Saturday, August 2, 2008

Turbo trainer vs road

I think the road wins every time, unless there is some insane downpours...
Got the turbo trainer setup on Thursday - no thanks to the instructions. I think they were for a totally different model. Did a 30 min stint on it. When you crank the resistance up you can really pump out the watts, but its going to take a bit of getting used to and I think the only times I'll use it are the wet, dark evenings over winter. I can do dark, but not wet AND dark! A plus of the training is you can stick it in front of the tellie!

Friday I took the Giant to work with a view to doing a long spin home. The weather was very changeable and up until 4:30 I was not sure how long the spin was going to be. But as I was leaving things brightened up so I decided to head for the Sally Gap and play it by ear from there.

First problem, my new Cannondale jersey. Its a great summer jersey....but the pockets are very very shallow, so anything of any bulk or length (like a pump) feel like they are about to pop out. Ah well, my other Cannondale jersey will be used for longer spins in future.

I met up with a roadie from Cork on the road up to the top of Cruagh. Nice fella. We stuck together till the climb up by Glencree, where I left him (temporally). When I got to the Sally Gap things looked ok weather-wise. There were some dark clouds in the direction of Laragh, but I decided to go for it. After a couple of stops refitting my crap BBB saddle bag, I made a mental note to get a new one - which I did today... a very nice Top Peak.

My roadie buddy, caught me just at the bottom of the Glenmacnass water fall (I am so crap as descents). And we continued on together till Glendalough where as the climb kicked in I said goodbye to him for the last time. Got caught in my one and only shower on the climb up to the Wicklow gap, but nothing too bad.

Just getting to the top of the Gap, I was starting to feel the spin (this was about 2 and a half hours in). So got a gel down me with some High 5. I always suffer after about 2 hours on a big spin. Its down to the mountain bike race training I think.

After that it was a straight run home. The gel kicked in after about 20 mins and that got me back to Naas. In total it was a 3 and a half hour spin, 92Km's in length (I also did my usual 22 km's to work that morning as well), with 925 metres of climbing. For about 2 hours after I got home, I was sore, really sore! I took Rego, had a big dinner and desert, and Nocté just before I went to bed. I don't feel too bad today, just a little tired. I'll probably take Nocté again tonight.

I really like that route, and will try to get into the habit of doing it at least once a week.

2 comments:

Cycling Bargains Blog said...

Real life is better but a Tacx imagic or Fortius is the best Virtual Cycling you can get

Unknown said...

Yep, I just got the basic Tacx, and am regretting it now. The Fortius is the one I should have gone for :(