Long Bike Day on my training plan. Today, I cracked the seal on the Spinervals DVD's that I got for Christmas. In case you don't know, these are serious training DVD's for cycling enthusiasts and competitors. The one I tried today is the "Hillacious" one. My bike is hooked up to the new Cycle-ops Fluid 2 trainer (Read reviews here)we got in December, and away we go.It's a hell of a workout. I live in Rio Rancho, New Mexico, where there is rarely a spot that is flat for any length of time. It's mostly hills, hills, hills but it's been too cold for me to really get out and train on the bike. You hike the front end of your trainer up, and then the DVD starts out with several intervals in which yo
u use your shifters to simulate climbing up about a 4% grade. You alternate 8 minutes of this (your front is on the largest ring, and your back is on about the #15 ring). Then you 'soft pedal' for about 4 minutes. This is about half of the hour-long workout. The second half of the workout is "rolling hills" in which you start out pedaling at a cadence of around 100, front ring large, back ring on #21, then downshift about every 5 seconds or so until you're in #12 on the back. This is repeated 4 times, until you're dripping sweat, and then you 'soft pedal' on small chain ring front, #15 on back, for 2 minutes, and then repeat it 3 more times. I'm still s-l-o-w, so I wound up going around 15 miles according to my cyclometer, but the hill workout was just was I needed. If you live in a really flat or traffic-congested place and/or are a cold weinie, like me, I highly recommend a trainer and the Spinervals DVD's. Like all the Spinerval DVD's, there is also recommendation for settings for stationary trainers, as well as a display of what your heart rate % of maximum you should be in. (If you're not training with a heart rate monitor, you should be).
