The Cardio Room and Its Instruments of Torture

Negative Feedback

When it's too dark or too rainy to ride, or when I want to take the kids to swim but need to get a workout, I head to the YMCA and the "Cardio Room". They have exercise cycles such as this It simulates riding a real bicycle quite well. As with most exercise machines, you can pick all sorts of programs simulating hills or random terrain. But by fair the most diabolical program is the "Dynamic Heart Rate Control" one. By grabbing the handlebars, the machine measures your heart rate. And, if it decides you aren't working hard enough, the screen scrolls this message: "Heart rate is too low. Increasing resistance." I hate that message! I got it a lot last week, and the bike increased the resistance so much I could hardly pedal. These machines have a mind of their own, and seem kind of sadistic.

Halfway There (the Easy Half)

On Saturday we rode from Santa Teresa High in San Jose
to Gilroy (nee Bonfante) Gardens. I can't believe I did it! The day started out chilly and windy, so I slipped on arm and knee warmers and our group headed out in a tight paceline. That way, only one of us had to fight the full wind at a time. With head down and working well as a team, in about an hour and a half we popped out on Highway 152, which runs between Gilroy and Watsonville. Whoa! I was surprised to ride right in front of "Gilroy Gardens". It's kind of scary to be riding a bike along the highway, especially when you have to ride two abreast to rotate the leader in your group. You have to look for a reasonably wide road shoulder, and hope that some crazy distracted driver doesn't encounter the group.

Not surprisingly, after fighting the wind for two hours, the ride back home was much easier. Santa Teresa Boulevard goes all the way from San Jose to Gilroy! That's one long road. I was feeling pretty studly as I lead the group up the final hill to Blossom Valley in South San Jose. I was riding with a high cadence and a good speed. Wow, I'm strong! (I thought.) It was only when I had to stop and go back for our teammate who had a flat tire that I realized we'd been riding with a strong tailwind. Tailwinds, like slight downhills, make everyone feel studly. :-)

That was it: 51+ miles in a little over three hours. It didn't feel too bad, but it was definitely challenging. It's intimidating to think of riding twice this distance, but as I learned from the marathon training program, I have faith in TNT.

Songs to Ride By

When I'm going for a long ride by myself, I throw caution to the wind and listen to my iPod while riding. I'm not taking risk for risk's sake, but it's hard to resist having a musical companion along for solo rides. I try to be careful, I don't turn the volume up loud, but this is my guilty pleasure.

It's intesresting to hear what plays randomly while I'm out on the road, and to ponder the synchronicity between where I'm riding and what is playing. Some recent examples:

Cresting a hill and about to descend at high speed

I Love the Sound of Breaking Glass, Nick Lowe. I hope not!

A long, low-speed hill climb on Pierce Road in Saratoga

Come as you are, Nirvana. Hardly!

Just starting a 30-mile ride, with my legs already sore from the long ride the day before

Life in the Fast Lane, The Eagles. A good omen!

Anyway, it gives one something to think about. Something other than numb toes, sore butt, sore neck, ...

Hills are NOT my friend

I did quite a bit of riding last weekend -- about 35 miles each day. That really seems like a lot to me, though perhaps by the end of the season it will be routine. I remember in my TNT marathon training that 10 miles seemed like an intimidating "double-digit" run, yet by the end of the season it was nothing.

On Sunday I rode up to the Mountain Winery in Saratoga, up Pierce Road. Hill climbing is very hard! I was sweatin' up a storm, standing on my pedals and wrenching on my handlebars to throw myself up the hill. It was a joy to pause under a big oak tree at the entrance to the winery before a wonderfully fast descent down Highway 9 to downtown Los Gatos.

One thing I've realized in the many miles and hours I'm spending on a bike this season -- you can get a tougher workout on a bike than you can running. When I'm running, eventually all the pounding on the legs becomes too much and you need to stop, and probably take the next day off, too. But with cycling, there's no impact, and it's all about extracting every last ounce of energy from your big leg muscles. So, you can just keep riding until you're completely exhausted. Or puking. Yippee! (not)

A Thousand Words

First photo! Cheers! Sorry it's not an "action shot", though you can barely glimpse my bike on the back of the silver Volvo. This was in the morning, as I headed off to my first Team ride on a rainy day.

As soon as pictures start to come in from our TNT road rides, I'll post some of those.

No Spacing While Pacing!

Last weekend's ride was the first one in "ride groups". Based on our time trial results, we've been assigned to small teams of riders of about the same speed. Our groups is nine riders strong, including a volunteer coach and mentor, who help keep us in line.

We learned the protocol of riding in a "pace line". That's where the riders follow each other in a line, with the front rider plowing through the wind resistance and the others cruising along behind him. The lead rider keeps it up for about a minute, then drifts to the side and lets the next rider have a turn at lead. The ex-leader gets to drop to the back of the line and enjoy some hard-earned water or snack (PowerBar).

This was something I'd never done before, and it was fun. It requires a lot of concentration to maintain a steady speed, so you don't fall behind or run into the guy ahead of you. And when you're in front, you don't want to get so excited with adrenaline that you pull away and leave the rest of your "train" behind!

Good stuff. Unlike when running or riding solo, there's not spacing out while riding in a pace line!