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
I know as well as any of you that I've been checked out lately, kind…
Peter Sagan has undergone quite the transformation over the years; starting as a brash and…
The Women's road race has to be my favorite one-day road race after Paris-Roubaix and…
Holy fuckballs. I've never been this late ever on a VSP. I mean, I've missed…
This week we are currently in is the most boring week of the year. After…
I have memories of my life before Cycling, but as the years wear slowly on…
View Comments
@itburns
Thanx. I will use this
@Vin'cenza
Great photo. My children usually laugh when they see me on the rollers aprt from the middle son who wants me to drill more holes in the frame so he can put his BMX on.
Utter f**king c**nt! flatterd on the rollers again! I knew I shouldn't be riding my tubs on the rollers but it's so much nicer that the shit wheels. Bggr. Fck.
@Chris
What tubs were you running? I've been indulging myself by keeping the tub wheels on for roller sessions but now you've got me worried.
@Chris
Flatted on tubs on the rollers? What a bummer, and not cheap either! I flatted once with clinchers and that was bummer enough.
But, I rode last week on the rollers on my tubs and as I was riding it seemed like I had NO LEGS at all that day. Just killing myself and then I went to stand up at around 15 minutes into it and I noticed that my front wheel was bouncing up and down a ton on the front drum. Stopped and checked the tires. They were very low on pressure. Inflated them up to 7.5 bars and then it was like I was FLYING! Never knew that tire pressure on rollers makes so much difference.
Anyways, sorry to hear about your flat. Hope it wasn't too expensive a tub.
@Buck Rogers
You found out the hard way, but that is a common recommendation for people that want to add more resistance to their rollers - reduce the tire pressure. Another one is to put a towel underneath the back roller. Glad mine has a resistance range that is perfect for me.
Vittoria Pave. I've just ordered some Pit Stop but I think I might actually take the next step and learn to repair them myself. VLVV
@all. I don't own either rollers or a trainer so just wondering why you wouldn't use your #2 bike or, if your lucky to own more, just your lowest quality bike (with the worst wheels/tires) on for these sessions? There can't be any training or performance benefit to using a really good bike or am I missing something?
@Chris
Class.
@Jonny
I got my #2 when I was just getting back into riding and the frame is too big so I can't get the setup very close to the #1. And in general the rollers don't seem to wear my tires much at all, unlike what a resistance trainer does.
@Chris
Ohhhhh, not cheap, but could be worse. Those are the same ones that I run. Might be using a different wheelset on the rollers from now on.