Training & Nutrition - Trainer Boredom

boring - yup - boring.

I"m too much a type A personality to spend more than 30 minutes on my trainer. What activities do you do to help pass the time?

PS2 - TV - Reading - visualizing races?

Also is 30 minutes enough of a work out? - I'm doing 100 rpm cadence with a heart rate of 130 ish.

GG

how about you hook up a helmet cam during your next race and record it, then play it back and BAM instant race simulation.

But more seriously, why cant you ride outside if you hate the trainer?

I hate the trainer too... 1 hour tops... then I get unmotivated and I stop. I tend to end up fixating on the stopwatch and I get discuraged... plus the trainer is not smooth... I like rollers much more.

I tend to watch TV, visulize races, etc, but that is only about half as good as riding outside!

how about you hook up a helmet cam during your next race and record it, then play it back and BAM instant race simulation.

But more seriously, why cant you ride outside if you the trainer?

3 reasons - 8 year old, 7 year old, 4 year old

Good enough reasons. I suffer from the same problem(bored not kids) as during the winter it is to cold outside to run or ride. I usualy click on the food network and get ideas for stuff i want to make when i'm done.

I absolutely hate the trainer. I only do it if I really need a workout and it's raining, or during the winter. I can never do more than an hour at the absolute most. I just listen to music to pass the time.

3 reasons - 8 year old, 7 year old, 4 year old

I figured it out - I had my kids shout

LANCE!

whenever I started to slow down.

:D

3 reasons - 8 year old, 7 year old, 4 year old

You need two kids bikes and one of those trailalong attachments (or a triple with kids cranks and a tagalong!)

ummmm ... isn't it summer in Arkansas? What on earth are you doing on a trainer?? Go outside!! In fact in Arkansas, I bet you could ride all year round outside!



And 30 minutes isn't bad if you are just trying to maintain a minor degree of fitness over the winter or something, but "they" now recommend at least 60 minutes of exercise 6 days a week to truly maintain fitness and health ... and more if you actually want to train for something.


As for what to do while riding a trainer (if it happens I absolutely have to do that) I watch movies, watch sitcoms, watch home decorating shows, and/or listen to music.

I have two young kids too. Also, in South Florida we are prone to some really nasty weather activity this time of the year and, of course, it seems as if things hit at the times I have planned a ride. When this happens, I resort to the trainer which I use outside under the cover of my roof as I have a very large overhang area. Since I never ride on the road with headphones on, the trainer gives me the opportunity to listen to tunes which is an interesting change.

I agree though, it takes discipline to do it. I have found however, that I retain much of my strength for the road rides when I keep up on the trainer. I ride with higher cadence on the road, 90rpm or above, than I do on the trainer where after spinning at my road cadence for a warm up I go to higher resistance and lower cadence. I have one extra, but important, motivating factor. I have a family history of high blood pressure and, at 54, find mine finally creeping up in spite of my riding. I still am able to stay off the medicine and riding is the way I have been doing it. My blood pressure always drops significantly after riding so I make sure to get on the trainer for one hour on those days I can't get out on the road.

to be less bored on the trainer, i did intervals. it gives you soemthing to think about and really makes the time go much more quickly. plus, it's a good workout.

I too have found intervals to be an effective way of beating boredom. Instead of seeing it as an uniterrupted hour on the trainer, its a sprint and a few minutes cooldown while I focus on the upcoming sprint. Watching some TV or listening to music helps. Though if your'e watching TV, I've found comedy to be a bad choice, since its really distracting. I've almost fallen off my bike watching the Daily Show before. News or racing of some sort is good for me, since it doesn't require too much attention.

ummmm ... isn't it summer in Arkansas? What on earth are you doing on a trainer?? Go outside!! In fact in Arkansas, I bet you could ride all year round outside!

.

Yes Machka - it truely is God's country down here. With the kids out of school, summer has been rather unstructured. I find that if I miss a couple of rides, I start to get cranky. As much as I love Arkansas we will never get the beautiful long summer evenings like you have in Canada...