Gam Jams - Trainer Distractions

It's truly a wonder that I survived my first winter of training. I remember being so thrilled about training indoors when the weather was bad. Oh, the young and naive.

My first realization that it wasn't all it was cracked up to be was when my then-team-coach had 3hrs on the schedule and I sat on a trainer for . all . three. hours. I knew it was going to be a mind numbing experience so I popped in the only movie I could think of that would last as long as the ride: Forrest Gump. Lets just say I've never watched Forrest Gump again. And I never paid attention to that coach's direction again, either.

In the 4 seasons since then, I've found a variety of ways to make indoor training more palatable.

The first distractions were the Spinervals videos. How can we make sitting on a trainer more fun ? Have Troy Jacobson yell at you while you're doing it. Awesome ! I swear my neighbors thought I was abused on a regular basis - from outside my house all you'd hear was a male yelling for 45-50mins at a time. A bonus is seeing some local racers in their early years in the videos. Good for some amusement while you're suffering.

I still use Spinervals during the winter to get in a quick, hard workout and get the heck off the trainer. Troy will help you pass the time and before you know it, you're a schwetty mess but you're done.

I've have since graduated to rollers for most of my indoor workouts. Since I couldn't stand up on my Krietlers, I couldn't very well do most spinervals. So, I was reduced to regular TV.

The winter of 06-07, I watched the Soprano's almost from beginning to end. Side note: the only time I've ever fallen off the rollers was during a Soprano's episode ... one of the characters swept a bunch of clothes hanging up to the right, finding someone dead behind ... I was so surprised at the revelation that I steered in the direction of the clothing on TV ... right off the rollers. Ouch.

The winter of 07-08, I caught up on Heros and Lost.

This fall, I did quite a few roller workouts to politics - the debates would lend themselves to power workouts as I was annoyed by the rhetoric. Other political reporting was good for steady riding b/c I wanted to hear what was going on. Yes, I know, I'm a geek. I'm an accountant, what do you want outta me ?

When the weather on the weekend prevents outdoor riding, group trainer workouts are the best ... 2 hours with a few friends goes by a lot faster and you motivate each other. Otherwise I'm bound to get off to let the cat outside, get a drink of water, answer the phone etc etc etc.

To summarize:


Spinervals - good for trainers, good for a quick workout and good for spotting racers in early
years.

Sopranos - good for rollers as long as you're not excitable.

Heros/Lost - good for trainers and rollers

Political debates - good for power workouts

Equally masochistic friends - good for weekend marathon trainer workouts due to inclement weather.

Forrest Gump -if you're on the trainer long enough to watch this movie, you've got other issues.