New Trainer Games

[Dude]

Saw this on a NYC message board...Check out this new game that is coming out. Will take the boredom out of indoor training.

http://theregister.co.uk/content/54/35108.html

[Tom]

Since the end of November, with just a week off for a trip and a week off for the flu I got on the trip, 1000 miles on the trainer. Pathetic totals for some, but insane dedication for me.

Tour DVDs. Pretty soon I'm going to start talking like Liggett. It sure is nice to look at sunny mountain sides instead of a cinder block wall, though.

[M_A_Martin]

Am I the only one who hates getting on the trainer? When I ride the thing I'm not watching anything, I'm not reading, I'm not in a "zone". No, I'm pedalling along waiting until its over. Its boring and hateful...and its the only way I can ride right now. I'm contemplating setting up a TV in front of it with a dvd player. At least I could watch something as I was bored out of my mind...

I'm going speed skating tomorrow night if I can stay awake...
Yes, its all go fast (not too fast for me right now) and turn left, but at least there's obstacles (other people) to go around and drink treats afterwards!

[Tom]

I do hate it, to a certain degree. It's the vegetables before dessert. If I stay in any kind of shape over the winter, I'll be able to stay outside and play longer in the spring and summer. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

There's no way I could do it without the player. It's kind of fun to play little games like sprinting during the last 2km when the maneuvering is going on and Liggett's voice climbs up through the register. I find as the ride gets hairy I pedal faster. Plus, usually they're showing some incredible landscape scenery. Now I want to go to Europe. A friend is talking about meeting up in Switzerland for some riding. Bad trouble.

[Kevin]

The trainer is only tolerable with a TV, a Video Player and a fan. However, it does beat not riding at all when the roads are covered with ice and snow.

Kevin

[gt6267a]

MA -- I hate the trainer with some serious passion. you are not alone.

[Dr. Doofus]

The Doc Says:

He and I love the trainer. Much of this infatuation comes from growing up in the frigid frozen cornlands. Videos, music, distraction, they are all for weenies. The doc has been at this for 20 years now, and all that time spent on the trainer with him has left a permanent low-frequency drone in our inner ears. We like this simple formula, and have stuck with it since about '86 or so:

1) Put bike on trainer of some sort

2) Turn fan on

3) Ride

4) Dig the overtones -- its kind of a sufi sonic youth when they were good that sound that brenda vaccaro would make before she said anything you know that breath that was kind of a grunt kind of a wheeze but still cool and sexy if you were in th eother room when she did it now its only sustained so it lasts as long as you pedal and doesn't have a clear pitch kind of thing

5) Stop after 1:00, 1:30, 2:00, or (the doc was pretty crazy before I even became a doc with him) 3:45, our all-time trainer record set in the winter of 1992 when we had crap all to do and thought a lot of training might Cat us up.

We have thought about this for a while, mostly while I was on the trainer with him, and we think that riding for long periods of time with just whhhhhhhhrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr as your friend yields a singular state of disciplined bliss.

It also helps the old TT.

[Kevin]

Dr. Doofus,

Help is on the way. I have contacted the cycling police and they are sending over some very nice people in white robes. They are going to give you the help that you need. How can anyone enjoy the trainer? How can anyone tolerate the trainer without some type of distraction?

Kevin

[Tom]

Actually, the doc's reply got me thinking. The problem with being alone with my mind is that the damn thing just won't shut up. Methinks I try riding with nothing and see what happens. It might be a useful skill some day.