I ordered the exact same gear cassette as is on the new bike to fit to the trainer, but the next day I got impatient and fitted the one off the bike to it. Yup. No more grinding. What a dumbarse! Years I was cursing that trainer, and it was just the wrong size gears for the chain. I did a ride one day, then a ramp test the next to set my fitness. There were about 10 increases in wattage resistance, and the trainer tracked them all. That’s saved me £400, I don’t need a new trainer.
Also on the cheap, that free cycling app I started using a while back, MyWhoosh, has really upped it’s game.
It’s got the boring blocks of effort (bottom of screen) from Trainer Road, the social aspect (other real people to race against, go on group rides with) and the pretty graphics of Zwift, the text encouragement/ distraction of Sufferfest, it connects to my trainer and equipment, has training plans, and it’s free. Amazing. I’ve started a fitness building plan. I’ve only done the first day but it might be too easy. I might jump to the next level if it doesn’t get tougher.
I’ve fitted my new saddle to the bike. It’s supposed to be a period of adjustment to the weird design and new sitting position. I don’t find it too bad so far.
I’m quite happy with the riding position of the bike. I’m still adjusting the seat height/ fore and aft, but straight away the bike plonks you into a pretty reasonable aero position.
A bike fitter would probably swoon at that picture, and it’s not extreme aero, (and I’m too fat) but that’s a fairly straight back, the straight line from my hips to my shoulders has roughly half my body on either side of it, and I did an hour’s training today and barely moved off the tri bars, so it’s sustainable.
I’m not getting all of my runs in as per the marathon plan, but I figure small (4 or 5 miles) straight after the swim is punishing them enough to keep me run fit. Also I’m trying not to overdo it as I still have the sore knee. Because I don’t want to do a long run after a swim I swapped my days. Long run today (Sunday) then I can swim, go the dentists, and ride tomorrow. The long run was supposed to be 17 miles, the knee thing said not to go too fast on it, so I decided to do a few hills instead.
That was TOUGH! But I had enough in me to make it home without any worry of quitting.
Then I did an hour on the bike trainer. It was hard to motivate myself to start again, but the session was surprisingly easy, especially for a fitness building plan. As I say, if I can stay on the aero bars for virtually the whole session, after that beasting on the run, it’s too damn easy.
I have a cunning plan with the swim. I book it in advance. They fine you if you don’t attend booked lessons, which you have to pay before you can go again. So I book it when it’s no stress to me, then when the session is due and I’m massively resistant to going, I have to. It’s worked so far. I’ve found another video on swimming. It looks great the way the guy does it. Lots of gliding, few strokes/ kicks, but still fast. I need to master it.
Tomorrow I have to set up my pushbike for riding to work. *sigh* I don’t want to. I love my motorbikes, and winter is ending so it’s finally approaching nice weather to ride them, but it’s free training, and apparently I need all the bike training I can get.
I have to get around to working on the two project motorbikes. When I’ve sorted the Honda 550/four I think I’m going to sell it, and, once I’ve got the Harley running reliably, the Honda VFR750. I just need to commit the time and effort to them.
Later,
buck.
Quick PS.
Monday. I went for my swim this morning, I struggled at first with the breathing, I kept getting water in my mouth and I was a bit panicky. I remembered to face backwards to breathe and it started coming together more. Once you are breathing, and not panicking, you can start to work on everything else. I really must make that my priority as soon as I get in the water. Anyway, I had a lot of the session on my own in a lane, just focusing on my breathing and not letting my leading hand drop. I’m still slow, but I managed to knock out the 1.1 miles in 54 minutes. That’s well within the 1 hour 10 for the tri cut-off.
I did my planned bike session later. Today was only 46 minutes, with blocks of one minute intervals at high cadence. On the one hand it was still too easy, but on the other, spinning at 120 rpm was torture. I think I might try a different app, for the minimum period, just to see if the training is right. I think they’ve set me too low. Yeah, I’ll definitely do that. At least that way I’ll be confident it’s an accurate assessment of my fitness, and therefore I’m training from the right starting point. One bit of good news with the bike is I was struggling with MyWhoosh on my ‘phone. It was too small a screen to see at distance. I got a Chromecast to try and mirror it to my monitor. That wouldn’t work. So I tried the Chromecast in an old laptop I have lying about. Nope. Hang on a minute, laptop? I downloaded MyWhoosh to the laptop. Idiot. Now it I can see it fine. I’ve ordered a cheap stand to have it at a height that doesn’t strain my neck, but that’s a good result.
I was putting off commuting on my pushbike, but seeing how weak my ride is I can’t afford to. I’ve got the bike ready. I cycled the mile to Asda to get some seed trays. I’m a pushbiker now. *sigh*