Ready For Winter Training?

4 am my internal clock goes off. I slumber to the bathroom where I laid my cycling clothes the night before, splash a bit of water in my face and head down stairs to the training room with a bottle of fluid mixed with my special blend of aminos and carbs, a gel packet, ipod and PT cpu. There she waits the KK trainer. I turn the fan on low and begin to warm up. Five minutes gone and its just another day of trying to slip in the intervals before the morning commute to work.


The warm up is finished and the ipod set with the most intense tracks of music lined up and the fan turned on high. The fun begins and before I know it the first 20 are done. I check the cpu to see the average for the interval and I am just a touch above the 90% of FT mark for the average watts. Wow! I could not believe it was one of those rare times when the clock seemed faster than most days. I sit up and hit the cpu to change intervals, put the ipod on pause and spin easy for 5 minutes with hopes the second interval will seem just as fast.

Before the second interval begins the first song cued up is Tom Sawyer by Rush, I hit the PT cpu to start the next interval, lean down with my elbows resting on the top bar and hit a pace at 110% of FT and realize that I still have a long way to go, but the music and cadence just seems too good to ease up. It was not long before the discomforting sting in the legs intensified, the sweat streaming to the rubber base pad below and groans between the short breaths of airs were starting to change the speed of the perceived fast clock. I tried to start visualizing an outdoor time trial to get my mind off the clock. I could see the watts waivering up and down and now it was becoming harder to hold 90% of FT and just when I had about enough I looked at the interval time and what a relief only 2 minutes to go. Two minutes left so I gave it another kick and held it at 100%, but I was quick and eager to hit the interval mode again at the 20 minute mark for the cool down period.

Just another day on the trainer just like so many others around the world of those who relentlessly make the sacrifice to squeeze in those discomforting intervals between work and family obligations with hopes of improving.

That was my morning start. Are you ready for winter training?

I am motivated to keep pushing through the colder months and each week I am more excited about the next training session.