100 Miles

So I know that it's been mentioned that this summer's stupid event is going to go toward helping a good cause at the Livestrong Challenge.

Coming up much sooner than that, however, is another way to raise money for the Lance Armstrong Foundation that is probably going to hurt a lot more.

The Trials Dude, Roadie Steve, and I are all going to be riding in Fat Cyclist's 2nd Anual 100 Miles of Nowhere. The only race that just for registering for guarantees you a win in your age/category/location. For 100 miles we will be sitting on trainers or rollers, wondering why on earth we felt the need to do this. I'm sure I have mentioned how boring I find riding without moving, and here we are agreeing to do 100 miles of it, in fact we are paying for it.

Of course we're doing it because the annoyance of riding those rollers is a small price to pay to help raise money for a great organization, so how about this... I'll ride for 100 miles and you the readers sponsor my efforts... like an old school walk-a-thon only much more borring.

I'll have people take pictures of my suffering to post to this blog too, so you'll know that you're getting your money's worth. Just pledge a few cents a mile and watch it add up, or go ahead and make a donation to my livestrong page... every little bit helps.

Spinervals

Things have been crazy here recently, what with the end of the semester coming up and all that. With everything going on we didn't even get a chance to post about the first race of the season, the 6 Hour Grind on the Greenway. I'm going to assume that eventually Roadie Steve will mention it since he had a better race than I did. What I learned at the race is that I'm not in shape yet, I'm over weight by about 15 lbs and my legs gave out after only about three hours.

In response to this and the fact that my schedule is really crazy right now trying to finish up the school thing, apply for jobs, and somehow improve me fitness at the same time, I have been forced to do something that I have never been able to do before. I actually spent some time on a trainer.

This morning I got up early and did the Spinervals time saver workout... the one rated at 9.9. Wow was that a wake up call. It's only a 30 minute workout and I was dying. After a quick break though, my legs felt amazing on the ride to school. I'm thinking that I might be able to speed up my training schedule by pusing it with the 9.9 workout 3 days a week and probably do the 7.0 one the other 4 days, it should help me out significantly.

Tomorrow's looking like a Hyters Gap day.... it's going to be fun.

The Bad Kind of Pain

I have been on the road in DC for the last couple of days with the Emory and Henry Trumpet Ensemble playing at the National Trumpet Competition. It was a great trip, and we had a lot of fun, but the problem with being on the road is that it's hard to get any training in. We were holding up at the Marriott at night so I was able to get some time in on the trainer down at the fitness center.

The random hill climb program on the bike was amazing. I got up early every morning and would set the timer for half and hour and then try to work my way through the random hill climb program. It did a great job simulating a real ride with some great climbs and then spinning for a short time and then hard climbing and then spinning. I was averaging over 150 watts over the entire 30 minute workout.

Everything would have been perfect, but the bike had one small, well not so small problem.

The saddle on this thing was about as large as what you would expect from a beach cruiser. Trying to spend 30 minutes hammering away on this thing was somewhere between uncomfortable and painful.

I found myself standing up every 5 minutes just to try to get the pressure off my rear. I was ready to give up after 15 or 20 minutes every day even though my legs still had some juice left in them. Only my quest to complete the workout kept me going.

Why don't serious trainers have serious saddles on them... then I would have been able to get in some real training.