send most people running, it's probably good trainer music.
Oy. I will stop. There are two topics I will commune about more than cycling: music and robots. Thankfully a robot bicycle is about the most fucking useless thing I can imagine, so we are safe.
@brett
@mouse
Yes and Yes
If you can handle Australians doing hip hop in American accents then Bliss n Eso's Addicted is not bad.
For intervals
Silverchair - Straight Lines
Eminem (yes) - Lose Yourself
Anything by Prodigy or Chemical Brothers
Dropkick Murphys - Warrior's Code. Try to survive the whole album on rollers - you can't help but keep going harder and harder.
And to take us back, Doobie Brothers Takin it to the Street works well for increasing efforts too...
And of course, looking at my Obey the Rules sticker in my shed also inspires...
As a professional musician, I find it difficult to listen to music when I pedal indoors (is it really riding indoors if one isn't moving?). I'm often too distracted by and too interested in the music to pay attention to my training zones, heart rate, power, or any other metrics, which, for me, defeats the purpose of training indoors.
So, I watch movies. Usually comedies, though suspenseful thrillers work, too. I haven't had the need to ride indoors since February, but the last films on my list were the following:
Barbershop
The Bourne Trilogy (all three extant films)
Ocean's Eleven (the new one with Clooney and Pitt)
I also like the Planet Earth and Life series. The images at least make you believe you might be outdoors, presuming you have a nice television to view the DVDs.
I also have training videos, the new series by Robbie Ventura (Real Rides). It's pretty god, too. And has techno music as the soundtrack.
But this thread has me thinking maybe I should at least give the whole music listening while training indoors a shot. So, look for a new post here from me in January 2012. That's usually when I decide enough is enough with riding outside on top of the packed snow.
@Marcus
I can handle that more than Aussies rapping in Aussie accents, ie Hilltop Hoods...
Weren't Bliss and Eso formerly known as Itch E and Scratch E? If not, this is still one of the best electronic tracks ever...
My humble view - when riding indoors, the use of rollers or a dedicated bike ergo is preferred. Indoor trainers that hold your road bike are not a nice way to treat your pride and joy.
Oh and before anyone brings it up, if you think you can't do hard intervals on rollers, buy yourself a set of rollers with small drums...
@brett
A ripper track, but wikipedia tells me no, not related. Wiki also tells me one of bliss n eso is an American who relocated to Australia as a kid. I now forgive them a bit for all the Americanisms in their tunes - which I love.
Am now going to itunes to buy itch E...