Winter...training indoors

Now that I am back from Tennessee I am really glad that I have decided on my big goal for the year. The snow followed me back, and now that there is enough here for Phil to snowmobile on there is also enough to keep me from riding my bicycle on the roads. I am intent on getting in the proper training, though, so that means indoor cycling. I have a Computrainer and rollers at my disposal, so my indoor training needs are certainly covered. And that is the case with most competitive cyclists living in these parts. However, to make indoor training truly successful, there is another piece of "equipment" that is harder to come by.

This missing link is nothing that can be borrowed, purchased or even stolen. Instead, it is a commodity that is present only between the athlete's ears. The committed brain. That's right, it is the willpower to really embrace indoor training. My brain has given me a lot of trouble over the years while training indoors, doing things like suddenly making my feet unclick from the pedals and forcing my body to get off the bike. Pretty wishy-washy, I must say. I've been reduced to standing next to the bike -- or walking away from it -- and the training clock has effectively stopped. This brain attack can happen for any number of reasons, from imagined equipment issues to thinking about all the other things that I am "supposed" to be doing.

A recent bolt of insight made me realize that the only thing that these brain attacks were doing was wasting time -- the very time that I really needed to do all the other things in my life. If a three hour trainer ride was really taking me four, well, that was not helping my time-crunched life out at all. This weekend I mounted my indoor trainer in a different frame of mind. I rode my bike, got off only a couple of times, and had more fun in the process. I worked harder at keeping my averages up, I got in the right amount of training in much less time, and I was super happy when I got done. The "time saved" on Saturday was spent on the couch resting my worn out legs, and on Sunday I spent the time having a great Indian dinner with Phil in the Village of Clinton. Now, if I could only do that with money...