Rollers, Trainers, and Other Such Torture Devices

A Side Note From Jon: Many people have wondered why we have ads to BackCountry.com in the side bar of the site. (Well, no one has actually mentioned it, but I know you've been thinking it.) A casual browser won't find any bike-related gear perusing BackCountry.com. However, the outlet portion of that site, BackCountryOutlet.com is practically teeming with good deals on random bike goodness. Just do a search for "bike" and you'll find all kinds of sweet deals.

Three days this week I've meant to get up and get on the rollers. Two days, I'll blame my alarm for missing my indoor training session. This morning, it went off, but I went to bed late and slept so poorly that my early-morning self decided the extra hour of sleep was more important. At this point, I'm very close to failing, in my first week of the year, to meet my time-on-the-bike goal I've made for myself this year.

As an expert on the subject, however, I thought I'd share my ideas to helping to pass the lonely "trainer months", as I like to call them, indoors.

Distractions
If your goals for the trainer/rollers/iron maiden revolve mainly around just time on the bike pedaling, your focus should be distracting yourself. Of course, if you can forget that you're on a bike pedaling, you might find that you're not actually pedaling. This is fine if you're bike is securely clamped to a rear-wheel trainer. (Well, it isn't exactly helping your fitness, but at least you're safe and securely clamped in.) However, if you allow yourself to be that distracted on the rollers, chances are it'll end in disaster.

For some, music strikes the perfect balance--distracting you enough to approach enjoyment while riding-without-moving, and allowing you to focus on your riding enough to keep your heart-rate up.

For others, nothing makes the pain of stationary riding fade like a good movie. With a Netflix (tm) account, you can keep the content fresh. Is it a training day? Check your mailbox and see if there's a little red envelope there. (Note, this doesn't work with Blockbuster (tm). Don't ask why, but trust me on this one.)

Of course, I find that while watching pro races (like the Tour de France), I can let my imagination wander enough to think I'm working my way up to that level. I have an active imagination when I'm delirious.

Measure
Another way to make time on rollers/trainers/the rack more enjoyable is to measure everything. Sure, you aren't going anywhere, but that doesn't mean you can't fake it! Not only should you have speed and distance*, but you should, if possible, have heart rate, cadence and power. I found that adding heart rate alone was enough to extend my maximum-ride-time-before-insanity another 20-30 minutes (bringing the total up to between 21 and 31 minutes).

Intervals
Okay, let me just go on record as saying that if I'm on the trainer/rollers/"The Machine", I want to benefit from it. To that end, if I'm suffering anyway (and, although you can hide it (see "Distractions" above), there is no way to use these devices without suffering), I want to really suffer--and with a purpose.

Intervals are great that way. They hurt. Like "not to 50!" kind of hurt. For me, though, one of the key benefits to intervals (besides the obvious strengthening of the muscles) is how it makes the time pass. In fact, I've found that I can hardly get on the rollers without breaking into intervals. Try varying the length of both the interval and the rest period between them to mix it up a bit.

Of course, if all this sounds a bit scary to you, you can always use the alarm excuse.

* You can't, however, count these as overall miles... because you're not moving or going anywhere.