Indoors at the V and Dime
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
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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
In order to make it to the dreaded 45 minute to an hour mark, I tend to watch hour long television shows. Thank you Hulu.
But music, oh, there is nothing like a Pearl Jam’s vs. album. Zeppelin. And believe it or not, Snoop Dogg.
@Jeff You are a legend for including The Hives. Cause they may not know it but The Hives rule the World.
Another fave for me to listen to is Girl Talk, mash up DJ extraordinaire. How does 70 minutes of non stop jams with hundreds of songs sampled sound? I can tell you it is pure awesome.
Track 1
@RedRanger
+1. And Blink. Love those guys. I hate riding indoors, but when I have to, it’s the tunes that get me through it.
I like my indoor training to be suitably euro.
That means I listen to trance albums where the cover art looks like a toothpaste ad.
The Hives – main offender
I saw them at 1st ave in MPLS, MN back in 2008 touring for the Black and White album. Best live act ever. enough said.
@RedRanger
What were you doing at First Ave? I was raised in MPLS. Saw Rage there, the Black Crows, Big Head Todd and the Monsters, Smashing Pumpkins, Bob Mould, Tina and the B-Sides…you name it, they played there. And, I can tell you this from experience: any band becomes the most awesome live act when they play that venue. It is a one of a kind and is just one of the best clubs ever.
Thanks for mentioning that. Made me miss MPLS for, like, the first time ever.
@ Albert
+1 So a little
Strict Machine – Goldfrapp
Polynomial C – Aphex Twin
Keep Hope Alive – The Crystal Method
or to get away from the techno,
How You Like Me Now – The Heavy
I lived up there for 3 years. Lived down town on Franklyn st for a little then in the west end, worked in South Saint Paul the entire time. I miss it bad and regret ever coming back to Arizona. Speaking of the Hives at First, The lead singer climbed up a stack of amps onto the balcony, down the stairs and into the crowd. Never missed a beat. I also saw Santi Gold and a few other acts. After school is done for me I plan on going back.
I don’t really ride indoors, and I subscribe to Rule #62, but I was a swimmer before I found the true way and came into the light of cycling, and as such, learned to play music in my head while doing extended distances (this was in the time before those fancy waterproof radios people now hang off their goggle straps). My usual mental playlist for a ride may include several of the following:
Horses- Palace (Will Oldham)
Rise Above- Black Flag
Driver 8- REM
Powderfinger- Neil Young
The Final Day- Young Marble Giants
Digital- Joy Division
No Pasaran- Fucked Up
Looking Down the Barrel of a Gun- Beastie Boys
Where Eagles Dare- The Misfits
1970- Stooges
Rhymin’ and Stealin’- Beastie Boys
How Low Can a Punk Get- Bad Brains
Rivers of Babylon- The Melodians
Minor Threat- Minor Threat
Hidden World- Fucked Up
Also, if I’m riding by Cherry Beach in Toronto, it must include “Cherry Beach Express” by Pukka Orchestra.
@frank
By the way, I get my daily dose of the cities by listening to The Current every day.
@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…
@brett
+1
@Marcus
Ah, they became Boo Boo and Mace…
“60 minutes on the trainer 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.”
*Every* fucking time. Can’t emphasize this enough. For me, I resort to the trainer only when I really really can’t stand it anymore in the deepest dark of the winter. And even then, I have to set it up in front of a hockey game, so as to so engage my eyes and brain with something else. Telling them this is for my legs and cardio system is only met with “really? you’re riding a bike in the middle of your own living room?” Yeah, shut up, legs.
live by Rule #5!!
@Marcus
What the fuck are indoor trainers? Rollers are the way. Put yourself in a door jam, and start pedaling. Just hope you don’t come off and launch into your new plasma screen. Gives you something else to think about besides how riding indoors sucks. Besides, anyone here have a video of Merckx riding a ‘trainer’? Nope.
@scaler911
coming off your rollers and going forward is a fucking myth. From firsthand experience I can tell you that you fall to the side.
And a few tips for any wannabe rollers out there:
1. It is a hazardous exercise to sit on rollers in the darkness of a mate’s home cinema room.
2. If you can’t obey 1, when said mate says, “Check out Jessica Biel’s tits. They are awesome.”, by all means take a look, but don’t look longingly for 5 plus minutes and lose concentration on what you are meant to be doing.
3. If you can’t obey 2, when you inevitably fall, try not to fall on mate’s kid’s plastic toy that gives you a puncture wound that gets infected.
I don’t blame Jessica though.
Ugh, I hate my rollers. And the ones I bought are so damn loud. Blah. 45 minutes on those feels like e.t.e.r.n.i.t.y. I may try and grab a used trainer (I hear 1-Up trainers are very quiet, har) this winter.
I tried watching TV, and it made me feel weird to focus on a flat screen with moving objects on it while I myself was moving about, yet not going anyplace.
I also tried the podcast thing. I found it hard to focus on what the people were saying, and I’d get done with my roller session not remembering what the podcast was about.
@brett
+1 to Vegas – too bad about the rest of their subsequent albums being absolute garbage (IMHO).
Also ++1 to Kraftwerk, which has been mentioned here by myself and tons of other folks. My pops had an original print of Autobahn on vinyl, which is how I discovered them in my youth.
Am I going to be the only one who brings up Skinny Puppy? Yes?
