My progress thus far in the Team Estrogen Indoor Cycling Challenge:
Goal Time: 10 hours
Total as of 12/11/11: 4:07. (41%, approximately)
Days ridden: 8/11
I’ve been trying to mix it up as much as my abdominal muscle will allow. I tried resistance intervals on Saturday (each interval being as long as one Yu-Gi-Oh Abridged episode, for 28 minutes total), and it appears that it isn’t healed enough yet to let me do resistance intervals without pain. Mostly, I’ve been pushing a relatively low gear for anywhere between 15 minutes and an hour. I added a 1-leg drill (to both strengthen my left leg and spare my right side a bit) in there today. I think I’m going to keep doing that, as I know there’s a big discrepancy there…
I’ve been trying to mix my material up too. It’s generally against my principles to buy Sufferfest or Spinervals or any of the rest of those video training things. (I’m of the sort that would yell at the TV/computer, saying “See, I’m getting off my bike right now and there’s nothing you can do about it! Screw you!” The fact that I’m broke lets me continue in this vein.) That does put me in a pinch as to what to watch/listen to. I did resistance intervals/climbing practice (before this whole abdominal muscle thing happened) to a playlist on my iPod. I can do short (15 minutes) gear-pushing workouts to music. For half-hour workouts, an episode of Dad’s Army, Blackadder, or The Thin Blue Line work reasonably well. If I want to go longer than that, I think I’m going to stick to watching documentaries. (Though my 1-hour block was in fact two episodes of Dad’s Army.) I also found that Yu-Gi-Oh Abridged works nicely for intervals. I did my resistance intervals on Saturday using it as my watching material, with each interval being the length of an episode (5-7 minutes). I also used it for part of my workout today: 1 episode warmup, followed by one episode of one-leg drill (alternating 1 min of solely using one leg and one minute of using both, with my right foot clipped out), then a half-hour episode of Dad’s Army.
I’d like to be able to ride outside before the year’s over (or the good weather, whichever comes first), but I’m not confident in my ability not to push too hard upon getting out there, and then having to make my way back home with an angry muscle. I’m staying inside until that heals. Unfortunately, riding the trainer is a chore rather than fun. At least it’s some kind of activity, I suppose, and it’ll make me a stronger cyclist once I get back outside.
Going Whole Cog 