Indoor Trainer workout #1

It was a bit too chilly today for a real ride (at least that's my story), and so I decided to dust off the ol' trainer and take a spin inside where it was nice and warm and there weren't any holiday shoppers in their SUVs yelling at me to "ride on the sidewalk". And anyway, who doesn't love hooking a bicycle up to the trainer and doing the 'sit and stare' workout for an hour?

I own a couple of these cycling workout DVDs, which I thought would alleviate the boredom a bit, and they do, but I can only watch them once or twice during the off-season because the annoyance factor is so high. The host is kind of a Jeff Probst type (although with more credibility) who circulates among the huge spin class group with this peppy electro-muzac soundtrack playing in the background. The DVD case says: "Train your Aerobic Base with over 95 Cyclists from Ft. Wayne, Indiana!"

So I've devised my own interval workout, outlined below. If I were a writer for Bicycling magazine I'd throw out some pseudo-scientific sports mediciny explanation of the benefits of this workout. But I'm not, so I won't. I think I should come up with a name for my workout though.. maybe Cynical Intervals, or Cynervals.


Cynerval Workout #1

5 min: warm up spin

5 min: ok, warm up is over, time to crank it up a bit, but not too much! This is like you're on a nice wide multi-use path on a foggy day. The path is empty and there aren't any stop signs or lights, so you can just cruise along at a nice brisk pace.

10 min: intervals - 1 minute at your brisk spin pace, then shift into your biggest chainring in front and smallest cog in back. Pedal for 1 minute maintaining the same cadence. Repeat the intervals for 10 minutes.

5 min: spin

5 min: Get Off Your Ass intervals - Shift into your highest gear again and pedal out of the saddle for 30 seconds, then in the saddle for 30 seconds, out of the saddle for 30, etc.

5 min: spin

5 min: GOYA intervals

10 min: spin/cooldown

Soundtrack: Screaming Trees: Sweet Oblivion