@scaler911
And you can’t help but have a more magnificent stroke and much better handling skills if you spend time on rollers. And the skinny drums–that shit hurts.
@mcsqueak
Minus infinity to Kraftwerk
JiPM, fucking brilliant. “The Real Me” is an inspired choice. The drivetrain of Keith Moon and John Entwistle is, at its best, unmatched.
To keep the pedals turning over:
‘Cross the breeze, Sonic Youth, Daydream Nation.
I heard you looking, Yo La Tango, Painful.
Stars, Hum, You’d prefer an Astronaut.
For the recovery spin:
Protection, Massive Attack, Protection.
And just because he’s Belgian:
Ne me quitte pas, Jacques Brel
@Marcus
Oh ya, I know. But it’s not ‘impossible’. And ‘sides, you do get to practice on your balance on rollers.
@mcsqueak
Christ, love those guys…….
@Marcus
I know you’re probably still trying to work off of the post-TdF Fosters hangover, but I believe you sir are wrong.
I rode 70 minutes on the trainer today, not only that, but on a fixed gear bike.
I ride about 4:30 – 5 hours a week on the indoor trainer.
Riding indoors is both character building and soul crushing.
I have no choice (broken back, remember). It’s one of those fluid things.
It was sunny and 80° outside today, I rode indoors.
@michael
Dude… at least move it out to the backyard or porch or something? Poor guy.
@mcsqueak
I may well be wrong as it is a subjective question. But I gotta correct one of the global myths about Australians.
@mcsqueak
Premature posting above – to correct the myth, Australians don’t drink Fosters. They don’t even sell it in Australia (haven’t for about 25 years) – they only export the stuff. Other than having sly sips as a kid, I have only ever drunk it overseas. You guys can have it.
I owned our team van at UT in the late ’80s. We regularly rolled into race parking lots and started setting up for the day to The Cult’s Sun King. Deafeningly loud. It got me in the mood for what I know now as the V and Dime.
And just to carry on the theme of Australians going out and achieving things for the first time, check out the first Aussie to make it into the NFL Cheerleading ranks – for the Cowboys no less!
@xyxax
Yeah. Quadrophenia was a staple in my high school diet (which consisted of pretty much everything The Who ever recorded). I used to listen to The Real Me before soccer matches, tennis tournaments, and then bike races. I love the anger and I totally identified with Jimmy. I still want a GS scooter with about 100 rearview mirrors. I’m a mod at heart. Hated to see fellow mod, Wiggo, gone so early from the Tour this year.
@Marcus
But I don’t know anyone who drinks it either, despite it being on every grocery store shelf. It’s a bit more rare to see it served in a pub.
I propose, as part of the debt ceiling clusterfuck bill of 2011, we sell back all our Fosters to Australia at low-low rate of $0.50 USD/can. Australia can have a piece of their history back, and we can bring in some much-needed revenues to help lower our debts.
(Seriously though, interesting to know that. Someday I’ll actually visit your fine country learn this stuff for myself.)
Awesome selection Jeff.
While I must agree with Collin and the scrotal hair plucking (makes my fucking eyes water just thinking about it), indoor riding is sometimes a necessary evil.
For mine: Rose Tattoo is brilliant to plug in and zone out.
We Can’t Be Beaten from their 1982 album Scarred for Life – now that rocks when smacking down intervals.
Also, nice call on the Blink – although What’s my Age Again and All the Small Things from Enemea of the State really make them rollers hum!
@Marcus
As both a Cowboys fan (born and raised in Dallas) and a Cowboys cheerleaders fan, I’m excited she’ll be here for the season. You know, they put out an annual swimsuit calendar. Mmmm, mmmm, good.
@mattb
Thanks! In fact, the Blink songs you listed are on my iPod training selection. I just put a few songs in the article as a random sample of what I’ve been listening to. I’m getting some great songs to add to the selection from everyone’s posts. Very cool.
@mcsqueak
If you wanna come, you should arrive on Friday week – our Premier (like a Governor) just announced that Cuddles is coming to town and they are shutting down Melbourne’s main thoroughfare into the CBD at midday for a bike ride and parade.
How about that for recognition of our fringe sport?
I watch bike races when I’m on my trainer. A mate and I recently went halves in a bulk lot of 240 DVDs of races from the late 80’s (though predominantly TdF’s in the last fifteen years), and they are giving me plenty to be going on with. Without one, I struggle to last 45 minutes. With one, I can go for a couple of hours. (Fnarr fnarr.)
As to musical accommpaniment, I tend not to go there. But when I do, it tends more to the loud and fast than the trippy, contemplative, intricate or uplifting – i.e. classical, jazz and country collections are ignored, in favour of the likes of Love (The Cult), Second Helping (Lynyrd Skynyrd) and The General Electric (Shihad). (This last is one of my favourite loud albums – and not just because they’re a Kiwi band who (I think) started off in Wellington, though doubtless that contributed in no small measure to their success.)
@Marcus Does that mean she’s gonna have to change her name to “Debbie”? Should she check with JiPM?
@mcsqueak
I would but I won’t let me lift more than 5lbs. making it a real annoyance to my wife to set up my trainer for me. ;)
@michael
Far out – I would need to get someone to hold it every time i needed to piss.
@mcsqueak
Yeah no offence mate, but there is a good reason we ship it all overseas – it is a prick of a drop!
Most Aussies would give 5 cents for a can (USD or AUD).
Keep it and fertilise your lemon trees!