dminor 

I have a Blackburn Trak Stand mag trainer that I got cheap at an REI scratch-n-dent sale. There was nothing wrong with the unit itself (cosmetic) but it is still a POS. I would not recommend it. I can barely crank enough resistance into it to make for a decent training session - - and a lot of that is achieved by abusing the tire with too much roller pressure. I am seriously thinking of Rube Goldberging some extra resistance onto it with a junk electric motor or something.

I concur with Zeph in holding out for a fluid trainer if you can - - it will be worth it. Last winter, I snapped up two Pro-Form spinning bikes when Sports Authority was blowing them out for $200/ea. I know they are not top quality but they are comparatively solid machines and so far seem to be almost as good as the commercial Multi-Sport bikes at our local high school. My wife and I use those at home in the winter and I use the trainer for the twice-a-week group spins at the bike shop.

Santiago - glad you checked in, man. Good to hear about your running exploits. Half-marathon, eh? Been wanting to try my hand at one of those. Man, you were cookin' right along with that time. Whoosh! My last 10K was a trail run two years ago on our local MTB riding trails and I only managed a 51:42. Lots of big hills is my excuse. Still, got me third in the 50+ at least.

Zeph - Marathon . . . whew. Good luck to you; that's a lot of training . . . dunno how you squeeze enough into life to make a good showing of it.

BTW, MX599 got himself entered in the Coeur d'Alene Ironman for next year (super-tough to get into - - registration usually fills w/in hours of going online). It'll be cool tocheer him on and see how he does.