Anything but the Indoor Trainer!Be Careful What You Ask For!

The wheelsucker confesses that he does not have the determination to ride intervals on the indoor trainer. Each time he tries, he struggles to complete the first interval, while his legs tire, his breathing becomes labored, his lower back becomes tighter and tighter and he is quite unable to distract himself with new Giro d’Italia and Tour de France DVDs and an iPod. He dreads the start of the second interval, and part way through it rationalizes that maybe rest and recovery are what he needs, and he stops. The same intervals are very hard but doable on the road. Somehow the distraction of the next short climb or the next curve is enough to keep the wheelsucker pushing, and staying within target power numbers.

But record snow falls and unplowed roads have made riding outside problematic. The wheelsucker’s coach is quite unsympathetic, posting a blog entry at: http://midmaryland.wordpress.com/2010/02/15/determination/.
This was not only directed at the wheelsucker, but coach Birner went out of his way to get the wheelsucker to read it. Ouch!

Desperate to get off the indoor trainer, the wheelsucker rode fixed gear on the route 2 shoulder south of Annapolis on Saturday, with Tom Aga. Some other team members were predicting broken hips, or offering to restrain the wheelsucker to protect him from himself, but the nearly two hour fixie ride went fine, with no icy spots found, though the bike was so dirty it needed a shower afterwards. Rather than do the same ride again, the wheelsucker decided to ride with some of the elite team on Sunday, out of Eric Krause’s home in Middletown MD.

It was cold and windy; the wheelsucker’s chronic sore lower back was tight from Saturday, and he was a little hung over and short of sleep, but the elite guys had suggested a normally-paced ride, so the wheelsucker figured he would be OK.

As soon as the wheelsucker exited from interstate 70 onto route 40 he noticed that the terrain was NOT FLAT!

Eric was ready and once Nat and Stephen rolled up, the four rolled west on route 40 to pick up Brian. The wheelsucker’s first indication that this ride would have its challenges was when he could not clip in due to snow and ice buildup in his cleats. He fixed that and found the long sprint to catch up with the others seemed to help his warm up.

The first part of the ride was OK, but then the climbs start. The wheelsucker struggled on the short climbs and was gapped on the medium and long ones, and would summit – maxed out and nearly cross-eyed – to find the elite riders relaxed and waiting for him.

The wind built and the riders used a rotating paceline. The wheelsucker was told that he was drilling it too hard when at the front. This might have explained why he was tiring rapidly, while the elite guys not even breathing hard (the real reason was harder for the wheelsucker to accept). Soon the wheelsucker was going off the back on short climbs. He started skipping pulls and staying at the back until his HR dropped to 130, and would then jump back into the rotation until he was ready to pop again, but he was still vulnerable on any climbs.

After about an hour and a half of this, the wheelsucker was cold and miserable, all-to-aware that he was slowing the other riders down. He finally took the opportunity to short cut back to Eric’s home down alternate 40, while the others went looking for more hard climbs. The wheelsucker ended up back at Eric’s home with 50 miles, the others ended up with 80 to 102!!!

The next elite team ride is the elite team training camp, and that was advertised as "cat 1 and cat 2" only. Coincidence? The wheelsucker suspects not.